Ian Fleming and His Golden Man

James Bond 007

The Birth of Bond and Ian Fleming's love affair with the Caribbean.

    Ian Fleming had long harbored a dream of creating for himself a home in a far-off place. During World War II, he had made occasional visits to the West Indies. His favourite pastimes which included underwater swimming and his interest in the fauna and flora of the Caribbean environment. He loved to talk about the rare types of sea shells and tropical birds on the island. 
   He not only knew Jamaica thoroughly, but other parts of the Caribbean such as the Bahamas. Live and Let Die”, “Doctor No” and “The Man with the Golden Gun” have Jamaican settings. The nearby village of Oracabessa is the “beautiful little banana port” which James Bond drove through in “Live and Let Die”. 
 Fleming built and called his home here the Golden Eye. The Golden Eye was the name given to the movie based on Flemings life made in 1989.

   James Bond by Ian Fleming

I was looking for a name for my hero and I found it, on the cover of one of my Jamaican bibles“Birds of the West Indies” by James Bond, an ornithological classic.

His first Bond adventure was CASINO ROYALE in 1953, and it was followed by 13 others.

A Passage from Casino Royale

     It was a dark, clean-cut face, with a three-inch scar showing whitely down the sunburned skin of the right cheek. The eyes were wide and level under straight, rather long black brows. The hair was black, parted on the left, and carelessly brushed so that a thick black comma fell down over the right eyebrow. The longish straight nose ran down to a short upper lip below which was a wide and finely drawn but cruel mouth. The line of jaw was straight and firm. A section of dark suit, white short and black knitted tie completed the picture."

Live and Let Die 1954

In World War II Fleming was a high ranking naval officer in the British intelligence. During a training exercise Fleming had to swim underwater and attach a mine to a tanker. This act became material for the climax of Live and Let Die.

   Beautiful, fortune-telling Solitaire is the prisoner of Mr Big ,master of fear, artist in crime and Voodoo Baron of Death. James Bond has no time for superstition .He knows that Big is also a top SMERSH operative and a real threat. More than that, after tracking him through the jazz joints of Harlem, to the Everglades and on to the Caribbean, 007 has realised that he is one of the most dangerous men that he has ever faced. And no one, not even the enigmatic Solitaire, can be sure how their battle of wills is going to end.

 
Dr No 1958

      Bond is given a shabby little case in the Caribbean. It will really be a holiday on an island in the sun,he is told but on the horizon 

is an articulated steel hand, the hand of Dr. No! He is a sinister recluse with mechanical pincers for hands and a sadistic fascination with pain. Bond and Honey Rider, his beautiful and vulnerable girl Friday, have been captured trespassing on Dr No's secluded Caribbean island. Intent on protecting his  operations from the British Secret Service, Dr No sees an opportunity to dispose of an enemy and further his diabolical research. Soon, Bond and Rider are fighting for their lives in a murderous game.

 Some of Flemings strongest characters came from the book Goldfinger.

Goldfinger 1959

The Villain

  

Auric Goldfinger treasurer of Smersh, the richest man in England, expert marksman, gold-loving murderer and golf cheat his character was based on at least three people
but was named after the architect Erno Goldfinger, a Marxist and the designer of the Modernist tower blocks in London, Balfron Tower and Trellick Tower. The other two were an American minerals millionaire,and a First World War German spymaster . In the novel Goldfinger, the seventh in the James Bond series .Fleming sketched a biographical background. Auric (the adjective for gold) Goldfinger is a 42-year-old expatriate Latvian, 5ft short, with blue eyes, red hair and a penchant for painting his women gold, so he can make love to the metal he adores. Fleming’s golfing partner, John Blackwell, was related by marriage to the real Goldfinger and disliked him: he probably encouraged Fleming to appropriate the name. 


The Bond Girl   

Pussy Galore  

   Pussy is the owner of a flying circus, the staff of which consists entirely of beautiful female pilots. However, she is also part of Auric Goldfinger's plan to rob Fort Knox. Prior to Goldfinger's men moving in, her pilots are to fly over the area, spraying it with knockout gas to immobilize all personnel in the immediate area.

Pussy identifies herself as "the outdoors type" and apparently plans to use her cut of the proceeds from the robbery to buy her own tropical island and "go back to nature."

   A judo expert, she is very tough and not easily moved by 007's charm. In fact, it is hinted that she may be a lesbian. However, she is eventually seduced by Bond, who informs her that the gas Goldfinger intends to use is actually deadly - she had believed it to be knockout gas with no lasting effect on those targeted with it. Pussy then reveals that she does have a conscience, by contacting the CIA to inform them of Goldfinger's plan, and switching the gas for another variety which has no effect at all, allowing the CIA to set a trap for Goldfinger.

Bond Girls

 
 

   In spite of warning's from doctors, Fleming did not give up his outdoor activities, and the final heart attack which ended his life came at the Royal St. George's Sandwich golf course in Kent on 12 August, 1964.The unfinished The Man with the Golden Gun,was completed by Fleming's literary executors,and was published posthumously.

Fleming also published a successful children's book about a magical car,Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

   Ian Fleming Quotes

"You only live twice: Once when you're born ,And once when you look death in the face."
   You Only Live Twice

"Surround yourself with human beings, my dear James. They are easier to fight for than principles." 

Casino Royale 

Smoking I find the most ridiculous of all the varieties of human behavior and practically the only one that is entirely against nature. Can you imagine a cow or any animal taking a mouthful of smoldering straw than breathing in the smoke and blowing it out through its nostrils?"

Goldfinger

The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success

Bond Theme Songs

Bond Car Chases

Urban Legends

Thought we would look at Bloody Mary ,Springheeled Jack and other urban legends which always make interesting stories.

Bloody Mary

  What you need is one candle, a strong heart and a big bathroom with a large mirror.

Turn out the lights, place your candle down and light it, stand and look into the mirror, chant slowly “Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary, Bloody Mary”. And see what happens.

It is believed that by taking part in this game, and summoning the witch, it would have one of the following terrible consequences:

eyes being ripped out by the witch.

found with claw marks all over body.

disappear mysteriously from the bathroom and end up in the mirror with the witch for eternity.

view the horrifying image of the witch appear in the mirror.

driven insane or dropping dead on the spot at the appearance of the witch in the mirror.

suffer terrible claw marks all over face.

The other names she is known.

Mary Worth

Mary Whales

Hell Mary (for the appearance of Satan)

Bloody Mary Worth

Mary Worthington 

Queen Mary

There is a lot of speculation as to the names being taken from Mary I, Queen of England who reigned during the Tudor period. Mary Tudor was also commonly known as "Bloody Mary". Her nickname of "Bloody Mary" became attached to her when she

violently executed and burnt people at the stake for heresy throughout her reign of a little over 5 years.

She also was unable to bear children and suffered two phantom pregnancies, this is where it is speculated that the Bloody Mary game involving chanting "I stole your baby" or "I killed your baby" became tangled up with the now known Bloody Mary game. 

Springheeled Jack

                  Some of the sightings through history

Springheeled jack

In 1808, a letter to the editor of the Sheffield Times recounted how "Years ago a famous Ghost walked and played many pranks in this historic neighbourhood." The writer went on to identify this entity as the "Park Ghost or Spring Heeled Jack," and briefly described its ability to take enormous leaps and frighten random passers-by.

 Then Spring-Heeled Jack leapt out of the shadows in 1837.  At first he was just a rumor, and few Londoners believed the tales they heard of the attacks, mostly on young women, carried out by the mystery man. The rumors persisted as the number of attacks grew. He would hide himself behind walls or bushes and then leap out on unsuspecting travelers. Usually he would rip their clothes with the claws on his hands, and breathe flames into the victims' faces. Then he would bound away in huge, leaping strides which covered great distances at each step. The thing about the devil-man which most stuck out in the minds of the victims were his terrible, hell-like red glowing eyes, and his peculiar ringing laughter, which echoed in their minds for days afterward. 

  Spring Heeled Jack was again seen leaping up and down the streets and rooftops of Liverpool in 1904, then disappeared from England for close to seventy years. By that time, however, he had become notorious in the US. Jack's American visits were first reported in Louisville, KY in July of 1880. There, he was described as tall, having pointed ears, long nose and fingers, and was clad in a cape, helmet, and shiny uniform. He accosted women, tore at their clothing, and emitted flames from a blue light on his chest.

Between 1938-1945, he made dozens of appearances in the Cape Cod area of Massachusetts, though there he reportedly belched flames rather than ejecting them from his chest. In Provincetown, which I gather has seen no end of strange things, his leaping forced pedestrians off the pavement of a busy street. When a dog cornered him, the animal's owner blasted Jack with a shotgun, but "the darned thing just laughed and jumped my eight foot fence in one leap," the man told police.  Scariest Urban legends

Wizard and Wonderland

   The Wizard and Wonderland

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland

  These two would have to be the biggest children stories seen on movie theatres,stage and tv .My daughters must have watched Wizard Of Oz 100s of times from when they were two through to about seven years old and Alice would have to be the most remade story of all time with numerous versions over the years. The latest of course seeing Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter with lines like...

Why is a Raven like a writing desk?

There is a place. Like no place on Earth. A land full of wonder, mystery, and danger! Some say to survive it: You need to be as mad as a hatter.

What a regrettably large head you have. I would very much like to hat it. I used to hat The White Queen, you know. Her head was so small.

Alice In Wonderland

Caterpillar 

Alice comes upon a mushroom and sitting on it is a blue Caterpillar smoking a hookah.

Cheshire cat
 

  A Cheshire Cat appears in a tree, directing her to the March Hare's house. He disappears but his grin remains behind to float on its own in the air prompting Alice to remark that she has often seen a cat without a grin but never a grin without a cat.

  Alice leaves the tea party and enters the garden where she comes upon three living playing cards painting the white roses on a rose tree red because the Queen of Hearts hates white roses.

 Queen of Hearts
Off with their heads.

   Alice attends a trial whereby the Knave of Hearts is accused of stealing the Queen's tarts. The jury is composed of various animals, including Bill the Lizard, the White Rabbit is the court's trumpeter, and the judge is the King of Hearts. During the proceedings, Alice finds that she is steadily growing larger. The dormouse scolds Alice and tells her she has no right to grow at such a rapid pace and take up all the air. Alice scoffs and calls the dormouse's accusation ridiculous because everyone grows and she can't help it. 

Author  Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

 The third of eleven children of an Anglican priest, was a mathematician and a logician who was a lecturer at Oxford for some 26 years. He was also an accomplished photographer, and a Church Deacon. Dodgson's pen name, was Lewis Carroll.

  Alice was originally a dark haired child, whose likeness had been patterned after ten year old Alice Liddell, the child of a church colleague, for whom the Alice stories had been originally created.

 Quote from Lewis Carroll himself.

 "Many a day we rowed together on that quiet stream - the three little maidens and I - and many a fairy tale had been extemporised for their benefit- .. -yet none of these tales got written down: they lived and died, like summer midges, each in its own golden afternoon until there came a day when, as it chanced, one of the listeners petitioned that the tale might be written down for her."

That's how Alice was put to paper.

 There are so many characters in Alice I am sure Mr Dodgson was on something just like the caterpillar.Another two characters are Tweedledee and Tweedledum which prompted Bob Dylan too put this down with music.

Tweedledee Dee Tweedledee Dum Bob Dylan

 Neither one gonna turn and run
They’re making a voyage to the sun
“His Master’s voice is calling me”
Says Tweedle-dee Dum to Tweedle-dee Dee

Oz book

Characters 

Cowardly lion

Scarecrow
 Toto
Jack PumpkinHead 
Mombi 
Tin Woodman
Glinda
Silver Shoes
The Magic Belt

 L. Frank Baum was born in New York in 1856. He began his career at the age of 25 by writing for musical theater; he was also an actor. Baum eventually turned to journalism, and moved to Chicago in 1891, writing for the "Evening Post." To earn extra money, he also sold porcelain and china; you will see evidence of that in the stories he tells .

   Adventures in Phunniland and Tales from Mother Goose were his first two childrens books published in 1897 This collection of short stories, with an appearance of a little farm girl named Dorothy were a success and 

driven by the impetus of these works, and now in his early forties, Baum decided to earn his living as a writer. Together with artist William Wallace Denslow he produced Father Goose: His Book in 1899 and in so doing created a publishing sensation which sold nearly 60,000 copies. To follow this book up he published The Wonderful Wizard of Oz which was a huge success with the public and critics alike.

  In 1910, Baum and his family moved to Hollywood, California. He founded the Oz Film Manufacturing Company and began making films based on the Oz books. The problem was that back in the early years of the century, nobody had really started making films for children. Baum found it difficult to market the films, and they were not financially successful. 

  Baum's financial affairs had become increasingly entangled, and by 1910 the situation was so serious that he assigned all rights to his Bobbs-Merrill books to a group of creditors. In 1911 Baum was declared bankrupt. 

    Baum continued to publish an Oz book once a year, with a whole generation of American children growing up with the tradition of an adventure in that far away land every Christmas. In February 1918 Baum entered the hospital, writing to his publishers that he had "finished the second Oz book - beyond The Tin Woodman of Oz - which will give you a manuscript for 1919 and 1920. Also there is material for another book, so in case anything happens to me the Baum books can be issued until and including 1921." Baum survived his hospital operation but spent his last year bedridden, dying nine days before his 63rd birthday in 1919.

   People over the years have developed stories,comic strips,ideas from Baum's classic story. the Wiz a stage musical and Wizard of Id comic strip are just two.The group Toto who had great musical success in the eighties was named after Dorothy's pooch.

 

The Wiz

  The Wiz a retelling of Baum's, Wizard Of Oz  in the context of African american culture. The story was written by William F Brown. While it was a successful stage show musical. I think a lot of people will remember the screen version starring Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow and Diana Ross as Dorothy.

Wizard of Id comic strip 

  The title is a play on Wizard of Oz, combined with the Freudian psychological term Id, which represents the instinctive and primal part of the human psyche.It first appeared in 1964 created by American cartoonists Brant Parker and Johnny Hart.