PRIVACY, PLEASE! Histor y and Creativity Are Alive at the Exclusive Coral Casino
By Megan Waldrep | Photography courtesy of the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club
I
n some private homes in Montecito, California, paintings of the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club hang as a tribute to days gone by. The Coral or the Casino, as it’s called by real locals, has been one of the most exclusive private clubs in California for almost a century, and the story behind it is pretty juicy. Robert Odell, the main shareholder of the Pacific States Savings and Loan Company who acquired the Santa Barbara Biltmore Hotel in foreclosure in 1935, was a native Nebraskan whose boisterous personality rubbed Santa Barbara country club owners the wrong way. Instead of vying for approval, Odell redesigned the hotel’s former Biltmore Beach Club into the Coral Casino Beach and Cabana Club as a private place for affluent families and the Hollywood elite to relax.
