The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (81 page)

Note: I corroborated much of Zsa Zsa Gabor’s account of her life during this time, such as her conversation with Conrad Hilton regarding
Bachelor’s Haven
, by utilizing Bart Andrews’s extensive files and transcripts relating to his interviews with Zsa Zsa Gabor for a possible autobiography collaboration between the two.

Filling Elizabeth’s Shoes/Assault/Magic Words/Mamie/Marilyn’s Party/Dinner at the Manse

Interviews conducted: Bob Neal (August 4, 2005); Robert Wentworth (June 11, 2012; June 12, 2012; June 13, 2012); Mamie Van Doren (February 9, 2011; February 10, 2011; February 11, 2011); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 3, 2012); Betsy von Furstenberg (May 10, 2012; May 11, 2012; May 12, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
Elizabeth Takes Off
by Elizabeth Taylor;
Liz: An Intimate Biography of Elizabeth Taylor
by C. David Heymann;
Elizabeth: The Life of Elizabeth Taylor
by Alexander Walker;
Elizabeth: The Last Star
by Kitty Kelley;
Elizabeth
by J. Randy Taraborrelli;
Sinatra: The Complete Story
by J. Randy Taraborrelli;
Be My Guest
by Conrad Hilton;
The Silver Spade: The Conrad Hilton Story
by Whitney Bolton.

NOTES

All conversations between Nicky and Mamie Van Doren were reconstructed from the first-person accounts of Ms. Van Doren. All details of Ms. Van Doren’s unusual evening at Casa Encantada as the dinner guest of Nicky Hilton were also reconstructed from details she herself provided.

All conversations between Nicky, Bob Neal, and Robert Wentworth were reconstructed from Mr. Neal’s and Mr. Wentworth’s first-person accounts.

I utilized the John Carroll file in the Hedda Hopper Papers in the Margaret Herrick Collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

We referenced photographs taken on the night of Marilyn Hilton’s Polynesian-themed party in order to describe the events of that evening.

I also referenced Mamie Van Doren’s website, and her blog about her love affair with Nicky Hilton (“Bedtime Stories”), at www.MamieVanDoren.com.

PART SEVEN. THE BIG BOON

The Hilton Junket

Interviews conducted: Everett Long (December 14, 2011; January 15, 2012; March 3, 2012); Doris Roberts (January 4, 2012); Patricia Skipworth Hilton (February 27, 2012; February 28, 2012; April 5, 2012); Carole Wells Doheny (March 8, 2012); Mike Dipp (March 16, 2012); Patricia McClintock Hilton (April 2, 2012; April 8, 2012; April 16, 2012; April 20, 2012); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 2, 2012; April 3, 2012; April 10, 2012); George Schlatter (April 7, 2012); Terry Moore (April 11, 2012); Ann Jeffreys (April 25, 2012); Margaret O’Brien (May 1, 2012); Dale Olsen (July 9, 2012); Mark Young (July 20, 2012); Debbie Reynolds (August 2, 2012); Ruta Lee (April 23, 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;
The Man Who Bought the Waldorf
by Thomas Ewing Dabney;
Conrad N. Hilton, Hotelier
by Mildred Houghton Comfort;
Miller’s High Life
by Ann Miller.

Articles referenced: “Hilton: The Stuff of a Hotel Man,”
Newsweek
cover story on Conrad Hilton, September 27, 1954; Hedda Hopper, “Rough draft notes re: Istanbul Hilton Opening,” June 15, 1955, Hedda Hopper Papers; “The New Istanbul Hilton,”
Asta Travel News
, July 1955; Henry Bonnett, “Press List for Opening of Dallas Hilton,” January 1956; “Rough draft notes re: Opening of the Dallas Hilton,” January 16 and January 18, 1956; Bill Cunningham, “Heigh-Ho Dallas, Here We Come,”
Boston Herald
, January 16, 1956; John Brehl, “1,000 Guests Attend Hotel Opening,”
Toronto Daly Star
, April 16, 1958; Richard Carter, “A Hotel Is Built,”
Chicago Tribune Magazine
, May 25, 1958; Amy Vanderbilt, “The Day the Queen Arrived,”
Chicago Tribune Magazine
, May 25, 1958; Irv Kupcinet, “The World’s Largest Hotel,”
Chicago Tribune Magazine
, May 25, 1958; Joan Winchell, “Conrad Plays Host,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 3, 1958; Joan Winchell, “Junketeers Climb Pyramids (Uh-Almost); Athens Viewed,”
Los Angeles Times
, March 8, 1959); “Letter from Hedda Hopper to Conrad Hilton, re: Cairo Press Junket,” March 13, 1959, Hedda Hopper Papers; Conrad Hilton, “The Anvil of Civilization: An Address Delivered at the Official Opening of the Nile Hilton,” February 22, 1959; “Hilton Joins Rockefeller Center and Uris in New Hotel,” News Release from Hilton Hotels, October 29, 1960; “Hilton Announces Expansion,” News Release from Hilton Hotels, May 3, 1961; Henry Bonnet, director of public relations, Hilton Hotels, “Letter to All Media” (regarding the opening of the Hong Kong Hilton and Tokyo Hilton), May 10, 1963; “Hotels: By Golly!,”
Time
cover story on Conrad Hilton, July 19, 1963, Hedda Hopper Papers.

Legal documents referenced: “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979).

Television programs referenced:
What’s My Line?
, Conrad Hilton, June 5, 1955;
Person to Person
, interview with Conrad Hilton, 1955;
Larry King Live
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, November 26, 1991;
The Hiltons
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005;
Conrad Hilton: Innkeeper to the World
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005;
Biography: Conrad Hilton
, CNBC, 2010).

NOTES

I utilized the extensive Hedda Hopper Papers at the Margaret Herrick Collection of the Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Library for many of the details about the Hilton junkets found on these pages. I also referenced press material—schedules and itineraries—relating to every junket written about on these pages, most of which was sent by the Hilton organization to the media at the time.

Regarding Conrad Hilton and Hedda Hopper, worth noting is an interesting set of correspondence found in the Hedda Hopper Papers that illuminates the kind of relationship Conrad Hilton had with members of the media, like Ms. Hopper:

By August 1962, Hopper had traveled the world over on Conrad’s dime, covering his hotel junkets. One might imagine that any problem she might have had with her accommodations—especially when not on a junket—would be handled by someone other than Conrad, the president and chairman of the board of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, perhaps a press agent or an assistant. However, typical of Conrad and his hands-on philosophy, he personally handled any issues Hopper had with her Hilton hotel status.

Contention between the powerful columnist and the hotel tycoon started on August 8 when Hedda sent Conrad a typewritten letter stating that she feared that she was soon going to have to find another hotel to stay in while in Manhattan. “The Waldorf has become too rich for my blood,” she wrote. “I just can’t pay $40 a day! You know, we working girls have to stay on a budget!” She claimed to have an offer from the manager of the Americana Hotel offering her free accommodations. What should she do? She left the ball in Conrad’s court.

On August 9, Conrad responded to Hopper’s letter, asking if she really wanted to find herself “staying at some ordinary hotel in New York.” It was not his fault, he observed, that she required a $40-a-day suite. She was already getting a 25 percent discount, he wrote, so in actuality she was staying in a $60-a-night suite. If she wanted to do so, he added, she could always stay in a cheaper room. But, he continued, “you are used to something grand and I don’t blame you. You want a lovely living room, with not a spot on the walls or the rugs. You want your visitors to come in to a room where they will greet you like a queen.” Then he concluded, “Here is what I don’t understand: I read your newspaper column all over the world—even down in Mexico. Certainly you must be receiving
pay
for these articles!” He suggested that she deduct from her taxes the business expense of any hotel room in which she stayed. She might be a “working girl,” he continued, “but I also consider you a capitalist because you are in the business of selling your stories all over the world.” However, he wouldn’t want to lose her as a customer, he hastened to add, and he hoped she would reconsider. But offering her a lower rate was out of the question. Instead, he tried to appease her by making an unusual offer: “Let me personally make your next reservation when you get ready to go back to the Waldorf.”

Not one to be cowed, the seventy-seven-year-old Hedda wrote right back to him, on October 9, 1962. She first wished to correct Conrad; the suite in which she usually stayed at the Waldorf carried a $50—not a $60—rate. She was getting it for $40. Therefore, she really wasn’t getting a 25 percent discount, was she? She also noted that the Americana Hotel had offered her a suite for $20. “However,” as she wrote, “you know I shall always be loyal to you and the Waldorf. It seems like home.” That said, she added, “I do hope you can match this rate!”

The next day, October 10, Conrad responded. He was not moved by the fact that his competitor had offered Hedda a better rate. He thought of the Americana as inferior. “After all,” he wrote, “the Waldorf-Astoria is the greatest hotel in the world and you are one of the greatest writers of the world so you certainly wouldn’t want to stay in a hotel of lesser quality.” He repeated his earlier suggestion that she should simply write off from her taxes the cost of any hotel room in which she stayed, “so Uncle Sam pays most of your bill.” Then, in what can only be construed as a little dig at her work ethic, he added, “We had a wonderful time at the Amsterdam junket you missed, but I understand you were too busy writing a book to go. I am also writing another book, but yet I still open hotels, don’t I?”

Though similar correspondence flew back and forth between them for many weeks, in the end, Conrad Hilton never reduced his rates for Hedda Hopper. And she continued to stay at the Waldorf-Astoria anyway.

Barron Climbs the Ladder of Success/Nicky’s Fast-Paced Life

Interviews conducted: Wyatt Montgomery (January 2, 2012; January 4, 2012; January 18, 2012; March 1, 2012); Carole Wells Doheny (March 12, 2012; March 13, 2012; April 5, 2012; May 5, 2012); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 2, 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;
Symptoms of Withdrawal: A Memoir of Snapshots and Redemption
by Christopher Kennedy Lawford;
Past Imperfect
by Joan Collins.

Articles referenced: “Nicky Hilton Swings Fists in Cafe Brawl,”
Los Angeles Times
, February 22, 1951; Peter Lester, “When This Hotel Barron Says He’s Staying at the Hilton, That Means He’ll Be at Home,”
People
, September 28, 1981.

Legal documents referenced: “Codicil to Last Will and Testament of Conrad N. Hilton” (April 1, 1947); “Last Will and Testament of Conrad N. Hilton” (September 1, 1955); “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979).

Eric: From Out of the Shadows

Interviews conducted: Patricia Skipworth Hilton (February 27, 2012; February 28, 2012; April 5, 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:
House of Hilton
by Jerry Oppenheimer;
The Man Who Bought the Waldorf
by Thomas Ewing Dabney;
Conrad N. Hilton, Hotelier
by Mildred Houghton Comfort.

A Troubling Conversation About Francesca

Interviews conducted: Cindy Adams (September 1, 1998); Eddie Fisher (September 20, 2006); Terry Moore (April 11, 2012); Robert Wentworth (June 11, 2012; June 12, 2012; June 13, 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;
A Dreadful Man: A Personal, Intimate Book About George Sanders
by Brian Aherne.

Articles referenced: “Grown-up Movie Kids: Zsa Zsa Gabor Gives Black-Tie Birthday Party for her 11-Year-Old Daughter,”
Life
, March 31, 1958.