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The 1970s 141 Sean gave away more than half the $1.2 million to a Scottish educational trust that he founded for Scottish painters, poets, writers, and actors. It was $800,000 he put in. This is in 1970. Twenty-five thousand dollars tax free, which was very good in those days if you were a poet. Twenty-five thousand dollars tax free in Scotland—my God, it’s like getting $100,000. Sean said, “But, they have to stay in Scotland. I’m not paying for some young Scottish poet to live in fuckin’ Paris.” He was such a passionate nationalist. It stopped him from being knighted for a long time, because there was a Scottish separatist party. He was knighted after Roger Moore and Michael Caine because of the Scottish problem. The proudest moment in his life was when the queen opened Scottish Parliament, and walking down High Street in Edinburgh was the queen, and walking next to her was Sean Connery in his kilt. During Diamonds Are Forever, the consummate Vegas entertainer at the time—I know there were Elvis and Frank—was Tom Jones. He was playing at Caesar’s Palace in the big room. Tom Jones did a wonderful thing. It was Oscar time, and we were shooting up there. He flew up every British nominee for a special show. Of course, everybody from the Bond movie was invited because it was a Bond movie and we were in Vegas. Jill St. John and Sean Connery were keeping company at the time, and Sean didn’t want to walk in with all the lights on. Sean was probably the biggest movie star in the world at the time, being James Bond. So he said to me, “Boyo, why don’t you go with Jill, and I’ll join you before the show starts.” (He always called me “boyo” because I was so much younger, and I guess that’s a Scottish expression.) I said, “Great.” I went to the gift shop at the Riviera and bought Jill what looked like a twenty-karat diamond ring. It was fake. It cost $4.25, but when she put it on her finger, people would say, “Wow, look at that ring” because it’s Jill St. John. Tom Jones was great. That was the era when women would run down and throw their room keys and underwear on the stage. That was not staged, it was real. It was this mania. Now, Sean slipped in after the second number. I couldn’t believe it: he was wearing Farmer John overalls with a shirt, and not wearing his toupee. Sean lost most of his hair very early. He wasn’t bald, but it was a pronounced receding hairline. In Bond, he always wore a toupee, but he didn’t in other parts. He never walked around with a toupee on. Tom Jones was introducing people. “And now, ladies and gentlemen , I’m about to lose all of my fans, because sitting in the audience tonight, I don’t know exactly where but I’m told he’s here, is Double-O Seven himself, James Bond, Mr. Sean Connery.” And then the place went My Life as a Mankiewicz 142 nuts. A light came on in the booth, and Sean stood up, and we heard all these people say, “Look, Ethel, he doesn’t have any hair.” I just loved him for it. He could have whapped it on, but that’s the way Sean was. I had a great respect for him because of that. Sean would say, “We’re going to make a movie like The Hill? Fuck it, I’m not wearing a toupee. This is what I look like.” I don’t know many actors who would have done that. Another actor would have said, “Look, I don’t mind walking around without my hair during the day, but if I’m appearing in front of all these people, I should put the toupee on.” But not Sean; fuck ’em. Everybody talks about the good old days. Las Vegas was a different town. When you look at Diamonds Are Forever now, when Sean swings his red Mustang out onto the Strip, you can see desert in the distance, which is now all condos and skyscrapers. Then, there were eight, nine hotels there. There was a downtown. But if you wanted to bet on the dogs, you’d go downtown . People on the Strip were larger than...

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