Goldfinger was a man who thought big, a champion of communism, an eccentric, a bully who put people in fear. And that was just Goldfinger the architect.
The story of Erno Goldfinger's vehement reaction when the author Ian Fleming appropriated his name -- and aspects of his character -- with deliberate savagery for the villain and title of the James Bond novel was disclosed to the Guardian Hay (literary) festival in Wales on Thursday.
The dispute led to legal action. When the film Goldfinger came out, the architect was afflicted by spoof calls in the middle of the night. Callers would intone in bad Sean Connery accents, "Goldfinger? This is agent 007," or sing the film's theme tune, "an irritation still endured by members of the family who list their names in the telephone directory," Nigel Warburton, of the UK's Open University, told a breakfast-time festival audience.
Fleming turned the dominating, overtowering Erno into the impish, imperious megalomaniac Auric Goldfinger, who nearly succeeds in stealing the US gold reserves at Fort Knox for the Soviet Union.
Erno -- like Auric -- was a British-naturalized foreigner and a Marxist who spent much of the second world war raising money for the Soviet cause. Otherwise there were differences between the two, as Warburton noted, discussing his new book Erno Goldfinger: The Life of an Architect, published by William Stout, the first biography to be published.
But when Erno's business associate Jacob Blacker was asked for his opinion of a proof copy of the Bond story, he told Erno ironically that he could find only one substantial difference: "You're called Erno and he's called Auric."
Erno Goldfinger was one of the 20th century's prime advocates of London tower blocks. One story explaining Fleming's animosity is that he lived for a time in Hampstead, north London and disliked Erno's design for terraced houses in neighboring Willow Road, according to Warburton. Fleming knew of Erno through a golfing friend who was related to Erno's wife.
The friend appears in the novel -- but his woman relative has been transformed into a heroin addict. Erno somehow heard about the novel when it was in the publisher Jonathan Cape's presses in 1959. His response was, "Shall we sue?"
After hearing Blacker's view, Erno ordered lawyers to act. Cape agreed to pay his costs and agreed out of court to make clear in advertising and in future editions that all characters were fictitious.
Fleming, in turn, was livid. He asked Cape to insert an erratum slip in the first edition changing the character's name to Goldprick, a name suggested by the critic Cyril Connolly. Luckily for the film posters and theme tune of the future, sung by Shirley Bassey, Cape demurred. Warburton said the clarification did not appear in the novel's current edition.
The real-life Goldfinger, however, deserved to be remembered as a visionary architect who wrote in 1941: "Cities can become centres of civilisation where men and women can live happy lives. The technical means exist to satisfy human needs. The will to plan must be aroused."
"There is no obstacle but ignorance and wickedness."
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS