High Seas: The Nautical Coordinates of Golden Era Hollywood
Back in the early 1950s, French actress Bridgit Bardot arrived in the once sleepy fishing village of Saint-Tropez to film And God Created Woman. Afterwards, the seaside hamlet would never be the same – becoming a place where travelers flocked to set their sights on Vieux Port and its azure beaches. Bardot was also known to cruise around on a fashionable hand-crafted Riva speedboat given by her then-husband Roger Vadim.
Long a symbol of status and glamor, speed boats and yachts have long been known for networking, deal-making and in some cases – housing stars during movie productions. Actors Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart met on the set of the 1944 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s seafaring adventure To Have and Have Not. Bogart was also seen aboard his 55-foot racing yacht called Santana. “If ever I had a woman to be jealous of, she was the Santana,” his wife Bacall wrote in her autobiography. To wit: Bogart also finished first in his class in the 1950 San Clemente Island Race.
In 1956, Princess Grace Kelly sailed around the Mediterranean with her husband Prince Rainier on a handsome 147-foot wooden yacht built by Camper and Nicholsons; and a honeymoon gift from Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis. Known as the M/Y Grace, the couple entertained along the Sardinia and Corsica coasts. In the early aughts, the vessel was refurbished by a small-adventure outfit (today, you can sail around the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Ecuador and Patagonia).
No stranger to boats, Elizabeth Taylor also loved to sail. A frequent guest aboard Malcolm Forbes’ lavish superyacht Highlander, Taylor and her husband Richard Burton also stayed on the “Kalizma” – a century-plus-old steam powered vessel designed by G.L. Watson and named after the couple’s children. During the 1968 filming of Boom!, the couple cruised around the coast of Sardinia’s Capo Caccia. And that’s not all. Italian-French star Sophia Loren also got in on the action and was often seen sailing around Italy’s coastline.
Around the same time, Hollywood playboy and seasoned sailor Errol Flynn bought Zaca, a 118-foot, Garland Roch-designed timber schooner, even lending it to director Orson Welles for the filming of the Lady From Shanghai.
Perhaps most famously was a woman named Jacquilne Bouvier who sailed with soon-to-be President John Kennedy around Cape Cod, and later in 1968, when she was famously photographed as Jackie O aboard Onassis’ 325-foot yacht “Christina” – and whose rotating roster included Winston Churchill, Marilyn Mornoe, Frank Sintra and Peter Lawford. In the 1960s, Kirk Douglas, Jack Nicholson and other stars cruised with movie producer Sam Spiegel on his 165-foot ocean-going yacht Malahne. Usually moored off the Cote d’Azur, the craft was also known to be a office-cum-hotel when filming Lawrence of Arabia in nearby Jordan.
“There’s nothing like lying flat on your back on the deck, alone except for the helmsman aft at the wheel, silence except for the lapping of the sea against the side of the ship,” Flynn once said.
Little Black Book
The “Christina O” charted by Valef Yachts features 17 guest cabins with ensuite showers, a dining room for up to 40 guests and a swimming pool US contact: + 1 (215).460.5520 Outside US Tel: +30 210 4182381
“The Kalizma”charter features 5 cabins with interiors by Della Tecnica. Tel contact: +91 9920186261 or +91 9819974393
The “Grace Yacht” chartered by Quasarex sleeps 16 guests. Tel contact: +1 (415) 689.8509
“Malahne” Yacht Charter by Edminston, sleeps 10 guests. Tel contact: +1 (212).792.5370