Muskoka as hotspot for Hollywood Glitterati and Captains of Industry

Muskoka as hotspot for Hollywood Glitterati and Captains of Industry—T’was ever thus

RIM boss Jim Basillie and Kurt & Goldie Muskoka. Trail blazers?
Ha! Clark Gable was all over it.

You know you have arrived when you’re hot in Hollywood, and Muskoka is smokin’. Lakes Rosseau, Joseph and Muskoka are a regular Beverly Hills, dotted with mammoth multi-million-dollar “cottages” built and bought by the likes of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, Marty Short, Steven Spielberg, Kenny G and Cindy Crawford.

And when it comes to special guests, the Muskoka roster reads like a month of Tonight Show call-sheets. Tom Cruise, the Governator. Check. Even Keith Richards is said to be “enamoured with Bala’s vibe.”

No doubt they fancy the abundance of fresh water, rugged vistas, and privacy that doesn’t veer into isolation. (Canadian hospitality is a polite reversal of the norm. It’s the kind that allows the likes of Eddie Van Halen to sup at Red Leaves without being mobbed.)

Sports stars and business tycoons know a good thing when they see it too. A butter tart fix at Don’s Bakery (Bala) or Marty’s World Famous Coffee House (Bracebridge) might easily have you rubbing shoulders with a peckish Steve Nash of the Phoenix Suns, the PGA’s Mike Weir (whose home course, Taboo Resort, is near Gravenhurst) or RIM’s Jim Basillie, up here to turn the damn Blackberry off.

But don’t stare. It’s not polite.

Not that this is a new thing. Gold, glitz and glamour have been drawn to Muskoka like moths to a flame since…since lanterns and campfires were the only options.

Olden Days Muskoka

Prior to the turn of last century, industrial barons like Mellon and Carnegie set the tone for Millionaire’s Row, (a stretch of lakefront near Beaumaris on Lake Muskoka that, while still true to its name today, is a bit of a comedown from what’s up lately on Lakes Joseph and Rosseau,) and in the first half of the 20th century, Canadian blue-bloods like the Bronfmans, the Labatts and the Eatons bombed around the lakes in their Ditchburns and Minett-Shields.

And then there were the grand resorts, with the foremost in its day, Bigwin Inn on Lake of Bays, playing host to Ernest Hemingway, John D. Rockefeller and silver screen idols Carol Lombard and the aforementioned Mr. Gable.

Heading off into the Canadian “wilderness,” they may not have considered themselves trend-setters, but theirs are indeed the soft, fragrant paths followed by today’s pampered pieds.