Reykjavík Grapevine - 06.11.2009, Blaðsíða 24

You’ve seen him in the movies. Most
famously, he has been played by Sean
Connery, Roger Moore and lately Daniel
Craig. There he appears as Bond, James
Bond. He appears under his own name
in A Man Called Intrepid, played by
David Niven. He also appears in the
Ian Fleming biopic Goldeneye (not to
be confused with the Bond film of the
same title). There, William Stephenson is
portrayed as the real M to Ian Fleming’s
James Bond. There is much to suggest,
however, that Stephenson is not only the
model for M, but also for Bond himself.
Fleming’s own career as a WW2 spy
is somewhat less than glorious. The
inspiration for the first Bond novel,
Casino Royale, came from when Fleming
was stationed in Spain in World War II.
He decided to trick Nazi spies into losing
a large amount of money in a poker game.
Fleming, however, lost the game, and had
to live with the German agents being to a
large extent bankrolled by His Majesty’s
government through him. In the book, of
course, Bond later wins the game.
FIGHTER pLAnES AnD CAn
OpEnERS
Stephenson’s war record is more
impressive. He first entered service in
World War I as an infantryman in the
Canadian Army. His service number was
007. He later moved on to the Royal Air
Force, shooting down 12 enemy fighters
(18 by his own account). A statue of him
as an Ace stands outside City Hall in
Winnipeg. However, his impact in World
War II was to be far greater.
William Stephenson was born in 1897
(1896, by his own account) in Winnipeg to
Sara Guðfinna Johnston, an Iceland-born
Canadian, and William Hunter Stanger,
who hails from the Orkney Islands. His
father died when William was four years
old (as a soldier in the Boer War, by his
account), and the child was adopted by
West Icelanders Vigfús and Kristín.
During the final months of World
War I, Stephenson was shot down and
captured by the Germans. He escaped
from captivity with a can opener stolen
from his captors. After the war, the
good man patented the can opener. The
business he sets up around the patent at
the end of the war proved to be a failure, so
Stephenson left to Canada in the twenties
and next appeared in London. There,
he patented a technique to transmit
photographs through the wireless. He
became filthy rich, setting up companies
such as General Radio, General Aircraft,
Sound City Film (which make more than
half of all British movies in the period),
Shepperton studios, Earls court cinemas,
and Prest Steel, which manufactured cars
such as Jaguar.
FOOLInG ROOSEVELT
Through the course of his activities he
befriended Winston Churchill, then
a Member of Parliament, who was
almost a lone voice in warning against
the German arms build-up. On his
frequent travels to Germany as a steel
manufacturer, he witnessed the build-
up first hand and became alarmed. After
the outbreak of war Stephenson moved
to New York, where he became head of
the British Security Coordination in the
Western Hemisphere. His main task
was to mobilise the US government
and population for intervention. One of
his major coups is to present Roosevelt
with a document showing German
plans to take over South America. This
convinced Roosevelt, on Stephenson’s
recommendation, to move US troops to
Iceland. The document was later proven
to be a forgery. As Stephenson would later
say: “Nothing deceives like a document.”
Stephenson played a part in securing
the lend-lease aid for the British, and
along with the Americans set up the
training facilities Camp X in Southern
Ontario. It was here that saboteurs were
trained to destroy German attempts to
make a nuclear bomb in Norway, and
to assassinate Heydrich, one of the
architects of the Holocaust, in Prague.
He is even credited with having a hand in
breaking the German enigma code.
Hans Kristján Árnason, who is
currently making a documentary on
Stephenson, calls Camp X “the world’s
first terrorist training camp.” One story
has it that Ian Fleming trained at the
camp. In any case, Fleming worked with
Stephenson in World War II, as did writer
Roald Dahl and one of the fathers of
modern advertising, David Ogilvie (with
all the people killed in World War II, you’d
think they could have spared a bullet for
the father of advertising). Dahl later
wrote a history of the British Security
Coordination, which was first published
only ten years ago.
FOunDInG THE CIA
At the outbreak of war, the US Army
and Navy had their own intelligence
services, and the FBI specialised in
internal intelligence. However, the US
was lacking a unified organisation to spy
abroad. Stephenson helped set up the
Organisation of Secret Services, OSS,
which later became the CIA. “Wild” Bill
Donovan, the founder of the CIA, later
said that he learned all there was to know
from Stephenson. Bill Donovan (renamed
Bill Sullivan) is played by Robert De Niro
in the 2006 film The Good Shepherd.
After the war, Stephenson retired
to Jamaica. His neighbour there was
none other than Ian Fleming, who
bought a house he called “Goldeneye”
for the purpose of writing spy novels in.
Stephenson and Fleming undoubtedly
shared many a drink, Stephenson’s
favourite being a dry martini, shaken, not
stirred. Fleming later remarked: “James
Bond is a romanticized version of a true
spy. The real thing is Bill Stephenson.”
There are many stories about William
Stephenson. These often contradict one
another and Stephenson, the master
of disinformation, is not the most
reliable source. One aspect he repeatedly
downplayed was his Icelandic origin,
probably because this did not go too well
with his new status as a member of the
British upper classes. Many books have
been written about him, both before
and after his death in 1989 (a date not
contradicted by himself, for once),
including The Quiet Canadian from
1963, Wild Bill and Intrepid from 1996
and The True Intrepid from 1998. One
version of his story, the documentary The
True Intrepid, will be released on DVD in
early November in Iceland. The package
will also include the radio broadcast “The
West-Icelander William Stephenson:
Hero or Villain?” from 2001, by historian
Vigfús Geirdal.
18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2009
Shopping | Rebecca Louder
Fresh Stock
The new crop of shops in 101
Say, have y’all noticed how many new
stores have sprouted from the soil over
the last few months? Who woulda thunk
we would get such a great retail harvest
during this economic drought! Shucks.
There are all sorts of cool stores opening
up on the main drag, selling everything
from clothing to books, music, footwear
and god-knows-what. I reckon you should
go out there and take a gander at all the
goods. Here are a few of the juiciest picks.
EyMunDSSOn
Skólavörðustígur 11
Raised from the ashes of a true Kreppa
Kasualty, the new Eymundsson shop on
Skólavörðustígur opened up in August
in the remnants of the old SPRON bank.
Unlike its monolithic sister-store on Aus-
turstræti, the new shop is one cosy level
with couches and tables in two corners of
the place and an adorable patio outside.
The whole place feels much more like a
library than a bookshop. Plus, they’ve got
the old Mál and Menning staff, sell cof-
fee, have free wireless and are open until
10pm. That totally kicks the library’s ass!
LuCky RECORDS
Hverfisgata 82
After running his own vinyl booth at the
Kolaportið flea market, Ingvar Geirsson
decided it was high time to open up a real
vinyl store in Reykjavík. Located on Hver-
fisgata (adjacent to Laugavegur), this new
shop houses a collection of 20.000 used
LPs, 8.000 twelve-inch records, as well as
an extensive collection of new and used
CDs and DVDs. The man also buys mu-
sic and movie collections, large and small,
so go get rid of all those old Limp Bizkit
and Staind albums once and for all. Best
of all, the store has the extremely humane
opening hours of 11am to 9pm. Party on.
MunDI
Laugavegur 12
Always on the cutting edge of Reykjavík’s
style scene, young designer Mundi has
garnered international attention with
his wild designs and effortless, high
street-fashion. After a year of planning,
he opened his own flagship outlet last
month on Laugavegur. Located above
another new store, women’s footwear
shop Manía, Mundi sells versatile, unisex
clothing geared for colourful people who
like to have fun with their wardrobe, as
well as two other local brands.
nIkITA
Laugavegur 56
This purely Icelandic line of women’s
streetwear was started by designer Heiða
Birgisdóttir in 2000 and rapidly took off
to now being sold in about 1.500 stores in
thirty countries. The line has been sold
in various shops in Reykjavík but they
have finally opened up their first flag-
ship store, right on Laugavegur. It opened
with a huge bang in late September, host-
ing the GusGus album release show in
their backyard skate park. Full of quirky,
classy and comfortable gear, their designs
could be worn as easily at a club as on the
slopes. A lot of it is pretty gender neutral
too. Look for the bright pink shop.
HAVARí
Austurstræti 6
Opened by Svavar Pétur Eysteinsson and
Berglind Häsler of the band Skakkaman-
age, this new fair-play music shop is a
collaborative effort between four impor-
tant entities in Icelandic indie: Kimi Re-
cords, Kimi co-label (or whatever) Borgin,
gogoyoko.com and Skakkapop. They have
set up a cohesive space in which they can
pool their efforts and support each oth-
ers’ endeavours. The store opened up in
mid-September, right before the Réttir
festival, for which it served as ticketing
headquarters and a daytime off-venue
location. In addition to CDs and records,
one can purchase band T-shirts and art
made by local musicians. Expect lots
of in-store appearances and stuff until
Christmas.
By now, we're pretty sure the inspiration for The Terminator, Rambo
I-IV, John McClane and popular TV show Yes, Prime Minister came
from Iceland, too.
Article | Espionage
VALuR GunnARSSOn
Iceland’s Greatest Spy: The Real James Bond
Comic | Hugleikur Dagsson