It is only an hour by ferry from Long Beach, but the “ruggedly beautiful” island of Santa Catalina is a world apart from that traffic-choked megalopolis, says Jonathan Thompson in The Times.
Recently, it has enjoyed something of an “A-list renaissance”, with stars including Taylor Swift and Katy Perry holidaying here. But it retains its wild charm, and still has one real town, pretty little Avalon. Deer and bison roam its mountainous interior, and its waters offer some of the best diving and snorkelling in the region.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Wanting Santa Catalina to be a “playground for all”, Wrigley constructed roads and the 12-storey Catalina Casino in Avalon, whose vast ballroom is still in use as an arts venue. Perched on a bluff with a superb view over the town, his own mansion, Mt. Ada, is now a stylish boutique hotel.
Another survival from those early days is Lloyd’s, a sweet shop where you can buy “old-time favourites” such as saltwater taffy, and where Marilyn Monroe – before she even became Marilyn Monroe – worked shifts in 1943 and 1944. An aspiring model at the time, she lived here with her first husband, James Dougherty, for a year that her biographers agree was one of the happiest of her troubled life.
Avalon is “reminiscent of the Côte d’Azur”, with its colourful houses tumbling down a steep hillside to a “perfect”, crescent-shaped harbour. It has some good restaurants, and a peaceful air: most residents get about in electric golf carts thanks to strict limits on car numbers. Vehicle tours are available even so, and on them you can look out for the herd of bison, originally brought over to film The Vanishing American in 1925, that now roam the island’s 75 square miles.
For more information, visit visitcatalinaisland.com
-
Arcadia: Tom Stoppard’s ‘masterpiece’ makes a ‘triumphant’ returnThe Week Recommends Carrie Cracknell’s revival at the Old Vic ‘grips like a thriller’
-
My Father’s Shadow: a ‘magically nimble’ love letter to LagosThe Week Recommends Akinola Davies Jr’s touching and ‘tender’ tale of two brothers in 1990s Nigeria
-
Send Help: Sam Raimi’s ‘compelling’ plane-crash survival thrillerThe Week Recommends Rachel McAdams stars as an office worker who gets stranded on a desert island with her boss
-
Book reviews: ‘Hated by All the Right People: Tucker Carlson and the Unraveling of the Conservative Mind’ and ‘Football’Feature A right-wing pundit’s transformations and a closer look at one of America’s favorite sports
-
Catherine O'Hara: The madcap actress who sparkled on ‘SCTV’ and ‘Schitt’s Creek’Feature O'Hara cracked up audiences for more than 50 years
-
6 gorgeous homes in warm climesFeature Featuring a Spanish Revival in Tucson and Richard Neutra-designed modernist home in Los Angeles
-
Touring the vineyards of southern BoliviaThe Week Recommends Strongly reminiscent of Andalusia, these vineyards cut deep into the country’s southwest
-
Nan Goldin: The Ballad of Sexual Dependency – an ‘engrossing’ exhibitionThe Week Recommends All 126 images from the American photographer’s ‘influential’ photobook have come to the UK for the first time
