SPECIAL EVENT : Ultimate 007 Trivia Contest Will Test the Ties That Bond

Many things contended for a 13-year-old’s attention in 1964: the Beatles, the Tokyo Olympics, a presidential campaign. But for Steven Jay Rubin, it wasn’t a gold record, a gold medal or even Barry Goldwater that defined the moment; rather, it was “Goldfinger,” the third James Bond film, which featured a plot to vaporize the contents of Fort Knox, a modified Aston Martin DB-5 and a female sidekick with the alluring name of Pussy Galore.

“It had a big impact on me,” says Rubin, with a touch of understatement. Now a self-described “film archeologist,” Rubin is the author of two books on the Bond movies, a would-be producer of a Bond film and an accomplished collector of Bond memorabilia.

And on Saturday, to promote the paperback release of his “Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia,” Rubin will be host for what he bills as the Ultimate 007 Trivia Contest at the Irvine Marketplace shopping center.

There, 17 Bond experts will join Rubin in quizzing contestants on such matters as the license plate numbers of Bond’s automobiles, the passwords of Bond’s contacts and the double-entendres that passed for the names of Bond’s girlfriends. Rubin promises prizes, including a laser disc collection of the Bond films, rare editions of Ian Fleming’s original Bond novels and, naturally, the Master of James Bond Trivia trophy.

Many of the contest judges stress, however, that the event will mean more than the opportunity to celebrate such pop culture icons as shaken-not-stirred martinis and Walther PPK handguns. Instead, they say, it offers a chance to relive the meaning of 007’s adventures to generations of moviegoers.

Yet few of the experts could agree on that meaning.

“As far as male viewers are concerned,” asserts George Almond, 31, a Pico Rivera illustrator, “they don’t want to have a conversation with James Bond or play golf with James Bond. They want to be James Bond.

“And the women,” he said, “they, uh. . . . He’s the guy they want to be with.”

Michael Van Blaricum, 41, a Santa Barbara engineer who claims to have the world’s largest collection of Bond books, had a more sociological view: “For all of us who grew up in the ‘50s and ‘60s, Bond was the rebirth and awakening of all our repressed desires and emotions. After the repressed ‘50s, Bond allowed us to do everything to the fullest and at the same time save the world.”

Speaking for a generation, he sid: “We’ve all wanted to run around the rooftops of Istanbul wearing black.”

But Robert Short, 40, disagreed. An Academy Award-winning special effects director in Hollywood, Short said he found his inspiration not in Agent 007 but in Q, the indefatigable equipment officer of Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

“Given a choice of wearing a tuxedo to a dinner engagement or bowing out to build a gadget in the basement, I’d do what Q would do,” he said.

Other judges, meanwhile, insisted that rather than fantasizing about being Bond, sleeping with Bond or outfitting Bond, many fans simply enjoy watching the movies.

“You go to see a Bond film, and you get a wonderful script, fabulous technical aspects and a musical score, editing and photography that are really first rate,” said KNBC-TV anchorman Kent Shocknek. He expresses his admiration for the cinematic art by decorating a hallway with Bond posters, maintaining a telephone number whose last four digits spell BOND and whose displaying on his personalized automotive license plate an acronym for the title of a Bond film.

But Rubin, who will oversee the Saturday quiz, cautioned that a lifetime of following Bond can have its hazards.

“Subliminally, Bond has had an effect on my relationships with women,” he admitted. As an adolescent in the 1960s, Rubin learned that “it doesn’t help a teen-ager to get that impression of girls”--i.e. the Bond-generated image that legions of voluptuous beauties awaited every lad with a terse one-liner and a stiff backhand.

Nevertheless, Rubin said, he was able to use a characteristic Bond line to help him keep his urges in check.

“There were many times in college when I was chasing some girl and it was getting frustrating, so I would tell myself, ‘Discipline, 007, discipline.’ It worked: I didn’t get the girl, but also my car didn’t go over a cliff.”

What: “The James Bond Super Challenge.”

When: Saturday, Oct. 19, from noon to 3 p.m.

Where: Harvest Restaurant and Bakery, 4127 Campus Drive, Irvine.

Whereabouts: San Diego (405) Freeway to the Jamboree Road exit. Right onto Jamboree, then left onto Campus Drive. The restaurant is in the Irvine Marketplace shopping center, across Campus Drive from the UC Irvine campus.

Wherewithal: Admission is free.

Where to Call: For information or to register for the contest: (213) 477-0541.