“Are you able to simply give me one in all your leftover sharks?”
It was early in Jay Stein’s tenacious pursuit to show a throwaway enterprise right into a candy spot for Common Studios, then owned by Lew Wasserman’s powerhouse leisure agency MCA.
In 1975, Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” was a cultural sensation and Stein needed to capitalize on the film’s success. He requested his colleagues in movie manufacturing for props so his crews might re-create the fictional Amity Island shoreline within the studio’s hilly again lot miles from downtown L.A.
“He satisfied them: ‘Are you able to simply give me one of many leftover sharks and I’ll put it on the studio tour, and we’ll get some promotion out of that,’ ” creator Sam Gennawey instructed The Instances, recalling Stein’s brilliance and his pioneering use of mental property.
Jay Stein together with his spouse, Connie, in Oregon.
(Connie Stein)
Stein died Nov. 5 at his house in Bend, Ore., in line with his spouse, Connie Stein. He was 88 and had been affected by problems associated to Parkinson’s illness and prostate most cancers.
“He left an enormous gap — however he additionally left a beautiful legacy,” she stated in an interview Sunday. “Not lots of people have the chance to go away a legacy that touches generations. However he’s nonetheless making folks smile each day.”
The tram tour’s shark assault, which terrified vacationers when it debuted in 1976, has lengthy been a staple. It was amongst Stein’s many theme park enhancements throughout his greater than 30 years as a prime MCA govt, which included Common’s push into Florida to compete with Walt Disney Co.
The “Jaws” attraction helped cement Common’s decades-long relationship with Spielberg, a span that would come with such movies as “E.T. the Additional-Terrestrial,” “Jurassic Park,” “Schindler’s Checklist” and “The Fabelmans.” It additionally spawned different movie-themed points of interest that included a “Waterworld” reside present and a “King Kong” trip.
Stein insisted that the ape would spew “banana breath,” his spouse stated.
Inside Common, such jolts and prospers turned often known as “JayBangs,” which Gennawey used because the title for his 2016 guide about Stein’s contributions to the trade, “JayBangs: How Jay Stein, MCA, & Common Invented the Trendy Theme Park and Beat Disney at Its Personal Sport.”
“Jay needed to place you within the film,” Gennawey stated. “He needed to seize you by the collar and shake you a bit.”
The “Runaway Practice” attraction on the Common Studios backlot tour, one in all its many exhilarating “JayBangs.”
(NBCUniversal Archives & Collections)
Stein was born in New York Metropolis on June 17, 1937, to Samuel and Sylvia “Sunny” (Goldstein) Stein.
His father was a watch salesman who moved the household to Los Angeles when Stein was younger. As a youngster, he sometimes skipped faculty to go to Hollywood Park Racetrack to guess on horses. He had finagled some clean report playing cards and used them to deliver house self-inserted excessive marks.
However the rip-off was revealed when the household briefly moved again to New York and Stein was nearing the top of highschool. His mother and father have been summoned for a convention, the place they realized Stein lacked the credit to graduate. Summer time faculty remedied that.
The household returned to L.A. Stein attended UC Berkeley, majoring in political science, however he left a couple of semester shy of graduating.
He served within the Military Nationwide Guard and close to the top of his service, in 1959, he started working in MCA’s mailroom. Initially he needed to get into movie manufacturing, however by the mid-Sixties, he was steered into the fledgling tour unit.
The corporate had launched the tram tour in 1964 to make a bit of cash from its ample actual property. However some executives seen the endeavor as cheesy. Its prospects appeared dim.
“It began out as two trams and a Quonset hut on Lankershim Boulevard,” Stein instructed The Instances in a 2023 interview.
“Fairly frankly, the tram was thought-about one thing that interfered with tv manufacturing,” Stein stated. “I labored for the manufacturing workplace and was given the duty of making an attempt to coordinate how shut we might come on the backlot with out interfering. Everybody I labored for stated it was an annoyance and disruptive and won’t ever be welcomed.”
Stein was ready “to persuade others of the advantages of getting the studio tour,” Gennawey stated. “That’s what saved it.”
Early signage promoting Common Studios as a vacationer attraction.
(NBCUniversal Archives & Collections)
Gennawey considers Stein a key pioneer of U.S. theme parks.
“He was remarkably aggressive. He acknowledged that Disney had its factor — however Common might create one thing totally different and complimentary, significantly within the early days,” Gennawey stated.
Disneyland was, after all, a prime draw.
“However in case you are a Los Angeles resident and had relations coming on the town, you knew they [also] needed to see Hollywood,” Gennawey stated. “However Hollywood was type of scary, so that you took them to Common Studios.”
Stein’s contributions have solely not too long ago been appreciated, in line with Gennawey.
That’s largely as a result of Stein subscribed to Wasserman’s edict that the “stars have been the celebs,” and executives ought to mix into the background. Stein additionally retired early, leaving Common by the mid-Nineties, after Japanese electronics big Matsushita purchased MCA.
Guests line up for the studio tour of Common Studios.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Instances)
Stein frightened that Common’s new proprietor (and a string of subsequent consumers) would fail to acknowledge the worth of the theme parks, Gennawey stated, an commentary that proved right.
That modified in 2011 when Comcast acquired NBCUniversal and started investing closely.
The corporate opened its $7-billion theme park, Common Epic Universe, close to Orlando, Fla., to raves earlier this 12 months.
The theme park unit — which incorporates locations in Los Angeles, Florida, Japan and China — has change into one of the dependable revenue engines for NBCUniversal. Final 12 months, Common theme parks produced $8.6 billion in income.
Stein is survived by his spouse, son Gary Stein, daughter Darolyn Bellemeur, and their spouses, youngsters and grandchildren in addition to Connie Stein’s youngsters and grandchildren.
