Paradise Island
Encyclopedia
- For the DC ComicsDC ComicsDC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
islandFictional countryA fictional country is a country that is made up for fictional stories, and does not exist in real life, or one that people believe in without proof....
formerly known as Paradise Island, see ThemysciraThemysciraThemyscira is a fictional island nation in the DC Comics universe that is the place of origin of Wonder Woman and her sister Amazons. Known as Paradise Island since Wonder Woman and the island's first appearance in All Star Comics #8 , it was renamed "Themyscira" with the character's February...
. - For the islet in the US Minor IslandsUnited States Minor Outlying IslandsThe United States Minor Outlying Islands, a statistical designation defined by the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 3166-1 code, consists of nine United States insular areas in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea: Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll,...
, see Palmyra AtollPalmyra AtollPalmyra Atoll is an essentially unoccupied equatorial Northern Pacific atoll administered as an unorganized incorporated territory by the United States federal government...
.
Paradise Island is an island in the Bahamas formerly known as Hog Island. The island is located just off the shore of the city of Nassau
Nassau, Bahamas
Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 , 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas...
, which is itself located on the northern edge of the island of New Providence
New Providence
New Providence is the most populous island in the Bahamas, containing more than 70% of the total population. It also houses the national capital city, Nassau.The island was originally under Spanish control following Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World, but the Spanish government showed...
. It is best known for the sprawling 'Vegas-by-the-sea resort' Atlantis
Atlantis Paradise Island
The Atlantis Paradise Island is a resort and waterpark located on Paradise Island, The Bahamas. Officially opened in 1998, the resort was created by South African hotel magnate Sol Kerzner and Kerzner International Limited. Paradise Island first opened its Coral and Beach Towers as the Trump...
.
Paradise Island is connected to the island of New Providence by two bridges that cross Nassau Harbour. The first was built in 1966 by Resorts International, and the second in the late 1990s.
Recent history
Pre-World War II
Before World War II the island, then known as Hog Island, was the private estate of the Swedish entrepreneur Axel Wenner-GrenAxel Wenner-Gren
Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s....
.
Purchase by Huntington Hartford and development as a resort
Huntington HartfordHuntington Hartford
George Huntington Hartford II was an American businessman, philanthropist, filmmaker, and art collector. The heir to the A&P supermarket fortune, he owned Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and had numerous other business and real estate interests over his lifetime including the Oil Shale Corporation...
, the A&P supermarket heir, arrived on Hog Island in 1959. Hartford bought Hog Island from Axel Wenner-Gren
Axel Wenner-Gren
Axel Lennart Wenner-Gren was a Swedish entrepreneur and one of the wealthiest men in the world during the 1930s....
and changed the name to Paradise Island. He hired the Palm Beach
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
architect John Volk and built the Ocean Club, Cafe Martinique, Hurricane Hole, the Golf Course, among other island landmarks. He also acquired and installed the Cloisters, a 14th-century French Augustinian monastery originally purchased in Montréjeau
Montréjeau
Montréjeau is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France.-History:Montréjeau was the site of one of the French Revolution's last pitched battles between republicans and royalists. In the summer of 1799, anti-revolutionary insurrection broke out in the Haute-Garonne. For a...
and dismantled by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
in the 1920s. He hired Gary Player
Gary Player
Gary Player DMS; OIG is a South African professional golfer. With his nine major championship victories, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of golf. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1974. Player has won 165 tournaments on six continents over six...
to be the Golf Pro and Pancho Gonzales
Pancho Gonzales
Ricardo Alonso González , generally known as Richard "Pancho" Gonzales was an American tennis player. He was the world no. 1 professional tennis player for an unequalled eight years in the 1950s and early 1960s...
to be the Tennis Pro. His opening of Paradise Island in 1962 was covered in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
and Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazines. He hired the staff from Eden Roc at Hotel Du Cap to work off season at the Ocean Club. He had the fireworks for the opening party flown in from the South of France. He had a flag and Paradise Beach was featured on a Bahamian three-dollar bill in 1966 (introduced as a close equivalent to the Bahamian Pound, which was replaced at the rate of $1=7£, so $3=21£).
Development as a gambling resort
Huntington Hartford met James M. Crosby (1927–1986) through Huntington's Bodyguard Sy Alter. Sy Alter met Jim Crosby at the Colony Club in Palm Beach. Huntington Hartford got the gambling License for Paradise Island and included Jim Crosby as an Extra Investor. Jim Crosby and Jack Davis then formed a company, Resorts International, to continue developing Paradise Island. Recognizing the business potential of the Bahamas, they were the first to establish major resort development, and often offered above-average salaries to Bahamanian employees. The two continued to develop Paradise Island. They built the bridge to Nassau and the first large-scale resorts. He subsequently created and funded a successful statewide campaign to pass a referendum legalizing gambling in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Resorts built the first casino, and with no competition for the first year, made over $300 million profit. Resorts stock went from between $1–3 to over $200, and was the only stock to ever make the front page of the LA Times.Subsequent changes of ownership
Paradise Island was purchased in the 1980s by Donald TrumpDonald Trump
Donald John Trump, Sr. is an American business magnate, television personality and author. He is the chairman and president of The Trump Organization and the founder of Trump Entertainment Resorts. Trump's extravagant lifestyle, outspoken manner and role on the NBC reality show The Apprentice have...
for $79 million, then sold to Merv Griffin
Merv Griffin
Mervyn Edward "Merv" Griffin, Jr. was an American television host, musician, actor, and media mogul. He began his career as a radio and big band singer who went on to appear in movies and on Broadway. From 1965 to 1986 Griffin hosted his own talk show, The Merv Griffin Show on Group W Broadcasting...
for $400 million. It was last sold for $125 million to the current owner, Sol Kerzner
Sol Kerzner
Solomon Kerzner is a South African accountant and business magnate.-Background and career:Kerzner was born in Troyeville, Johannesburg, the youngest of four children to Jewish Russian immigrants...
. The current estimated value of the island is about $2 billion USD.
In film
- The Beatles' film Help!Help! (film)Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
was partially filmed on Paradise Island. - The James BondJames BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film ThunderballThunderball (film)Thunderball is the fourth spy film in the James Bond series starring Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Ian Fleming, which in turn was based on an original screenplay by Jack Whittingham...
was partially filmed on Paradise Island. - On the TV series FriendsFriendsFriends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
Monica and Chandler's honeymoon is spent at the AtlantisAtlantis Paradise IslandThe Atlantis Paradise Island is a resort and waterpark located on Paradise Island, The Bahamas. Officially opened in 1998, the resort was created by South African hotel magnate Sol Kerzner and Kerzner International Limited. Paradise Island first opened its Coral and Beach Towers as the Trump...
. - Survivor: All-StarsSurvivor: All-StarsSurvivor: All-Stars is the eighth season of the United States reality show Survivor. It was filmed in 2003 and debuted in the United States on CBS on February 1, 2004 after Super Bowl XXXVIII. It was set on the Pearl Islands of Panama, where the previous Survivor: Pearl Islands had just finished...
contestants Rob MarianoRob MarianoRobert Carlo "Boston Rob" Mariano is an American television personality, widely known for appearing in several reality shows, including Survivor, and The Amazing Race with his wife, Amber Brkich Mariano. Mariano won Survivor: Redemption Island and the $1,000,000 prize after competing on the show...
and Amber Brkich were married on Paradise Island in a 2 hour TV special. - A larger part of the island is shown in the movie After the SunsetAfter the SunsetAfter the Sunset is a 2004 action comedy film starring Pierce Brosnan as Max Burdett, a master thief caught in a cat-and-mouse game with FBI agent Stan Lloyd played by Woody Harrelson...
.