James Bond’s U.S. Debut Received Some Truly Weird Changes

James Bond has been an international star since his cinematic debut. The British icon quickly became a global icon after Sean Connery starred in 1962’s “Dr. No” and kick-started cinema’s most enduring franchise. Once “Goldfinger” — which is frequently cited as the best James Bond movie — debuted in 1965 and established many of the Bond trademarks we all know and love today, the character’s status was cemented, even if it did take China more than 40 years to let a Bond film through its notoriously strict censorship bureau.

It was fitting that China chose “Casino Royale” as the first Bond movie for release in its country, considering that was the very first appearance of the character himself. 007 did not debut in “Dr. No,” but in the pages of Ian Fleming’s first Bond novel, “Casino Royale,” in 1953. When he wrote the book in 1952, Fleming was a 44-year-old former British Naval Intelligence officer who had become foreign editor at the Kemsley Newspaper Group, owners of the Sunday Express, for which he also wrote. As such, the man had extensive knowledge of not only what it was like to be part of British Intelligence, but also, having overseen a network of foreign correspondents for Kemsley, a solid understanding of international affairs.

With “Casino Royale,” the author produced a story that was actually a lot less theatrical and humorous than the Bond movies themselves. Fleming’s novel hewed closer to realism than the films ultimately would, but regardless, the books were a hit — at least in the UK, where “Casino Royale” sold out multiple times. In the U.S., however, it was a different story at first.

“Casino Royale” was published in the U.S. a year after its British debut, and while the novel had fared quite well in its home country, it couldn’t repeat that success across the pond. By June 1954, the British edition of “Casino Royale” had sold more than 8,000 copies — a solid success for Fleming’s debut novel. Stateside, however, the book sold just 4,000 copies. Why, then, did publisher Popular Library buy the paperback rights, you might ask? Well, because they apparently had the solution to poor sales: Renaming the book.

Yes, Ian Fleming’s now-legendary first James Bond novel was renamed in the U.S. for its paperback run in an attempt to attract American readers. As Raymond Benson wrote in “The James Bond Bedside Companion,” “Apparently, it was thought that American readers wouldn’t know how to pronounce “Royale.'” So what, did “Casino Royale” become?

“You Asked For It.”

Asked for what? That remains unclear, but evidently Popular Library felt that this title would resonate with American readers. For his paperback debut in the States, then, Bond arrived adorning the cover of what looked like a pulp magazine, leering at a scantily clad Vesper Lynd and pouring a drink that is most certainly not his usual vodka martini.

“You Asked For It” was published in 1955 and alongside its pulpy cover design featured a tagline that read, “She played a man’s game with a woman’s weapons.” Yet another needlessly confounding statement clearly didn’t do much to help the novel, as “You Asked For It” failed to stimulate U.S. sales of the first Bond book. Had Ian Fleming had his way, the book would have been given the lengthier but I think clearly much better title “The Double-O Agent and The Deadly Gamble.” However, Popular Library reportedly simply disregarded this suggestion in favor of their more terse and infinitely more confusing alternative (though “Casino Royale” was included in small print).

Also not necessarily helping matters was the fact that the U.S. publisher decided to refer to James Bond on the back cover as “Jimmy,” a name befitting the perv attired in smart casual adorning the cover but surely one unbecoming of England’s greatest spy. “If he hadn’t been a tough operator, Jimmy Bond would never have risked a weekend with a woman who used her magnificent body as a weapon to destroy him,” read the back cover, in a synopsis that somehow manages to reveal close to nothing about the actual plot of “Casino Royale.”

As noted by The Cary Collection, where a copy of the original Popular Library version of “Casino Royale” can be picked up for $500, Signet Books ultimately acquired the U.S. rights to Bond novels after 1960, and thankfully discarded the “You Asked For It” title in favor of Ian Fleming’s original — which would of course go on to be adapted into the very best Bond movie ever made in 2006’s “Casino Royale.”