Tuna Club of Avalon

Tuna Club of Avalon is a historic private fishing clubhouse at 100 St. Catherine Way on the waterfront in Avalon, Santa Catalina Island, California. The organisation was founded in 1898 under the leadership of naturalist and author Charles Frederick Holder, shortly after he landed a 183-pound bluefin tuna using a rod and reel. Its members developed formal rules for big-game sportfishing based on fair competition, limited tackle and conservation, principles that later influenced angling organisations internationally. The club initially operated from the Hotel Metropole before receiving its first dedicated clubhouse in 1908. That building was destroyed in the Avalon fire of 1915, and the present two-storey clubhouse opened in 1916. The white-painted Craftsman building is clad in clapboard and shingles and extends towards Avalon Bay on wooden pilings. Its rooms contain mounted fish, historic tackle, trophies, photographs and records documenting major catches made around Santa Catalina Island. The clubhouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places and designated California Historical Landmark No. 997 in 1991.

Tuna Club of Avalon has appeared in Chinatown (1974). Its waterfront exterior and fishing-club identity represent the fictional Albacore Club, an exclusive organisation owned by the wealthy businessman Noah Cross. The neighbouring Catalina Island Yacht Club and Catalina Casino are also visible during the Avalon sequence and should not be mistaken for parts of the Tuna Club itself.

In Chinatown (1974), private detective Jake Gittes travels to Santa Catalina Island after learning more about the former business relationship between murdered water engineer Hollis Mulwray and his father-in-law, Noah Cross. Gittes arrives at the fictional Albacore Club, represented by the Tuna Club of Avalon, and walks past a flag displaying the club’s fish emblem. A man waiting outside collects him and drives him to Cross’s estate, where Cross questions him over lunch about Mulwray’s death and asks him to locate the young woman believed to have been Mulwray’s mistress. Cross also warns Gittes that he does not understand the forces involved in the case. The lunch conversation itself was filmed at a separate property at 40 Narcissa Drive in Rancho Palos Verdes rather than inside the Tuna Club. The Albacore Club later becomes an important clue when Gittes notices its fish emblem being sewn into a quilt at the Mar Vista Rest Home. He learns that the home receives support from the club, connecting Cross’s organisation to elderly residents whose names are being used to purchase drought-stricken land without their knowledge.

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