One & Only Ocean Club Pictures

One & Only Ocean Club has an unusual history. In 1959 the fabulously wealthy Huntington Hartford II, grandson of the man who founded The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company (which later became the A&P supermarket chain), purchased two acres on Hog Island in the Bahamas.

A year later Hartford bought a nearby estate dubbed Shangri-la and began to convert it into the 52-room Ocean Club resort. In 1962 the prime piece of land was renamed Paradise Island and the Ocean Club resort opened with great fanfare. Celebrities and the wealthy, European royalty and American politicians, two thousand of them, gathered at a huge party to inaugurate the property. The Ocean Club soon became a favorite getaway retreat for everyone from Richard Nixon to the Beatles.

More recently, One & Only Ocean Club provided the setting for several scenes in Casino Royale, the 2006 remake of the James Bond film that was originally shot in Paradise Island as well.