"Jaws" Movie's 50th Anniversary

It is hard to believe that today marks the 50th anniversary of the theatrical release of Jaws, based on Peter Benchley's book.

I remember going to see it with Max Bettman at the Studio Drive-In Theater in Culver City, California. 

About a year or so before, I read Peter Benchley's original novel. Although the movie was a good one, the Peter Benchley novel was far better. 

Man Dies In Fall From Devils Tower

Above, Devils Tower in Wyoming. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

A climber of Wyoming's Devils Tower was killed in a fall on Friday.

According to the Star-Tribune:

A Gillette man died Friday after falling during a climb of Devils Tower, the National Park Service reported. 

Matthew Sorenson, 38, suffered major head injuries after he fell while climbing with friends on the Sundance route. He was wearing a helmet at the time. 

Sorenson is the first person to die climbing Devils Tower since 2003, according to the Park Service.

Devils Tower was made famous in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 1977.

To read more, go here.

"Lincoln" and "Flight" Mini-reviews

Yesterday, I watched two good movies via "award screener" DVDs.

The first was Steven Spielberg's Lincoln with Daniel Day Lewis in the title role.  The movie focuses on the final months of President Abraham Lincoln's life and the end of the Civil War.

The movie was well done and Lewis was probably the best movie Lincoln ever and Sally Field was great as Mary Todd Lincoln.

I am disappointed at how the assassination at Ford's Theater was glossed over.  Every Lincoln movie I've seen (dating back to D. W. Griffith's 1930 Abraham Lincoln) re-enacted the assassination.  This movie didn't.  They did depict Lincoln's moment of death in the rooming house across the street from Ford's.  The room was bigger than the actual one (I should know, I've been in it.)

Other than those quibbles, it was a fine movie.  If one is not into political history, they may find the movie long and boring.  There is one other actor who is in the movie who once also played Lincoln.

My grade: A.

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The second movie I watched was Flight, starring Denzel Washington.

Washington plays an heroic airline pilot but his alcoholism causes him trouble when federal investigators look into the circumstances surrounding the crash of the plane he was piloting.

Flight is a riveting movie and Washington's portrayal of an heroic, but flawed pilot was excellent.  Nadine Velazquez provides some eye-candy early on in the movie.

My grade: A+.

Timbers Of Pier Shelled By Japanese Used For Restaurant

Photographs by Armand Vaquer

Above, the plaque dedication ceremony by members of E Clampus Vitus.

The United States was attacked on December 7, 1941 by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The United States was also attacked on the mainland by the Japanese on Monday, February 23, 1942.

According to the California Military Museum website:

On 23 February 1942. the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine I-17, under the command of Commander Nishino Kozo, surfaces shells the oil refinery near Santa Barbara. Before the war, as skipper of an oil tanker, Nishino had refueled there. The shelling does only minor damages to a pier and an oil well derrick, but creates "invasion" fears along the West Coast.

Contemporary newspaper accounts describe the attack as off the Ellwood oil fields 12 miles north of Santa Barbara, and report 16 shells fired, beginning at 7:15 p.m. on the 23rd of February 1942. Three shells struck near the Bankline Co. oil refinery, the apparent target of the shelling. Rigging and pumping equipment at a well about 1,000 yards inland were destroyed but otherwise no damage was caused. One shell overshot the target by three miles and landed on the Tecolote ranch, where it exploded. Another landed on the nearby Staniff ranch, dug a hole five feet deep, but failed to explode. Eleven other shells fell short and dropped into the sea.

Above, historical newspapers and photographs displayed at the plaque dedication ceremony.

The attack near Santa Barbara, California was the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's unfunny comedy movie 1941 (1979) (although the shelling incident was in 1942).

Above, The Timbers Restaurant is surrounded by Clampers.

The timbers from the shelled pier were retrieved when the oil company who owned it dismantled it. They were hauled and used in the construction of a restaurant located on land that was once part of Nicholas Den's Dos Pueblos Rancho by Ted Blankenship in 1952. Some of these timbers (measuring 12" x 18") contain shrapnel. The Timbers is located at 10 Winchester Canyon Road in Goleta, California.

The structure stood empty for 11 years before Santa Barbara restauranteur Sam "Shorty" Velliotes bought it and opened it as Timbers Restaurant on July 1, 1963.

On March 20, 2004, the De La Guerra Y Pacheco Chapter of the Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus held a plaque dedication at The Timbers, which I attended. The accompanying photographs are from the dedication ceremony.

Above, another shot of the plaque dedication ceremony.

The Timbers Restaurant is still open for business. So stop in for a meal and see some World War II history.

For more, see this article by The Lompoc Record.