When Hollywood royalty traded it all for a Brazilian farm

In the middle of the 20th century, a group of illustrious Hollywood and Broadway stars decided to abandon the hustle and bustle of the U.S. and move to a quaint, isolated town in central Brazil and become farmers.

This may sound like the first act of a blockbuster comedy, and — in a certain way — it is.

The cast of this South American caper includes silent film star Joan Lowell, Janet Gaynor — who won the first ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her roles in 7th Heaven, Street Angel, and Sunrise in 1928 — and Broadway icon Mary Martin.

The film star and the sea dog

This story of dreams and adventures in rural Brazil begins with Joan Lowell’s marriage to sea captain Leek Bowen, in 1936. 

In a magazine interview in 1956, Lowell told the story of how the pair met at sea, on a New York ship headed for southeastern Brazil. Sailing down the Brazilian coast, the captain approached Lowell and told her about the uninhabited and unexplored regions of South America’s largest country.

“Since I was a boy, I’ve dreamed of a new land, as far from civilization as possible,” Mr. Bowen gushed. “I think the jungle is the only place where you find out who the real men are.”

“So why don’t you find your own piece of land?” the actress asked.

“Maybe because I haven’t yet found a woman who loved me enough to live with me, without a care for the rest of the world,” he replied.

By the time they disembarked in the Port of Santos, Leek and Joan were a couple.

The pair briefly lived in a fishing village near Santos, before heading inland to set up their own coffee plantation. They purchased a property in the tiny town of Anápolis, in the then-isolated central-western state of Goiás. Their farm — which they called The Anchorage — was almost impossible to reach. Land was very cheap, but the surrounding area had plentiful water, vegetation, and wildlife.

But why Anápolis? Lowell explained that the couple were drawn to the remote town after hearing government plans to build a railway passing through the...