JAMES BOND FACT FILES

Licenced products for the sixth 007 adventure were understandably scaled back following George Lazenby's announcement that On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) would be his only James Bond film. Obviously the usual tie-in products such as a soundtrack album and PAN Books paperback were still issued, but there was no mention of his name on any of the other promotional items for On Her Majesty's Secret Service. The advertising campaign for the film centred around the tag-line of “James Bond 007 is Back!”, and although photographs of George Lazenby appeared on stills and his likeness used on posters, there was no direct connection with the actor following his resignation from the role of James Bond on 23rd November 1969. The producers then refused to pay him to do any publicity for the film, and in early December the actor undertook his own self-funded press tour to promote the film in the USA. Lazenby arrived back in England on December 18th sporting a full beard, which he refused to shave off for the premiere that evening.

Another competition organized by Avon Tyres offered a first prize of a holiday in Jamaica, with three second prizes of holidays to Switzerland. 200 runner-up prizes of John Barry's Original Soundtrack Album were also on offer by answering two simple questions in the four-page fold-out leaflet distributed to Ford dealers and cinema managers.

Switzerland itself was the focal point of a major promotional campaign in London's West End in the weeks leading up to the release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). On December 1, 1969, three weeks ahead of the premiere of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Swiss Ambassador René Keller hoisted a huge 007 banner over the Swiss Centre in London, which was taken over and turned into a James Bond headquarters to showcase the country which featured so prominently in the film. The press launch [pictured below left] was attended by director Peter Hunt and two of Blofeld's ‘Angels of Death’: Mona Chong (Chinese Girl) and Joanna Lumley (English Girl). The Swiss Centre was a popular tourist attraction on the edge of Coventry Street at its junction with Leicester Square. Opened in 1968, the 14-storey building was both a showcase for Switzerland and its products; and a trade and commercial centre featuring a Swiss bank, tourist office, a chocolate and souvenir shop, a Swissair ticket office, with a cafe and several Swiss themed restaurants located in the basement. The OHMSS promotion had rotating displays in all the windows [pictured bottom left & right], a 007-themed restaurant and a model of Piz Gloria used during the production of the film. Over the years the connection with Switzerland faded and several shops remained vacant until British souvenir stalls took over the commercial spaces from the late nineties. The building was demolished in 2008.

The Exhibitors’ Campaign Book also suggested other tie-ins with Switzerland via travel agents, and supermarkets offering Swiss food etc. A colour double-crown sized poster (20" X 30") was also produced and available free from United Artists to promote the Schilthornbahn where much of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) was filmed.

To capitalize on the wedding elements in On Her Majesty's Secret Service and market the new James Bond film to women in the UK, EON Productions/DANJAQ partnered with English fashion house Berkertex who created a reproduction of the lace wedding dress designed by Marjory Cornelius and worn by Diana Rigg in the film, and priced at £50. More affordable was a licenced reproduction by Arts Galore Ltd. of Tracy's wedding ring designed for the film by Charles de Temple which retailed at ten shillings. Neither products proved particularly successful, although an example of the reproduction wedding dress was worn by a model photographed at the Royal World Charity Premiere of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), who arrived at the ODEON Leicester Square in an Aston Martin DBS.

A scene deleted from the final cut of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969) showed James Bond and Tracy at a jewellers in Portugal where they choose the distinctive wedding ring. The unique wedding dress was first seen on the front page of the Daily Mirror (and several other national daily newspapers) on May 2, 1969 when it was announced that James Bond had married in Portugal. The short piece concluded with the sentence: “Rushing into marriage - even with such an attractive bride - seems out of character for 007. But all is well. Mrs. Bond gets bumped off in the last reel.” Although readers of Ian Fleming's 1963 novel would have been aware of the tragic climax of the story - newspapers were quite content to reveal the ending in what would today be described as ‘major spoilers’! The wedding was first staged for the press in the grounds of the Hotel Palácio in Estoril on April 30, 1969. The cast and crew then travelled to the Vinhas Estate in Zambujal for five days of location filming from May 1, 1969. On May 15, 1969 scenes involving Bond and Tracy choosing the wedding ring at the silverware shop of Joalharia Ferreria Marques in the Praça de Dom Pedro IV square were filmed, but the sequence was ultimately deleted from the final cut of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), with only a brief shot of the ring being taken from the window display remaining in the film.

In order to appeal to younger cinemagoers a new set of bubble gum cards were produced to tie in with the release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969). This time the licence went to British company Anglo Confectionery Ltd. who issued a set of 56 colour cards, which like the Somportex sets, were issued in packets containing three cards and a piece of bubble gum wrapped in wax paper that came in four different colours. The attractive counter display house 60 packets priced at 3d each. Unlike the Somportex sets there were no anomalies with the cards (apart from the final card #56 which unusually showed an illustrated version of Blofeld's Mercedes [pictured below] rather than a photograph of the actual car), which also featured some rarely-seen stills and behind-the-scenes photos from the film. The reverse of each card contained the story of the film which could be read in full if all 56 cards were collected.

Unusually CORGI chose not to issue a version of James Bond's Aston Martin DBS as featured in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969), although they had designed an accurate scale model from photographs and measurements of the actual car driven by George Lazenby in the film. The Exhibitors’ Campaign Book reminded merchandisers that the original CORGI Aston Martin DB5 was still on sale and included a line-drawing of the 1968 re-tooled edition which now included tyre slashers and revolving number plates. The new edition came in a blister pack and retailed at 12s. 6d. Although not featured in the Campaign Book CORGI did later issue several other scale models directly inspired by On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1970.

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FACT FILES INDEX