Henley's Honkers, Dolphin band lent Amity their sound

Allen Three decades ago, Universal Studios chose the Emerald Coast as a filming location for the movie sequel 'Jaws 2.' During August, veteran staff writer Betty Archer Allen is reporting exclusively about how the movie affected Gulf Breeze residents' lives.

Some stars are born.

Gulf Breeze High School became a parade of stars for the casting directors of 'Jaws 2' during the 1977-78 school year. About 70 students from the school got to take part in the making of the blockbuster motion picture sequel that was filmed in the Gulf Breeze and Navarre areas.

The students rubbed shoulders with celebrities also learned how movies are made. The extras and stand-ins from GBHS were paid for their time,

and some experienced how cool it was to see both themselves and their schoolmates on the silver screen.

Robert Hines, Principal at GBHS in 1977, was approached by Jaws 2 casting director Shari Rhodes, who inquired about using members of the Gulf Breeze band to perform as the Amity High Band, which represented the fictional town where shark attacks were thought to be happening with increased frequency.

Rhodes also wanted a number of students to act as extras in the movie. Each student was paid $3 an hour as extras. In those days, $3 was a lot of money; more than minimum wage.

The GBHS band consisted of approximately 100 members, and band director John Henley (now deceased) chose 28 student musicians, including the section of the band known as Henley's Honkers.

Some of the 'stars' who portrayed the Amity High band were flautists Wendy Richards Rushing and Laura Prochaska Thomas; clarinetists Steve Ziegler and John Schuster; and saxophonist Stan Benvenutti.

Band members wore their own uniforms for the movie.

In an effort to prevent the students from missing too much class time, Universal Pictures scheduled their involvement for mid-afternoons. Henley's Honkers spent 18 to 20 hours in their role. The school provided a bus to transport band members back and forth from the GBHS to the Holiday Inn in Navarre. They can be seen in the Mezzanine in the early scenes of the movie.

2 weeks, no school

Steve Ziegler, one of Henley's Honkers, remembers that as a part of the Amity High School band, he got almost two weeks off from school.

On their way to film stardom Members of the Gulf Breeze High School Band ride in a school bus toward Navarre to portray the Amity High School Band in the 1978 movie sequel 'Jaws 2.' Band members spent about two weeks on location, shooting and re-shooting a number of scenes. During this time, the kids made friends with many of the cast members and other extras, who happily attended a Gulf Breeze High School football game and were recognized at halftime. Submitted photo "I remember the scene in the movie where Roy Scheider was driving on Martha's Vineyard one minute, then was magically transported to Navarre Beach," Ziegler said. "He actually got to drive on the beach!"

When Scheider runs in the back door, passes the buffet and goes under the mezzanine level, the camera pans over the band and shows the side of my face. It was my 10 seconds of fame.

"The phrase, 'Thank you, Amity High School band, for that eloquent selection' stuck in our heads for months."

Hines Ziegler also remembered that Murray Hamilton, who portrayed the mayor, often went to the bar between takes. Scheider had a fit when some of the crew wandered around spraying Raid everywhere because food that had been sitting out for about 10 days drew so many flies. Scheider threw a temper tantrum, saying the insects were making it impossible for the "artists" to create, along with a string of assorted expletives.

The band endured as it shot and re-shot the scene a dozen times.

After the band finished its Hollywood experience, it played the theme song to 'Jaws 2' for a football game halftime show, and all the GBHS "stars" and the 'Jaws 2' teen stars attended the game together.

Laura Prochaska Thomas, one of Henley's Honkers, wrote two articles for the Gulf Breeze Sentinel in columns called 'Jaws II: Behind The Scenes.' The first was an interview with both Lorraine Gray and Scheider, and the second covered some interesting notes about three teenage actors.

Thomas asked Gray and Scheider how successful they thought the film would be at the box office. Gray said she had no idea how well it would do because no one had expected the original 'Jaws' would have been so successful. Scheider responded that he wasn't sure; that sequels seldom do as well as the original film.

Ziegler then Thomas wrote that "Both Gray and Scheider had very understanding attitudes of my inexperience as an interviewer."

In Thomas' second article about the Amity teens, she said, "You can't very well have a typical small town without your average American teenager" and proceeded to interview three of Amity's locals: John Dukakis, who played Polo; Cindy Grover, who played Lucy; and Jill Martin, who played Jane. She found that all three of these actors liked the Gulf Coast area and that it was a first feature movie for both Dukakis and Martin but that Grover had more acting experience."

Her articles were well done and presented a realistic representation of the behind-thescenes production of a major motion picture.

Band got $3,500

In choosing the students who were to be extras, Hines consulted with teachers and counselors. Ten girls were selected, and they, in turn, selected 10 boys to participate as extras in the movie. Some students in this group included Lisa Cady Newell, Michael Gruber, Veronica Hawthorne O'Brien, Clayton Wells, Connie Brinson Randle, Kim Bartels, Michell Brooks and Greg Walter.

Ziegler now The girls wore dresses, and the boys donned suits or sports jackets and slacks. The teens were instructed to wear exactly the same outfit each day for filming and to be available 10 hours each day. They made up part of the audience when the cast member walked out onto a plank over the indoor swimming pool and cut the ribbon for the opening of the new Holiday Inn-Amity Shores.

They also appeared at the Grand Opening Ball that was supposedly being held for the Amity Scholarship Fund Benefit. These extras found that they had a lot of time on their hands and had to find ways occupy to themselves while waiting hours for filming.

O'Brien related an incident in one of their waiting periods.

"On the second day of filming, Lisa Cady, Kim Bartels and I found a nice, tidy, empty room to watch TV and play Dominoes while waiting for a call to be filmed. Much to our surprise, Scheider walked into his room for a quiet nap and found us. Our apologies were accepted graciously, and we beat a hasty retreat."

Submitted photo Greg Walter still has a letter and $151.50 paycheck from Universal Studios. Walter still has his letter and paycheck from Universal Pictures. He was not only a high school student chosen as an extra, but he was employed at the Holiday Inn at Navarre as a dish washer, his first job, and he got to watch many scenes being shot and re-shot as well as acting in the Grand Opening scene.

He recalled: "Scheider jogged every morning and spent all his spare time tanning on the beach. The whole experience was very cool for the GBHS teenagers."

Newell said, "The excitement was that we were able to miss classes and get paid $3 per hour for our time, but being in the shots was very tedious."

Randle remembers how the 'Jaws 2' teen actors and actresses came to the football game with the high school movie stars and cheered for the Dolphins as if they belonged to the group. They were all introduced at halftime.

"That was fun," she said. "But I also remember that seeing all that it required to make a film convinced me that I didn't want to be in that kind of work. In fact, when given the chance to work another week, I said I wanted to go back to high school."

Universal made a contribution of $3,500 to the school and the band for their part in the movie. The money was spent to purchase a sound system for the band.

Next week: Part 3