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The man for ‘U.N.C.L.E.’

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Special to The Times

POP culture junkies may endlessly debate the best Bond, but there’s no argument that cool props pack the real star power in almost any spy movie or TV show. After all, without Q’s secret stash of high-tech, villain-deflating gadgetry most Bonds wouldn’t survive much beyond the opening credits.

The time has come to give these props, well, props. “The Incredible World of SPY-Fi” -- roughly 400 gadgets from the spy genre’s most memorable works -- will be on display on the Queen Mary until they “inexplicably dematerialize” in September. Culled from the archives of screenwriter and spy movie expert Danny Biederman, the show spans four decades and includes such gizmos as Maxwell Smart’s shoe phone from “Get Smart,” a tape reel from the “Mission: Impossible” series (surprise -- most of the tapes didn’t self-destruct in five seconds) and, in its exhibition debut, Austin Powers’ cryogenic chamber.

And here’s the best, super-geeky bit: Visitors get a password when they purchase their ticket. That password is given to a clerk in the next room, who reveals the exhibit to be ... in a secret passage behind a wall of books!

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“I love to watch people walking through the exhibit, because they just go crazy,” Biederman says. “It brings back all the memories they have of these movies and shows. And so much of this is stuff that might have been thrown away.”

Biederman kicked off his spy-gear collection long before movie props became a hot commodity on EBay. His first purchase? Three “Man From U.N.C.L.E” suits for a whopping $5 in 1970. In the years that followed, he wasn’t above picking through a little trash to get the goods, but most came from studio back lots and retired prop masters. “When these shows were canceled or filming ended, the pieces fall by the wayside,” he explains. “It’s an adventure for me to put them back together.”

An adventure that eventually caught the attention of some real spooks at the CIA, who contacted the collector in the fall of 1999. “I thought it was a joke,” says Biederman, who was working at the time for MGM as an expert for a lawsuit regarding Bond franchise rights. “They told me they’d heard about my collection, I’m not sure how, and they sent people to my house for three days to see what I had, photographing and sketching it all. And I still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t all a scam.”

Turns out the CIA wanted to sponsor an exhibit of his stash. But it was only once the idea was approved and the spy fan was walking into CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., that he realized just how far up interest went. “[Former CIA director] George Tenet was there, and he knew all about the exhibit,” Biederman recalls, still incredulous. “A lot of the people told me that the exhibit was one of the best things the CIA had done as far as boosting morale. Just like me, they had grown up on spy shows.” And how did the real-life spies compare to fiction? “I made a lot of friends there. And politics aside, on a personal level, Tenet is a great guy.”

SINCE the CIA exhibit in 2000 (which was closed to the public), parts of Biederman’s collection have been shown at the Pentagon, the Ronald Reagan Library and the National Atomic Museum. The exhibit on the Queen Mary marks the first time the show has docked at a non-government location. “We wanted to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Queen Mary’s final cruise, and we were thinking about what was popular during the 1960s,” explains exhibits coordinator Will Kayne. “Spy movies came to mind.”

“People yearn for a way to escape,” adds marketing VP Lovetta Kramer. “Here you can pretend you’re at sea and pretend you’re a spy.” (One guy who pretended for a hefty paycheck: Steve Carell. Would you believe scenes for the new “Get Smart” were filmed on board?)

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Biederman says he’s still adding to his collection (check your attics; he’s hunting for the Cone of Silence from “Get Smart” and the wristwatch from “Our Man Flint,” among other things) and hopes to eventually find a permanent home for his treasures. “If someone wanted to write me a really big check -- and it would have to be a really big check -- I still don’t know if I’d take it,” says Biederman, who has already rejected one offer from the Smithsonian Institution. “This is my passion.”

weekend@latimes.com

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‘The Incredible World of SPY-Fi’

Where: Queen Mary, 1126 Queens Highway, Long Beach

When: Opens Saturday. Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily

Ends: Sept. 3

Price: Exhibit only: $10. Exhibit and access to rest of the ship: $27.95; $16.95, ages 5 to 11

Info: (562) 435-3511, www.queenmary.com

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