We Show Stars’ Homes by the Seashore

Sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip. It starts in Orange County, aboard a trusty ship. By which, landlubbers, we mean the tour craft Belle of the Fun Zone Boat Co., cruising daily past Newport Harbor’s celebrity ports o’ call.

The “Gilligan’s Island” allusion is no accident. The harbor vista shown in the opening segment of the ‘60s TV sitcom and evergreen rerun highlights an itinerary composed largely of the former homes and yachts of film stars, along with the Xanadus owned by today’s Newport gazillionaires.

Those booking passage on the company’s two cruises can glimpse the onetime houses of celebrities including George Burns and Gracie Allen, Peter Falk and Charles Bronson. The home of Newport Bay’s most famous resident, John Wayne, was leveled last year, but his reconditioned Navy minesweeper, the Wild Goose, is still anchored in the harbor.

Then there’s the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, reputedly once frequented by members Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans.

Scott Kaatmann, a La Habra resident and former Waikiki catamaran captain, combines the roles of skipper brave and sure and tour narrator. Kaatman, who refers to Newport seals as “the ones with their noses in the air,” reels off recent sale prices like an appraiser, including a $22.5-million residence, a $4-million “tear down” and a $17-million “fixer-upper.”

That this onetime celebrity playground is now largely celebrity-free hasn’t slowed the water traffic much, says Fun Zone office manager Charlie Maas. The tours have been a local institution since 1958, when Newport was a haven for show biz royalty. “John Wayne would stand on his dock and wave,” Maas says. Stars’ homes began changing hands in the 1980s, he says, and today are mostly owned by moguls and millionaires, but tourists revel in the harbor’s bygone glamour. On weekends, says skipper Kaatman, “We pack ‘em in like sardines.”