The incredible World of Spy-fi: Wild and Crazy Spy Gadgets, Props, and Artifacts from TV and the Movies - Softcover

Biederman, Danny

Softcover

ISBN 10: 081184224X ISBN 13: 9780811842242

Publisher: Chronicle Books, 2004

Synopsis

In page after page of colorful imagery, The Incredible World of Spy-Fi captures four decades of espionage eye candy from our favorite fictional spies. From Maxwell Smart's Shoe Phone to James Bond's Walther PPK to Austin Powers' eyeglasses and classic spy gear from Alias, Mission: Impossible, The Wild Wild West, and more, this visual gallery reveals to the public for the very first time the world's largest collection of spy props and artifacts. Danny Biederman, creator of the Spy-Fi Archives, has spent the better part of his life tracking down over 4,000 rare pieces. So thorough is his collection that the CIA visited the Archives and invited Biederman to display a portion from his massive treasury at CIA headquarters. Here, Biederman profiles over 200 of his coolest, most captivating gadgets, offering enough juicy trivia and insider stories to make any spy proud.

About this title

About the Author

Danny Biederman is an internationally recognized expert in pop spy fiction whose Spy Fi Archives has been exhibited in major museums and featured in the world press. A screenwriter, producer, and director, he has written for network TV spy shows and served as an expert consultant to MGM Studios on their James Bond film series. He lives in the Los Angeles Area.

From Publishers Weekly

Even people who aren’t big spy movie fans know that James Bond gets to play with some great gadgets. The same goes for the casts of Mission: Impossible, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and I Spy. Biederman has been immersed in the spy world, at least as Hollywood depicts it, from the time of his youth in the 1960s, when he was introduced to a world of "spies, gadgets, adventure, and beautiful women—everything that a ten-year-old boy could possibly want." Since then he has collected over 4,000 props from various sets, amassing such an impressive trove that in 2000 the CIA asked him to exhibit it at its headquarters. This book tells the story of each TV series and movie through Biederman’s props, which range from the coat hook used in U.N.C.L.E. to open a secret passageway, to the gold sofa that adorned James West’s private railroad car in The Wild Wild West. Biederman, a screenwriter who works as an expert consultant to spy film producers, obviously knows the episodes of each series inside out, and his love for the genre is evident in his exuberant anecdotes (his search for his "holy grail," the cigarette-pack transmitter from U.N.C.L.E., is particularly dramatic). Fortunately, he isn’t so obsessed that he can’t take a joke about his passion: he also enjoys, and has memorabilia from, spy spoofs like Get Smart and Austin Powers. Few readers are likely to be as enamored of the Hollywood spy world as the author, but those who have some interest in it will enjoy perusing this celebration of all things espionage. 200 color images.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Chronicle Books
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 081184224X
• ISBN 13: 9780811842242
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 160