Doug Redenius sells his 007 collection, Daily Journal says

Doug Redenius, a vice president with the Ian Fleming Foundation, has sold his large personal James Bond collection, The Daily Journal newspaper in Kankakee, Illinois, reports. He’ll also be moving from Illinois to Florida to manage a new museum whose contents will include his former 007 collection.

The newspaper ran two stories Sept. 17. It only runs a short preview on the free portion of its Web site. Here’s a portion OF THE SECOND ARTICLE:

Soon Redenius will be starting a new career in North Miami Beach, Fla., were he will be a manager of a new 15,000-square-foot museum devoted to the life and times of the fictional character.

While many people questioned Redenius’ emotional and financial commitment to Bond during the past 30 years, he was always confident it would pay off in the end.

The lead article A PORTION OF WHICH YOU CAN VIEW BY CLICKING HERE says a proposed 007 museum in Momence, Illinois, was not going to happen.

The free portions of both articles give you a flavor of what’s happening. There are links to the paper’s e-editon as a way to get the unabridged versions of the stories.

Meanwhile, here’s a directory of previous HMSS Weblog posts about Redenius. His personal collection is separate from the 007 film vehicles owned by the Ian Fleming Foundation.

Danny Biederman’s spy fi collection

Danny Biederman has an impressive collection of spy fiction props, covering James Bond, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart and much more. Biederman has uploaded a YouTube video of highlights of news reports when parts of his collection were displayed at the CIA and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

During clips of the movies and shows in question, there’s music from a Gerald Fried tune originally composed for U.N.C.L.E. and part of Jerry Goldsmith’s score for Our Man Flint.

Take a look:

Almost 30 years ago, Biederman and Robert Short attempted to put together a movie version of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (CLICK HERE and scroll to the second entry). They had gotten Bond veteran production designer Ken Adam interested in the project but it was not to be. There’s also a clip of Robert Conrad wishing he had kept James West’s sleeve gun that’s part of Biederman’s collection.

007’s Lotus sells for $166,000

The Lotus sports car from The Spy Who Loved Me fell a bit short of its projected selling price, writes Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn.

The car sold for 111,500 pounds, or $166,000, Reyburn writes. It had been expected to sell for as much as 120,000 pounds. To get the details, click RIGHT HERE.

For sale: one of 007’s most famous rides

A Lotus sports car used in the 1977 James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me is about to go up for sale.

The Lotus could fetch 120,000 pounds, or about $185,000, Bloomberg’s Scott Reyburn writes. From the story: “The white 1976 Lotus Esprit comes complete with a surface-to- air-missile button on the gearstick, although the auction house Bonhams tells prospective purchasers and vengeful drivers that the device is for show and does not work.”

To view the entire story, click RIGHT HERE.

(Publisher’s note: HMSS friend and contributor Doug Redenius has a fascinating story about recovering one of the Lotus Esprit cars used in TSWLM.  In TO FIND A SPY(car), you can read all about the deplorable condition he found it in, and how he restored it to the show car that it now is.)

Chicago Tribune slideshow on James Bond cars

The Nov. 9 Chicago Tribune includes photos of cars (and other transportation) featured in James Bond movies. They’ve been restored and maintained by the Ian Fleming Foundation under one of its vice presidents, Doug Redenius.

Thanks to the Internets, you don’t have to go to Chicago to see them. Just click click HERE.

And you can read about Doug’s 007 collection in the current issue of HMSS by clicking HERE.

Take care of your posters, kids!

On the myfinances.co.uk website, there’s a fairly fascinating article about collecting movie posters as an investment. Tying things in to the mounting mania for James Bond and Quantum of Solace info, they’ve titled the article “Quantum of Interest: movie posters break investment crunch.” Go on and read it — it’s really very interesting, and it’s got some things to say about vintage James Bond posters. Just come back here when you’re done.

Learn what fate had in store...

For me, reading it brought back horrifying memories of one of the stupidest things I’ve ever done. I can actually feel my guts tightening up inside of me whenever I think back on the events of this tale, which I’ll share with you, if you’re in the mood for a tale of horror…

READ THE WHOLE TERRIFYING TALE HERE…

We’ve got a friend in ILLUSTRATED 007!

London-based book collector Linus runs a nifty blog, ILLUSTRATED 007, about James Bond books and artwork.

He liked Ed Werner’s article about Bond collector Doug Redenius, “License to Killect” so much that he asked if he could run a couple of pictures of Doug’s Bond book collection. Kudos to Linus for A.) Asking permission; and B.) Showing them off to such great effect!

Check out the way-cool ILLUSTRATED 007 for all kinds of great James Bond stuff!