by Michael Lyons
As the summer movie season of 1976 began, it had been almost a year since Jaws had made its debut. Steven Spielberg's iconic film changed movie-making and moviegoing forever by creating the summer movie blockbuster and, in turn, the summer movie season.
Even though it had been a year since Jaws, the movie industry was trying to figure out this whole new time of year, dubbed the summer movie season, when May of 1976 began. What followed were those warm-weather months fifty years ago, as America was about to celebrate the big Bicentennial, and Hollywood released a string of movies that looked to recapture some of that Jaws glory (and box office). Such success would come again the following summer, in 1977, with Star Wars (another game-changer).
But that didn't stop Hollywood from trying during the summer of '76. As patriotism flew high, a string of hopeful hits came to theaters, each one a reflection of the time, and most could only have been produced in the 70s.
Fifty years later, here's a look at what was playing "at a theater near you," during the summer of 1976:
Summer began with a Jaws carbon copy called Grizzly, about the titular bear attacking campers. It didn't keep people out of the woods, the way Jaws kept people out of the water. Then there was Hawmps!, a comedy supposedly based on the true story of the U.S. Cavalry using camels in place of horses, and Mother, Jugs and Speed, a dark comedy starring Bill Cosby, Raquel Welch, and Harvey Keitel in the respective title roles as ambulance drivers.
There was also Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (a real title), a take-off on Rin Tin Tin and other celebrity canines, which featured such cameos as Dorothy Lamour, Henny Youngman, and Tab Hunter.
Then there was Mel Brooks' Silent Movie, his parody of the silent era of filmmaking, presented as an actual silent movie. Fresh off his back-to-back hits, Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein, this was another success for the comedy legend.
Speaking of legends, this summer also saw Clint Eastwood in his iconic Western, The Outlaw Jose Wales, as well as the legendary horror movie, The Omen, starring Gregory Peck and Lee Remick and directed by a pre-Superman Richard Donner.
There was also plenty of parodies, including Murder By Death, writer Neil Simon's send-up of every mystery from Agatha Christie to Sam Spade, and The Big Bus, which skewered disaster movies and pre-dates Airplane! by four years.
Also, looking for something to scratch that 70s itch? The science-fiction cult classic Logan's Run hit theaters in the summer of '76, and The Food of the Gods, based on an H.G. Wells book about an attack by giant, killer rats (you read that correctly).
And, nothing was more 70s than Sensurround, the theater sound system that turned up the bass and shook seats to make you feel a part of the action. First used in 1974's disaster movie Earthquake, it was used again this summer in the WWII movie, Midway.
In addition to Sensurround, the 70s were also a time of the family-friendly Disney live-action film, and this summer had two of them - the comedy Gus, about the football-kicking mule, and The Treasure of Matacumbe, an adventure about two kids seeking pirate treasure (filmed partially at Walt Disney World). Both were part of this year's Disney Summer Film Festival, a summer-long series of double-features at New York-area theaters (but that's an article for another time).
There was also The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings, starring Billy Dee Williams, James Earl Jones, and Richard Pryor, about a Negro Baseball Team in 1939, and in Lifeguard, Sam Elliot starred as the title character, a womanizing California Lifeguard who re-examines his life after attending his high school reunion.
The sequel Futureworld continued Michael Crichton's sci-fi story from Westworld, focusing on a theme park featuring ultra-realistic audio-animatronics. Fresh off of his role as Quint in Jaws, Robert Shaw starred in the pirate adventure Swashbuckler, and Burt Reynolds, one of the biggest box-office stars of the time, made his directorial debut with Gator, as an ex-con who is recruited to work for a government agency. And The Gumball Rally had shades of Reynolds' own Cannonball Run (released in 1981) about a cross-country car race.
And so, the summer movie season of 1976 stands as a moment, and a portal back, in time, when the movie industry was at a turning point. The summers that would follow for the next decade and a half would bring some of the biggest movies of all time, not just with Star Wars, but also Grease, The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T.:The Extra Terrestrial, Back to the Future, and Batman, just to name a few.
But just before summer blockbusters became a hope for studios and an expectation for audiences, there was the Bicentennial summer of 1976, filled with plenty of 70s-era cinema and fond, “misty water-colored,” nostalgic movie memories.
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