The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty (86 page)

Legal documents referenced:
Constance Francesca Hilton v. Frances Kelly Hilton
[original filing] (March 13, 1979); “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979); “Deposition of Frances Kelly Hilton” (October 19, 1979);
Francesca Hilton v. Frances Kelly Hilton
[First Amended Contest of Purported Will] (March 13, 1980); “Ruling of Judge Robert Weil in Favor of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation” (Spring 1986); “Ruling of Judge Thomas J. Whelan in favor of Barron Hilton” (March 1988).

NOTES

Steve Wynn’s comments in “Hostile Takeover?” were culled from Thomas Moore, “Barron Hilton Fights for Hilton Hotels,”
Fortune
, May 27, 1985.

Myron Harpole’s conversation with Barron Hilton in “Trump to the Rescue” was reconstructed based on Mr. Harpole’s first-person account.

PART FIFTEEN. FINI

Zsa Zsa’s Lapse in Judgment/Francesca: “The Original Hilton Heiress”

Interviews conducted: Patricia McClintock Hilton (April 2, 2012; April 8, 2012; April 16, 2012; April 20, 12); Ed Lozzi (March 2, 2012)

Volumes referenced:
One Lifetime Is Not Enough
by Zsa Zsa Gabor.

Articles referenced: “Francesa Hilton Contests Will,” Associated Press, March 14, 1979; “Zsa Zsa’s Daughter Rips Hiltons,”
New York Post
, August 14, 2000; George Rush and Joanna Rush Malloy, “The Fresh Prince of Hot Air,”
New York Daily News
, January 28, 2008; Robert Welkos, “Francesca Hilton Turns Her Topsy-Turvy Life into Stand-up,” by
Los Angeles Times
, August 3, 2008.

Television programs referenced:
The Geraldo Rivera Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, September 13, 1990;
Late Show David Letterman
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, November 27, 1991;
The People vs. Zsa Zsa Gabor
, 1991;
The Howard Stern Summer Show
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, May 2, 1992;
Vicki
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, September 10, 1992;
Late Show with David Letterman
, interview with Zsa Zsa Gabor, December 22, 1993;
Intimate Portrait: Eva Gabor
, February 1, 1998;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Francesa Hilton, August 19, 2008.

Paris/“Rather Silly”?/How Did Conrad Do It?

Interviews conducted: Paris Hilton (Spring 2006); Carole Wells Doheny (March 8, 2012; March 12, 2012; June 15, 2012); Noreen Nash Siegel (April 3, 2012); Mark Young (July 20, 2012); Donald Trump (July 31, 2012).

Volumes referenced:
House of Hilton
by Jerry Oppenheimer;
Confessions of an Heiress: A Tongue-in-Chic Peek Behind the Pose
by Paris Hilton;
Your Heiress Diary: Confess It All to Me
by Paris Hilton;
Paris Hilton: Life on the Edge
by Chas Newkey-Burden;
Paris Hilton: The Naked Truth
by George Mair;
Paris Hilton: A Biography
by Sandra Gurvis;
Six Degrees of Paris Hilton: Inside the Sex Tapes, Scandals and Shakedowns of the New Hollywood
by Mark Ebner;
Paris Hilton: The Shocking Starlet
by Jean-Pierre Hombach;
Overexposed: The Price of Fame
by Eliot Tiegel.

Articles referenced: “Hilton-Richards Rite Is Solemnized,”
Los Angeles Times,
November 27, 1979; “Barron Hilton Contributes $1.2 Billion from Sale of Hilton Hotels,”
Business Wire
, December 26, 2007; Charles Storch, “Hotel Heir Pledges $1 Billion,”
Chicago Tribune
, December 27, 2007; Susannah Rosenblatt, “Barron Hilton to Leave Most of Fortune to Charity,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 27, 2007; Tracy Connor, “How Will Paris Hilton Survive?,”
New York Daily News
, December 27, 2007; Alan Peppard, “Nicky Hilton’s Dallas Visit Offers Chance to Trace Her Ancestor’s Steps,”
Dallas Morning News
, May 12, 2010.

Legal documents referenced: “Deposition of Frances Kelly Hilton” (October 19, 1979); “Deposition of Constance Francesca Hilton” (September 12, 1979).

Television programs referenced:
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
, interview with Paris Hilton, August 14, 2004;
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
, interview with Paris Hilton, September 6, 2004;
The Tony Danza Show
, interview with Paris Hilton, September 16, 2004;
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
, interview with Paris Hilton, January 26, 2005;
Extra!
, interview with Paris Hilton, April 27, 2005;
The View
, interview with Paris Hilton, May 5, 2005;
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
, interview with Paris Hilton, June 15, 2005;
Good Morning America
, interview with Paris Hilton, May 31, 2005;
The Hiltons
, Arts & Entertainment, 2005;
I Want to Be a Hilton
, all episodes, June/July 2005;
Larry King Live
, interview with Paris Hilton, June 27, 2007;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Paris Hilton, July 30, 2007;
The Late Show with Craig Ferguson
, interview with Paris Hilton, July 17, 2009;
The Ellen DeGeneres Show
, interview with Paris Hilton, November 3, 2008;
Piers Morgan
, interview with Paris and Kathy Hilton, May 31, 2011.

NOTES

The conversation between Patricia Skipworth Hilton and Marilyn Hilton in “Paris” was reconstructed based on Patricia Skipworth Hilton’s first-person account.

On April 5, 2011, Paris Hilton was the star guest at the Race to Erase MS Benefit in Century City, California. She explained that she was drawn to the cause after watching her grandmother, Marilyn, suffer from the disease. “I lost my grandmother to multiple sclerosis, so this cause is something close to my heart,” she said. “I believe that they will find a cure if everyone does their part.”

End of an Era/Marilyn Hilton: Rest in Peace/On the Town with Paris

Interviews conducted: Patricia McClintock Hilton (April 2, 2012; April 8, 2012; April 16, 2012; April 20, 12).

Articles referenced: “How Dads Shaped Future Executives,”
USA Today
, June 16, 1995; “Vice Chairman Eric M. Hilton Retires After Nearly 50 Years of Service,” press release,
Business Wire
, March 31, 1997; “Barron Hilton Contributes $1.2 Billion from Sale of Hilton Hotels,”
Business Wire
, December 26, 2007; Susannah Rosenblatt, “Barron Hilton to Leave Most of Fortune to Charity,”
Los Angeles Times
, December 27, 2007; Alice Garrard, “Q & A with Steven M. Hilton, President and CEO of Conrad N. Hilton Foundation,”
Philanthropy News Digest
, July 3, 2007; Leslie Cauley, “Blackstone, Hilton Deal Is Marriage of Titans,”
USA Today
, July 5, 2007; Robert Welkos, “Francesca Hilton Turns Her Topsy-Turvy Life into Stand-up,”
Los Angeles Times
, August 3, 2008; Steven Kurutz, “Mad Men’s Conrad Hilton Character: The Real Story from a Hilton Family Member,”
Los Angeles Times
, October 25, 2009; Tom Taulli, “Blackstone Pays $800 Million to Reduce Hilton Debt,”
Daily Finance
, February 20, 2010.

I also referenced “Ancestry of Paris Hilton,” compiled by William Addams Reitsiesner.

Television programs referenced:
Larry King Live
, interview with Paris Hilton, June 27, 2007;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Paris Hilton, July 30, 2007;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Paris Hilton, August 28, 2007;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Paris Hilton, April 15, 2010;
Extra!
, interview with Paris Hilton, April 15, 2010;
Piers Morgan
, interview with Paris and Kathy Hilton, May 31, 2011;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Paris Hilton, May 20, 2008;
Entertainment Tonight
, interview with Paris Hilton, August 11, 2010.

NOTES

The scenes of Barron Hilton and Paris Hilton fielding questions from the media in “On the Town with Paris” were based on footage shot that evening by paparazzi and then broadcast on many television news programs.

In 2007, Steve Hilton detailed to Alice Garrard of
Philanthropy News Digest
programs funded by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation at that time, and what percentage of the foundations grant-making budget was devoted to each. It’s likely that the percentages have not changed much since that time: “In terms of the larger areas we now fund, the Catholic sisters receive 26 percent, which they manage and disburse; international water development, 18 percent; worldwide blindness prevention and treatment, 12 percent; homeless issues for families and the mentally ill, 6 percent; and hotel management and a project with Early Head Start, 4 percent each. The remainder of our grant-making budget covers a wide range of other programs, as well as projects of special interest to the board.”

EPILOGUE: A FINAL TOAST

Interviews conducted: Patricia McClintock Hilton (April 2, 2012; April 8, 2012; April 16, 2012; April 20, 2012); Patricia Skipworth Hilton (February 27, 2012; February 28, 2012; April 5, 2012).

Legal documents referenced: “Depositions of Zsa Zsa Gabor O’Hara” (June 14, 1979; July 9, 1979; July 10, 1979); “Deposition of William Barron Hilton” (September 24, 1979).

Articles Referenced: Dora Jane Hamblin, “In 19 Lands, Instant America: His Hotels Keep Conrad Hilton Hopping,”
Life
, August 30, 1963.

Note: The scenes recreated at the dinner—including Zsa Zsa Gabor’s toast—were reconstructed from Zsa Zsa Gabor’s interviews with Bart Andrews in February of 1986 for a proposed autobiography by Andrews and Zsa Zsa Gabor.

GENERAL RESEARCH

I would like to express my gratitude to the following institutions:

American Academy of Dramatic Arts; American Film Institute Library; Associated Press Office (New York); Lincoln Center, New York; Beverly Hills Library; University of California, Los Angeles; Corbis-Gamma/Liason; Glendale Central Public Library; Hedda Hopper Collection in the Margaret Herrick Collection of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Beverly Hills; Lincoln Center Library of the Performing Arts; Kobal Collection;
Los Angeles Times
; Los Angeles Public Library; Museum of Broadcasting, New York; the former Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio archives, now part of the Turner Entertainment Group, Los Angeles; Museum of the Film; National Archives and the Library of Congress; New York City Municipal Archives; New York University Library;
New York Daily News
;
New York Post
;
New York Times
; Philadelphia Public Library; Time-Life archives and library, New York; Tribune Photo Archives, Overland Park, Kansas; Universal Collection at the University of Southern California; University of Southern California; and, finally, Rex Features.

Special thanks to the Museum of Broadcasting in New York and the Paley Center for Media in California for making so many archival television programs—thousands of broadcasts—available to historians such as myself.

PERSONAL ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to Jonathan Hahn, a brilliant writer, personal publicist, and good friend.

Thanks also to all of those from “Team JRT,” including Michael Horowitz and Felinda deYoung of Horowitz, McMahon and Zarem, and Gerald L. Kane and Hasmik Stepanyan of the Law Offices of Gerald L. Kane.

I would also like to acknowledge my friends and television miniseries collaborators: Keri Selig and Nicole Grotin of Intuition Productions; Jonathan Koch of Asylum Productions; Stanley Hubbard of ReelzChannel; and Michael Prupus of Muse Entertainment Enterprises. Thanks also to excellent screenplay writers Dick Clement, Ian LaFrenais, and Stephen Kronish, all of whom have transformed recent books of mine into excellent television miniseries.