A Great Gatsby Boat Tour of Manhasset Bay

 

This lovely lady is Eleanor Cox Nihill and we were very fortunate to take her Great Gatsby Boat Tour of Manhasset Bay this past Saturday. As we've posted on Travalanche,  my mate and I have lived in Great Neck, Long Island for the past several years, which happens to be the town where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote most of The Great Gatsby, and where the first theatrical adaptation of the book premiered. The book is based on local settings. Many of the places he wrote about are long gone, and just about all of the fabulous mansions that remain are very inaccessible to the public. By contrast with my home turf of Newport, where just about all of the old mansions are museums near the main drag and available to tour for the price of a ticket, Great Neck's big houses are all in private hands and quite far from the center of town. The only way to see them (unless invited) is from the air or from the bay. So I was overjoyed to finally have this opportunity at the invitation of mutual friend Kevin Fitzpatrick, who also came along and assisted Ellie with the tour's narration. Here's me, my fabulous wife, and K-Fitz prior to launch:

And here's Kev workin' the crowd. 

I confess I was enjoying myself way too much to take a lot of careful notes about which house went with which celebrity. I've ID'd a couple that I remembered below. A full list of the celebrities who lived in Great Neck is in my 2018 post here. And here are some of the shacks we gawked at on Satiddy, photographed from a distance on a crappy phone camera. (Note: plenty of these houses are undoubtedly more recent than the Roaring 20s, as well)

The summer residence, at one point, of FDR when he was Governor of New York.

The one time home of millionaire Edwin S. Marks. The notable feature of this property is the display of one of the old Grand Central Station eagle statues (right)

A mansion that was used in the movie Carlito's Way. 

This was Sid Caesar's place (under renovation at the moment)

Unless I'm mistaken this place was once owned by Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, who had many much more fabulous places on Long Island and at Newport. He's a distant relation of mine, descended from Rhode Island war hero Oliver Hazard Perry, who was from my hometown. 

The Yankee in me especially loves the tasteful simplicity of this one and the next one, which are likely from the earlier era when the area first began to attract folks from the city. Hey, I'm not greedy -- I wouldn't ask for much more than this! 

Towards the end, these nuts passed us. I don't think it would take much more than a rogue minnow to swamp this thing. It's never too early to day-drink on a raft that suggests an entirely different island 1,500 miles away! 

Hey, I see another boat just about to take off! It's a future Great Gatsby Boat Tour! There are still a couple of upcoming excursions that haven't sold out. Get yer tickets here.