As the story goes— “Danjaq” was setup by Albert R Broccoli and Harry Saltzman in 1961, an amalgam of their wives, respectively named Dana and Jacqueline [1].

According to Mark Dent of The Hustle, the producers “structured their partnership in a way that maximized profits and, controversially, limited their British tax burden [2].

  • Their Britain-based production company, Eon (short for ‘everything or nothing’), made the films.
  • Another business, Danjaq, acted as the holding company for the Bond rights. Danjaq was first incorporated in Switzerland and later in Delaware. Most profits flowed to Danjaq.

Between that pivotal first year and 1975, nine of the first ten James Bond motion pictures were produced by Messrs Broccoli and Saltzman. Seventeen came after, Cubby Broccoli having been involved with seven or eight (depending on how you count the 1995 GoldenEye).

Reflecting back on some of this in 2013, David Picker wrote the following about Mr Saltzman [3].

The details of his buyout by UA in 1975 are not known to me, but the rumors about the incredible financial pressure he was under and his declining relationship with his partner were rampant. To survive he had to sell out, and I heard it wasn’t pretty ….

When Cubby took over the Bond franchise, Harry’s name slowly faded away. Now in the 21st century …, Harry is no more than an asterisk. But he was much more than that.

There are many people along the way that helped make James Bond into the most successful franchise in movie history, but if it hadn’t been for Harry Saltzman, it wouldn’t have happened at all.

“The Moonraker Threshold” importantly serves to respect common sense as a basis for assessing any one James Bond movie versus another one, more, or all others.

“Danjaq 1.0 Perspectives” more importantly anchor to the reality that nothing of what has came after Dr No (1962) and From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964) and Thunderball (1965) could have ever reached an ante of being considered as contestants for the title of “better” or “best” without this 1961 basis.

© 2022 Dell Deaton, All Rights Reserved. USA 

References

  1. When Harry Met Cubby: The Story of the James Bond Producers / 2019 / Robert Sellers (page 79; The History Press: Gloucestershire, United Kingdom).
  2. “The family business that owns a share of the $7B James Bond franchise” / August 29, 2021 / Mark Dent / The Hustle (accessed January 16, 2022).
  3. Musts, Maybes, and Nevers / 2013 / David V Picker (page 57; self-published: North Charleston, South Carolina).