The Bahamas was where Christopher Columbus first set foot in the New World, in 1492. In 1629, Charles I of England took possession of the islands, alongside what are now the U.S. states of North and South Carolina. In 1648, a party led by William Sayles became the Bahamas' first colonists.
Paradise Island was originally known as Hog Island; it was where the people of Nassau kept their pigs.
In 1959, UK supermarket heir Huntington Hartford bought Hog Island and renamed it Paradise Island. His plan was to develop it as a casino. He built a number of island landmarks, including the Ocean Club and the Cloisters, a 14th-century French monastery that William Hearst had purchased and disassembled from its original site in the 1920s. The resort opened in 1963. In 1966, the first of two bridges were built, connecting Paradise Island by road to Nassau.
Through the 1970s, Hartford sold most of his Paradise Island properties to his partner, Jim Crosby. In the 1980s, Donald Trump bought the island for $79 million, and then sold it to TV host and media mogul Merv Griffin for $400 million. The island was bought in May 1994 by its present owner, Sol Kerzner.
A number of movies have been filmed on Paradise Island, including the James Bond film "Thunderball," and the 2006 remake of "Casino Royale." Other films shot there include "After The Sunset," "Into The Blue" and the 1965 Beatles film "Help."
