Chicago — Doug Ridenius’ first encounter with fictional British secret agent James Bond took place in an Illinois movie theater in 1964.
“I was eight and my father took me to see Goldfinger,” Redinius recalls. “I was hooked. After ‘Goldfinger,’ my dad and I went to see every James Bond movie when it came out.”
Redenius’ love of all things 007 eventually led him to collect his chariots from the Bond films. He started this group in late 1991, when Redenius and two of his accomplices paid $3,000 for a Neptune submarine, which was featured in the 1981 Bond movie “For Your Eyes Only.”
This purchase was the basis for a collection that now includes 42 Bond films. Redenius, a longtime resident of Saint Ann, Illinois, in Kankakee County, now houses most of these vehicles in an undisclosed hangar about an hour outside Chicago city limits.
“It’s not just Bond cars,” said Redinius. “We own everything from helicopters, boats, motorcycles to jet planes. It’s ideal to have the vehicles stationed here in the Chicago area, because we are in a central location and it’s easy to ship vehicles here from the east or west.”
This illustrious collection, valued at approximately $15 million, is now owned by the Ian Fleming Foundation, a non-profit organization created in 1992 by Redenius and his partners – American producer/screenwriter John Cork and Dr. Michael VanBlaricum, a University of Illinois graduate student working in technology. in the Los Angeles area.
The foundation, dedicated to the study and preservation of literary works by Bond creator Ian Fleming, displays 007 film vehicles for charity only. For example, the Bond Auto Show is being used to help fund an undergraduate research grant fund for the University of Illinois Department of Media.
“We have about 20 volunteers working with us to fix the vehicles,” Redinius said. “None of the volunteers, and none of us on the board gets a salary. We live on donations.”
Currently, several vehicles are on display at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in an exhibit called “Bond In Motion”. The exhibition also celebrates the 30th anniversary of the foundation’s launch.
“We celebrate our 30th birthday, while the Bond film series celebrates its 60th anniversary – the first Bond movie was Doctor No in 1962. And the first Bond novel was Fleming’s Casino Royale, which was published 70 years ago. So we celebrate a lot of occasions. “.
The Foundation’s charitable work with Bond film cars is punishable by both the property of Ian Fleming and that of long-time Bond film producer Cubby Broccoli. Redinius, who is also an archivist at the Ian Fleming Foundation, is responsible for locating the vehicles.
Many of these vehicles are instantly recognizable to Bond fans. Among them are the vibrant green Jaguar featured in an unforgettable pursuit on the ice in Die Another Day (2002); Two Polaris snowmobiles appeared on a chase through the French Alps in “The World Is Not Enough” (1999); A recently purchased jet aircraft featured in the iconic airborne fight scene in “Goldfinger” (1964); And the most valuable in the collection, the Lotus submarine car from “The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977). Redinius said that the submarine car is valued at one million dollars.
“It’s my favorite of the bunch,” said Redinius.
Redenius, who spent most of his life working as a postal worker in Kankakee County, was never blessed with unlimited capital to purchase these Bond chariots. But he didn’t need large sums of money to get most of the cars, which movie producers often overlooked after they finished filming.
“Once we were established, people started telling us where to find some of these compounds after their films were wrapped,” Redinius said.
The jetliner from “Goldfinger,” for example, was flown to Redenius last year. “It was decommissioned in 1988 and was phased out,” Redinius said. “I did the research, and was able to verify it from his VIN. Now it’s been a year since he got it back.”
The most famous acquisition, the Lotus Submarine from “The Spy Who Loved Me”, was probably Redenius’ most intelligent acquisition.
“I found that car in a junkyard in the Bahamas, and the producers left it behind,” Redinius recalls.
In addition to Bond vehicles, Redenius also owned other non-transportation related Bond memorabilia, which he began collecting in 1980. He ended up with over 18,000 Bond-related items before selling that collection in 2011.
Now, the 66-year-old Redenius is focusing on Bond chariots.
“I still enjoy doing this,” he said. “Finding (the cars) and acquiring them, that’s what really impresses me.”
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