Andy's Coffe Shop, Pasadena

Following my successful visit to Book Alley in Pasadena this morning, where I finally found a copy of Thunderball to complete my Ian Fleming book collection, I found a nearby diner to have breakfast at.

The diner is Andy's Coffe Shop (no, that's not a typo) at 1234 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91106.  It was a block west of Book Alley used book store.

The diner is decorated in photos of celebrities including Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and others on the walls.  (One celebrity who should have his photo there: George Reeves.  Reeves grew up in Pasadena and was an actor at the Pasadena Playhouse. Maybe I'll suggest it to them the next time I stop in.)

I had their chorizo and egg breakfast.  Along with chorizo mixed in scrambled eggs, the meal also included refried beans, rice and a choice of flour or corn tortillas (I chose flour).  The portions were generous and tasted great!  They are a little pricey (it was around $10 for the breakfast), but the portions were generous enough for me to overlook it.

If one is in Pasadena during the breakfast or lunch hours, I recommend stopping in for a meal.

Found "Thunderball" - Collection Complete

My Ian Fleming James Bond 007 book collection is now complete!

I discovered another used bookstore in Pasadena this morning and found the last Ian Fleming novel that I needed to complete my collection.  I found most of the others at the Iliad Bookstore in North Hollywood.

The book I needed was Thunderball (right).

The bookstore I bought it from was Book Alley at 1252  E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91106.  Telephone (626) 683-8083.

Book Alley is a nice little bookstore and well-organized. I was able to find the section that contained the Fleming books pretty easily.

They have their own website at www.bookalley.com.

After leaving Book Alley, I had breakfast at a diner a block away.  More on that in another blog post.

About Thunderball, the story is essentially the same as in the 1965 movie with Sean Connery.  The story is not original to Ian Fleming, however.

To make a long story short, Fleming, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham came up with a screenplay of Thunderball.

According to Wikipedia:

Thunderball was associated with a legal dispute in 1961 when former Ian Fleming collaborators Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham sued him shortly after the 1961 publication of the novel, claiming he based it upon the screenplay the trio had earlier written in a failed cinematic translation of James Bond.

The lawsuit was settled out of court with McClory and Whittingham retaining some rights.  Fleming's novel continued to be published, but credit to McClory and Whittingham had to be given.  In the edition I bought, credit is shown on the title page as:

This story is based on a screen treatment by K. McClory, J. Whittingham and the author.

A remake involving the basic plot of Thunderball was produced in 1983 as Never Say Never Again, starring Sean Connery.