The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (80 page)

Though Hilton hotels were always designed to blend as much as possible into the local scenery—in Tokyo, for instance there were no drapes on the windows, but rather sliding panels of wood and rice paper, and in Hong Kong the beds had pagoda-shaped headboards—there were some predictable characteristics of the Hilton brand no matter the country. There would always be a framed portrait of Conrad Hilton in the lobby. To make American guests feel more at home in foreign countries, cheeseburgers were served in restaurants. There would also be a Gideon Bible in the drawer of one nightstand and a copy of Conrad’s autobiography,
Be My Guest
, in the other. It’s what the public came to expect.

The conversation between Conrad and Mary Hilton that took place after the wedding of Nicky and Elizabeth is as per Conrad’s account, found in
Be My Guest
. Also, details of Nicky’s poor adjustment to marriage and to Elizabeth’s celebrity can be found both in
Be My Guest
and in my book
Elizabeth.

PART SIX. SPOILS OF THE RICH AND FAMOUS

America’s Dad

Interviews conducted: Thomas Worthington (September 12, 2011); Stewart Armstrong (November 13, 2011; November 14, 2011; November 15, 2012); Carole Wells Doheny (March 8, 2012; March 12, 2012; June 15, 2012); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 2, 2012; April 3, 2012; April 10, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
Be My Guest
by Conrad Hilton;
The Silver Spade: The Conrad Hilton Story
by Whitney Bolton;
Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture
by Annabel Jane Wharton;
House of Hilton
by Jerry Oppenheimer;
The Man Who Bought the Waldorf
by Thomas Ewing Dabney;
Conrad N. Hilton, Hotelier
by Mildred Houghton Comfort.

Articles referenced: “Hilton Hotels Form Subsidiary Group to Operate Outside U.S.A,”
Hotel Gazette
, May 29, 1948; “C. N. Hilton Sees Important Possibilities for U.S.-European Cooperative Hotel Business,”
Hotel Monthly
, vol. 56, no. 6 (September 1948); Conrad N. Hilton, “The Battle for Freedom,”
New York Times
, January 1951; Charles St. Peter, “Hilton Hotels Lists Stock Here: Eyes Foreign Fields,”
San Francisco Examiner
, February 9, 1951; “How to Cut Costs and Up Tour Profits,”
Hotel Management
, May 1951; T. A. Wise, “Global Hosts: W.S. Hotelkeepers Are Stepping Up Invasion of Foreign Cities,”
Wall Street Journal
, January 19, 1954; Seena Hamilton, “Hilton’s International Expansion Instrument in World Development,”
Hotel Gazette
, March 1, 1954; Bill Cunningham, “Hilton Spreading Right Type of Aid,”
Boston Sunday Herald
, June 24, 1956; Lawrence M. Hughes, “Hilton’s Private Statesmanship Shapes World-Wide Peace,”
Sales Management
, October 19, 1956; Vincent Flaherty, “Hilton Deals Communists Blow in Cuba Speech,”
Los Angeles Examiner
, April 1, 1958.

Speeches referenced: “The Battle for Freedom,” to the National Conference of Christians and Jews at the Waldorf-Astoria, November 21, 1950; Address delivered to the Midwest Hotel Show in Chicago, March 29, 1951; Address to the American Hotel Association in St. Louis, October 10, 1952; Address delivered at the Second Annual Prayer Breakfast, Washington, D.C., February 4, 1954; Address delivered at the Canadian Conference of Christians and Jews, Royal York Hotel, Toronto, November 22, 1954; Address delivered to the 48th Annual Convention of the Texas Hotel Association, Dallas, May 3, 1955; Address delivered at the opening of the Denver Hilton, Denver, April 7, 1960.

Legal documents referenced: “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979); “Deposition of Frances Kelly Hilton” (October 19, 1979).

Television programs referenced:
What’s My Line?
, Conrad Hilton, June 5, 1955;
Person to Person
, interview with Conrad Hilton, 1955;
Today
, “National Prayer Breakfast,” February 2, 1956;
The Ed Sullivan Show
, Conrad Hilton, April 6, 1958;
This Is Your Life
, June 4, 1958;
CBS News Campaign ’64: Nixon Press Conference
, in San Francisco for the 1964 Republican National Convention, July 14, 1964 (Nixon was accompanied by Conrad Hilton, aide H. R. “Bob” Haldeman, staff member Sherman Unger, and others);
Conrad Hilton: Innkeeper to the World
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005;
Biography: Conrad Hilton
, CNBC, 2010;
The Hiltons
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005.

Casa Encantada

Interviews conducted: Carole Wells Doheny (June 15, 2012); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 3, 2012); Patricia McClintock Hilton (April 2, 2012; April 8, 2012; April 16, 2012; April 20, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
Be My Guest
by Conrad Hilton;
The Silver Spade: The Conrad Hilton Story
by Whitney Bolton;
Building the Cold War: Hilton International Hotels and Modern Architecture
by Annabel Jane Wharton.

Articles referenced: “Conrad Weber Buys Weber Home,”
Los Angeles Times
, November 4, 1950; “The Four Great Estates,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 8, 1996; “Exclusive Homes,”
Los Angeles Times
, June 1, 1977; Ronald W. Erdrich, “Big Country Journal: No Handouts for Hilton,” MReporterNews.com, August 2, 2012.

Legal documents referenced: “Last Will and Testament of Conrad Nicholson Hilton” (June 3, 1955); “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979); “Deposition of Frances Kelly Hilton” (October 19, 1979).

Television programs referenced:
The Hiltons
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005;
Conrad Hilton: Innkeeper to the World
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005;
Biography: Conrad Hilton
, CNBC, 2010.

NOTES

As earlier noted, for details about the décor and furnishings of Casa Encantada in this and in other sections of this book, I relied on the privately published
The House of Hilton: Casa Encantada
.

Linda Hilton’s comment is from Ronald W. Erdrich, “Big Country Journal: No Handouts for Hilton,” MReporterNews.com, August 2, 2012.

Conrad Hilton bought Casa Encantada in 1950 from Hilda Olsen, a woman with an interesting, and tragic, story. She had been a nurse who in 1920 married one of her patients, a widower, Cincinnati millionaire glass manufacturer and hotel magnate George Charles Boldt. Coincidentally, considering Conrad’s recent major purchase, Boldt had once been the proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria and was credited with popularizing Thousand Island dressing when he instructed maître d’ Oscar Tshirky to include it on the Waldorf’s menu. He also owned the Bellevue Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.

When Boldt died in 1929, Hilda Olsen went on to marry the couple’s chauffeur, Otto Weber. She then used her husband’s fortune to try to keep up with the (very rich) Joneses in the neighborhood, risking $2 million during the worst years of the Depression to commission architect Mil Dolena to build the house. Once work on the house was completed, she hosted incredible parties for Beverly Hills high society, aided by her staff of a dozen servants. She lived the good life for about nine years, until she ran out of money. In desperate financial straits, she sold the estate to Conrad for just a fraction of its worth. She then took what Conrad paid her for the house to the racetrack to try to double her winnings, but instead lost it all. Despondent by her losses, she went home and killed herself. It was a tragic story that Conrad Hilton told many times over the years, a cautionary tale, he felt, of what can happen when someone attains a great deal of wealth without really working for it.

“He’s Getting Worse”/A Baroness Named Betsy/The Shadow of Her Smile/If Only

Interviews conducted: Bob Neal (March 1, 1998; May 4, 2005; June 1, 2005; August 4, 2005); Connie Espinoza de Amaté (October 1, 2011); Carole Wells Doheny (March 8, 2012); Stewart Armstrong (November 13, 2011; November 14, 2011; November 15, 2011); Betsy von Furstenberg (May 10, 2012; May 11, 2012; May 12, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
Be My Guest
by Conrad Hilton.

Articles referenced: “Nicky Hilton and Air Force Officer Battle in Night Club,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 22, 1951; “Hilton to Wed Actress After Elizabeth Taylor Decree Final,” Associated Press, September 20, 1951; “Starlett Says She’ll Be Nicky Hilton Bride,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 20, 1951; Hedda Hopper, “Will Nicky Marry Again?,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 25, 1951; “Hungarian Rhapsody,”
Escapade
, August 1956.

NOTES

The interaction between Nicky, Conrad, Barron, and Maria de Amaté was reconstructed as per Maria’s memory in recalling the events to her daughter, Connie Espinoza de Amaté.

All conversations between Nicky and Betsy von Furstenberg were reconstructed from the first-person accounts of Ms. von Furstenberg.

All conversations between Nicky and Bob Neal were reconstructed from the first-person accounts of Mr. Neal.

Zsa Zsa Finds Her Niche

Interviews conducted: Zsa Zsa Gabor (February 2, 1986); Dylan Terrell Thomas (October 22, 2011); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 2, 2012; April 3, 2012; April 10, 2012); Betsy von Furstenberg (May 10, 2012; May 11, 2012; May 12, 2012); Lena Burrell (September 12, 2012; October 11, 2012; December 2, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
Jolie Gabor
by Cindy Adams;
One Lifetime Is Not Enough
by Zsa Zsa Gabor;
Zsa Zsa Gabor: My Story
by Zsa Zsa Gabor and Gerold Frank;
Gaborabilia
by Anthony Turtu and Donald F. Reute;
Eva Gabor an Amazing Woman: “Unscrupulous”
by Camyl Sosa Belanger;
How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man
by Zsa Zsa Gabor;
A Dreadful Man: A Personal, Intimate Book About George Sanders
by Brian Aherne;
George Sanders, Zsa Zsa and Me
by David R. Slavitt;
Making the Good Life Last
by Merv Griffin.

Articles referenced: “Love Hints from Zsa Zsa,”
Life
, October 15, 1951; “Zsa Zsa Gabor Is Married Here to Corporation Head,”
New York Times
, November 6, 1962; “Zsa Zsa Decides It’s Time to Sell Beauty Formulas,”
New York Times
, January 29, 1969; Leslie Bennetts, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Zsa Zsa World,”
Vanity Fair
, September 2007.

Legal documents referenced: miscellaneous file notes from
Zsa Gabor Plaintiff vs. Fawcett Publications, Inc.
(November 1960); “Contestant Constance Francesca Hilton’s Responses to Defendants William Barron Hilton and James E. Bates Interrogatories” (May 29, 1979); “Deposition of Sari Zsa Zsa Gabor O’Hara” (June 14, 1979; July 9, 1979; July 10, 1979); “Deposition of Constance Francesca Hilton” (September 12, 1979; September 13, 1979; September 14, 1979); “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979); “Deposition of Frances Kelly Hilton” (October 19, 1979).

Television programs referenced:
The Jack Paar Program
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, October 19, 1962;
The Jack Paar Program
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, November 23, 1962;
The Jack Paar Program
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, May 29, 1964;
The Jack Paar Program
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, December 4, 1964;
The Joey Bishop Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, May 8, 1968;
The Joey Bishop Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, August 16, 1968;
The David Frost Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, May 12, 1970;
Phil Donahue
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, August 10, 1971;
Geraldo
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor and Francesca Hilton, March 31, 1980;
The Pat Sajack Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, September 13, 1989;
The Geraldo Rivera Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, September 13, 1990;
One on One with John Tesh
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, September 10, 1991;
Larry King Live
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, November 26, 1991;
The Howard Stern Summer Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, May 2, 1992;
One on One with John Tesh
, interview with Eva Gabor, 1992;
Intimate Portrait: Eva Gabor
, February 1, 1998.