1975 "Jaws" Clapperboard
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GUEST:
So this is a director's clapper from the production of Jaws. My dad actually worked on the production of the movie. He worked in transportation, so he drove some of the sets, some of the people, around on a bunch of movies that were filmed...
APPRAISER:
Hm.
GUEST:
...in New England in, you know, the '70s, and Jaws was one of them.
APPRAISER:
So how did he end up with this particular clapper, though? Did he ever tell you any stories about that?
GUEST:
Yeah, I mean, he was friendly with the camera crew, and one of them gave it to him.
APPRAISER:
I love the pictures over there, and that... I'm assuming that's your dad with Bruce the shark?
GUEST:
It is-- he was around the set all the time, and took these fun pictures. Or someone took them for him, thank goodness. He lived on Martha's Vineyard for, during the production of the movie, um, was a single guy living with a bunch of friends and they had a blast. They used to actually fly the film over to Boston every day and they would send out for, like, Chinese food or whatever food...
APPRAISER:
Mm-hmm.
GUEST:
...they couldn't get on the island that they were craving and they were living it up.
APPRAISER:
(laughs) That's fantastic.
GUEST:
This was one of the items that was in a box just in our basement, always kind of sitting around when I was a kid. I remember seeing it. When we moved and sold that house, it kind of disappeared. And then my mom actually got sick, and before she passed away, she said, "We still have that Jaws clapper, and I bet it's worth a lot of money, and you need to find it." (laughs) So it took a few years to find it...
APPRAISER:
Yeah.
GUEST:
...believe it or not, but we did.
APPRAISER:
Jaws from 1975 was the big summer blockbuster. In fact, it ushered in the era of summer blockbusters, and it was the movie that put Steven Spielberg really on the map. This is called a clapper board or a slate, and it was used to synchronize the audio to the film. Most clapper boards open and close like that. Well, this particular one, what makes it special is, it was spring-loaded to open and close like the jaws of the shark.
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
This type of clapper board was known to have been made for Jaws. There are a couple different versions, but they are exceedingly rare. No one knows exactly how many were made. They're estimated between four and six were made. Jaws won three Academy Awards. It won one for the original music score, for the audio, and one for editing. Unfortunately, Steven Spielberg was kind of bitter because he didn't get nominated for best director. The production of Jaws was an amazing story in and of itself. It was the first major motion picture that was filmed on the open ocean. And it was a movie that made us all afraid to go back into the water. With so few of these being out there, you don't have a lot to compare them to. Each one's handmade, each one's slightly different, and people have been copying these. Now, the photos are fantastic, because they show your dad on the set of Jaws. And while they add a lot to the provenance and the story behind it, they don't add a tremendous amount to the value. They made the story of the clapper board more solid. Do you have any idea what kind of value we'd put on it?
GUEST:
(exhales): Not really. Well... Hopefully a lot. (laughs)
APPRAISER:
It's done pretty well. I mean, Jaws being such an important cinematic masterpiece, plus, you know, the jaws- closing-like action of that, it's worth quite a bit to collectors. If this was to come up at auction, I'd put an auction estimate of $25,000 to $35,000 on it.
GUEST:
Wow. All right, cool. That's awesome.
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