During WWII, the Emerton Club's hotel lounge was a popular gathering place for cadets from nearby Rankin Field. Emery Whilton often greeted his guests impeccably dressed in a linen suit and proudly showed them his numerous wildlife trophies, which his daughter, Inez Whilton, a zoologist, had mounted. Mr. Whilton filled the hotel lobby and dining room with the world's most outstanding private collection of California wild animals, birds, and fish specimens.