If there’s one thing that characterizes the remaining heirs to some of the Los Angeles fortunes amassed in the late 19th and early 20th century, it is a decided reluctance to discuss their worth.
For people with vast fortunes that they did not earn, wealth brings a kind of stigma. Most of these heirs would be much happier to live their lives outside public scrutiny, which makes them different from many of their forebears who made the money to begin with.
When the fortunes of today’s heirs were being made in oil and railroads, “it seemed to be in the region’s best interest to celebrate that wealth,” said Tom Tomlinson, associate dean at USC Law School and a Los Angeles historian. “Now, it’s unlisted phone numbers.”
By definition, old money is less ostentatious than new money, and its possessors tend to keep a low profile even those who have attained some prominence on their own.
Take Harriet Doerr. Her first novel, “Stones for Ibarra,” was published in 1984 to great acclaim and accompanying sales. Much was made of her age, 73 at the time, and of the fact that she had just received her B.A. from Stanford University’s writing program. The novel won the National Book Award.
Less was mentioned about her family. Doerr, who lives in Pasadena, is the granddaughter of railroad baron Henry Huntington, and she grew up running around the orange groves where the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens now lie. Despite becoming a fairly prominent novelist (she has written a second bestseller since her first book), Doerr rarely gives interviews or speaks in public and when she does, it’s about her books, not her Huntington roots. She didn’t return calls.
When Huntington died in 1927, he left an estate of just under $43 million, not counting the $30 million art and rare-book collection left to the library. In his will, Huntington left his three daughters and his sister $1 million each. His only son, Howard, died in 1922, but Howard’s widow and five of her six children, including Harriet Doerr, received bequests of $150,000 each. The sixth, namesake Henry E. Huntington II, received $200,000.
The other Huntington heirs, like Doerr, live very quiet lives. One grandson, Edwards Metcalf, is active at the Huntington Library and a rare-book collector. Henry E. Huntington III lives with his family, appropriately enough, in Huntington Beach.
“So far as I know, except for (Doerr and Metcalf), I don’t know that any of them are around,” said Midge Sherwood, an author who is a researcher at the Huntington Library.
Larry Niven is best known as the author of several bestselling science fiction books, and has won the Hugo award five times. What isn’t mentioned in articles about him is that Niven’s mother was Lucy Doheny, daughter of oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny, whose heirs are considered by some to be among the richest families in California.
Doheny struck oil in the middle of Hancock Park in 1892, creating the city’s first oil boom. When he died in 1935, he left his estate, valued at $9 million, to his second wife, Estelle. Like Huntington, Doheny’s son died before he did. Edward Jr., known as Ned, left a wife and five children.
Doheny provided for his grandchildren by forming trusts for them that held interests his domestic oil operations. In 1949, the grandchildren’s share in the trust was sold to Union Oil, now Unocal, for $22 million and 600,000 shares of Union Oil Stock. When Estelle died in 1958, her estate was worth more than $37 million.
The Doheny name is all over Los Angeles, and the family has made large contributions to cultural and medical facilities. The Estelle Doheny Eye Foundation is world famous, and has assets well over $100 million. Patrick A. Doheny, Edward’s son, continues to be a prominent patron of the L.A. County Museum of Art. His daughter, Eileen, is a freelance writer married to Peter McCoy, who worked in the Reagan White House.
Although members of the Doheny family maintain a high profile among L.A.’s socialites, they, like the Huntington heirs, prefer not to talk about their family connections.
“They are extremely private,” said Margaret Leslie Davis, who says it was a major accomplishment getting interviews with members of the family for her 1998 biography of Doheny.
Privacy is less of an option for some.
The Chandlers long have been one of L.A.’s most prominent families. When Otis Chandler stepped down as publisher of the Los Angeles Times in 1980, he ended a three-generation tradition of passing the reins of control from father to son. Outsider Mark H. Willes now runs Times Mirror Co.
While Otis and his parents, Norman and Dorothy “Buff” Chandler, kept a busy social schedule, the current generation is rarely in the public view. When they are in the news, it is usually about how the family’s influence has declined amid internecine squabbling.
But if their clout is dwindling, their wealth isn’t. The family holds 68 percent of the voting interests in Times Mirror, and that percentage is increasing as the company continues to buy back its own stock. Times Mirror’s share price has also risen during Willes’ four-year tenure.
As a result, the more than 100 members of the family trust are doing very well. And some of the Chandlers continue to be active on the board of Time Mirror as well as at the Times.
Harry B. Chandler, Otis’ son, lives in Hancock Park and is one of several cousins at the paper, where he is director of new business development.
Though the days when Buff Chandler single-handedly brought old money and new money together to fund the construction of the Music Center are undeniably over, fund-raisers say the family continues to do philanthropic work. Harry Chandler says no one is more aware of their family’s responsibilities to the city than the Chandlers themselves.
“There is a great family legacy, one requiring not just working at the company but one of civic responsibility,” he said. “Those are big shoes to fill.”
