Tonight's featured avatar belongs to the team member, Eastonj,...a member of the site since 2006.








His avatar is Ian Fleming, most well known for being the author of the James Bond series.








During WWII, he was a British intelligence officer which he used to his advantage in his later life.  

In 1952, he started writing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale.  Upon its completion, he gave several copies to friends for them to review and give their opinion.  Their opinions on his work was not what he wanted to hear.  He decided to go ahead and forward it to a publishing house.  They too, were not impressed with his work.  Nonetheless, they sent it to print.

It was a success.  It took three printings to meet with the demand for the novel.  





He had found his niche....and he went with it.







Unfortunately for Fleming, he was a heavy drinker and smoker.  (At one point, he was smoking upwards of 70 cigarettes per day.)  This took a toll on his health and in 1961, he found himself the victim of a heart attack.  It was suggested that he take time to rest and recover, which he did in a local hotel.

Or at least he was supposed to....

A friend visited and suggested that Ian use his time to put down on paper a bedtime story that he would tell to his son.  Fleming did just that.

He wrote his publisher stating "There is not a moment, even on the edge of the tomb, when I am not slaving for you."

He delivered his story to be published, but unfortunately, he died two months before it was published.

What was that story?











Yep.  I had no idea either.  I remember watching the movie as a kid.  Here's a clip with the theme song.







I know that Fleming had nothing to do with the movie, but I like the song.

 Don't judge me.





...and now you know.





Previously featured avatar: Sigp226

Thanks.

Interesting.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was made by the same producers as the Bond movies.  And Desmond Llewellyn (Q in the Bond movies) was in it too.




Good as always JR

This guy wrote about killing communists and Nazis, right? So this should be drama free?

Cool as always

Nice!

I was terrified of the child snatcher when I was little.

Very interesting,  My wife has chitty chitty bang bang in our bedroom.  I might have to pop it in the dvd player tonight.  I have not seen it for many years.

Thanks for doing these cool info posts.

The previous post link for sigp226 is sending me to the video

Whoops.  Fixed.  Thanks.

soo this wasn't just an ace ventura 2 song?

I'll be darned.

Very cool.

No problem, I just finished it.  Lasvinkoism was a great one and a real eye opener.  History is a great thing.  Sigp226 is cool too

Thanks, probably the best one so far. I knew about Ian Fleming, but not about his writing of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

Damn I love these threads!!!

Llewellyn was quite badass too. He survived 5 years as a POW at Colditz Castle.

Welshmen never yield

Wow. How did I luck out for such a tremendous honor? I always liked Ian Fleming and thought it was a great picture. Kinda reminds me of the famous picture of Hunter S. Thompson or Clint Eastwood, but with a little British refinement (back when the British could actually have a handgun).

Chitty Chitty Bump Bump.

Ruger MKI?

Ya know - I looked at that and couldn't figure out what it was.

I can't imagine that it's a Ruger, but I don't have any other idea either.

Found this but the one in the above picture sure looks like a heavy barrel.  Must be the perspective skewing things.







 

Reading the Bond novels is interesting. Some of them are still very entertaining and stand the test of time, while some of them are just so dated I can't get into them.

I remember a scene in one (I can't remember which one), in which Bond meets a contact in a "negro nightclub" in Harlem, and listens to jazz in a cloud of "marihuana" smoke. All the black characters are speaking in heavy ebonics, which Fleming indicated by spelling everything out phonetically. It was hilarious, but really painful to read. Would be considered fantastically racist today

Well, how about that?  Maybe you're right.

Cool. I never realized that Albert R. Broccoli produced Chitty Chitty Bang Bnag.