Trivia Question for New Year's Eve

What character figured in the lives of both John Cage and James Bond? (I'll refrain from posting any answers until there are several right ones, as there are bound to be.)

[UPDATE] As five of you came up with in eight hours: Goldfinger. Ernö Goldfinger, the architect with whom Cage studied in Paris, was Ian Fleming's model for the villain Auric Goldfinger. Fleming altered many personal characteristics (the fictional Goldfinger was 14 inches shorter), but both were naturalized emigrés who liked fast cars, and the architect Goldfinger was a Marxist who had worked for the Soviet cause, which enhanced the connotation of villainy in the cold war era. Ernö Goldfinger started to sue, but settled for abundant disclaimers added to the book. That in turn enraged Fleming, who threatened to change the name to "Goldprick" in revenge. The biggest inconvenience the real Goldfinger suffered seems to have been prank calls from people claiming to be 007. (From Nigel Warburton's biography Ernö Goldfinger - The Life of an Architect)


Ben Harper shot back the answer within seconds. Other answers showed considerable originality, and I got a big laugh out of the idea of Cage's book M being about Bond's boss.


Happy New Year. If you need to insult a composer at a party tonight, here's an old classic: 


"Your music will be played after Mozart's and Beethoven's is forgotten. And not before."


Last three words sotto voce as needed.


December 31, 2008 8:07 AM | | Comments (12) |

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12 Comments

By Ben Harper on December 31, 2008 8:28 AM

Ooh! Ooh! I know this one. I'm looking at one of Goldfinger's buildings right now.

More about Cage and Goldfinger (E. not A.) here.

By david toub on December 31, 2008 8:43 AM

Raymond Benson?

By Stephen Lumenta on December 31, 2008 8:49 AM

This might be quite far out: Buckminster Fuller.
The domes in the Eden project near Cornwell, which were used in some James Bond "Die another day" scenes, are inspired by Fuller. And yes, John Cage was an avid reader of him.

By Daniel Wolf on December 31, 2008 10:27 AM

Fleming's (antisemitic) appropriation of the name of the architect Ernő Goldfinger.

By Caleb Deupree on December 31, 2008 11:01 AM

Cage wrote a book about Bond's boss, M.

By kraig Grady on December 31, 2008 1:14 PM

m

By Matthew on December 31, 2008 2:25 PM

Ben H. beat you to it. I swear, this Internet thing makes originality impossible. (God only knows how many brilliant ideas I've unwittingly arrived at second or third. I'm usually too nervous to check.)

By Adam Baratz on December 31, 2008 2:37 PM

Cage was once an assistant to the architect Ernõ Goldfinger, who inspired the Bond character of the same name. Happy New Year!

By jamescombs on December 31, 2008 3:18 PM

Goldfinger. Perhaps I shouldn't have cheated but...

Modern Architect

By Ben Harper on January 1, 2009 9:50 PM

I didn't expect to be first! Daniel, was Fleming's use of Goldfinger's name antisemitic? I don't remember G's biographer mentioning it when discussing the incident - IIRC Goldfinger was nothing but a name to Fleming before writing the novel, having mutual friends but not met. Fleming seems to have been pretty indiscriminate (no pun intended) in adopting the names of his friends and acquaintances for goodies and baddies alike.

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