JAMES BOND
FACT FILES

The advertising campaigns for the first three James Bond films were overseen by United Artists creative director David Chasman. Dr. No (1962) established the painted poster style featuring the iconic Bond, Girls and Guns combination seen on the posters for most of the series. However, for From Russia With Love and Goldfinger, both released in the USA in 1964, creative director David Chasman favoured a crisp photographic style poster for the American campaign. Chasman himself devised the stylish two-colour posters for From Russia With Love, whilst influential UK based graphic designer Robert Brownjohn (1925-1970) created the iconic ‘Golden Girl’ image and tightly-cropped photo panels seen on the UK and US posters. Brownjohn also designed the main titles for both films.

Donald Smolen joined United Artists in 1965 as an art director, although he had earlier drawn pencil sketches for From Russia With Love (1963) used mainly in newspaper advertising. Working closely with poster artists Robert McGinnis and Frank McCarthy, they created the iconic three panel artwork utilised in the American campaign for Thunderball (1965). Smolen then oversaw the marketing and advertising of the next four James Bond films, once again featuring the superb artwork of McGinnis and McCarthy. Smolen was also responsible for the lengthening of the Sean Connery figure in the artwork Robert McGinnis supplied for Diamonds Are Forever (1971), when it was felt that James Bond should be positioned higher than the two girls either side of him. Don Smolen left United artists in June 1974 to set up his own agency. Smolen, Smith and Connelly continued to consult on the James Bond series and also devised the marketing campaigns for such high profile films as The Omen (1976), Star Wars (1977) [posters by Tom Jung] and Apocalypse Now (1980) [poster by Bob Peak]. American artist Tom Jung was approached by Don Smolen to paint the artwork for the alternate ‘Villains’ Style B 1-Sheet poster used exclusively in the US advertising campaign for The Man With The Golden Gun (1974). The Western Hemisphere posters utilised the Robert McGinnis artwork [with coloured kung fu figures added by Basil Gogos (1929-2017)]. Tom Jung would later produce many concept sketches for Licence To Kill (1989) whilst Smolen was still attached to the project then called ‘Licence Revoked’. Don Smolen was also the advertising campaign director on The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) and hired Robert Peak to paint the colourful poster art in his unique style. The US posters for For Your Eyes Only (1981) returned to the photographic style favoured by David Chasman and were designed by influential graphic designer William Gold (1921-2018), who came up with the controversial image of James Bond seen through the legs of a crossbow wielding girl. Bill Gold's idea was incorporated into Brian Bysouth's artwork seen on posters throughout the rest of the world.

In Summer 1988 James Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli hired Don Smolen to create a Christmas and Easter teaser campaign for the 16th James Bond film then called ‘Licence Revoked’. Smolen hired Robert Peak to paint a series of stylish concept posters reflecting the tougher gritty style of the new film. With the takeover of United Artists by MGM in 1989, Smolen's campaign was rejected (and later artwork from American designer Steven Chorney) and new posters created for the film now re-titled Licence To Kill, using a photo-montage technique then adopted for the rest of the series. Bob Peak's series of highly stylized portraits of Timothy Dalton remain as a tantalising ‘what if..?’ from the end of the golden era of film promotion.

There are those personnel whose contribution to the James Bond series is so important that the films would have been very different without their input, although their efforts were rarely formally acknowledged. One such contributor was retired US Air Force Officer Lt. Col. Charles Russhon, whose military connections and expertise added greatly to the authenticity of the sequences he was involved with.

Through his military connections, Russhon negotiated with the Turkish authorities for use of land in Istanbul during the making of From Russia With Love (1963). In 1964 he obtained the rights to use Fort Knox for Goldfinger. Although the filmmakers were not allowed to shoot inside the gold depository, permission was granted for the use of the United States Army base and exterior of the bullion depository, seen in the fly-past by Pussy Galore's Flying Circus in the film. A large-scale exterior set was replicated at Pinewood Studios by Production Designer Ken Adam for the scenes involving Goldfinger's attack on the depository, and interior scenes of the gold vault. Goldfinger is the only James Bond film where Charles Russhon received a formal screen credit. The producers also acknowledged his help with an on-screen in-joke (and a military promotion!) with his name appearing on a WELCOME TO FORT KNOX sign on the USA Armor School building, Fort Knox, Kentucky.

Charles Russhon was also a Technical Advisor on Thunderball (1965) and was able to supply the Bell Rocket Belt (flown in the pre-credit sequence by American pilot William P. ‘Bill’ Suitor), and the experimental rocket fuel used to destroy the Disco Volante at the end of the film. Russhon was also able to gain access to the US Navy's still experimental Skyhook rescue system, which supposedly lifted actors Sean Connery and Claudine Auger from the water at the end of the film. Charles Russhon remained close friends with actor Sean Connery until Russhon’s death in 1982. Russhon also appears in Air Force uniform in Thunderball in the background of the Whitehall briefing room set, where he can be seen playing what appears to be a game of Noughts and Crosses with Miss Moneypenny (Lois Maxwell).

Russhon then worked on You Only Live Twice in 1966-67 where he was able to bring Gyrojet weapons into the UK for the sequences in Tiger Tanaka's (Tetsuro Tamba) ninja weapons workshop. His contribution to Live And Let Die in 1973 earned him the nickname ‘Mr. Fixit’ by James Bond star Roger Moore, when Russhon arranged to stop traffic in New York City for a lengthy car chase sequence on Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive. Although the car chase appears early in the film it was one of the last sequences captured for Live And Let Die during the final week of location shooting in New York in early March 1973.