This freshly-killed brown shark — a man-eater — was laid out on the steps of Universal Studios’ Edgartown office sometime before dawn Friday. Trickles of blood oozed from the snout and belly of the six-foot long fish onto the steps of the Christine Pease House, but several movie workers simply stepped casually over the mess as they went to work, muttering about pranksters.
Mrs. Robert W. Nevin said it was the second such gift the film company received from the community. The first shark, which was also dumped on the steps, was only three feet long.
“In view of the increase,” Mrs. Nevin speculated, “what do you think we’ll have coming the next time?”
Al Ebner, publicity man for Universal, said he hoped it wouldn’t be a basking shark or some other 50-foot monster. “If they plopped it at our door it would cause a traffic problem, and we certainly don’t want to do that.”
The shark indeed looked as if it were crawling up the steps to the door en route to claiming its extra’s pay. Mrs. Nevin was impressed with its position, and noted bemusedly:
“Look at the way it was draped. It’s really quite...artistic.” She smiled, as did other at Universal.
That’s the best way to take the sting out of a bad joke.
Another way is to remove it, and Mrs. Nevin tried her best to get that done. Calls went out to the M.S.P.C.A., the highway department, the dog officer, the town clerk and the police department in an effort to find the element of officialdom whose proper responsibility shark removal is. In the end, however, William Weeks, hauled it off in his jeep.
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