The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (30 page)

“Indeed,” said Conrad. “And how, may I ask, did you happen upon the motion picture business, my dear?” he asked, still not taking his eyes off Nicky.

“Well, Howard Hughes helped me a great deal,” Mamie said. His gaze still fixed on Nicky, Conrad acted as if he hadn’t heard her.

“Howard Hughes sort of discovered her, Pop,” Nicky repeated nervously.

“Indeed,” Conrad said with an arched eyebrow. “I’m sure he did.”

And on it went, with Conrad asking questions of Mamie but never actually acknowledging her presence, and Nicky answering for her. “Needless to say,” Mamie recalled, “I did not feel welcomed.”

After dinner, Nicky and Conrad found themselves in an adversarial discussion about a ballpoint pen business in which Nicky had recently become invested. The idea was to have large ballpoint pens placed in the rooms of Hilton hotels all over the world, which guests would then pay for on an honor basis, leaving behind a dollar for a set of two. Though Conrad’s intuition told him it was a bad idea, he had decided to go along with it in order to support his son’s vision. However, so far, the concept was not turning a profit. Conrad chose this moment to bring his disappointment in it to Nicky’s attention. “People are just taking the pens without paying for them,” he told Nicky. To Conrad, it made sense; in his mind, when a person picked up a pen to use it, the next thing he usually did was put it in his pocket and walk away with it. It wasn’t stealing, Conrad said, it was instinct.

“But these pens are too long to put in your pocket,” Nicky argued. He explained that they were writing pens, the kind one would use at a desk; they had no click-on tops. So Nicky didn’t believe people were stealing them.

“But charging a dollar for two pens?” Conrad asked. He wasn’t sure about the price, he said; he
was
sure, though, that
he
certainly would not spend a buck for a couple of pens. “And have you taken a look at the books?” he asked. According to the financial statements, Conrad noted, it definitely appeared that people were pilfering the pens.

Nicky shook his head at the suggestion that he didn’t know what was going on in his own business. Maybe out of frustration, he unknotted his black bow tie, unfastened the top button of his crisp white shirt, and then let the tie just hang from his collar. He didn’t like being told in front of Mamie that his first stab at an entrepreneurial venture was failing. “It takes time to start a new venture,” he told his dad defensively.

“Quite right,” Conrad said, conceding the point. “But my gut tells me this isn’t going to work.”

Nicky didn’t respond.

(In the end, Conrad’s intuition would be proved right; Nicky’s venture would soon go belly up.)

After this somewhat tense discussion with his father, Nicky tried to lighten the mood by taking Mamie on a tour of the massive estate. Conrad decided to tag along. As Nicky showed Mamie one room after another, Conrad didn’t say a word, still seeming somewhat miffed about the earlier disagreement. Finally, the trio found themselves outdoors.

“Say, I want to show you the new pool house,” Conrad finally said to Nicky, breaking his silence. He led the couple down a long pathway through the sprawling floral gardens, past the glistening blue pool, and finally to a nice cottage that looked as if it had just been built. Smiling for the first time that evening, Conrad told Nicky that he had had the guesthouse remodeled specifically for Nicky’s use. He said he felt his son could be happy living there, and would have a measure of privacy as well. So,” Conrad concluded, “what do you think, son?”

“I don’t know, Pop…,” Nicky said. He seemed extremely uncomfortable.

“Well, let’s go in and take a look around, shall we?” Conrad offered.

After opening the front door with a large, ornate key, Conrad stepped inside the cottage and into its parlor, followed by Nicky and Mamie. The living room was opulently furnished, as if having been prepared for a photo shoot that would appear in a magazine devoted to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. There was even a pool table. “I had never seen anything quite so beautiful,” Mamie said. “I remember thinking, ‘
This
is a pool house? You have
got
to be kidding me!’ ”

“So what do you think, Nick?” Conrad asked again after they had gone to each room and were now back where they had started, in the living room.

“Nice, Pop,” Nicky said, leaning against the black-felted pool table. He then turned his attention to the table, set the balls up in a rack, removed the triangle, and selected a cue stick off the wall rack. Bending over the table, he sized things up and then took his best shot. The balls went scattering, four of them flying swiftly into side pockets. He nodded his satisfaction and put the stick down. Then, turning to his father, he said he was impressed with the job Conrad had done on the remodeled guesthouse but, in the end, he still preferred his own little apartment in Hollywood. Conrad studied his son carefully. “Well, I insist that you move in here,” he said, his tone now firm.

As Conrad spoke, Nicky began to look self-conscious, and as Mamie would later recall it, “he seemed so small and weak to me as he stood there with his father, this imposing, powerful presence.” Shuffling his feet, Nicky managed to say, “Okay, Pop. I’ll think about it.”

“Fine, then,” Conrad concluded. “I will arrange to have your things packed and brought here right away.” Now seeming pleased, Conrad looked at Mamie and said, “I have rather a headache, my dear, so I will take my leave. So very nice to meet you.” She extended her hand to him. He kissed it gallantly. Then he walked away, leaving her and Nicky standing in the living room of the cottage.

“Wow,” Mamie exclaimed.

“Yeah, I know,” Nicky said, shaking his head in dismay. “Wow.”

That night, after Nicky and Mamie made love, the two lay naked on top of the bed, chain-smoking cigarettes and chatting about their strange experience at Conrad’s home. “I’m awfully sorry about it,” Nicky told Mamie. He said he felt he should apologize for his father. “He means well. But…” His voice trailed off.

“Well, I think you might love it in that little cottage,” Mamie said, according to her memory of the conversation. She added that she could even redecorate it for him, if he wanted her to do so.

“No, I don’t think so,” Nick said, taking a puff. Lost in thought, he exhaled a plume of white smoke upward to the ceiling. He said he wasn’t moving because he believed his father’s true motivation was just to keep an eye on him. “It’s his way of controlling me,” he concluded.

“Well, I think he just loves you, sweetheart,” Mamie said, curling up close and relaxing into him. “Like me.”

He kissed her tenderly on the forehead. “Yes. But he thinks I’m a loser,” Nicky said, suddenly seeming sad.

“That’s not true,” Mamie said.

“It is,” he said. “He respects one thing. Strength.”

“But you
are
strong.”

“Then I need to prove it by keeping my own apartment,” he decided.

She said she understood.

Nicky then became lost in a distant memory. He was thirteen and he and his father were in a department store attempting to buy him a new suit for a birthday party. Conrad and a superior-acting store clerk were going from one department to another picking out jackets and shirts and ties for Nicky while the teenager sat in a chair and waited impatiently. Finally, Conrad stood before his eldest son, his arms overflowing with clothing, beads of perspiration dripping from his forehead. “I looked up at him,” Nicky recalled with a little smile, “and I said, ‘Wow, Pop. You sure worked hard on this goddamn thing, didn’t you?’ ” He laughed. “I love him so much,” Nicky said. “All I want to do is please him. That’s about all I want to do.”

“Laying there in that moment, I suddenly felt that I really understood Nicky Hilton,” Mamie Van Doren recalled. “He respected his father so much, yet he felt that his father didn’t respect him in return. I suddenly got it that the reason Nicky drank so much was because he knew that his father had such low expectations of him. Nicky wanted a lot, but constantly fell short of the mark, and it got to the point where he started thinking maybe his father was right about him. After all,
Conrad Hilton
couldn’t be wrong, could he? He was totally dominated by Conrad. Because of that, I knew he and I would be hopeless. If he valued his father’s opinion so much, and his father didn’t approve of me, I knew I wouldn’t stand a chance with Nicky. After that night, I gave up on the idea of having a future with Nicky Hilton.”

PART SEVEN

The Big Boon

The Hilton Junket

W
ith the passing of the years, things seemed to get worse for Nicky Hilton, but not so for his father. Conrad Hilton continued to make an indelible mark on American history as a true pioneer of its hotel industry.

In 1954, Hilton bought the Statler hotel chain with its eleven hotels for $111 million, which at the time was the largest real estate deal made since the historic Louisiana Purchase 150 years earlier. The following year, he further streamlined his hotel operation by creating a central reservation office, which he called Hilcron. Though no one had ever heard of such a concept, Conrad had created a system whereby customer reservations could be made at any of his hotels anywhere in the world simply by calling a telephone number or sending a telegram to a central address. That same year, 1955, Conrad also innovated the concept of air-conditioning in every room, which was unheard of at the time. Also in 1955, Conrad opened the Hilton Istanbul, the first modern hotel built in post–World War II Europe. It would be responsible for a 60 percent increase in tourism in Turkey during its first year of operation. At about this same time, he also opened the Continental Hilton in Mexico City and the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.

The opening of the Beverly Hilton in August 1955 was, as usual, a star-studded affair that involved a solid week of carefully orchestrated, splashy activities. Money was never an object when it came to these events. “We have the finances to spend on impressing people, and there’s nothing wrong with it,” Conrad had told his staff. “The sky’s the limit,” he exclaimed. “Whenever we open a hotel, it’s to be considered a cultural event.”

The opening of the Beverly Hilton provides a textbook example of what these affairs were like during Conrad’s heyday. On August 4, 1955, members of the media as well as Hilton employees from all over the world and personal friends were flown to Los Angeles and then taken to the new Hilton hotel at the busy intersection of Beverly, Santa Monica, and Wilshire Boulevards. Upon his arrival, each person was handed a specific itinerary of exciting upcoming events, which would commence on the fourth and end on August 12.

For instance, according to the schedule, among the events on the evening of the sixth was a “Dinner Preview and Tasting” at the hotel’s L’Escoffier restaurant. The next night, after a full day of press conferences and speeches, a special cocktail reception was held at Conrad’s home from seven to nine. It was attended by many celebrities, including, of course, Conrad’s companion Ann Miller—sporting a striking emerald necklace given to her by Conrad—and other show business luminaries such as Debbie Reynolds, Charlton Heston, Dean Martin, Diahann Carroll, and Lena Horne. Also present were notables from many walks of business who had become regular invitees to such events, such as Henry Crown, who owned the Empire State Building, and Y. Frank Freeman, president of Paramount Pictures. To make sure the event generated an appropriate amount of media buzz, newspaper columnists such as Louella Parsons and Cobina Wright were also on hand.

On August 8, Hilton’s invited guests were taken on a full tour of the new hotel before enjoying another full day of luncheons and dinners.

The next day, two more extravagant luncheons were scheduled, one hosted by Paramount Pictures Corporation and another by 20th Century-Fox Studios. That same day, August 9, everyone was taken to Disneyland at 4 p.m. Afterward, a “Black Tie Victory Dinner” was scheduled in the Bali Room of the Hilton.

On August 10, “the flag raising ceremony and official opening luncheon for gentlemen only” was scheduled. That afternoon, a “luncheon for ladies only” was held at Conrad’s Casa Encantada, hosted by Olive Wakeman. Also helping to host the affair was Marilyn Hilton, making a stylish impression in a Persian lamb sweater, a gift from Barron. Zsa Zsa Gabor—now divorced from George Sanders, mostly as a result of her public and stormy affair with Dominican Republic playboy Porfirio Rubirosa—even stopped by to greet the ladies, looking smashing in a beaded cashmere sweater. After the luncheon, there was “The Hilton Champagne Ball” and then “The Hilton Barbecue Party,” followed by “The Hilton Private Event” (white dinner jacket required) and then “Conrad’s Special Evening Event” (black tie only).

“You were swept off your feet by these activities,” recalled Margaret O’Brien. “It was exciting and fun but also a lot of work. Sometimes it felt like a job! But the extravagance was overwhelming. Money was being spent like there was no tomorrow. Everything was first-rate.”

The merriment culminated on Sunday, August 14, when the Beverly Hilton was finally opened to the public, with a dapper Conrad Hilton standing at the end of a bright red carpet in a sharp-looking tuxedo, personally welcoming the first couple of hundred guests to his newest establishment.