The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (75 page)

Conrad N. Hilton Foundation: The Hilton Legacy Serving Humanity Worldwide
was published by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation. Among the in-depth features found in this book that I used as part of my research were the following: “My Father, Conrad N. Hilton: The Man and His Gift to the World” by Barron Hilton; “In the Footsteps of Extraordinary Men” by Steven M. Hilton; “Toward a World Free of Multiple Sclerosis” (which details Marilyn Hilton’s battle with the disease); and “Barron Hilton Steps Up as Chairman of the Board.” This book was written by Joseph Foote and edited by Marge Brownstein. It proved invaluable to me in terms of understanding Conrad and Barron Hilton and their philanthropic goals. It also provides as clearheaded and astute an analysis of the legal battle over “Barron’s Option” as one is likely to find.

With persistence being all-important in the researching of biographies such as this one, a few months later, on July 16, 2012, we decided to again approach the Hiltons. This time I personally endeavored to interview Barron and Eric Hilton and Steven M. Hilton. In response to this second attempt, I received a warm letter (dated August 2, 2012) from the Hiltons’ spokesman, Marc Moorghen.

In his correspondence, Mr. Moorghen observed that Steven Hilton “appreciated the case you made” as to why I felt it important to conduct these interviews for my book. However, he explained that since Steven Hilton was intimately involved with the preparation and publication of the foundation’s book,
The Hilton Legacy Serving Humanity Worldwide
, “we feel this gesture meets your suggested goals of an opportunity to tell the truth and have his personal imprint on the work.” He reiterated Hilton’s belief that his grandfather’s autobiography,
Be My Guest
, is “the best possible narrative of his life since it is told in his own words.” Also, in regards to Barron Hilton, “an authorized biography is already under way, so that will suffice for the time being.” Mr. Moorghen closed by writing, “Thank you for checking in with Mr. Hilton and we wish you every success with your project.”

I have long maintained that it is a matter of personal choice as to whether or not someone wishes to speak to me regarding his or her life for a book of mine. Therefore, I respect any decision made by the subjects of any of my books in terms of cooperation. A book such as this one is not necessarily based on a single person’s account of a life, but rather on the cumulative research conducted into the lives of those whose stories I have chosen to tell. That said, I am grateful to Steven M. Hilton for providing me with a rare copy of
Conrad N. Hilton Foundation: The Hilton Legacy Serving Humanity Worldwide
, and I am especially grateful to him for inscribing the book to me. It will always be a treasured keepsake of mine, and a reminder to me of the great philanthropy of both Conrad and Barron Hilton.

The second privately published volume I utilized was
Inspirations of an Innkeeper: From the Speeches, Christmas Messages, Correspondence and Experiences of Conrad. N. Hilton by Conrad N. Hilton
. This is a stunning, large coffee-table book, bound in blue leather with gold-embossed type (with page edges gilt in gold leaf), of which only 312 copies were printed in 1963 for Hilton’s close friends. I have number 260, and it was signed by Conrad N. Hilton on July 14, 1970. It was given to me by a close friend of Hilton’s who has asked for anonymity.

This book’s introduction is written by his loyal assistant, Olive Wakeman. “Twenty years is a long time,” she wrote. “To most people, twenty years is a generation. For a generation, then I have worked with Mr. Hilton. For a generation, I have worked with him daily; watched him work, watched him play, watched him pray. I have seen him in patience, in anger, in doubt, in excited enthusiasm. I have seen him sad and exploding in merry laughter. I think I know Conrad Nicholson Hilton.” (Olive continued to work for Conrad for another sixteen years, until his death in 1979.)

It is impracticable to fully detail in the space allotted here the incredible wealth of information found in this volume’s 234 pages, and how vital it was to my research for
The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty
. It includes more than a hundred speeches and personal writings of Conrad Hilton’s, rare photographs from Conrad’s private collection, and personal reminiscences in his own words about his storied life and career. It is a stunning work, every chapter typical of the kind of care and attention to detail Conrad Hilton gave to every project to which he dedicated himself. I am proud to own a copy.

The third rare volume I utilized in my research is
The House of Hilton: Casa Encantada
. One hundred and fifty copies of this book were privately published by Conrad for his friends and family members; I have the last one published—number 150—and it is signed by Conrad N. Hilton (but not dated, and, again, given to me by a friend of Hilton’s who asked not to be identified). This lovely book is about Conrad’s beautiful estate and includes many pictures of Casa Encantada, as well as drawings and diagrams of the property. It also provides a detailed account of the furnishings, right down to the “ash burl” color of the fabric used on the dining room chairs. There are photos of the china tea sets from Russia and France used by Conrad and two of his wives, Zsa Zsa and Frances. It’s a spectacularly intimate look at the private world of Conrad Hilton and his family, and as such, was invaluable to my understanding of their privileged way of life. Many of the descriptions of the Hiltons’ lifestyle at Casa Encantada found in
The Hiltons
were culled from the specifics found in this work.

SOURCES AND OTHER NOTES

It is impossible to write accurately about anyone’s life without many reliable witnesses to provide a range of different viewpoints. A biography of this kind stands or falls on the frankness of those involved in the story. A great number of other people went out of their way to assist me over the years that I worked on
The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty
. Friends, relatives, journalists, socialites, lawyers, celebrities, and business associates of the Hilton family were contacted in preparation for this book. I and my research team also carefully reviewed, as secondary sources, books about Conrad Hilton, as well as hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles written about him. I’m not going to list all of them here, though I will list those that I believe deserve special acknowledgment.

Also, in writing about a family as culturally significant as the Hiltons, a biographer such as myself will encounter many sources who would like to speak, but not for attribution. I have learned over the years that sometimes anonymity is important. Though I would prefer that all of my sources be acknowledged by name, it’s not a reasonable or practical expectation. Therefore, whenever a source of mine or of one of my researchers asks for anonymity, I always grant the request.

The following source acknowledgments and extraneous notes are by no means comprehensive. Rather, they are intended to give the reader a
general overview
of my research.

PROLOGUE

Interviews conducted: Myron Harpole (August 15, 2012; August 17, 2012; August 20, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
Be My Guest
by Conrad Hilton;
The Silver Spade: The Conrad Hilton Story
by Whitney Bolton;
How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man
by Zsa Zsa Gabor;
Zsa Zsa Gabor: My Story
by Zsa Zsa Gabor and Gerold Frank;
Jolie Gabor
by Cindy Adams.

Legal documents referenced: “Certificate of Birth, Constance Francesca Hilton,” March 10, 1947, Borough of Manhattan, New York, N.Y.; “Certificate of Baptism of Constance Francesca Hilton,” by Rev. Charles J. McManus, assistant pastor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, May 4, 1947; “Contestant Constance Francesca Hilton’s Responses to Defendants William Barron Hilton and James E. Bates Interrogatories,” (May 29, 1979); “Declaration of Constance Francesca Hilton” (June 13, 1979); “Deposition of Zsa Zsa Gabor O’Hara” (June 14, 1979; July 9, 1979; July 10, 1979); “Declaration of Zsa Zsa Gabor O’Hara” (July 1, 1979); “Declaration of Myron Harpole” (July 12, 1979); “Contestant Constance Francesca Hilton’s Responses to Defendants William Barron Hilton and James E. Bates Interrogatories” (July 20, 1979); “Declaration of Ralph Nutter” (August 12, 1979); “Declaration of Robert D. Walker in Response to Opposition to Motion for Leave to Amend Will Contest” (March 27, 1980); “Declaration of Myron Harpole” (July 29, 1982); “Declaration of Constance Francesca Hilton” (July 29, 1982).

NOTES

The original filing of Constance Francesca Hilton’s contesting of Conrad Hilton’s will on March 13, 1979, by her attorneys, Belcher, Henzie & Biegenzahn, listed the litigants in this manner:

Constance Francesca Hilton, Contestant, vs. Frances Kelly Hilton; William Barron Hilton; Eric Michael Hilton; Conrad Nicholson Hilton III; Michael Otis Hilton; Helen Buckley; Rosemary Carpenter; Eva Lewis; Connie Ann Clarke Whithead; Anthony Carpenter; Hilton Brown, Sally Leslie; Carolyn Hines; Jack Lewis; Merilee Hilton McCoy; Carl Hilton, Jr.; William Hilton; Mrs. Robert Dillard; Felice Brown Heffinger; William Barron Hilton, Jr.; Hawley Ann Hilton McAuliffe; Steven Michael Hilton; David Alan Hilton; Sharon Constance Hilton Clemm; Richard Howard Hilton; Daniel Kevin Hilton; Ronald Jeffrey Hilton; Eric Michael Hilton, Jr.; Beverly Ann Hilton; Linda Marie Hilton; Joseph Bradley Hilton; Olive M. Wakeman; Hugo Mentz; Sister Francetta Barberis; James E. Bates; Spearl Ellison, Trustee; Donald H. Hubbs, Trustee; Sam D. Young, Trustee; El Paso National Bank, Trustee; The California Province of the Society of Jesus; Mayo Foundation; Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, George Deukmajian, Attorney General for the State of California, Doe One; Doe Two; Doe Three; Doe Four; and Doe Five.

However, for the purposes of these notes, we will use the shortened version utilized by the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles in most of the filings associated with the original case and with its amendment:

Constance Francesca Hilton v. Frances Kelly Hilton
[original filing] (March 13, 1979), and
Francesca Hilton v. Frances Kelly Hilton
[First Amended Contest of Purported Will] (March 13, 1980).

The dialogue between Zsa Zsa Gabor O’Hara and Ralph Nutter during Zsa Zsa’s June 14, 1979, deposition was culled directly from its transcript.

The dialogue between Zsa Zsa and Myron Harpole is from Mr. Harpole’s first-person account. “It wasn’t easy for Mrs. O’Hara,” recalled Harpole. “It’s never easy for a celebrity to come in and tell personal details of their lives. I thought she was probably thinking, ‘This is a fine mess my daughter has gotten me into.’ However, I had the impression she would do anything to make certain her daughter finally got the recognition she felt she deserved. We admired how much she tried to keep her composure, even if she did lose it on occasion. She answered absolutely every question posed to her.”

A few more interesting details about Zsa Zsa’s deposition on June 14, 1979:

Zsa Zsa recalled that when she and Hilton were married, she once became sick with appendicitis. “Instead of taking me to a doctor, he went and got a priest to give novenas for me,” she said. It was her sister Eva, she testified, who “insisted to have a doctor look after me. This was a terrible shock to me, when he didn’t ask for a doctor and went for a priest, instead.”

When asked if Conrad’s religious convictions ever interfered with their sex life, Zsa Zsa became irate. “Is that all there is to life and marriage? Sex?” she demanded to know. “Always sex, sex, sex. You ask me nothing but sex!”

In this deposition, and in the other two she gave at around this time, Zsa Zsa spoke a great deal about Conrad Hilton’s affinity for nuns, and expressed her confusion as to why her ex-husband felt so strongly about the sisters of the Catholic Church. In July of 2007, Conrad’s grandson Steven Hilton—president and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation—explained his grandfather’s motivation to Alice Garrad of
Philanthropy News Digest:

He was a devout Catholic who went to church every Sunday. His faith was very much alive in his life, and his philosophy and charitable giving were very much faith-centered. As a young boy, he met some sisters who taught him the catechism, and as a result he developed a lifelong affinity and affection for them. He also respected the selflessness of their work. Many of his closest friends later in life were Catholic sisters, some of whom he sent a handwritten letter every week, even at the height of his career.

PART ONE. CONRAD

Curse of the Ambitious

Interviews conducted: Connie Espinoza de Amaté (October 1, 2011); Stewart Armstrong (November 13, 2011); Patricia McClintock Hilton (April 2, 2012); Stella Kelly (July 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;
House of Hilton
by Jerry Oppenheimer;
The Man Who Bought the Waldorf
by Thomas Ewing Dabney;
Conrad N. Hilton, Hotelier
by Mildred Houghton Comfort.