The Other James Bond [from Very Special Episodes]

26:56The 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 mail boat, go over to the Dominican Republic or Haiti, and just go around the islands collecting birds, just having a pretty good time, I imagine.

27:19Dana 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 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. 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.

28:14But time after time, you hear these stories about him.

28:18Dana Schwartz:If this sounds like real Indiana Jones stuff, it is, says Robert Peck. But it's also not for everybody. 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. 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.

29:05Dana Schwartz: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.

29:45Jim 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.

30:14Dana 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.

30:47Dana Schwartz: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 Cantosta again, who became close friends with Mary in Philadelphia. 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.

31:36And I said, what? She said, repentance. OK, repentance. So she's very different from Jim in that way.

31:43Dana 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 bird man must have made an impression. And then she wrote a novel, and there's a gentleman in the novel that 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. 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.

32:31Dana Schwartz:Mary set her sights on the bird-watching bachelor. And despite their almost comically conflicting personality types, they got married. 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.

33:00Dana 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 & 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.

33:54Dana Schwartz: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.

34:48Dana Schwartz:Jim had a sinking feeling that his life would never be the same. First, there were the late-night phone calls. 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.

35:16Dana 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.

36:10Dana Schwartz:But Mary was thrilled. A writer herself, Mary wondered if she could parlay her husband's famous name into some fame of her own. She was a publicity hound. She confessed that to me. She loved publicity. 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.

36:55He responds, yes, you caught me red-handed. I'm 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.

37:16Dana Schwartz:Obviously, Ian Fleming didn't know Mary Bond. 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. Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts. I can't stop scratching my downtown. 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. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful. Are you trying to get weight loss support through telehealth, but it feels overwhelming and rushed?

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39:09Dana 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. 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 he 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.

39:56So he thought that was pretty funny.

39:59Dana Schwartz:Jim Wright says that Ian Fleming and Jim Bond actually had a surprising amount in common. Different circumstances, they might have been friends. You know, their upbringings were very similar. Upper Crest went to private schools in England, became bankers briefly, and both wrote some amazing books 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.

40:46Dana Schwartz:Walking out to the patio, Fleming couldn't help himself. Maybe it was the ex-intelligence officer in him, but he had to 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.

41:29Dana Schwartz: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 a plague of mosquitoes.

42:16Dana Schwartz:And when he almost died from malaria and had to be carried out of the jungle unconscious. They hit it off 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. 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 him.

43:09Dana Schwartz:While it's true that the Bonds 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 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.

43:55Dana Schwartz:Jim Bond was allergic to self-promotion, but Mary sincerely believed that her James Bond was even more alluring than the Hollywood version. 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. Jim Bond was famously close-lipped about his travels and deflected any questions that didn't have to do directly with birds. 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.

44:48I wrote him and said, I see that 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.

45:14Dana 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.

46:06Dana Schwartz:Fleming prepared a memo for the OSS describing the ideal secret agent. The individual, quote, 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.

47:03Dana Schwartz: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. 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?

47:59It made no sense whatsoever.

48:01Dana 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. So here we have Jim Bond on the boat with these spies. It just struck me as this is too much of a coincidence. 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.

48:52Dana Schwartz: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. I do research later and there's no record of this trip Bon took to the Caribbean.

49:39Usually there's a big announcement every year they'd say where all their naturalists went around the world. 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.

50:00Dana 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. 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.

50:44Dana Schwartz:Thanks for nothing, 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. 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. David Contosta, who knew Mary very well, agrees with Jim's blabbermouth assessment. No. I think she would have had a hard time keeping a secret like that. Jim Bond passed away on Valentine's Day, 1989, after a long battle with cancer.

51:34Dana Schwartz: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. 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 longstanding the James Bond image would become. After Jim died, Mary decided to donate their signed copy of You Only Live Twice to the Free Library of Philadelphia, where she served on the board.

52:18Dana Schwartz: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 You Only Live Twice inscribed from Ian Fleming to The Real James Bond. The catalog included the only photograph ever taken 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.

53:08Dana Schwartz: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. 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. It's a pretty awesome book. 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?

54:03Dana Schwartz: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.

54:22Very 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 sound design by Chris Childs additional editing by Mary Du 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 iHeart Podcasts.

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