Then, in 1954, a florid and waggish Russian actor named Timothy Rakov was in Cairo, Egypt, directing and starring in the film, Some Camels Race Backwards, when, allegedly, six French producers were turned away at customs upon returning from holiday, unable to gain entrance to the country due to rising tensions between French nationalists and the League of Arab States, as Moroccan and Algerian rebel groups backed by the Egyptian president himself, Gamal Abdel Nasser, moved into stronghold positions across and surrounding the Suez Canal. Which is when––after hearing news of the producers impasse––allegedly, Rakov packed two suitcases with ten-thousand pounds of stolen cash, taken from a safe in the production office, and went to the Cairo airport, where he vowed, and even prayed––to God, Buddha, Abraham, Mary, St. Gregory, his ancestors, the planets, a tree that grew near his childhood home, a famed Siberian tiger, his first wife, his second wife, his daughter who could only talk about Margaret Osborne DuPont and her 3rd grueling set against Louise Brough in the 1948 National Tennis Championships––that if he got through border control, through baggage inspection, and then security, that he would do something substantial and worthwhile with the funds.
Which he did not.
No.
He didn’t.
Really the entire incident hardly bears mentioning.
