1994: Bond convention held in LA to revive 007 interest

Advertisement for 1994 James Bond convention

In the fall of 1994, James Bond hadn’t been on movie screens for more than five years. A new 007, Pierce Brosnan, had been cast. But production on GoldenEye, the new Bond film, wouldn’t begin until early 1995.

So, in October 1994, a James Bond convention was held in the Los Angeles area to help revive interest in Ian Fleming’s gentleman agent with a license to kill. Creation Entertainment, which produced Star Trek conventions, was hired to put on the show.

The blog was reminded about all this in an exchange of posts with @Stringray on Twitter. An advertisement for the event was produced saying that former screen 007s Roger Moore and George Lazenby would be present.

Before the show, Roger Moore canceled. As it turned out, he had planned to go to present the first GoldenEye Award to Eon Productions co-founder Albert R. Broccoli. The veteran showman, however, had health issues and would not attend.

Still, Lazenby, and other actors who had appeared in Bond films, were present. So did two stalwarts of the early 007 films: special effects man John Stars and editor Peter Hunt, who also directed On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. There was also a showing of Goldfinger at the Academy of Motions Pictures Arts and Sciences.

Some of the highlights:

— Peter Hunt showed a clip from Dr. No and then asked the audience to name the flaws. Hunt said something to the effect that the editor knows the mistakes of a movie better than anyone. The editor’s job, he said, is to speed the audience through this without noticing.

In this case, the clip was early in the movie when Bond is picked up at the Kingston airport by “Mr. Jones,” really an operative for Dr. No. The mistake? the color of the car’s dashboard changes in the sequence.

–George Lazenby admitted he made a mistake by not doing any Bond films after Majesty’s. His comments, as I recall them, were pretty brief. But he didn’t try to rationalize his actions.

–Two of James Brolin’s Octopussy screen tests were shown.

One was from the Octopussy script when Bond comes into the office of Penelope Smallbone on his way to see M. We’re told in the scene that Miss Moneypenny had retired and Smallbone was the new secretary.

The other was from the script of From Russia With Love that takes place in Bond’s hotel room in Istanbul. Maud Adams played Tatiana opposite Brolin’s Bond.

I had recalled reading accounts in the early 1980s that Brolin supposedly was in running to play Bond for the movie. I was skeptical. Then, Roger Moore was cast for his sixth turn in the role and I dismissed all that. The screen test footage showed there was something to it after all.

— A short video was shown about what to expect in GoldenEye. A new Aston Martin was supposed to be in the movie (it wasn’t, a BMW ended up being substituted in a product placement deal). Also supposed to be in the movie would be saws attached to helicopters (these would show up in The World Is Not Enough).

Creation Entertainment would do another Bond convention a little more than a year later, the Sunday before the U.S. premiere of GoldenEye.

UPDATE (7:25 p.m. ET): Reader Steve Oxenrider provided THIS IMAGE (or see below) of the convention schedule. Bruce Glover of Diamonds Are Forever also made an appearance as did Richard Kiel, Lynn-Holly Johnson and Gloria Hendry. Various authors about Bond, including Raymond Benson (he had not yet written his first 007 continuation story), also were there.

Schedule for 1994 James Bond convention