In 1991, Saul Cooper called Dr. Michael VanBlaricum with a simple question. “Do you want to buy a submarine?” This wasn’t any sub. It was a film prop from the James Bond movie, For Your Eyes Only, and Cooper was then a publicist working for Danjaq S.A., the company that held the film rights for the Bond movies produced by Eon Productions. The sub had been in storage at the Intrepid Museum, an aircraft carrier docked in the Hudson River in Manhattan. The museum no longer wanted it. A diving club thought it would be fun to sink in a quarry. The Intrepid Museum gave Danjaq’s offices a courtesy call, certainly not expecting all that would follow. VanBlaricum, who, aside from his engineering and management work for a company frequently contracted by the U.S. government’s defense and intelligence community, ran a small business selling collectable Ian Fleming volumes, had neither the space nor the desire to privately own a huge prop submarine, but he did have a vision. What if this one large purchase could be the start of something quite unexpected, a non-profit, not just devoted to saving one huge James Bond prop, but one that embraced the entire scope of the 007 phenomenon, one named after and devoted to the legacy of the man who began it all, Ian Fleming?
VanBlaricum soon enlisted Doug Redenius and John Cork to help with the mission. Doug took on the monumental task of locating, procuring, and restoring vehicles, creating a massive collection that has been seen in some of the world’s most prestigious venues at official 007 exhibitions.
John Cork edited the Ian Fleming Foundation’s publications (namely Goldeneye Magazine, but also two newsletters Shaken, Not Stirred and The Goldeneye Gleaner edited by Bryan Kroftchock and Greg Bechtloff respectively), and Cork ran their mail order operation until he was recruited to produced waves of the James Bond film releases on DVD and Blu-ray by MGM Home Entertainment, as well as being tapped to co-author three official books for the Bond producers (James Bond, The Legacy with Bruce Scivally in 2002, Bond Girls are Forever with Maryam d’Abo in 2003, and The James Bond Encyclopedia with Colin Stutz with various editions from 2006 through 2012).
Through the years, the Ian Fleming Foundation has expanded in many ways. The original Board of Directors included Peter Janson-Smith, the head of Glidrose Productions (then the name of the company which held Ian Fleming’s literary rights), Ian Fleming’s nieces Kate Grimmond and Lucy Fleming. VanBlaricum, the Foundation’s president, was invited to speak at the unveiling of the a plaque at Ian Fleming’s former residence on Ebury Street in London in 1996. In the 1990s and early-2000s, the Foundation hosted celebrity golf events in the U.S. and at Stoke Poges, the golf club that served as a filming location for Goldfinger and Tomorrow Never Dies.
As the Foundation has expanded its collection of film props and vehicles, so has it increased its archival efforts and charitable goals. President Michael VanBlaricum has started The Ian Fleming Foundation Collection at the University of Illinois (Champagne—Urbana), a growing collection of Fleming’s private papers, ephemera, and important editions of his novels and short stories. Executive Director John Cork donated much of his Bond research materials to the University of Southern California’s Cinema Special Collections library, creating two vital research hubs at major institutions. Starting in 2014, the Foundation has endowed The Ian Fleming Foundation Undergraduate Research Scholarship at the University of Illinois.
Meet the current Board of Directors and Advisory Board here.
Explore the Foundation’s current projects:
Secret World of James Bond Podcast
James Bond Archival Fund
Undergraduate Research Scholarsip
See how you can help support the IFF here.