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- [00:00]
David Contosta
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Jason English
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- [01:01]
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I can't stop scratching my downtown. Mm, yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud.
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Big props to this team.
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- [02:36]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Ian Fleming, the British author who created James Bond, wrote 14 books starring his dashing spy hero. Fleming wrote all the Bond books in Jamaica at a home built on a cliff overlooking a private beach. He called it goldeneye. Fleming loved birds and Goldeneye was a birder's paradise. Per Fleming's instructions, none of the windows at goldeneye had glass, so that native Jamaican birds like the red billed Streamertail could flitter right into his bedroom. In February 1964, a film crew from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation flew down to Jamaica to interview Fleming, one of the world's most successful living authors. At 55 years old, Fleming had already published 10 best selling James Bond novels. Two Bond books had also been made into blockbuster Hollywood movies starring Sean Connery as 007.
- [03:44]
Cindy Crawford
I admire your luck, Mr.
- [03:48]
Robert Peck
Bond.
- [03:50]
Jim Wright
James Bond.
- [03:53]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
A third Bond film, Goldfinger, was coming out later that year. A journalist by trade, Fleming wrote the James Bond books while on leave from his day job at the Sunday Times in London. He spent every winter at Goldeneye, his tropical refuge. From January through March, Fleming sat each morning at his desk overlooking the sapphire blue Caribbean and banged out 2,000 words of snappy prose. He wrote a new Bond book every year, and in 1964 it was you Only Live Twice.
- [04:34]
Jim Wright
I think he was just bursting ready to write these books. And he had six weeks vacation work for a newspaper and he would go to goldeneye every year and spend the six weeks writing these books like once a year cranking them out. It was amazing. And he's really a good writer. He's just great characters, great plots.
- [04:54]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
That's Jim Wright, a journalist and author we're going to hear a lot more from in a minute. With James Bond, Fleming had invented more than an exciting new literary character. He had created an icon. When the first Bond movie, Dr. No, hit American theaters in 1963, it launched an entirely new Hollywood genre, the sexy spy thriller. The studios tripped over themselves to steal Fleming's formula, releasing dozens of Bond copycats in the 1960s and 70s. For the CBC interview, Fleming sat on a low stone wall overlooking the sea. He spoke with an aristocratic British accent and and smoked from an elegant cigarette holder. The interviewer asked Fleming about his inspiration for the hugely popular books. How many of his plotlines were taken from Fleming's real world intelligence work during World War II. Were his sex scenes too steamy for some readers? The CBC interview was going great when there was an interruption. Ms. Violet Cummings, Fleming's longtime housekeeper, apologized. But there was a visitor at the door and she wasn't sure what to do. Wasn't sure what to do? Wondered Fleming. They had had plenty of visitors since the Bond books became bestsellers. Truman Capote, Katharine Hepburn, even the British Prime Minister. Well, who is it, Violet? Fleming asked. Mr. James Bond, sir, said Violet. Was this some kind of practical joke? Did somebody come all the way to Jamaica just to mess with Ian Fleming?
- [06:52]
Robert Peck
No.
- [06:52]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
The author immediately knew this wasn't a joke. The man standing outside his front door was the real deal. And the thought of meeting him caused a bead of nervous sweat to collect on Fleming's brow. Twelve years after stealing his name, it was time for Ian Fleming to meet the real James Bond. Welcome to Very Special Episodes and I Heart Original Podcast. I'm your host, Dana Schwartz and this is the other James Bond.
- [07:37]
Jason English
Welcome back to Very Special Episodes. So glad you could join us. My name is Jason English. I am solo here at the top today. Just a couple housekeeping announcements before I get you back to Bond. Dana's new book the Arcane Arts came out last week. I think you may have just heard an ad for it. I believe a movie version has already been optioned, so go check that out. Wherever you get your summer reading materials, you want to be able to tell people you were in on the Ground Floor before it was a bestseller or blockbuster film franchise. We've got lots of good stuff coming on this show. We've got a big VSE summer brainstorm cooking. We're going to plan out episodes for the rest of the year and even into 2027. So what would be helpful? Not that you owe us any favors, but if you want to give us a hand, email the show. Let us know what your favorite all time episode was. Very special episodesmail.com that is the kind of unscientific data that we're going to use to propel us into the future. I have a feeling that at least a few of you are going to email and say that your favorite episode is this one. Dana
- [08:51]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Ian Fleming always knew he wanted to write a spy thriller. Throughout his newspaper career, he daydreamed about the exploits of his fictional hero, a cool headed British secret agent who could outsmart the meanest international bad guys and score with the sexiest spies. In 1952, Fleming traveled to Goldeneye to write his first novel, Casino Royale. The plot was already worked out. The intrigue would take place at a high stakes casino in France where his British agent would bankrupt a Soviet operative called Le Chiffre and bed the charming Vesper Lind herself a double agent. What Fleming didn't have was a name for his secret agent, the star of his debut novel. Should he go with something exotic, something strong? Fleming was a little stressed out. At 43 years old, he was about to get married. It was his first and his fiance's third marriage. He was also on a deadline. Fleming had been cranking out newspaper articles for years, but a novel was a different beast. He only had 66 weeks to write It. That's when inspiration struck in the form of a birding book sitting right on Fleming's desk. Here's how Fleming told the story to the CBC.
- [10:24]
Ian Fleming (quoted)
When I started to write these books in 1952, I wanted to find a name which wouldn't have any of the romantic overtones, like Pentagon Corral or whatever it might be. I wanted a really flat, quiet name. And one of my Bibles out here is James Bond's Birds of the West Indies, which is a very famous ornithological book indeed. And I thought, well, that's James Bond. Now, that's a pretty quiet name. And so I simply stone it and use it.
- [11:00]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Did you catch that before? James Bond was a famous international spy.
- [11:05]
Jason English
He.
- [11:06]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
He was James Bond the ornithologist. And Fleming, like every serious birdwatcher in the Caribbean, owned a copy of James Bond's Indispensable Guide to the Birds of the West Indies.
- [11:20]
Jim Wright
So he's writing Casino Royale and he's on deadline and he needs a name for his secret agent, and he can't think of it. And he finally looks down at his book, Birds of the West Indies, and sees James Bond's name. And as he later said himself, I looked down, saw the name and simply stole it. And so I said, James Bond. Nine purloined letters, you know, no middle initial. It was pretty amazing.
- [11:50]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
That's Jim Wright again. Jim wrote a terrific book called the Real James Bond A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue, and Ian Fleming, which was the inspiration for today's episode. Jim thinks that it's more than a random coincidence that Ian Fleming chose an ornithologist's name for 007. That's because during World War II, British slang for a spy was birdwatcher.
- [12:22]
Jim Wright
So when Ian Fleming picked James Bond as the name, sure, it was this nice, masculine, blunt instrument of a name. But it was also a bit of a wink to the spy community. This guy's a birdwatcher, which means he's a spy.
- [12:37]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
As it turns out, birdwatcher was more than a cute nickname. Jim Wright says there were plenty of actual ornithologists who worked as spies during World War II. Think about it. Ornithologists and spies share a similar and unique skill set. They're observant and unobtrusive. They're handy with a pair of binoculars and a telephoto lens. They travel to exotic places. Their job is to track down elusive creatures, take careful notes, and, if necessary, shoot to kill. It's no wonder that British and American Intelligence recruited so many ornithologists as secret agents.
- [13:22]
Jim Wright
Spies carry binoculars and guns. And that was the great thing about all these guys who were spies and ornithologists. They could go anywhere in the world and arrive carrying a shotgun and binoculars and people think nothing of it. That's one of the reasons they were selected by in those days, the oss. I had a whole list. I think I had at least seven ornithologists who, who were spies.
- [13:52]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
One example was a guy named Bob Blake, who had a master's degree in zoology and worked as the assistant curator of birds at the Field Museum in Chicago. Blake spoke Spanish and Portuguese and traveled all over South America collecting rare bird specimens. But according to legend, he was also kind of a wild man.
- [14:16]
Jim Wright
Before he became an ornithologist, he was Indiana Jones. He was a professional fighter. At county fairs and all comers would come try to fight Blake and they'd pay to beat him up, and he'd beat them up. And he traveled on roller skates. Just a total character.
- [14:33]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Blake was an intelligence officer in World War II. When asked about his double life as an ornithologist and secret agent, he said, there's not much similarity between hunting birds and hunting spies, except that each requires careful planning. Fleming, who worked in British Naval Intelligence during the war, absolutely would have known about the birdwatcher spy connection. Besides naming his main character after a well known ornithologist, Fleming wove all sorts of bird references into his books.
- [15:10]
Jim Wright
He was certainly a bird watcher. Without a doubt. Goldeneye was a great place. He had all kinds of hummingbirds and he'd talk about going into the mountains to look for birds. Named one of his characters Solitaire in one of his books for a bird. In his books he has a lot of birds and they usually run into the villain. And to show the villain is really a bad guy, before he really starts doing nasty stuff, he'll kill a bird. It happened like in three or four books. There's one short story where the villain shoots a kingfisher with a machine gun. I mean, it's insane.
- [15:51]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
There's an obvious wink, wink reference toward the end of Dr. No, published in 1958, when a snooping bond is nabbed by one of Dr. No's henchmen and he claims that he's an ornithologist. The bad guy replies, could you please spell that? The same bit appeared in the 2002 Bond movie Die Another Day. Remember that iconic beach scene where Halle Berry's character Jinx emerges from the waves in her orange Bikini. Don't pretend you don't. Everybody remembers that bikini anyway. Bond is watching her through a pair of oversized binoculars. When Jinx asks Bond what he's doing in Cuba, he says cheekily, I'm just here for the birds. Then he holds up his binoculars. Ornithologist. When Jim Wright was researching his book on Ian Fleming and the real James Bond, his mind kept coming back to the same intriguing question. If Fleming named his killer spy after an ornithologist and so many real ornithologists were real spies, what about the real James Bond? Was he a spy too? Did the mild mannered author of the Birds of the West Indies have a second life as a secret agent? Before we solve that mystery, we first need to get to know the man behind the famous name. James Bond, known to his friends as Jim or Jimmy, was born In Philadelphia on January 4, 1900, the turn of a new century. Bond's father was a wealthy banker and his mother also came from money. The family lived in a stately four story brick townhouse and near Rittenhouse Square where the Bonds hosted dinner parties for Philly's high society crowd. Then tragedy struck. When Jim was 4 years old, his older sister Margaret died from a ruptured appendix. His parents were grief stricken. Jim's father took leave from the bank and went on a three month expedition to South America to collect birds and other specimens from for Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences. When he returned, Jim's mother was diagnosed with cancer and died just months later. Young Jim was heartbroken but found solace at his family's sprawling country mansion where he explored acres of woods and fields collecting butterflies and birds eggs.
- [18:47]
Robert Peck
He loved nature. I think he had a difficult upbringing. Yes, there was some wealth there, but I think there wasn't a lot of affection from his father. His mother died when he was fairly young and so he immersed himself in the wild and that's where he really found his space.
- [19:05]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
That's Robert Peck, a writer and naturalist at Philadelphia's Academy of Natural Sciences, who knew Jim Bond in his later years. Just when Jim was adjusting to the loss of his mother, his life was upended yet again. When his father remarried a British widow and moved the whole family to England. Jim, shy and quiet by nature, was sent off to the Harrow School where he was bullied for being an American.
- [19:35]
David Contosta
Yes, well they teased him and said that the United States was just full of red Indians and savages and lower class Europeans who had to leave. And Jim got so mad he stabbed one of them in the shoulder with A pen knife. And that stopped the teasing. He said,
- [19:52]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
that's David Contasta, another Philadelphia writer who was close with Jim Bond and his wife Mary, and wrote a book called the Private Life of James Bond. Jim Mosley grew up in England, but the Bonds spent summers in Maine on Mount Desert island, now part of Acadia National Park. Jim's uncle was Carroll Sargent Tyson, a painter and art collector.
- [20:20]
Jim Wright
He decided he would paint the birds of Mount Desert island in Maine, had a young nephew named Jim Bond with a shotgun and just like Audubon, shot the birds for his famous Audubon prints. Jim Bond shot the birds for his uncle's Birds of Mount Desert Island. And these prints are worth a lot of money. The complete set just sold for $32,000.
- [20:45]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
At Cambridge, Jim studied history and economics, but he also kept a hunting dog and was the sole American in the Pit Club, an exclusive dining and hunting club. A decade later, the Pit Club welcomed Guy Burgess and Anthony Lee Blunt, future members of the notorious Cambridge Five spy ring. After graduating, Jim returned to Philadelphia where he dutifully went to work at a bank. But it didn't take long for Jim to realize he wasn't cut out for a desk job. He didn't want to wait for a midlife crisis like his father did.
- [21:26]
Jim Wright
He went to Cambridge and studied to be a and he got a job out of school with a bank and he hated it. And he came into a little money and discovered that if he lived on a shoestring and really watched his pennies, he could do what he always wanted to be.
- [21:45]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
It was time for Jim Bond to veer from the well worn path that was laid out for him. A lifelong nature lover, Jim ached for some real adventure. So he and a friend set off for the lower Amazon jungle of Brazil to capture specimens they could sell to zoos. They came back with a live 23 foot spotted anaconda and a bunch of birds. But more importantly, Jim returned from South America with a new calling. There was no going back to the bank. Jim Bond was officially an ornithologist.
- [22:28]
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- [24:05]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
In 1926, there weren't really any degree programs or established career paths for becoming an ornithologist. You just sort of did it. Lucky for Jim, he lived in the greatest city on earth for a wannabe naturalist. Philadelphia. No, for real. Robert Peck says that decades before there was a Smithsonian institute in Washington, D.C. or the American Museum of Natural History in New York, there was the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
- [24:39]
Robert Peck
When the Academy was founded in 1812, it was seven naturalists, each with a different special area of interest. So we really started the fields of botany, entomology, ornithology, ichthyology, and so on here in the New World. The first dinosaur ever exhibited in a public museum anywhere in the world was here at the Academy. An articulated Hadrosaurus foci was found in the 1850s and then mounted in the 1860s. But I think it's fair to say that almost every one of these fields of study had its start here in the Academy and its specimen collections. 19 million of them go back to those early days and are some of the first type specimens of any of these species as they were described in the Academy's Journal and Proceedings.
- [25:33]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim Bond had no formal scientific training when he showed up at the Academy of Natural Sciences, but that didn't make him unusual.
- [25:42]
Robert Peck
Nowadays people go through college and graduate school in the field of ornithology, but in his day there was no such degree being offered. Many of the early members of the Academy came to the field as a hobby. They had to make their livelihood in other ways, but natural history was always their love, and so they would do this kind of on the side. None of the early members of the Academy, even though they held titles such as curator, were actually paid by the institution.
- [26:16]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim's wealthier colleagues could afford to fund their own expensive expeditions to places like Africa and Asia. But Jim needed to live on a $25,000 inheritance from, from an ant. So he looked for a less expensive, less explored part of the globe where he could really make his name in ornithology. That's when Jim Bond discovered the West Indies, a group of more than 100 islands scattered across the Caribbean. It includes big islands like Jamaica, Cuba, the Bahamas, the Dominican Republic and Haiti, but also tons of tiny islands where Jim hoped to find yet undiscovered bird species.
- [27:04]
Jim Wright
He was so cheap, he would go on a mail ship. The ships would deliver the mail from island to island. And it was like one of those city buses, you hop on, hop off. So Bond would get a ticket for three months, go down there and say, arrive in Puerto Rico, spend three weeks, get back on the mailboat, go over to the Dominican Republic or Haiti and just go around the islands collecting birds, just having a pretty good time, I imagine.
- [27:30]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
When Jim's father went on his expedition to Venezuela, he traveled with a botanist and a bird collector who shot and skinned the specimens. But Jim worked alone, wearing the same long sleeved cotton shirt and twill trousers. For. For weeks on end, Bond tramped around the West Indies with nothing more than his notebook and shotgun. Bond traveled by horseback or on foot, ate roasted rodents with the locals and was single mindedly obsessed with collecting all of the bird specimens in the West Indies.
- [28:09]
Jim Wright
He needed to get to the Bahamas and he had no way of getting there. So he hitched a ride on a rum runner and swam ashore and discovered a bird called the Bahama Nuthatch, which was his discovery and has since gone extinct. But time after time you hear these stories about him.
- [28:29]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
If this sounds like real Indiana Jones stuff, it is, says Robert Peck. But it's also not for everybody.
- [28:36]
Robert Peck
Jim Bond was oblivious to personal pain. Mosquitoes didn't bother him. Flies, bees, all of that was trivial. He was focused on where he was and what he was looking at.
- [28:49]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Bond was single minded in his work and closed off by nature. While cordial to his colleagues at the Academy of Natural Sciences, he wasn't regaling them with war stories from the islands. He Even kept his superiors in the dark. One of them complained in a letter. I find it difficult to keep up with Jim as he never tells me anything of his plans. Over the course of a decade, Bond managed to visit 50 West Indian islands, catching rides on any cargo ship, banana boat or canoe he could find. In the process, he collected more than 290 of the 300 known native bird species in the Caribbean. The culmination of all of that, blood, sweat and malaria, was a 460 page book published by the Academy of Natural Sciences called Birds of the West Indies.
- [29:56]
Robert Peck
Jim Bond's book on the birds of the West Indies was the Bible, as Ian Fleming himself called it, for anyone interested in birds in that part of the world. And the fact that it was in print from 1936 on right up to the present day indicates just how important it was. And it was so accurately done, beautifully illustrated and nicely produced that it was the kind of book that any birdwatcher had to have in his library.
- [30:25]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
When he wasn't scrambling around in a rainforest. Bond could be found back at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia sorting through thousands of specimens. Shy and a little antisocial, Jim had zero interest in the Philadelphia society circles that he was born into. At 50 years old, Jim Bond was a confirmed bachelor with a bare bones apartment and a serious birding problem. Then he met Mary. Mary Wickham was everything that Jim Bond wasn't. Where he was serious and reserved, she was playful and outgoing, where he could happily spend his days alone in a room full of dead birds. Mary had a million friends and a colorful past. Here's David Contasta again, who became close friends with Mary in Philadelphia.
- [31:26]
David Contosta
When I say she was something of a flabber in the 1920s, I'm telling you the truth. I got to know her so well that she told me everything about herself. Sometimes embarrassing things. She lived to be 99 and a half, and I remember at one point she threw her arm back like this and she said, I know what old age is for David. And I said, what? She said, repentance. Okay, repentance. So she's very different from Jim in that way.
- [31:53]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim and Mary first met in the 1930s when she was married to her first husband and working as a journalist. Mary interviewed Jim for an article in Audubon magazine and the brainy birdman must have made an impression.
- [32:11]
Jim Wright
And then she wrote a novel. And there's a gentleman in the novel. It sounds a lot like Jim Bond. He's kind of tall, dark and handsome. He's an Ornithologist, and he's in the West Indies and it's kind of a bodice ripper.
- [32:27]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
After Mary's husband died, she ran into Jim again at Mount Desert island in Maine. Jim had come into some family money and was driving around in a very uncharacteristic red sports car. Mary set her sights on the bird watching bachelor, and despite their almost comically conflicting personality types, they got married.
- [32:52]
Robert Peck
Mary was such a vivacious, fun person to be around. She had sparkling eyes and a ready smile and was always game for anything. And I think Jim found that irresistible. Anyone would.
- [33:11]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
A few years into Mary and Jim's marriage, they received a newspaper clipping in the mail from the Times of London. It was a review of Jim's latest edition of Birds of the West Indies. But what a strange review. It was barely about the birding book at all. The writer wondered if James Bond was trying to create a new image for himself, trading in his Smith and Wesson and womanizing for birding. What the heck was this guy talking about? Jim and Mary had no idea who the other Bond was referring to. The year was 1960 and Ian Fleming had already written a half dozen Bond books by this point. But the books made a much bigger splash in the UK than in the States, where they were just being released. Jim called his British publishing rep and learned that the other James Bond was the sexy star of a popular series of spy books. The sarcastic book review, which may have been written by Fleming himself, was the first time that the real James Bond heard about his fictional namesake. Jim assumed it would be the last. But then another friend sent Jim and Mary a clip from Rogue magazine, where Fleming flatly admitted to stealing the name. There really is a James Bond, Fleming said, but he's an American ornithologist, not a secret agent. I'd read a book of his and when I was casting about for a natural sounding name for my hero, I recalled the book and lifted the author's name outright. Jim had a sinking feeling that his life would never be the same. First there were the late night phone calls.
- [35:07]
David Contosta
Anyway, the local newspapers got a hold of it and girls started calling the house and saying, is James there? Is James there? And Mary would say, yes, but this is Pussy Galore and he's busy.
- [35:27]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Mary saw the fun in her husband's newfound fame, but to Jim, it was a nightmare. Things really got bad when the Bond movies started coming out. Dr. No premiered in 1962, and seemingly overnight, James Bond became a household name. Jim and Mary couldn't check in at a hotel or make a reservation at a restaurant without someone making a shaken, not stirred, crack or asking to see Jim's license to kill. When Goldfinger came out, a local movie theater owner offered Jim $100 to arrive by helicopter in a tuxedo for the Philadelphia premiere. Jim, an introvert, was appalled by the unwelcome attention that his boring old name suddenly brought. But Mary was thrilled. A writer herself, Mary wondered if she could parlay her husband's famous name into some fame of her own.
- [36:29]
David Contosta
She was a publicity hound, she confessed that to me. She loved publicity.
- [36:36]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Mary decided to go straight to the source. She wrote a letter to Ian Fleming and playfully accused the author of not only stealing her husband's name but pilfering some of his adventures in the West Indies, too. I tell my JB he could sue you for defamation of character, mary told Fleming. But he regards the whole thing as a joke. Sincerely, Mary Wickham Bond To Mary's delight, Fleming wrote back.
- [37:06]
Jim Wright
He responds, yes, you caught me red handed. I am guilty as charged. And to make up for it, if you want to find some especially ugly creature, you can name it after me for the Academy of Natural Sciences. And if you're ever in Jamaica, stop by and say hello. Figuring who's going to actually do this?
- [37:27]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Obviously, Ian Fleming didn't know Mary Bond. One Once she received Fleming's offhand invitation, nothing was going to keep her away from goldeneye, even if she had to drag Jim to Jamaica with her.
- [37:44]
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- [38:18]
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- [38:54]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
On a sunny February morning in 1964. Jim and Mary Bond showed up completely unexpectedly on the doorstep of Ian Fleming's Jamaican estate, goldeneye. It was time for the author to meet his unamused muse.
- [39:13]
Jim Wright
The Canadian broadcasting company is interviewing him and the housekeeper says, james Bond is here to see you. And he's used to this kind of prank where people pretend to be the secret agent. So he's very skeptical. He goes to the door and realizes that this is the actual James Bond and has a sweating brow, and he says, you're not here to sue me, are you? And Bond says, no, I don't even read your books. So he thought that was pretty funny.
- [39:43]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim Wright says that Ian Fleming and Jim Bond actually had a surprising amount in common. Different circumstances they might have been friends.
- [39:53]
Jim Wright
Yeah, their upbringings were very similar. Upper Crest went to private schools in England, became bankers briefly, and both wrote some amazing books.
- [40:04]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Eventually, after the initial shock wore off, Fleming was genuinely excited that the author of Birds of the West Indies was standing in his parlor. Fleming said it was going to be a bonanza for the cbc, whose cameras were still rolling. I never saw the man before in my life, said Fleming. But here he is, the real James Bond stepped right into the picture. Walking out to the patio, Fleming couldn't help himself. Maybe it was the ex intelligence officer in him, but he had to confirm, confirm that the bespeckled stranger in the loud tropical shirt was indeed James Bond. So he pointed to some birds flitting about in the trees and asked offhandedly if Jim could identify them. Cave swallows, said Bond without missing a beat. A very common species in the Antilles. Do you see the square shape of the tail? If you look closely, you'll see a chestnut rump. Jim passed the test. The birdman was the real deal. When the TV crew took a break, Fleming invited the Bonds to stay for lunch. They were joined by Fleming's wife Anne, and two friends visiting from London. Hilary Bray and his wife Ginny. As it happened, Fleming had also stolen Bray's name for a character in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Jim Bond was in good company. Fleming was a real fan of Jim's birding work and had all sorts of questions about his adventures in the West Indies. But Jim was too modest to tell stories, so Mary had to brag on his behalf. She told Fleming about the time Jim had to sleep in a bat cave for three days to escape escape a plague of mosquitoes. And when he almost died from malaria and had to be carried out of the jungle unconscious, they hit it off
- [42:08]
Jim Wright
and they had a Nice lunch together. And at the end of the day they're ready to leave and Ian Fleming goes, wait a minute, I have a book for you. And it was I think you only live twice. And he signs it to the real James Bond from the thief of his Identity, Ian Fleming. February 4th, a great day.
- [42:31]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
The signed book was an incredible souvenir from the Bond's visit to goldeneye. To the real James Bond from the thief of his identity. Fleming never tried to hide his literary heist and was grateful that the Bonds weren't the type of people to try and squeeze money out of the him. While it's true that the Bond never seriously considered suing Fleming over the name thing, Mary Bond wasn't going to let a golden promotional opportunity pass her by. During lunch, when Fleming learned that Mary was also a writer, he encouraged her to write a book about Jim's escapades in the Caribbean. Whatever he actually did out outshines anything I've made my James Bond do. Fleming said. Little did he know, Mary was one step ahead of him. Two years after that lunch at GoldenEye, Mary published How 007 Got His Name, the first of three books she wrote about her husband's adventures in ornithology. Jim Bond was allergic to self promotion, but Mary sincerely believed that her James Bond was even more alluring than the Hollywood version.
- [43:50]
Robert Peck
I think she saw Jim as a very handsome, dashing, mysterious figure, just as interesting as the real James Bond, maybe more so because he was real. She saw in him all of the same physical appeal of a Sean Connery and all of the sort of intellectual appeal of all of the characters in Fleming's books.
- [44:14]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim Bond was famously close, lipped about his travels and deflected any questions that didn't have to do directly with birds.
- [44:24]
Robert Peck
I wrote him a letter at one point in the mid-80s, I guess, when I was beginning to put together the history of the Academy of Natural Sciences. I wrote him, said, I see that you, you've done trips here, there and so on, gave a number of destinations. Can you tell me a little bit more about them? And he sent back about a three sentence letter saying, yes, I went to those places and many others. Sincerely, Jim. That was the extent of his interest in the adventure part of his life.
- [44:59]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
All of this brings us back to the question that nagged Jim Wright when he researched his book on Jim Bond. Was it pure coincidence that Ian Fleming stole the name for his super spy from a random ornithologist? Or did Fleming know something about the secret role of ornithologists during World War II. Was Jim Bond reticent to talk about his escapades in the Caribbean because he was shy and modest? Or was it because he was keeping a secret this whole time? Was the real James Bond a real spy? He certainly had the makings of one. When Ian Fleming worked for British Naval intelligence in the 1940s, the Americans were forming the Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA. Fleming prepared a memo for the OSS describing the ideal secret agent. The individual must have trained powers of observation, analysis and evaluation, absolute discretion, sobriety, devotion to duty, language and wide experience, and be aged about 40 to 50. Not only did Jim Bond fit that description to a T, but as Mary Bond noted in her books, Jim's birding expeditions frequently took him to political hot zones. He was in the Dominican Republic in the 1930s when dictator Rafael Trujillo seized power. He was in Cuba in 1961, right before the Bay of Pigs invasion. And like Jim Wright said, at least seven of Bond's ornithology colleagues were known to have worked as spies during World War II. Fleming himself wrote in Goldfinger that, quote, something that happened once was happenstance, twice was coincidence and three times was enemy action. Jim Wright scoured Bond's records for any clues that he worked as a secret agent during the war, and he thinks he may have found one. While searching on Ancestry.com, he found Jim Bond's name on a passenger list from the SS America, which sailed to the Caribbean in May 1941.
- [47:26]
Jim Wright
And he's on the SS America, which at the time was less than a year old. It was the fastest, biggest, most luxurious steamship in the world. And I see his name on the list and I'm going, what is this cheapskate doing on the SS America? Made no sense whatsoever.
- [47:46]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim Bond traveled on mailboats and rum runners, not luxury passenger ships. What was he doing on the SS America? With a little more digging, Jim Wright learned that two crew members on the SS America were later arrested as members of the notorious Duquesne spy ring. They were Nazi spies gathering intel for acts of sabotage against the Allies.
- [48:16]
Jim Wright
So here we have Jim Bond on the boat with these spies. It just struck me as this is too much of a coincidence.
- [48:24]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Speaking of coincidences, on that very same trip, Jim visited Haiti, where the locals told him about a German who had built an airstrip up in the mountains. Bond went to visit the German under the pretense of asking permission to explore the area for bird specimens. The German recognized Bond's name and welcomed him to go Wherever he pleased. According to Mary Bond, Jim's encounter with the German aroused significant interest back home. When he returned to the Academy of Natural Sciences, Jim was visited by intelligence officers from both the army and the Navy. What struck Jim Wright as strange was that the Academy of Natural Sciences always published reports of its scientific activities.
- [49:17]
Jim Wright
I do research later. And there's no record of this trip Bond took to the Caribbean. Usually there's a big announcement every year. They'd say where all their naturalists went around the world and they'd include Jim Bond going to Haiti and Cuba and Jamaica and all these places. And there was no mention of this trip, which raised an eyebrow or two as well.
- [49:44]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Of course, there's one way to find out if Jim Bond dabbled in intelligence work. You could ask the CIA, which is exactly what Jim Wright did back in 2016. And a year later he received this carefully worded non answer.
- [50:04]
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After conducting a search reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents, we did not locate any responsive records that would reveal an openly acknowledged CIA affiliation with the subject. To the extent that your request also seeks records that would reveal a classified association between the CIA and the subject, if any, exist, we can neither confirm nor deny having such records.
- [50:28]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Thanks for nothing. Circumstances CIA for Jim Wright. There's a ton of circumstantial evidence that the real and fictional James Bonds had more in common than just their names. But there is also one really compelling reason to conclude that Jim wasn't a spy at all.
- [50:49]
Jim Wright
The only thing that makes me think he wasn't a spy was Mary was a blabbermouth. And I don't think he could have kept it from her.
- [50:56]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
David Contosta, who knew Mary very well, agrees with Jim's blabbermouth assessment.
- [51:03]
David Contosta
No, I think she would have had a hard time keeping a secret like that.
- [51:11]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
Jim Bond passed away on Valentine's Day 1989, after a long battle with cancer. A private and soft spoken man, he wanted his legacy to be his books and his bird specimens, thousands of which still reside in the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.
- [51:32]
Robert Peck
Jim always thought that the 007 stuff was going to wash away and disappear and that he would be remembered for his ornithological work, which in scientific circles is still the case. I think he and Mary and even Ian Fleming, had no idea how incredibly long standing the James Bond image would become.
- [51:53]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
After Jim died, Mary decided to donate their signed copy of youf Only Live Twice to the Free Library of Philadelphia where she served on the board. A few years later, Mary must have realized that the book could have tremendous value for collectors of James Bond memorabilia. As it happened, Ian Fleming died unexpectedly just four months after meeting the Bonds and signing the book. Mary tactfully asked for the book back. On July 11, 1996, Sotheby's auctioned off the copy of youf Only Live Twice inscribed From Ian Fleming to the real James Bond. The catalog included the only photograph ever taken of of Fleming and Bond together. They're standing in the sharp Jamaican sunshine outside of GoldenEye Fleming with his sandals and cigarette holder, Bond in his professorial glasses, both men smiling like old friends. The book sold for $17,000 at the Sotheby's auction, but reappeared in 2008 at an auction of Hollywood memorabilia.
- [53:05]
Jim Wright
And this time when it sold, I think it sold for $84,000. And this was, you know, 12, 14 years ago. And I think this book is now literally worth a fortune. It's Ian Fleming to James Bond. The thief of his identity is a pretty awesome book.
- [53:27]
Narrator (Dana Schwartz)
The most recent James Bond movie, no Time to Die, came out in 2021. It was the last for Daniel Craig in 2026. Rumors are swirling that the producers are actively casting for a new actor to play Bond. Will it be just another brooding Hollywood hunk? Or is it time for something different? Maybe a mild mannered, nerdy type who's handy with a pocket knife and a shotgun? After all, no one suspects an ornithologist.
- [54:07]
Jason English
Very Special Episodes is made by some very special people. This show is hosted by Dana Schwartz, Zarin Burnett and Jason English. Our senior producer is Josh Fisher. Today's episode was written by Dave Roos. Editing and sounding design by Chris Childs. Additional editing by Mary Dew. Mixing and mastering by Chris Childs. Original Music by Elise McCoy. Show logo by Lucy Quintanilla. Executive producer is Jason English. Also need to give special thanks to Jim Wright and his excellent book the Real James Bond. A true story of identity theft, avian intrigue and Ian Fleming. We're going to put a link to that in the show notes. Very Special Episodes is a production of I Heart Podcasts.
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Jim Wright
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