The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Benson, Raymond

  A film version of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, produced by Albert R. Broccoli, was released in 1968. Containing a musical score and featuring Dick Van Dyke, it was only moderately successful.

  In October, it was announced that an Australian model with no previous acting experience was to be the new James Bond. George Lazenby, a handsome but curiously naive-looking man, was cast opposite Diana Rigg, who played the woman James Bond marries in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Lazenby, suddenly thrust into the limelight of show business, wasn't accustomed to spending most of his free time attending press and publicity functions. In an interview for Bondage magazine (published by the James Bond 007 Fan Club), Lazenby also claimed that others treated him as an inferior on the set. As a result of these experiences, some time before the film's release in December of 1969, Lazenby announced that he was not going to make any more James Bond films either. The producers, angry that he had announced this fact prior to the film's opening and that he had broken his contract, began to downplay Lazenby in publicizing the film.

  On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the first Bond film not to be a runaway success. Lazenby wasn't received well by the critics or the public, and the film reverted to the more serious, less gadgety format of the early Bonds. It also had a downbeat ending with Mrs. James Bond being shot to death, as in the novel. The film finally broke even two years later, and has since been profitable and in retrospect, it is actually one of the best films in the series.

  THE SEVENTIES AND INTO THE EIGHTIES

  On January 1, 1970, the BBC presented a documentary on Ian Fleming for their Omnibus series. The program was produced by Kenneth Corden, and John Pearson was the research advisor. The documentary featured many interviews with Fleming's friends and colleagues including Kingsley Amis, Henry Brandon, Cyril Connolly, Noel Coward, William Plomer, and Col. Peter Fleming. Also featured were clips from the recently released On Her Majesty's Secret Service, as well as scenes from earlier films. The program was repeated two years later.

  With George Lazenby out of the running, Broccoli and Saltzman were forced to find another James Bond. For a while, it was reported that the producers were considering such American actors as Burt Reynolds and John Gavin. But David Picker, then head of United Artists, believed Sean Connery could be persuaded to return to the role. Picker felt that it was Connery audiences wanted to see, not just any James Bond. As reported in Steven Jay Rubin's book, The James Bond Films, Picker flew to London and offered Connery one of the most lucrative deals in cinema history—a salary of one-and-a-quarter million dollars (which Connery subsequently donated to the Scottish International Education Trust). In addition, United Artists agreed to back two films of Connery's choice that he could either act in or direct. (One of these films, The Offense, was made in 1972 and was again directed by his friend, Sidney Lumet) Connery accepted, with the additional stipulation that he would be paid an additional $10,000 for every week that went over the scheduled eighteen weeks of shooting.

  Diamonds Are Forever, released in December of 1971, was one of the biggest grossing Bonds, yet Sean Connery appeared once again as 007, looking quite a bit older and heavier. But the audiences loved him and screamed for more. But Sean Connery had signed on a one-picture basis only. He was definitely not going to make another James Bond film. So the producers went back to the drawing board once again.

  Roger Moore, an admired British actor best known for his television series (The Saint, The Persuaders) and light comedy roles, was chosen to star in Live and Let Die. Moore, it is said, was originally the producers' choice after Sean Connery. Moore was certainly a more experienced actor than George Lazenby, and he added a style and sophistication to his characterization of Bond that was quite different from Connery's interpretation. In a way, the style of the Bond films was changed to accommodate his characterization. In the Bond films of the seventies, comedy was emphasized more and more, until they became a different sort of animal altogether from the early films, and especially from Ian Fleming's novels.

  Audiences and critics alike accepted Roger Moore as James Bond when Live and Let Die was released in the summer of 1973. Its box-office success ensured the future of the series, and Eon Productions began planning its next film.

  A new rash of toys and by-products flooded the market as a result of the film. There was a James Bond 007 Tarot Game manufactured by U.S. Games Systems, Inc., based on the one used in the film. There were more trading cards, and Corgi Toys sold miniature Bond automobiles and the like. A new generation was out there for the merchandisers to tap.

  In August, James Bond—The Authorized Biography of 007, was published in England by Sidgwick & Jackson, and in the United States by William Morrow & Co., Inc. It was written by John Pearson, Fleming's biographer. The idea for such a book came from William Armstrong, then head of Sidgwick & Jackson. Glidrose Publications (the name was changed from Glidrose Productions in September, 1972) shared the copyright on the book with Pearson. Pearson was surprisingly successful at making this fictional biography convincing. The premise is that Ian Fleming actually knew a James Bond in the Secret Service, and that the Service had authorized Fleming to write the James Bond "novels" so that their enemies would believe that Agent 007 was a fictional character! (Of course, the real James Bond's exploits were not as glamorized as Fleming wrote them.) In the book, John Pearson "interviews" James Bond at age 53, and Bond relates his entire life story, embellishing brief references to his early life which Fleming put in the books. Though it's not an "official" James Bond novel, it stands as one of the most interesting and enjoyable works pertaining to the cult.

  The first James Bond 007 Fan Club was started that year at Roosevelt High School in Yonkers, New York, by two students, Richard Schenkman and Bob Forlini. Initially, the members were just a few of their friends. In the summer of 1974, they put out a club magazine, called Bondage, and since then, the club has grown considerably. Forlini eventually dropped out, leaving Schenkman to run the club himself. Bondage's first issue was mimeographed, the pages stapled together. Now it is a slick printed magazine with a glossy cover. Today, the fan club has about 1,600 members in the United States and abroad, mostly male. The average age is twenty-one, but Schenkman claims that since Playboy wrote about the club in the late seventies, the age has risen to twenty-five. Eon Productions was originally supportive of the club and Cubby Broccoli agreed to an interview in 1978. But since then, the club has not been on the best of terms with the film company for reasons about which Schenkman can only speculate. In Bondage No. 5, he published an interview with George Lazenby. In Bondage No. 6, he published an interview with Kevin McClory. Neither article probably pleased the film producer. Nevertheless, the club is thriving, and the magazine is member-supported. At the back of this book is an address to write for more information about the James Bond 007 Fan Club.

  In December of 1974, United Artists released The Man With the Golden Gun, starring Roger Moore again as Bond, and Christopher Lee as Scaramanga. The film, one of the weaker of the series, did fairly well internationally, but it had a poor reception in America and in England. Around this time, it was reported, Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were not on the best of terms. They had more or less taken turns producing the last two films. Saltzman had gone on location for most of Live and Let Die, and Broccoli had taken more control of Golden Gun. Now that the new film was out, Harry Saltzman decided to leave. It was rumored that he needed capital for a private venture, and he sold his share in Danjaq, S.A. (the Swiss company made up of Eon Productions and United Artists) to United Artists. Danjaq, S.A., then, became Albert R. Broccoli (Eon Productions) and United Artists.

  In January of 1976, the THUNDERBALL film rights reverted back to Kevin McClory. He was also supposedly free to make further pictures based on "The Film Scripts." He therefore began planning to make his own Bond series. He contacted Len Deighton, author of such thrillers as The Ipcress File and Funeral in Berlin. McClory took "The Film Scripts" and built a new screenplay. The men collabor
ated on the script, which was provisionally called James Bond of the Secret Service, one of the original titles from "The Film Scripts." One day, McClory was visiting Sean Connery and asked if he might be interested in also collaborating on the script Connery had always expressed an interest in writing and directing, and surprisingly agreed to the offer. Together, McClory, Deighton, and Connery came up with a screenplay which McClory retitled Warhead. It was reported that during the writing of the script, Sean Connery became interested in not only directing the film, but starring as James Bond again as well.

  Meanwhile, Eon Productions was preparing production on its latest, The Spy Who Loved Me, again featuring Roger Moore. When Broccoli learned of McClory's plans to make Warhead, he wasn't too pleased. As reported by John Brosnan in James Bond in the Cinema, further friction was caused when McClory and Sean Connery learned that some of the plot details of The Spy Who Loved Me were coincidentally similar to parts of Warhead. As a result, Broccoli ordered his scriptwriter to make last-minute changes in The Spy Who Loved Me before filming began.

  President Richard Schenkman (standing left) and members of the James Bond 007 Fan Club. (Photo by Charles Reilly, courtesy of Richard Schenkman.)

  McClory tried in vain from 1976 to 1979 to finance Warhead but apparently, too many obstacles were placed in his way. The word on Warhead eventually disappeared from the public eye and the production seemed to have fallen through.

  But The Spy Who Loved Me was released in the summer of 1977, this time produced by Broccoli alone. He proved that he could make a slick, entertaining Bond film without Harry Saltzman, and the film was the biggest success since Thunderball in 1965. One character in the film, a henchman called Jaws (portrayed by Richard Kiel), became something of a cult hero with kids, and the character would return in the next Bond film.

  For Your Eyes Only was originally announced to be the eleventh Bond film, but due to the success of Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, United Artists and Cubby Broccoli changed their minds. The only Fleming title left which could incorporate an outer space theme was MOONRAKER, and that became the replacement. Moonraker, released in the summer of 1979, and starring Roger Moore, represents the low point in the series. Nevertheless, it became the biggest grossing Bond film ever. According to Variety, rentals in the United States and Canada only, by 1982, amounted to over $33,000,000.

  In the fall of 1980, twenty-year-old Ross Hendry of Harrow, Middlesex, founded The James Bond British Fan Club. Since James Bond was a British character, Hendry felt that his hero should not be represented only by an American fan club. In the three years since the club's formation, branches have opened in the United States, Germany, Australia, Norway, and all over England. The club distributes two publications: 007, the regular club magazine, and For Your Eyes Only, a supplemental booklet of "hard-core" Bondian information. Information on how to join The James Bond British Fan Club appears at the back of this book.

  In 1980, the Board of Directors of Glidrose decided it was time to bring back the real James Bond, the hero of the books. For some time, authors' names were tossed around, and eventually they had a list of six. First on that list was John Gardner.

  John Gardner was born in 1926 in the little village of Seaton Delaval, in the northeast of England. He studied at Cambridge and St. Stephen's House, at Oxford. After serving in the Royal Marines during the war, Gardner wrote for the theatre for a while, then decided to try something else. After working on an autobiographical book, Gardner wrote The Liquidator, published in 1964. It was an all-out spoof on James Bond, and quite a success. The main character was Boysie Oakes, who worked as an assassin for the British Secret Service. The problem was that Boysie Oakes was a coward and secretly hired hit men to do his dirty work for him! In addition, he became ill on airplanes. Gardner wrote other Boysie Oakes books and two novels about Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, Professor Moriarty. Two later books, The Garden of Weapons and The Nostradamus Traitor, were more in the realistic style of John Le Carré. Another, The Director, deals with backstage drama in the theatre.

  Glidrose contacted Gardner through a go-between, who asked the author if he might be interested. A three-book deal was eventually worked out. Glidrose reportedly kept close tabs on Gardner while he wrote the first book, carefully monitoring it. One important change Gardner made was updating James Bond's world to the 1980s, but he kept the character more or less the same age as he was in the sixties. Bond does seem a little older, a little wiser, but he certainly isn't the sixty-one-year-old he should be according to "Fleming's Bond."

  In the spring of 1981, Gardner's first Bond book was published. Titled LICENSE RENEWED, it was published in England by Jonathan Cape (in association with Hodder and Stoughton) and in the United States by Richard Marek Publishers. The book was a bestseller, despite lukewarm reviews from critics and Bond fans alike. The British jacket had an attractive Richard Chopping illustration (designed by Mon Mohan) of a Browning 9mm pistol with a string of pearls and yellow roses.

  In the summer, the 12th James Bond film was released. For Your Eyes Only, which again featured Roger Moore in a tougher, grittier characterization, marked a return to the more serious, original format of the early films. It was the best Bond film since On Her Majesty's Secret Service and the film grossed in the $25 million range.

  Also that summer, Chicago film historian Jim Schoenberger discovered a kinescope of the original CBS-TV presentation of the hour-long Casino Royale in a pile of dusty old film cannisters. A special public showing was arranged, and Barry Nelson (who potrayed Bond in the film) appeared to talk about it. Around this same time, Richard Schenkman obtained permission to reprint three of the Daily Express' comic strip versions of DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER, FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, and DOCTOR NO. The James Bond 007 Fan Club published the book.

  James Bond's new father: John Gardner. Gardner is posing with Bond's latest wheels: a Saab 900 Turbo. (Photos courtesy of Saab-Scania of America, Inc.)

  In March, 1982, Albert R. Broccoli received the Living G. Thalberg award from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Thalberg is an annual award given to producers for outstanding achievement. The Bond films had been deemed the most successful film series of all time, and Broccoli appeared at the Oscar Awards ceremonies on March 29 to receive the trophy. A series of film clips were shown, and Roger Moore presented the award.

  Also that spring, producer Jack Schwartzman purchased a license to make one James Bond film based on the original copyright assignment of "The Film Scripts" and the film rights to the THUNDERBALL novel to Kevin McClory. A new script was begun by Lorenzo Semple, Jr., and the film would be directed by Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back). Most importantly, Sean Connery agreed to return to the role of James Bond. Apparently the film was to be a remake of Thunderball. By September, the film was underway with a working title of Never Say Never Again (which reportedly was coined by Connery's wife). Connery's co-stars would be Barbara Carrera and Klaus Maria Brandauer, and filming was scheduled to begin in the Bahamas in the fall with Kevin McClory as executive producer.

  In May, John Gardner's second James Bond novel was published by Coward, McCann and Geoghegan. Titled FOR SPECIAL SERVICES, the book featured a return of SPECTRE in a newly formed reorganization. LICENSE RENEWED was published in paperback as well, and other Ian Fleming titles were reissued by Berkley Books. FOR SPECIAL SERVICES was published in Britain in September by Jonathan Cape (in association with Hodder and Stoughton) and the jacket, designed and illustrated by Bill Botten, featured a giant python.

  A resurgence of the James Bond Phenomenon appeared to be on the horizon in the first half of 1983, the 30th anniversary of the publication of CASINO ROYALE. John Gardner's third Bond novel, ICEBREAKER, was published in America in April by Putnam's and in Britain by Cape/Hodder in the summer. Bill Botten's jacket for the British edition showed a skeleton hand clutching ski equipment in the snow. Despite poor reception by critics in both countries, ICEBREAKER remained on the New York Times
Bestseller list for several weeks, surpassing the sales of Gardner's previous efforts. Glidrose Publications announced that Gardner had been signed to continue writing in Ian Fleming's footsteps; there would be even more Gardner/Bonds in the future, with ROLE OF HONOR being title number four.

  Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli received the Irving Thalberg Award at the 1982 Oscar ceremony. The proud producer stands alongside his current star, Roger Moore. (Reprinted by permission of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.)

  The thirteenth film in the United Artists/Eon Productions series, Octopussy, was released in June by MGM/UA Entertainment Co. It was received extremely well by critics and audiences alike, and in the face of such tough competition as Return of the Jedi and Superman III, was one of the highest grossing pictures that summer. Although Roger Moore once again announced that Octopussy would be his last appearance as 007, it was proclaimed in December, 1983 that he would play Bond a seventh time in From a View to a Kill (one of the short story titles from the FOR YOUR EYES ONLY anthology. The title has since been changed to A View to a Kill. The film is slated for a summer 1985 release.