It was my first real job. I took it my last two years of high school because I needed spending money. And I kept it through my first two years of college because I needed spending money.

It wasn’t the best job, in fact I got it because probably no one else wanted it. Working on a 50-acre estate in Woodside, California without anyone else your own age around was not all that much fun. And doing the kind of work I did, cleaning the bird cages, washing floors, vacuuming, and working in the gardens, was not the kind of job most high school students are looking for.

But the owners were flexible, and I could work when I could squeeze it into my schedule. Weekends, holidays, and summer vacation. Few jobs back then provided that kind of flexibility.

It was the early 1960s, and I knew there was a story about the owner and his wife, but I never knew THE story.

Back then there was no internet, If you wanted to find out about someone, you had to go to the library, and sign out the microfilm. No one did that.

I worked for George and Elia Whittell for 4 years. He was in his early 80s, and she was not far behind. Actually, I worked for Mrs. Whittell, as you’ll soon see.

They were wealthy. He was a recluse. How did I know? In four years of working there, I never saw him. He was always nearby, usually in the next room. But he allowed no one to see him. Whether it was because he was in a wheelchair or another reason, I never knew.

But I know he saw me. Because even though it was in the early 60s, the entire house was wired with video surveillance. And I knew I was being watched with every job I was doing.

By the mid 60s I had finished junior college and left for a 4-year school. And that was the end of my career as a handyman.

I had one more encounter with the Whittells. George passed away in 1969, but they still had the Thunderbird Lodge Estate at Lake Tahoe. I had finished college, gone on to graduate school, and in 1969 was preparing to enter the Army. I took a drive up to Lake Tahoe, and thought I would visit the estate and see if anyone from the Woodside house was present.

I knocked on the door, told them who I was, and waited. A short time later someone came to the door, told me they didn’t want to see me, and to leave the property immediately.

Mr. Whittell was gone, but his legacy lived on.

My life moved on, I got out of the Army and took a job in Washington, DC. Time passed, and the Whittels faded from memory.

So you can image my shock in checking facts for the story written by Bill Graves about Lake Tahoe. When I stumbled upon the names of George and Elia Whittell.

We have the Internet now, and what a surprise to finally learn about the couple I worked for more than 50 years ago!

George Whittell

George Whittell, Jr., was born in San Francisco on September 28, 1881, to George Whittell, Sr., and Anna Luning Whittell. One of twins, George Jr.’s brother, Nicholas, died at the age of three of diptheria.

His family had great wealth, but he spent his time collecting exotic animals, expensive automobiles and boats, beautiful women, lawsuits and more than 25 miles of Lake Tahoe’s Nevada shoreline along the way. He was one of the most notorious playboys of California and Nevada, and had a succession of marriages and liaisons that fueled the region’s gossip mills. A recluse in his later years, Whittell shunned publicity, and, in doing so, inspired speculation about his every move. By the time of his death in 1969, he had become the stuff of legend.

George’s two immigrant grandfathers shrewdly exploited Gold Rush opportunities, laying the foundation for a financial empire.

Shortly after George, Jr., was born his parents built a showplace mansion on San Francisco’s Nob Hill. He attended high school but following graduation he initially refused the college education his parents planned for him. He left home instead to follow the Barnum and Bailey Circus. While there, George used the allowance provided by his wealthy family to stage a series of trips to Africa to capture wild animals for the circus. It was during these experiences with the circus and in Africa that George developed a lifelong passion for wild animals.

Upon his return to San Francisco George continued an unflattering habit of embarrassing his parents.

He shocked his parents by eloping with a chorus girl. Whittell, Sr., felt compelled to pay sufficient money to county officials and the bride to annul the inappropriate match, silence all involved and clear the record. To the parents’ dismay the cover-up failed and the incident exploded into a public scandal.

George’s taste for unsuitable women continued when he fell in love with dancer and actress Josephine Cunningham, a member of a well-known stage group. Despite his parents’ disapproval and their best attempts to thwart the romance, George and Josie were married. That marriage lasted just two years before divorce, and Josie Cunningham went on to appear in over 60 Hollywood movies as a character actress.

In December 1919, George was wed to Miss Elia Pascal, a “strikingly beautiful French woman” whom he had met during World War I in Italy. Her family owned a 1,000-acre estate in the Loire Valley of France that had been purchased from the Rockefellers. In addition to his recognition by the Belgian government for his meritorious conduct for his outstanding service as a driver in the American Ambulance Corps during World War I, both George and Elia were honored for their war service by the French and Italian governments.

In 1922, George’s father died, leaving the 40-year old an inheritance worth roughly $30 million, the equivalent of well over $423 million in today’s dollars. He also inherited the Woodside estate.

He managed his dollars wisely. Perhaps his most important move was to liquidate about $50 million in stock holdings ($706 million in today’s dollars) in early 1929, thereby protecting him from (and, some say, helping precipitate) the stock market crash in October of that year. Following the economic collapse George was one of the wealthiest men in California.

Also in 1929, George began a love affair with the most elegant passenger car of the day, the Duesenberg -- ordering not one, but two, of the expensive, custom-built automobiles. He would eventually own six. In another pivotal event that year, George’s ex-wife Josie gave him a lion cub, who he named Bill. The lion became George's closest companion, traveling with the millionaire everywhere he went, including nightclubs and eventually the Thunderbird Lodge. Bill particularly enjoyed his rides in George's convertible roadster.

Whittell had been a man of unusual, perhaps even bizarre, tastes and behavior. He also shared his vast Woodside estate with an African lion and Mingo, a four-year-old, 600-pound Sumatran elephant. There was also a cheetah and a giraffe, along with a handful of other exotic creatures.

Nevada Land Purchases

In the early 1930’s George formed a Nevada-based business to manage certain investments and established an official residence in Reno to help him avoid the rapidly increasing California income and estate taxes. There he heard of some property at Lake Tahoe being offered for sale. Eventually Whittell acquired over 40,000 acres of land for as little as $3 an acre on the Nevada side of the lake, including more than 25 miles of the shoreline, which represented almost all of the Nevada side of the lake.

Though he originally planned several large developments at Lake Tahoe, including casinos at Sand Harbor and Zephyr Cove, his first priority was a summer retreat for himself. There, five miles south of Incline Village, he built the elaborate Thunderbird Lodge with a panoramic view of Lake Tahoe. This price tag was $300,000. Visitors declared that the three-story structure had the appearance of a medieval fortress.

Construction of that lakefront estate began in 1936 and was completed in 1939, along with an incredible yacht, Thunderbird.

At that time in his life, however, George was growing more reclusive and after spending several summers at Lake Tahoe, began to value his privacy more and more. The estate included a 600' long tunnel just to permit George to move from the Boathouse to the main residence without being seen.

Stories abound about all-night poker games in Whittell's notorious subterranean Card House with celebrities like baseball great Ty Cobb, and fellow recluse Howard Hughes. It is rumored that Whittell occasionally lost up to $100,000 in a single night. 

The Recluse

He abandoned plans for commercial development, withdrew from the Tahoe community and was rarely seen, preferring the seclusion of his miles of undeveloped shoreline. Elia, with whom his marriage had evolved into one of convenience, considered the Thunderbird Lodge far too rustic for her tastes. When George headed off to Tahoe from their Woodside estate for the summer, Elia would go to Paris to spend time with her friends and family.

Whittell delighted in playing the role of the quintessential playboy. In 1937, he purchased a customized DC-3, “the world’s largest and most luxurious customized aerial yacht.” The massive plane, with a cruising speed of 230 mph, came with luxurious lounges, bedrooms, parlors, a kitchen, dining room, and sleeping quarters for the crew of five. Reporters estimated that this “flying pleasure palace” cost as much as $400,000.

George Whittell was confined to a wheelchair for the last 16 years of his life. He spent much of his time in conversation with six talking mynahs which, guests insisted, all spoke with decidedly French accents.

In 1958 the state of Nevada managed to negotiate an agreement with Whittell to establish Sand Harbor State Park, the first state park on the Nevada shore. Nevada eventually forced Whittell to sell his remaining acreage to the state and virtually overnight all of Lake Tahoe’s east shore property became protected from commercial development. 

Today, the Woodside estate is the present day site of Kings Mountain Vineyard.

http://kingsmountainvineyards.com

With no heirs, Whittell’s $40 million fortune was meticulously divided with large portions distributed to the National Audubon Society and the Defenders of Wildlife. Sizeable sums also went to a variety of animal hospitals and pet cemeteries. Approximately $6 million was earmarked to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to “relieve the pain and suffering of animals.”

Public Tours

Today, public tours of Thunderbird Lodge, now a National Register Historic Site, are available by land, by tour boat, or by kayak, Tuesdays through Saturdays from mid-May until mid-October. Theses tours are among the most popular available at Lake Tahoe. Reservations are required for all tours.

For public land tour reservations, call (800) GO-TAHOE (800-468-2463).

http://thunderbirdtahoe.org

About the Author: Stephen M. Kirchner has been editor & publisher of Byways Magazine for 34 years. He is based in Louisville, KY.