Restored Post 40: the Guns of James Bond

40 no mr bond (1)

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40 no mr bond (2)

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Both of these restored posts note the recent deaths of principal actors in the Bond films but the true James Bond is revealed in the books and not the films which are, at best, mockups.

The first of the books is a 1950s noir thriller "Casino Royale" that included a giant Bentley of 1930 (incorrectly called out as a '32 and corrected in subsequent novels) and the notion of Bond's .25 being unsuited to gunfighting with the steel-bodied sedans of the 1950's opposition. Steel bodies and gangsters were precisely why the Texas Rangers and Federal agents of the 1930s used, first the .38 Super Automatic of '29 and then the .357 Magnum of '35. And Boothroyd, amateur advisor to author Fleming late 1950s, included the .357 in his suggestions for Bond vs the .45 revolver in "Casino Royale".

Below, the Texas Ranger turned FBI agent who appears to have been the model for the Felix Leiter character because both Fleming and Jones were assigned to the Caribbean for WWII:

And Fleming is on record as saying he thought of the Bond character as resembling singer/actor Hoagy Carmichael who today is best known for appearing with Humphrey Bogart in at least one of his film noirs of WWII. Carmichael was appearing in London early 1950s while Fleming was completing "Casino Royale".

The initial draft of the book was on the typewriter that Fleming had in Bahamas, and it was completed in London on his new gold-plated Royal (surely where the name of the book came from, and the golden typewriter surely the inspiration for the many gold themes of his later books). Fun fact: in addition to Fleming's references to the two machines the original draft is in two typewriter faces that are known to be a match for each one.

Below, not Pussy Galore but it's the thought of such in gold that counts, eh?

The recently deceased Queen was crowned that year and this surely was a major event for a military man who had served the Royal Navy under her father during the War:

At the time of the first screenings of the Bond film "Dr. No", this article appeared in a London newspaper and in Sports Illustrated, finally drawing attention to his mixing of the Walther with the Berns-Martin spring shoulder holster that was then inescapable in the '62 film late that year. The film thereafter appeared in America prior to Berns-Martin's sale to a wealthy man who moved the operation, minus Jack Martin and his business partner, from Calhoun City to Elberton in mid '63. The story was originally written as the introduction to Boothroyd's own book about gun collecting and Fleming poked fun at himself for mixing the auto and the holster, and mentions his first heart attack, too.

Read more in my book titled "Holstory -- Gunleather of the Twentieth Century -- the Second Edition" that is available at www.holstory.com and printed for you/shipped to you in USA.