The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (37 page)

Upon returning to the States, the newlyweds purchased a modest three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in Beverly Hills on Alpine Drive. Soon after, nineteen-year-old Trish Hilton learned that she was pregnant. The couple was ecstatic, as were Conrad, Barron, and Eric, who seemed to sense that the impending birth would mark a defining moment in Nicky’s life. It certainly did seem as if he had turned his life around. He wasn’t drinking or taking pills, he was responsible at his job, and he seemed to be happy in his life. Conrad saw to it that Trish had one of the best obstetricians in Los Angeles, the same one who had delivered Lucille Ball’s children. “My pregnancy was so wonderful,” she recalled. “I remember it as being a happy time.”

One morning, at a Hilton Corporation board meeting, Nicky stood up to make an announcement. He’d never looked better, wearing a navy blue cashmere jacket and black pants with a crisp white shirt and navy tie. “It’s official, gentlemen,” he announced to the executives seated on both sides of long conference table. “We have a new acquisition,” he continued, now gazing at his father at the head of the table. “He’s a bouncing baby boy. And his name is Conrad Nicholson Hilton the third.” As everyone at the table applauded the good news, Nicky rose and walked over to his father, who also stood up. He had finally done something Barron had somehow neglected to do—name a son after Conrad. Of course, maybe it would have been inappropriate for Barron to have done so with one of his many children, since it was Nicky who had been named after his father. As it was, Nicky would be the one to bring forth Conrad Nicholson Hilton the third. He and Conrad embraced, holding each other for just a moment before Conrad broke loose. “Okay, enough,” he said. “We’ve got work to do,” he concluded with a grin. “Looks to me like the next generation of Hiltons is growing by leaps and bounds. Let’s give them something to remember us by, shall we?”

A year later, Trish and Nicky welcomed another son, Michael, named after Nicky’s friend Miguel Alemán Valdés, who had been the president of Mexico from 1946 to 1952 and was now president of the national tourist commission.

Nicky and Trish’s friend Carole Wells Doheny—married to Laurence Doheny of the wealthy Doheny family of Los Angeles—recalled the couple’s first years of marriage as being blissfully happy. “Nicky seemed to fall more in love with Trish with the passing of time,” she said. “He became more emotional, more sentimental, especially after the second baby came. I can also tell you that he never cheated on Trish. He and I were close and I would know—and he never did. He was utterly devoted to her.”

Carole Wells Doheny recalled one evening in particular during a skiing vacation in Aspen, Colorado, that she and her husband took with Nicky and Trish. She says it was a night when she realized just how much Nicky had changed. She and Nicky were relaxing on a couch in the den of the chalet the couples had rented for the week, having drinks and passing the hours. Trish was lying on the carpet in front of them, chatting happily away and playing with the two boys. Wearing tight black jeans, a red silk blouse, and a wide silver belt that perfectly accentuated her hourglass figure, Trish had never looked more striking. As she spoke, Nicky just looked warmly at her. Then, when Trish became preoccupied with one of the babies, Nicky turned to Carole and said, “Isn’t Trish beautiful?” Carole had to agree. Then Nicky added, “I think she’s the most beautiful woman I have ever known.” Considering the number of stunning women Nicky had known in his lifetime, Carole felt that his observation of Trish was quite the compliment. “What a wonderful thing to say,” she told him. Nicky grinned at Carole and, still gazing lovingly at his wife, concluded, “I’m a lucky man, Carole. And I’ve never known it more than I know it right now in this very second.”

Zsa Zsa Teaches Trish About the Hiltons

D
ah-ling
, Zsa Zsa is here now. So, don’t you worry about a thing!”

It was Tuesday, December 16, 1958, and Zsa Zsa Gabor had just come to the rescue of an anxious Trish Hilton. Trish was frantic with worry as she attempted to plan her first important dinner party as a Hilton wife, which was scheduled for the evening of the eighteenth. Even though she had certainly entertained in the past, this night was to be special because all of the Hiltons would be together for the first time in the new Beverly Hills home she shared with Nicky. Nicky had told her not to give it a second thought. Just whip up something simple, he told her. “No big deal.”

With just two days to prepare, Trish didn’t know how she would be able to make the kind of good impression she so desperately wished to make on her affluent new family members. “I don’t think I can do it,” she told Nicky, close to tears. “I need a least a
week
!” Nicky laughed. “I’ll tell you what; call Zsa Zsa for help,” he suggested. “If anyone can put on a good party, it’s her.” Trish was reluctant. She barely knew Zsa Zsa Gabor, having only met her a couple of times. She couldn’t imagine why the Hungarian star would want to help her. But Nicky told her that if she called Zsa Zsa and just said the word “party,” she would “come a-runnin’. Not only that, she’ll
want
to help,” he said with a grin, “because we’re family. She was my stepmother, after all. I mean, in some crazy way.” The idea of Zsa Zsa Gabor as anyone’s stepmother made Trish smile and relax a little; she suddenly felt better.

About an hour later, Trish called the telephone number Nicky had given her, and within thirty minutes Zsa Zsa Gabor was seated with her at her dining room table. Over streusel cake and coffee, the two women got to know each other a little better before finally getting down to business. Of course, they talked about Conrad. Zsa Zsa told Trish about their early courtship days and how thrilling that time was in her life and how sorry she was that the marriage had to end. She said she was sure things would work out better for Trish and Nicky, but offered a little advice. “Husbands are like fires,” she said, “they go out when left unattended.” Finally it was time to get down to business. Zsa Zsa whipped out a small spiral notebook from her purse. “Okay, now what exactly is it you want to do, dear?” she asked.

“Well, Nicky said to just keep it casual,” Trish explained. “So, you know…
simple
, I guess.”

Zsa Zsa laughed heartily. “Oh, my dear, there is nothing
casual
or
simple
about the
Hiltons
!” she exclaimed. She added that even if it was to be an intimate gathering, Trish should still make it memorable. After all, she would have “only one chance to make a good impression on
this
kind of family.” Then, taking quick stock of things, Zsa Zsa decided that if she really wanted to impress, Trish needed a majordomo, a chef, and a maid. However, the problem was that Trish and Nicky had no such staff in their employ—in fact, they had no help at all! Therefore, Zsa Zsa offered to send members of her own household workforce who held those positions.

“So, what would you like to serve?” Zsa Zsa then asked.

“Um… spaghetti?” Trish asked.

Zsa Zsa doubled over with laughter. “
Spaghetti!
” she exclaimed. “Oh, no, no,
no
! You do not serve
spaghetti
to the
Hiltons
!” Steaks should be on the menu, Zsa Zsa decided, because the Hiltons liked “hearty American foods.
Potatoes! Corn! Vegetables!
All of the typical American foods. Just no hot dogs,” she said with a laugh. As she spoke, she continued to add to her list: French bread, red wine, “a nice salad,” and cheesecake with strawberries for desert. “Oh, and champagne,” she added. “
Pink
champagne.” Finally she looked up from her notepad and announced, “You and I will do this together, my dear. It’ll be fun! I’ve been a part of this family for a long time, and I know just what we all like.”

“Well, then you must come to the party,” Trish offered. “Say you’ll come. Please.”

“Oh no, absolutely not,” Zsa Zsa said. She explained that if she were present alongside members of her own domestic staff, the family might conclude that it was
her
party, not Trish’s. And this was to be Trish’s big night. “Just act as if you did it all yourself,” Zsa Zsa suggested. “Let it be our little secret.” Also, she hastened to add that when she and Conrad were in the same room together, it could sometimes be explosive, “and you aren’t ready to experience
that
just yet, especially not at your first party,” she concluded with a cackle. Besides, she said, she was already scheduled to appear that night at the red carpet premiere for the new Frank Sinatra film,
Some Came Running
, directed by Vincente Minnelli. If she didn’t show up, she concluded, it would be to the disappointment of many people. “Plus,” she added gaily, “I’m wearing my new chinchilla!”

For the next day or so, Trish Hilton and Zsa Zsa Gabor planned Trish’s dinner party down to the very last crouton, and they became good friends in the process. It was to be a friendship that would last for more than thirty years.

“Now I must see the dress you will wear,” Zsa Zsa told Trish on the morning of the party. Trish went upstairs to change and reappeared in a floral-printed bouffant dress with a tightly cinched waist. “Oh, you look so
luffly
,” Zsa Zsa enthused as the new Hilton wife descend the stairs. She complimented Trish’s good taste, and even seemed somewhat surprised by it. She then walked over to Trish and with her fingertip traced the area just below Trish’s neck and above her cleavage. “Do you see this part right here?” she asked. “This is the sexiest part of a woman,” she told her new charge. “It’s not the breasts, though I do love the breasts,” she continued. “It’s the fleshy area right
above
the breasts and below the neck that is sexiest. Such a beautiful spot on a woman.”

Zsa Zsa gathered her things to leave. After telling Trish to have a “
mah-vellous
time,” she promised to have flowers delivered that afternoon—specifically red roses, which she said were Marilyn Hilton’s favorites. She hugged Trish and was then quickly out the door, on her busy way to prepare for the movie premiere, but not before one last parting thought. “Do not let Conrad intimidate you,” she said. “He’s just a man like any other, do not forget that.”

That evening, Trish hosted her first dinner party as a Hilton. “Of course, as expected, Conrad was present, as was Nicky’s mother, Mary,” Trish recalled. “Barron and Marilyn were also there, as was Eric and his wife, Pat. There were a few other business associates present as well. In all, there were ten guests, including me and Nicky. It turned out to be a perfectly lovely evening; Zsa Zsa’s staff handled every moment beautifully.”

“Say, don’t I know these people from somewhere?” Conrad asked Marilyn at one point as he studied the maid’s face carefully. Of course, Marilyn knew exactly who the household staff belonged to, having been to Zsa Zsa’s on many occasions. However, she would never give away Trish’s secret. She and Trish shared a conspiratorial look. “No, Connie,” Marilyn said. “I believe these people were just hired by Nicky and Trish.” Conrad smiled. “Funny how all maids look alike, isn’t it?” he asked with a chuckle.

The next day, Zsa Zsa Gabor came to Nicky and Trish’s for a late breakfast, which Trish prepared as a small way of thanking her for her assistance. Nicky joined the two women for the meal—eggs Benedict, hash browns, cottage cheese, coffee, and an assortment of fruits. “It was obvious that Nicky and Zsa Zsa had a special relationship,” Trish recalled. “Zsa Zsa had known him since he was a kid, so really she was like a mother to him in some ways, though she liked to think of herself as an older sister. They had a lot in common, I found, especially in terms of how they believed they were viewed by Conrad.”

“You know, your father has no respect for me whatsoever,” Zsa Zsa told Nicky at one point. She was not her effervescent self; she looked tired and a little hungover, likely from the previous night’s festivities.

“Oh, no, Zsa Zsa, that’s not true,” Nicky said.

“Oh,
please
,” Zsa Zsa said. “He thinks I’m a joke.” Zsa Zsa then said that Conrad had no idea what she had done with her career, how hard she had worked to make something of herself. In his mind, she said, it was all just “silly nonsense.” She said that she faced the exact same dilemma with her third husband, George Sanders, who had told her she was much too stupid to ever have a career, and when she finally did have one, he would never so much as even acknowledge it. As for Conrad, she recalled once saying to him, “You know, Connie, I was nominated for an Emmy award.” Now she asked Nicky, “Do you know what he said back to me?”

“What?”

“He said, ‘Well, you didn’t
win
it, now, did you?’ ” She shook her head incredulously. Then she asked Nicky a difficult question. “Tell me the truth,” she said, leaning in to him and looking quite serious. “Do you feel that he respects
you
?”

The question seemed to make Nicky self-conscious. “I think so,” he answered, hedging. He also added that everyone in the family had worked hard to earn Conrad’s respect.