BONDMANIA : 007 Trivia Tourney Proves a Thriller

Question: In “Moonraker,” what was Jaws’ only line?

Answer: “Well, here’s to us.”

Q: In “Live and Let Die,” what is the name of the band that plays during the New Orleans funeral scene?

A: The Olympia Brass Band.

Q: In “Live and Let Die,” what time does the repaired watch that M brings to Bond say?

Charles Sherman, 28, producer of the James Bond 007 Trivia Tournament at the AMC Rolling Hills Six Theatres in Torrance on Saturday, cannot contain his glee as this question draws blanks. He pitches forward in his chair, gnaws his lip and stares intensely at each of the 54 contestants as they take blind stabs at the answer. When the question gets to George Almond, 27, the 1985 contest winner, the silence is such that you could hear a pistol being cocked. The bespectacled Almond shakes his head. He hasn’t a clue, either.

The question must be thrown out, causing jubilation among the mostly male audience. Sherman and his panel of eight “Bond authorities” are pleased. It’s not every day they can baffle some of the most gung-ho Bond buffs, and Sherman lives for this day. After all, even his fellow panelists concede him the title of “the ultimate Bond fan.”

Sherman was 5 when he saw his first Bond commercial on TV. It was for “Goldfinger,” he remembers, and the thing that caught his eye was Sean Connery and that Aston Martin crashing into a wall. But it wasn’t until 1969 when he finally got to see Bond in action in “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” or “OHMSS,” as Bond buffs refer to it, that he became a certifiable Bond addict.

Sherman and author/publicist Steve Rubin put together the first Bond Trivia Tournament in 1981, because “it was the only thing like it for Bond fans in the country,” says Sherman. It drew about 20 contestants, he says. Sherman hopes to turn the event into an annual one next year.

Sherman says he spends six months planning each nonprofit trivia contest. Someone asks, “Why”?

“If I didn’t do it, nobody would. James Bond is everything a hero should be,” he says. “I guess I like to think I’m Bond. He likes the finer things in life, and so do I: fine clothes, fine wines, beautiful women, so that’s the fascination of the character for me.”

Sherman says detail is everything in a Bond film. And knowledge of that detail can win you a Bond trivia contest.

Q: How was the timer for the nuclear bomb activated in “Octopussy”?

This one stumped four of the five remaining contestants, but not Almond.

A: “After insertion, the lever was twisted a quarter-turn clockwise to the right.”

This piece of inside information reaped Almond the grand prize: a VCR with a complete collection of 15 Bond videos.

So what time did the repaired watch that M brought to Bond say?

“11:22 a.m.,” Sherman smiled. “I’m crazy enough to know this kind of stuff.”