While Washington has been putting on a continuing spring and summer show, Martha’s Vineyard has had one of its own, and the show is Jaws. Not only has just about every resident been fascinated by what is going on, but nearly half the population has been actively involved.

Therefore, when the Monday night lectures for the benefit of the Old Sculpin Gallery and the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association had a program this week on Jaws, it was a howling success. (The howling was done, unfortunately, bu all those who just couldn’t get in).

“We’ll go again,” said the assistant director, Tom Joyner, and into the valley of death waded The 400 with cameras to the right of them, and cameras to the left of them.

The water was cold, cold, cold, and what sunshine there was was most uncooperative. It was Sunday, the last day of June, and really not an ideal day to spend (all of it, every last bit of it) on the beach. The leftover northeast winds were still onshore and so were about 600 people.

The organized madness which has been afloat and ashore continued throughout the week as the plot unfolded in Jaws. There’s a contagiousness to the mood of the opus, and Islanders steadily stopped by to spectate when the filming was on the Norton and Easterbrooks’ dock and peered anxiously seaward when it was not.

It was a night for celebrating. The sky was clear, and the waxing moon was in competition with the stars of the sky, the stars of the screen, and the stars of the Island, and into this perfect setting (or set) went Islanders in best bib and tucker to see the premiere of their very own movie, Jaws.

It had to be a benefit, (these big things always turn into benefits) and it had to be for the Martha’s Vineyard Hospital because that needs more money than other Island organizations.

No matter what the calendar says about this, next week is the Fourth of July on the State Beach. All week, maybe even starting tomorrow if the weather is fine, Universal Studios will be filming the last sequences on land of Jaws — Monday the Fourth, Tuesday the Fourth, Wednesday...

The movie production of Jaws continues to roam the Island in much the same manner as a touring medicine show, playing in each of the Island’s towns.

One thing that a shark must do is to be constantly on the move, or else it is in trouble — and Jaws, the shark film in the making on the Vineyard, appears to have this characteristic in common with its subject.

The filming of the movie Jaws began that morning on South Beach, and suddenly the parking lot at the end of Katama Road looked like lower Fifth avenue — trucks galore, even a bus. Some had been rented, but others belonging to Universal Studios had traveled the 3,000 miles from Pacific to Atlantic.

Boats since the beginning of time have been built to float, or at least that’s the object, but Universal Studios (which of late does the unusual) has built a boat to sink. It sounds a bit odd, and frankly it looks a bit odd.