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Getty not only made a big strike of Eocene oil at 1,200 feet, but got right to work on a refinery to turn it into heavy fuel. Since 1956, when Getty formally changed Pacific Western's name to Getty Oil Co., Getty's half share of Neutral Zone production rocketed from 5,841,728 bbl. yearly to 11.6 million bbl. last year. Getty considers that just a beginning; the wells are scheduled to double production this year. The zone has 60 wells producing 100,000 bbl. daily, another 60 that have struck oil but are shut in until a bigger pipeline is laid and Getty's refinery goes on stream. Begrudgingly, Aminoil has conceded Getty's wisdom, itself is drilling the Eocene formation. Meantime, Getty has acquired a .4167% interest in the Iranian Consortium, good for about 700 million bbl. in reserves.
Into the Wastebasket. Such successes have thrust Getty into the public spotlight—and he is not sure he likes the glare. His wealth attracts about 1,000 letters a week from people who want money. Getty reads most of the letters himself, throws them into the wastebasket. The only recorded instance in which Paul Getty has ever loosened his purse strings was the donation of $500,000 worth of art from his collection (now housed in a special museum wing of his 64-acre seaside ranch at Malibu, Calif.) to the Los Angeles County Museum. Everyone automatically assumed there was some special tax benefit in it for Getty. (There was not.)
His penny pinching has become a legend. He eats simply, dresses well but inexpensively, spends about $280 a week for personal needs. He once took a party of friends to a dog show in London. The admission fee was 5 shillings (70¢), but a sign over the entrance said: "Half price after 5 p.m." It was then twelve minutes to 5. Said Billionaire Getty: "Let's take a walk around the block for a few minutes." On another occasion he was persuaded by British-born Author and Actress Ethel Le Vane to send some silk ties to famed Art Critic Bernard Berenson, whom she and Getty had just visited while preparing their book, Collector's Choice, a well-reviewed narrative of their hunt for art treasures. Getty caught Collaborator Le Vane writing "From Paul and Ethel" on the accompanying card. He immediately demanded that she pay half the cost of the ties, on the ground that she was getting half the credit for the gift.
Says British Publisher Mark" Goulden, publisher of Collector's Choice: "Money is an abstract thing to him, representing vast power. His frugality is a wall he has built around himself deliberately to stave off people who want to have a piece of his colossal wealth. I don't believe for a moment that he gets any enjoyment out of his money. He's just a miser—period."
Getty makes little effort to stave off one group. He is still as fond of attractive women as he was in his bachelor days, has squired a collection of them through Europe. Kis current favorite is dark, stately Penelope Kitson, 34, a British divorcee and mother of three children. Still healthy and vigorous, Getty keeps in shape with a daily round of calisthenics, dyes his hair, has had his face lifted in a London clinic. He drinks sparingly of dark rum in Coca-Cola, constantly munches chocolates, does not smoke, and does not like others to smoke in his presence.