For Your Shelf Only continues! Spy Vibe recently talked with Jon Gilbert, rare book dealer and author of Ian Fleming: The Bibliography. Our chat began a new series on Spy Vibe, offering fellow collectors a chance to share their experiences and some of their prized treasures.
Our new guest is collector, Matt Sherman. Matt is the creator of the Bond Collectors
Weekends (featuring vehicles, stars and locations) and the creator of SpyFest, the largest action and espionage
convention. He is a writer on The Ultimate
James Bond Fan Blog, former Webmaster of OO7Forever.com, and he has contributed
to numerous Bond books, and music and multimedia projects. Matt is a collector of movie props, rare books, and he has compiled an extensive database detailing all of the Bond film locations.
When did you first become exposed to the world of James Bond?
Goldfinger. It’s the first movie Pierce Brosnan saw, and the first I remember, at age 5. Three generations hushed in the living room to Maurice Binder’s golden title sequence. Mr. Binder was an alumnus of Stuyvesant High School, where I Bonded with Lucy Liu and Lucy Deakins, and where Frank McCourt (Angela’s Ashes) was my English teacher. Proud Stuyvesant alumni include Nobel Laureates and U.S. Congressmen, but I’m thrilled we also have George Kisevalter, who controlled Russian doubles for CIA, George Raft (Casino Royale ‘67), and Joseph L. Mankiewicz, whose son Tom wrote four Bond screenplays and appeared at one of my fan events. Add my school to New York’s book and film locations and Bond was my destiny.
What was the first film you saw? Do you have strong memories or images associated with that experience?
This sounds strange, Jason, but I swear that though Goldfinger is the first TV-aired movie I remember, The Spy Who Loved Me is the first theater trip I remember at age 8! A strong association came from reading Ian Fleming’s novels soon after.
Try to think back on that night. What fascinated you about the film?
Were there elements on screen that captured your imagination? What was it about
Bond for you as an 8 yr old?
That was quite a night for me. First, my parents argued
briefly whether I was mature enough to watch Moore and Bach romp about onscreen
so the movie stuck in my psyche even before the credits rolled. I
definitely loved the thrilling pre-teaser ski/parachute sequence and Bond
audiences wouldn’t make a noise like that again at a stunt until the Aston
Martin barrel roll in Casino Royale.
As an eight-year-old, the sexuality of the film was lost on
me but I loved Bond’s underwater missile-wielding Lotus Esprit. My parents
brought me to Spy, but I insisted the family go to see Moonraker two years
later. Sir Roger Moore was a great Bond, so suave, and his clothes were the
height of fashion. I thought it was weird that this other fellow I didn’t
recognize was on cable TV in Bond films like Thunderball and You Only Live
Twice. I latched onto Bond the way other kids followed Superman, Spiderman or
Batman, while the risqué content of the films and books was over my head.
When did you first begin to read Ian
Fleming? Do you have memories of the first stories you read and of qualities
that attracted you?
Imagine my surprise in learning The Spy
Who Loved Me was a novel, too, about a year after seeing the movie, one of five
Fleming paperbacks I found on a road trip. My Bond tour guide work began that
same day as I read salacious passages to the teens in the van!
After, I remember thrilling to reading
Fleming. In that first batch was Live and Let Die, a grownup’s pirate adventure
complete with sunken treasure. Even today I appreciate movies that draw heavily
on the original Fleming work like Casino Royale and On Her Majesty's Secret
Service.
Forget the Fleming Formula of "Boy
meets M, Boy meets Villain, Boy steals Girl" and you have page-turning
action and suspense, gorgeous locations, and true stories of intelligence work.
Fleming was deeply involved in espionage for the West and there it is in
black-and-white, one foot in the real and one in the fantastic. I could taste
the food and see the locations when I read at age 10 and still can.
Which editions did you first collect?
The Signet paperbacks were printed umpteen times and were commonly available
everywhere. But when I discovered the inspiring first editions I had to buy
those, too. But the Bonds went through many reprints through the 70s and 80s and I
tried to buy everything.
When did you begin to collect more
seriously? Tell me about some of the editions you tracked down.
I scrimped and saved to buy the British firsts
with their lush art by Richard Chopping and others. I bought the computer-aided
designs, too, but the painted covers are best. I searched far and wide for a For
Your Eyes Only first in good condition, and it was worth it. Chopping had to
redo the art until Fleming was satisfied that Bond's eye through the keyhole
was the right shade of blue-gray.
I got my best friends into collecting and
we'd stalk every bookstore in Manhattan. We’d walk 80 blocks down Second Avenue
then up Third and down Lexington. There were few mystery specialists then so
any bookstore could have Bond available. I was thrilled to get my first copy of You Asked For It for a few dollars as the seller didn't know it was
the first American edition of Casino Royale.
Otto Penzler was a great help in the days
when owners said, "I don't sell that Bond garbage." My friends and I
were nearly shouted out of some stores. The irony is Mr. Fleming himself
collected everything up to Einstein's original relatvity papers; he and some
pals began today’s industry of collecting modern firsts.
Mr. Penzler allowed us as 12-year-olds to
roam his Manhattan landmark store, The Mysterious Bookshop, where stars of
stage and screen would pop in for the latest Sherlockiana or Bondiana. I was
even allowed to ride the ladders madly across the two-story bookshelves where
the rarest and best items were held. I waited breathlessly for all the John
Gardner firsts—my mom and Mr. Penzler arranged one signed for my birthday and I
was crushed when I lost it to a flood.
I got many special titles at Mysterious
Books except for a Casino Royale without dust jacket that was a mere $600 and
too much for my piggy bank. Many years later, Mr. Penzler would inscribe copies
of his Fleming monograph for my tour group, a great thrill that provided
another unique collectible.
Do you have favorite 007 book designs?
Sure. I have a Hungarian You Only Live
Twice from a good friend, featuring Blofeld's castle of death as Golgotha where
Christ died. It resembles a skull on the cover, even upside down! I love the
early Pan and Perma editions, colorful and glamorous. Other super softcovers
come from Richey Fahey. Each of his cover Bond girls resembles Fleming's
descriptions in the text.
In hardbacks, everyone loves my James
Bond and The Spy Who Loved Me, Christopher Wood's movie novelization and now
considered a pricey beauty of a rarity. I have a great copy of rejected cover
art from The World Is Not Enough thanks to an outstanding book collector, John
Cox.
I could talk about a hundred more covers,
but they’ll be shown in the new Jon Gilbert bibliography you’ve written about
at SpyVibe. I've spoken with Fergus Fleming about this volume and it looks to
be marvelous.
Do you collect specific titles or
regional editions?
I’ve collected every Jonathan Cape/Hodder
& Staughton British first, every different Pan and Signet cover, every
Jove, Coronet, Penguin, Berkley, Michael J. Fein, Easton Press, you name it. I
think I'm the sole collector who pursued a copy of every Bond hardback issued
without a jacket in the English language; from the well-known Heron editions to
dozens more. Enough for five times the shelf space I have displaying books now.
I sold some common editions to save money
for the big ones. I even sold a set of Korean piracy novels, in hardback with
glassine wraps and fascinating misspellings of the titles; to date it's the
sole set I've seen in nearly 35 years of book collecting.
I have book cover photos filed in my PC,
including every Bond ever in English, over 700 foreign covers, photos of numerous
unique rebound books, and hundreds of other firsts in hardback and paperback. I
have art samples and proofs and signatures on the PC to help other collectors,
nearly 3,100 files in total. This seemed a more practical step than buying
everything in print, ever.
Are there books in your collection that
you prize above all others?
It took me more than 25 years to find a
first edition of Umberto Eco’s collected essays, The Bond Affair. This renowned
author was one of the first to recognize Fleming’s greatness. I have a
sentimental fondness for a Moonraker
paperback from Bantam that hasn’t changed its value since purchased of $0.50.
It's quirky, with splendid art featuring a kingly pompadour on the Roger Moore-ish
Bond on its cover. And I think the recent "bullet in book" edition of
Carte Blanche is a hoot and everyone I’ve shown one to thinks so, too.
I'm grateful for the many books that were
inscribed to me and/or to which I've contributed from actors, production team
members and authors I’ve helped with projects. Knowing how warm and kind people
like Raymond Benson, Vic Flick and Richard Kiel are makes reading their work even
more enjoyable. Collectors visit my home, where books lead to hours of
storytelling.
Are there books that you still hope to
find?
I helped a top collector secure a copy of Sable Basilisk
and would love one for myself, though only six copies remain in existence. This
slim volume highlights advice Fleming received in preparing heraldry materials
for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. And visiting other collectors
lets me find new discoveries. Steve Kulakoski of For Your Eyes Only Books is a
great pal and Steve and Kathy have watched my kids and Bond Collectors Weekends
grow up. When Ben Sherman was born, Steve managed to find a greeting card that
starts, "Did Daddy ever tell you about the time he was surrounded by
SPECTRE…?” I welcome all book enthusiasts to visit me to share war stories and
about the ones that got away.
How did you start collecting props from the films? Were they hard to
track down?
The first props I had at home were from costumes our family made and
friends made to be as authentic as possible at our fan events. Favorites
included dressing as Bond from Moonraker and stepping to our party, my
wife dressed as “Dolly” from the film at my side, complete with a fully
extended parachute that trailed behind me for many yards. My kids carried it
like the train of a wedding dress, clothed as two characters from The Man
With The Golden Gun. Richard Kiel broke into laughter when he saw the
costume, which required a considerable investment of time to organize,
especially in finding a retired soldier’s working parachute, and getting it
through airport security!
Have you specifically sought out props from Spy Who Loved Me or Moonraker because of the nostalgia they may hold for you?
One prop item I always loved were Drax’s blueprints for his Moonraker globes of death. It would take me many hours to desktop publish anything like them; I really appreciate the work of The Danger Men with the blueprints, they are a great addition to my shelves. I’m still looking for the hexagonal glass Bond smuggled from the factory and so are other collectors.
Another classic is the laser guns the henchmen carry in the film. My son and I built one modeled after the originals, which had laser effects drawn on screen as in the Star Wars films. We added a blue laser to our version of the gun and why not, the prop world is the collector’s playhouse.
Tell me about tracking down props. Are most of the originals kept by the studio?
There are some props that can never be had because they are
destroyed following production. You can watch From Russia With Love and crave
Bond’s famous attaché case, but following the trail it turns out it was in
Desmond “Q” Llewelyn’s home for years until it was returned to Eon’s own vault
for future exhibitions of their choice.
Two props I was thrilled to pursue came for auction some
years back, an original wedding ring of Tracy’s from On Her Majesty’s Secret
Service and a table-sized model of the Liparus, the super-ship that swallows
submarines in The Spy Who Loved Me. These went beyond my price ceiling but
wound up in the homes of friends so I got to enjoy them after all. The comment
Alan Stephenson made about his Liparus buy is a telling one. We were showing it
at the second Bond Collectors Weekend when Alan told me, “Matt, look carefully
as this model has different details than the ship as shown on screen. If it was
a fan prop, it would be exact in every aspect. Therefore, this has to be a
production model from the set and its provenance is authentic.” I always
remember that the fans are tougher than the directors and even some of the
continuity directors in film.
Most replica producers have held off making
Goldfinger gold bars because the typical fan will complain unless the bar is as
heavy as real gold! The one I have is a beautiful cast of a Fort Knox bar and I
appreciate it. Again, the Goldfinger bars seen on screen have been all but
depleted or destroyed. The shell shown below is one of those kinds of things you can’t
put a price on, it comes with permission from Emilio Largo’s home from
Thunderball. I worked with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism to bring the first
tour group onto the grounds. The pass nearby is my own conceit, I worked off
Dr. Metz’s pass to Whyte Techtronics from Diamonds Are Forever, locked away now
in Eon’s vault, and made a pass for Mr. Whyte himself, using his screen seen
signature to add that extra touch of realism for a prop.
Most every Bond fan is into weapons and I have five
different knives. The ones from The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day on
that Brosnan shelf weren’t too hard to track down. But the copy of Sun Tzu’s
Art of War -that one has proved more than elusive. I’ve reached
out to my contacts and scanned literally nearly 5,000 different copies of Sun
Tzu’s classic online to find the match but the book that gets stabbed on screen
in the plane fight that ends the film seems to be a proprietary one. When I
get some time, I’m going to make my own copy as Eon’s sole copy is currently
exhibited elsewhere. The missile borne in Bond’s BMW in Tomorrow Never Dies was
tough to acquire. I met a fellow collector and was fortunate to have two copies
of the nearby metallic invitation to Elliot Carver’s Hamburg party. That and
other prop items, support for his show and some archival pieces offered, and I
was home.
Do you focus on specific 007 titles or
eras?
I’ve warned aspiring collectors to
specialize. “Collect only costumes,” I say, or “Collect only 1960s and 70s toys
and models.” But I’ve bought, made and nuclear blackmailed props from each of
the 22 official Bonds plus Never Say Never Again and Casino Royale ’67.
Does collecting movie props require a
high investment up front? Have you stretched
to pay premiums for some artifacts?
I’ve worked with fellow fans to pursue props in tandem, for
example, bidding on shoes from The Spy Who Loved Me—I just wanted one, not the
pair—and a top offer I made was $10,000 on a special tuxedo Pierce Brosnan wore
in several of his films, but Planet Hollywood beat me with a $25,000 bid.
What are some of the highlights of collecting and of organizing events?
Between SpyFest and my “Bond Collectors
Weekends” we’ve played with prototype Corgis and helped bring new Corgi toys to
market. We’ve strummed the guitar used in 1962 to record The James Bond Signature
Theme, made calls from Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone, climbed inside Aston
Martins, parahawks, two cruise ships, and a Russian submarine. We chomped Mexican
and Chinese food with Richard “Jaws” Kiel, and spent an unforgettable day with
Robert “I Spy” Culp at the sole convention appearance of his lifetime… props to
me are tools to weld fans to the stars and to one another in friendship.
I’ve further invested thousands of hours
of work and research, but my events have been helped by an army of collectors,
whom I sincerely thank, great people like Danny Biederman, John Cork, Doug
Redenius, Alan Stephenson, Dan McCruden, David Zaritsky, John Cox, Charlie
Axworthy and many more who share of themselves and let me run alongside their
adventures.
The collection
must feel like your own museum or archive. Do you imagine selling it at a
profit someday? Have you already sold items?
After the flurry
to collect over 150 props in three years I asked myself which select items I’d
desire most from each of the films, for home and to exhibit at shows, and I
realized I’m nearly there. I parsed down recently to about 100 props on
display, counting multiples like poker chips or gun bullets as a single
item. I’ve sold hundreds of props and other collectibles over the years to
help fellow completists. A favorite trick is to sell ten or twenty modest
books or props to raise capital to buy one fancy item, which also saves needed
display space. You collect everything when you begin and then you get choosy if
you want to keep buying.
You keep a large
image database to help you authenticate original and replica props?
Here’s an
example of some research. I’ve owned different variations of “License to Kill
prop bills” as other films use similar bills. What I’ve discovered: Prop $20
bills are in the plane fight above Milton Krest’s ship, which makes sense as
these small denominations are literally thrown out a plane’s window to be
scattered across the Florida Keys. A few hundreds are tossed, too. Most of the
prop $100 bills go in stacks instead with Bond to deposit at Franz Sanchez’s
bank. But they come out with different banded straps in bundles. This isn’t a
continuity error. Sanchez laundered money through different channels so the
band types are consistent on screen, pre-bank and post-bank. One real $100 U.S.
bill goes atop a prop stack to fool the audience when Pam Bouvier opens her
purse to a flunky. I can verify authentic bills as I’ve taken brought tour
group to meet License To Kill crew members and see locations and props. That’s
movie magic. Go easy on the real dollars and send the cheap stuff into the sky.
One interesting tidbit, however, Bond’s aerial stunt team had a ball one night
in Key West bars and strip clubs “spending” fake $100 bills into circulation!
Is there one prop that you value above
all others? Why is it special to you?
I could give the collector’s infamous “they
are all my children” speech but I’m always most excited about new acquisitions
and ones I’m hunting.
How do you store and display your prop
collection?
I’ve worked hard to get most of my collectibles
on display instead of boxed, another reason to limit items. Glass shelves and
bookshelves display hundreds of items, including props. My Bond room is painted the
green shade of Bond’s apartment in Dr. No, with a prop shelf or two for each of
the six Eon Bonds and another shelf with Casino Royale ‘67 items.
Do you plan to see the Designing 007
exhibit in London or when it comes to Toronto? What are the holy grail props
that you want to see?
I heard from an insider last week that Barbican
may open more North American tour locations soon and I plan to attend. But I
feel fortunate to have seen many of the great Bond props through the years. I’ve seen in-person top costumes from Pierce
Brosnan, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn, the spider and Walther from Dr. No,
Blofeld’s table from From Russia With Love, over a dozen screen-seen vehicles,
and thousands of other amazing props and collectibles. Many of the best items
at The International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C. were first exhibited at my SpyFest,
and are owned by intelligence officers from the CIA and the KGB. I’m hot on the trail now for casino items
from Skyfall (contact me, readers, I’ll pay top dollar!) and the fun and funky items
friends are building, including Scaramanga’s bodacious bullet-bearing belt
buckle from The Man With The Golden Gun. The great thing about the Designing OO7 Exhibit
for real props and the creation of sincere replicas is how they help James Bond’s
loyal fan base join the action.
Thank you to Matt Sherman for joining us and sharing his experiences hunting down rare books and movie props. Scroll down for past editions of our series, For Your Shelf Only, where guests share stories about collecting and show us some of their treasures. Series links: Jon Gilbert, Raymond Benson, Jeremy Duns, Peter Lorenz, David Foster, Rob Mallows, Roger Langley, Craig Arthur, Fleming Short, Matt Sherman. You can find James Bond books and other spy treasures in Spy Vibe's secure Amazon Store.
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