Finding Zsa Zsa

by Sam Staggs

  * * *

  In a sad coda to a lifetime collection, Zsa Zsa’s possessions were sold at auction in April 2018. I decided not to catalogue the event and its contents in this book because Zsa Zsa’s enormous absence cast a thick pall over the “going, going, gone.” Her widower made roughly a million dollars from the sale. Those interested in the many items included in the auction may view them at the Heritage Auctions website, www.ha.com.

  When a star extinguishes, what is left? According to romantic notions, traces of stardust drift from the sky. I prefer to think that the Gabor constellation shines unstoppably on, brightening an alternate universe—perhaps the same one that produced them and sent them to us in the first place.

  * * *

  A few years ago, a friend said to me, “Aren’t you glad to have lived at a time when there were Gabors?”

  This book is my answer.

  Acknowledgments

  How does anyone write a book without the generous assistance and goodwill of a company of friends, colleagues, acquaintances, and casual well-wishers? For me, it would be impossible. Minus that vast company, Finding Zsa Zsa would surely have been an incomplete biography.

  My first stop on what became the Gabor superhighway was a telephone call in 2010 to Francesca Hilton, Zsa Zsa’s daughter. Her cooperation and friendship convinced me to go forward with this lengthy and complex project. Francesca’s death in 2015 was a terrible loss. Nevertheless, many of the details published here for the first time result from Francesca’s confidence in me as a lifelong devotee of her family.

  Also in 2010, I made the acquaintance of Tony Turtu, whose book Gaborabilia is unsurpassed. I devoured this museum of rarities—photographs, memorabilia, ephemera—in 2001, when the book was published. Then, at the outset of my own project, I wrote to him and he replied immediately. That was the beginning of a friendship without which my own book would surely have gone begging. Finding Zsa Zsa is dedicated to him and to the memory of Francesca.

  Tony and two other authors, Ron Bowers and Richard Teleky, volunteered to read the chapters of Finding Zsa Zsa as I completed them. The sharp eyes and valuable suggestions of these three—friends, advisors, critics, comforters—contributed enormously to my final manuscript. Other friends also read sections along the way; they are Daniel Kusner, Glenn Russell, Leigh W. Rutledge, Robert Sanchez, and Ken Smith. I cite also film historian Foster Hirsch, a friend of long standing and a Gabor enthusiast whose insights and humor helped set the tone of this book. It was he who asked the haunting question that ends the final chapter: “Aren’t you glad to have lived at a time when there were Gabors?”

  I am grateful also to Mrs. Annette Lantos, Jolie Gabor’s niece and thus first cousin to Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda, and to her daughter, Annette Tillemann-Dick, who welcomed me to their home and answered my many questions about the Gabors and other family members. Mrs. Lantos also supplied details of life in Budapest before and during the Holocaust.

  Murat Belge, the son of Zsa Zsa’s first husband, replied promptly to my many emails. His straightforward briefings helped to uncloud Zsa Zsa’s fanciful narrative of her early years in Turkey.

  Betsy Jentz and Nancy DeJean led me to an understanding of the private Zsa Zsa—the woman for whom they worked at various times as assistants and for whom they had the highest regard. Other friends of Zsa Zsa and Eva who shared memories are Juli Reding Hutner and Ruta Lee. Stephen Cox, who met Eva several times while writing The Hooterville Handbook, answered all questions about Green Acres. Kevin Sasaki, Eva’s publicist, very kindly supplied details of his and Eva’s trip to Budapest in the 1990s, her first visit to Hungary since her departure in 1939.

  Research, in person and via email, took me to a number of libraries and archives whose staff members extended every courtesy. At New York Public Library, the Main Branch, I was indeed fortunate to receive the professional expertise of John Cordovez, Cara Dellatte, Tal Nadan, and Kyle Triplett. At NYPL for the Performing Arts, at Lincoln Center, Sylvia Alicea, Jennifer Eberhardt, and Suzanne Lipkin were especially helpful. I am equally grateful to the following: Andrew Anderson, Dallas Public Library; Peter Balestrieri, Special Collections at the University of Iowa; Jane Klain and Patricia Lunde, at the Paley Center for Media in New York; Bob Tangney of the Seattle Public Library; Edith A. Sandler, Library of Congress; and Dr. Elizabeth B. White of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.

  A special note of thanks to Amanda Smulowitz and Marisa Fine of Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, for their efforts on my behalf in obtaining permission to quote a long passage from the Yad Vashem website.

  A visit to Photofest in New York is always a happy experience. Howard Mandelbaum and Ron Mandelbaum seem to have memorized every photograph in their two-million-plus archive, and upon arrival I invariably found dozens of folders full of rarities unavailable elsewhere, some of which I have included in this book.

  Several persons who spoke on condition of anonymity surely know the depth of my gratitude to them.

  The following people and organizations contributed in myriad ways to what I hope is a three-dimensional portrait of the Gabors: Sara Abosch-Jacobson, the late Patrick Agan, Michael Ankerich, Barbara Bedevian, Jack Bedevian, Eva Beluska, the late John Blanchette, Tim Boss, Peter Carlson, Sarah Clothier, Ned Comstock, Judy Diamond, Joann Duff, Wendy W. Fairey, Roger Farabee, Bernard Fitzgerald, Heyd Fontenot, J.R. Giesen, Gene Gill, Michael Gilmore, Betty Abbot Griffin, Janet Groth, Mariel Hart, Ginger Haselden, Nicholas Haslam, Anastasia Hendrix, Robert Hickey, Patricia Hilton, Steven Hughes, Bobby Hyde, the late Vernon Jordan, the late Brian Kellow, Lana Kohler, Jokke Lagerspets, Steve Lambert, the late Robin Leach, Eszter Lesták, Shawn Levy, the late Scott Lindsey, the late Al Lowman, Edward Lozzi, John Lukacs, Allison Littell McHose, Lucy Mallows, William J. Mann, Evan Matthews, Calvin Mingo, Linda Briscoe Myers, Dorie Nussbaum, Tom Nussbaum, Jerry Oppenheimer, James Robert Parish, Rubén Parra, Dennis Payne, Diane Pecknold, Jeffrey Prang, Glenn Russell, Tim Smith, Elke Sommer, Leonard Stanley, Kelli Strode, the late Ray Summer, Gabriela Tagliavini, Jim Tamulis, Gordon Taylor, Zenith Tillemann-Dick, Jason Tomes, Frederick Tucker, Robert Uher, Péter Váli, Hugo Vickers, Buddy Weiss, Susan Kohner Weitz, Robert T. Westbrook, and Wayne Wright.

  Also, Eric Bradley, director of public relations, and Steve Lansdale, public relations specialist, at Heritage Auctions; and the Boris Karloff Information Centre.

  I must emphasize that whatever strengths this book may have, they would be fewer without those named above. The flaws, however, are mine alone.

  A disclosure, in the form of a nod to my late friend Pauline Kael: the phrase “refugee chic,” in Chapter 13, is not original, though I wish it were. So perfectly does it describe Jolie Gabor at a particular moment that I borrowed it from Pauline’s review, in The New Yorker, of the 1974 film Les Violons du bal.

  Finally, at the end of this cavalcade, loud applause to my agent, Eric Myers of Myers Literary Management, whose enthusiasm and guidance lightened a difficult task. I also thank my editor, John Scognamiglio, for his generosity. And a deep bow to Carly Sommerstein, the ne plus ultra of copy editors.

  Selected Bibliography

  Aherne, Brian. A Dreadful Man: The Story of Hollywood’s Most Original Cad, George Sanders. New York: Berkley Books, 1981 [orig. 1979].

  Brady, Frank. Citizen Welles: A Biography of Orson Welles. New York: Scribner’s, 1989.

  Brown, Peter Harry. Such Devoted Sisters: Those Fabulous Gabors. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.

  Caron, Leslie. Thank Heaven: A Memoir. New York: Viking, 2009.

  Collins, Joan. Past Imperfect. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1984.

  Cox, Stephen. The Hooterville Handbook: A Viewer’s Guide to Green Acres. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993.

  Cronkite, Kathy. On the Edge of the Spotlight: Celebrities’ Children Speak Out About Their Lives. New York: William Morrow, 1981.

  Diderich, Bernard. Trujillo: The Death of the Goat. Bo
ston: Little, Brown, 1978.

  Eyman, Scott. Ernst Lubitsch: Laughter in Paradise. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

  Fenyo, Mario D. Hitler, Horthy, and Hungary: German-Hungarian Relations, 1941–1944. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1972.

  Gabor, Eva. Orchids and Salami. Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Co., 1954.

  Gabor, Jolie. Jolie Gabor, as Told to Cindy Adams. New York: Mason/Charter, 1975.

  ___. Jolie Gabor’s Family Cookbook. (With Ted and Jean Kaufman.) New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1962.

  Gabor, Zsa Zsa. How to Catch a Man, How to Keep a Man, How to Get Rid of a Man. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1970.

  ___. My Story: Written for Me by Gerold Frank. Cleveland, OH: World Publishing Co., 1960.

  ___. One Lifetime Is Not Enough. New York: Delacorte, 1991.

  Gazzara, Ben. In the Moment: My Life as an Actor. New York: Carroll and Graf, 2004.

  Graham, Sheilah. Hollywood Revisited: A Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1985.

  ___. The Rest of the Story. New York: Coward-McCann, 1964.

  Griffin, Merv. Merv: Making the Good Life Last. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.

  Grobel, Lawrence. The Hustons: The Life and Times of a Hollywood Dynasty. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000 [orig. 1989].

  Hammen, Scott. John Huston. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1985.

  Haslam, Nicholas. Redeeming Features. New York: Knopf, 2009.

  Haycock, Dean A. The Everything Health Guide to Adult Bipolar Disorder. 3rd. ed. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 2014.

  Heymann, C. David. Poor Little Rich Girl: The Life and Legend of Barbara Hutton. New York: Random House, 1983.

  Hilton, Conrad. Be My Guest. New York: Fireside/Simon & Schuster, 1994 [orig. 1957].

  Hope, Bob, and Bob Thomas. The Road to Hollywood: My 40-Year Love Affair with the Movies. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1977.

  Horthy, Miklós. Memoirs. New York: R. Speller, 1957 [trans. of Ein Leben für Ungarn, 1953].

  Hull, Cordell. The Memoirs of Cordell Hull. Vol. 2. New York: MacMillan, 1948.

  Huston, John. An Open Book. New York: Knopf, 1980.

  Ihrig, Stefan. Atatürk in the Nazi Imagination. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2014.

  Kaminsky, Stuart. John Huston: Maker of Magic. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978.

  Kennedy, Matthew. Edmund Goulding’s Dark Victory: Hollywood’s Genius Bad Boy. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2004.

  Kertész, André. Hungarian Memories. Boston: Little, Brown, 1982.

  La Mure, Pierre. Moulin Rouge: A Novel Based on the Life of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: Random House, 1950.

  LeRoy, Mervyn. Take One. New York: Hawthorn Books, 1974.

  Levant, Oscar. The Unimportance of Being Oscar. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1968.

  Levy, Emanuel. Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood’s Dark Dreamer. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2009.

  Levy, Shawn. The Last Playboy: The High Life of Porfirio Rubirosa. New York: HarperCollins, 2005.

  Lewis, Norman. The Changing Sky: Travels of a Novelist. New York: Pantheon, 1959.

  Long, Robert Emmet, ed. John Huston: Interviews. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2001.

  Lord Kinross [John Patrick Douglas Balfour]. Atatürk: A Biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey. New York: William Morrow, 1965.

  Lukacs, John. Budapest 1900: A Historical Portrait of a City and Its Culture. New York: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1988.

  Mack, Gerstle. Toulouse-Lautrec. New York: Paragon House, 1989 [orig. 1938].

  Marc, David. Demographic Vistas: Television in American Culture. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1984.

  Minnelli, Vincente, with Hector Arce. I Remember It Well. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974.

  Myers, Eric. Uncle Mame: The Life of Patrick Dennis. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

  Neagle, Anna. Anna Neagle Says, “There’s Always Tomorrow.” London: W.H. Allen, 1974.

  Oppenheimer, Jerry. House of Hilton: From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege. New York: Crown, 2006.

  ___. Toy Monster: The Big, Bad World of Mattel. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2009.

  Paar, Jack. I Kid You Not. Boston: Little, Brown, 1960.

  Patai, Raphael. The Jews of Hungary: History, Culture, Psychology. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1996.

  Pullen, Kirsten. Like a Natural Woman: Spectacular Female Performance in Classical Hollywood. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2014.

  Reynolds, Debbie. Make ’Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories of Longtime Friends. New York: William Morrow/ HarperCollins, 2015.

  Sanders, George. Memoirs of a Professional Cad. New York: Putnam’s, 1960.

  Sebestyen, Victor. Twelve Days: The Story of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. New York: Pantheon, 2006.

  Slavitt, David R. George Sanders, Zsa Zsa, and Me. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 2009.

  Staggs, Sam. All About “All About Eve”: The Complete Behind-the-Scenes Story of the Bitchiest Film Ever Made. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

  Stallings, Penny. Forbidden Channels: The Truth They Hide from TV Guide. New York: HarperCollins, 1991.

  Taraborelli, J. Randy. The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty. New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2014.

  Tauber, Diana Napier. My Heart and I. London: Evans Brothers Ltd., 1959.

  Teleky, Richard. Hungarian Rhapsodies: Essays on Ethnicity, Identity, and Culture. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997.

  Tucker-Jones, Anthony. The Battle for Budapest 1944–1945. South Yorkshire, UK: Pen and Sword Books, 2016.

  Turtu, Anthony, and Donald F. Reuter. Gaborabilia. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2001.

  VanDerBeets, Richard. George Sanders: An Exhausted Life. Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1990. Vickers, Hugo. Cecil Beaton: A Biography. Boston: Little, Brown, 1985.

  Weaver, Tom. Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls, and Makeup. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1988.

  Williams, John. Chasing Pig’s Ears: Memoirs of a Hollywood Plastic Surgeon. Victoria, BC, Canada: Trafford Publishing, 2007.

  Wilson, Earl. Show Business Laid Bare. New York: Putnam’s, 1974.

  A Note on Sources

  In view of the millions of words about the Gabors printed in dozens of languages, it is unfortunate that so much of it is repetitive and of little value. The Gabors themselves were responsible for many of the clichés, for they stuck to the press-release versions of their lives. No studio publicist was more imaginative than they.

  I was fortunate indeed to have Francesca Hilton’s testimony as a counternarrative to the autobiographies of Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Jolie. Ironically, however, those very autobiographies served by necessity as primary print resources for this book. (The oral accounts other than Francesca’s are listed in my acknowledgments.) In using those questionable resources, however, I kept in mind Mark Twain’s sly evaluation of an autobiography. In a letter to William Dean Howells, he called it “the truest of all books; for though it eventually consists mainly of extinctions of the truth, shir-kings of the truth, partial revealments of the truth, with hardly an instance of plain straight truth, the remorseless truth is there, between the lines, where the author-cat is raking dust upon it, which hides from the disinterested spectator neither it nor its smell . . . the result being that the reader knows the author in spite of his wily diligences.”

  My eyes often ached from squinting between the lines until Tony Turtu, author of Gaborabilia, came to my rescue with bio/career chronologies of Zsa Zsa (219 pages), Eva (192), Jolie and Magda combined (55). These annotated documents are unique because they include virtually every appearance onscreen, onstage, and in person of these four unstoppable women.

  The first attempt at a book-length biography of the Gabors was Peter Harry Brown’s Such Devoted Sisters: Those Fabulo
us Gabors, published in 1985. He told their story more or less accurately in the broad strokes, in spite of an enormous handicap: the Gabors, and their lawyers, were ready to pounce if he revealed one syllable too much. Although he acknowledged Zsa Zsa’s “cooperation and candor,” they were minimal owing to her impending ninth marriage and a hectic career kept afloat through sheer willpower. The book is not well written; it sinks under a cargo of perfumed prose.

  I have praised Tony Turtu’s Gaborabilia elsewhere as a “museum of rarities,” the world’s premier assemblage of everything Gabor. His book, of course, does not purport to be a full biography except as a photographic chronicle beginning in the 1920s, when the Gabor sisters were approaching adolescence.

  David Slavitt’s George Sanders, Zsa Zsa, and Me relies mostly on a rehash of Sanders’s own book and of Zsa Zsa’s two autobiographies. Slavitt muddles various facts, and the “Me” overshadows both George and Zsa Zsa.

  Eva Gabor an Amazing Woman: Unscrupulous is the peculiar title of an even more peculiar book by Camyl Sosa Belanger, who was employed by Eva for several years. I quote from two reviews on amazon.com of this self-published muddle: “Quite possibly the worst book ever written”; “Unscrupulous is unreadable.” Enough said, except to add “incoherent.”

  Is it possible to outdo the Gabors in the matter of unreliable narration? Indeed it is, as proven by Those Glamorous Gabors: Bombshells from Budapest, an obese, self-published tome by Darwin Porter. Lacking bibliography, notes, acknowledgments except of the most spurious kind, and style, Porter’s book is the biographical equivalent of mad cow disease. Much of it is sheer fiction. One of his most shocking inventions is the claim that during the Nazi invasion of Hungary in 1944, Adolf Eichmann raped Magda Gabor, then slapped her face and called her a “Jew bitch.” Totally unsubstantiated, Porter’s pathetic attempt at Nazi porn insults those who actually suffered such war crimes.

  As for those non-Gabors who played significant roles in the lives of Zsa Zsa, Eva, Magda, and Jolie—e.g., George Sanders, Porfirio Rubirosa, Merv Griffin, Ernst Lubitsch—I have referred in the text to the sources that I found most useful.