The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty

by Taraborrelli, J. Randy

  Watching Conrad interact with his employees was always fascinating. He had such an incredible memory; he was somehow able to remember the names of people he had met only once or twice along the way. If someone told him a story, it would be long remembered. Hilton would often approach an employee to ask how a personal problem that had been shared with him months or even years earlier had been resolved. The staff members of all of his hotels had great respect and even love for him because they knew him to be reasonable and fair. Thus it was easy to understand why the applause was so deafening when, toward the end of this celebratory evening, Nicky Hilton introduced his father. Conrad strode proudly onto a stage that had been constructed for a vocalist and full orchestra. Taking the microphone, the distinguished entrepreneur began to address the crowd by first thanking them for coming to his “humble home” to celebrate the occasion.

  “The world is changing,” Conrad told his guests, “and we in this country at this time are fortunate enough to be able to bear witness to it.” He then talked a bit about the booming airline industry and how it had made travel so easy. “When I was a boy, we would take a train from Texas to New York and it would take days,” he said. “Now? Hours on a plane. Yes, my friends, the world is shrinking,” he concluded. “The happy result of the ease by which Americans can now travel is that the hotel business has benefited greatly. More travelers equal more business,” he continued, “not just for our Hilton hotels, but for the entire industry. We are not an island,” he reminded his employees and friends, “we are a part of a bigger system, and if that system profits, I promise you, we shall all profit.”

  He then spoke a little about the new hotel in Puerto Rico and his hopes that its success would help to further develop tourism there, “a safe haven for travelers from all parts of the world.” He concluded by saying, “Hilton Hotels International is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, and long may it prosper for all of us and all of America.” As the crowd cheered, he added, “I can promise you that we have but just begun!” (With the passing of time, Hilton Hotels International would soon open hotels in Madrid, Cairo, Rome, London, and Istanbul.) Conrad then called his sons Barron and Nicky to the stage, both of whom took a bow. After walking offstage, the three Hilton men sequestered themselves in a corner to enjoy three celebratory snifters of a good French brandy. Conrad was seen patting Nicky on the back and laughing heartily, likely at one of his jokes.

  About an hour later, dozens of people took to the dance floor as the orchestra played a set of fast-paced, rhythmic Latin songs. It wasn’t long before the crowd moved to the sidelines in order to make room for the host and his MGM star companion. “Oh, my goodness, it’s all just marvelous,” Sara Taylor enthused as Conrad Hilton danced across the floor with Ann Miller and everyone around them clapped merrily in time with the music. “I’ve never seen anything like this before,” she exclaimed. “These Hiltons certainly know how to live, don’t they?”

  Nicky and Elizabeth Marry

  The wedding ceremony honoring Nicky Hilton and Elizabeth Taylor finally took place at the Church of the Good Shepherd on May 6, 1950. It was, as expected since it was orchestrated by the MGM Studios, beautiful and extravagant. Spencer Tracy and Joan Bennett, Elizabeth’s parents in Father of the Bride, seemed almost as happy as Sara and Francis Taylor. The church was filled with celebrities, including Janet Leigh, Rosalind Russell, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Esther Williams, Gene Kelly, Debbie Reynolds, and, of course, Zsa Zsa Gabor and Ann Miller. Elizabeth, who had turned eighteen on February 27, looked stunning in her white wedding ensemble (designed for her by MGM’s wardrobe mistress Helen Rose and a virtual replica of the dress she wore in Father of the Bride), while Nick was as dashing as ever in his black tuxedo. Even the bridesmaids’ yellow organza gowns were designed and paid for by MGM; Marilyn Hilton, Barron’s wife, was one of the bridesmaids. Everyone seemed so young and filled with joyous naïveté. “I was just enthralled by it all,” said Margaret O’Brien, who was an MGM child star of fourteen at the time and had recently appeared alongside Elizabeth in the studio’s film Little Women. “It was absolutely gorgeous and I think every little girl my age hoped to one day have that kind of fairytale wedding.” The church was not only filled with Hollywood dignitaries but also with dozens of Hilton Hotel executives and their spouses. “I was terrified,” Elizabeth later recalled, “and so was Nick. I remember taking out my handkerchief and mopping the sweat off his face during the ceremony. I wanted to run, I was so scared. I really had no idea what was coming.”

  After the ceremony, there were so many screaming fans waiting outside the church that there was hardly room for the pressing media. It short, it was a madhouse. Meanwhile, Conrad and his first wife, Mary, who was accompanied by her youngest son, Eric, stood in the receiving line with Sara and Francis Taylor, acknowledging guests and thanking them for coming.

  After some of the hoopla died down, Nicky and Elizabeth seemed to relax, their future together seeming more promising than ever. “I remember looking at Elizabeth and Nicky and thinking how lucky they were,” recalled Ann Miller, “and how beautiful it all was, a marriage made in heaven. They were the most gorgeous couple in the world and they had the world by its tail.”

  Conrad had to agree; he would later say he had never seen a couple as “handsome” as his son and new daughter-in-law. Over the din, he turned to Mary and, as he would later recall it, said, “They have everything, haven’t they? Youth, looks, position, no need to worry about where their next meal is coming from.”

  Mary wasn’t so sure. Leaning into Conrad so that he could hear her over the chaos, she said, “Maybe they have too much. I don’t think it’s going to be easy for them.”

  “Oh, nonsense,” Conrad said with a nudge and a gentle smile.

  Perhaps he hoped to alleviate his ex-wife’s fears with a jokey remark, but one thing was certain: Conrad had plenty of his own concerns, especially when a couple of days later Sara Taylor called to say that she wasn’t at all happy with the wedding photographs. In the true tradition of a Hollywood agent, she requested that Nicky, Barron, Eric, Conrad, and Mary get dressed in the exact same outfits they wore for the wedding and meet at her home so that photos could be taken again. “Just pretend that it’s last week,” Sara gaily suggested. They did as they were asked, but to say that the Hiltons weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea would be an understatement.

  Honeymoon from Hell

  Immediately after the wedding, the new Mr. and Mrs. Conrad Nicholas Hilton drove up to Carmel, California, in Nicky’s red Mercedes-Benz convertible. There, the couple would spend the next three nights at the Carmel Country Club. They seemed happy, but Nick was seen drinking a great amount of alcohol, which made some observers wonder about his true feelings. He was worried. He confided in one friend that though he was relieved the wedding was over, he was now beginning to wonder just what he had gotten himself into, because the country club was overrun with photographers and press people all vying for shots of the newlyweds. Meanwhile, to fill the weeks before their honeymoon—heaven forbid the Hiltons should have some free time!—MGM arranged a busy itinerary, which included many photo sessions and press conferences. Nick spent most of that time dodging these press events in any way he could. At one point he skipped out on a media dinner and holed himself up at his dad’s home. “Screw this,” he told Conrad and Barron as soon as he walked through the door. He was agitated. “She loves this stuff,” he told Conrad of his new wife. “You oughta see the way she eats it up. They’re all over her, taking pictures, kissing her ass. But me, they just ignore. What’s the point?” he asked, pouring himself a shot of his preferred libation.

  “First of all, the drinking has got to stop,” Barron told his brother. It was clear that Nicky was already drunk. “It’s ten in the morning and you’re already loaded,” Barron said.

  Nicky told his family members that he had expected a certain amount of media intrusion, but that this was far more than any man could take
. “You have to live through it to understand what it’s like,” he said.

  It would have been easy for Conrad to give Nicky the “I told you so” routine, but he genuinely felt badly for his young son. “You have to take it in and then ignore it, Nick,” he said. “What have I always told you: Be big,” he added. “You have to be bigger than they are. Now, go back and join your wife. You can do this, son. I know you can.”

  In two weeks’ time, Nicky and Elizabeth boarded the Queen Mary for their “perfect” honeymoon cruise. Nicky by now knew pretty much what to expect and tried to steel himself for a trip that would doubtless be filled with curiosity seekers, fans, photographers, and journalists. Nothing, though, could have prepared him for the circuslike atmosphere that awaited him. It actually started with boarding. Nicky had a couple of suitcases with him. However, Elizabeth’s load was another matter altogether; she brought new meaning to the concept of overpacking. “She was traveling with seventeen trunks,” said Nora Johnson, the daughter of director Nunnally Johnson, who was on the ship, traveling first class. “She also had a maid and an entourage of, I would say, a dozen people.”

  Instead of getting an opportunity to bask in the first blush of young married life and explore their sex life, like most honeymooning couples, Elizabeth and Nicky had no privacy at all. Everywhere they went on the enormous ship, they were followed by either photographers—who had been allowed access to the cruise—or other vacationers who couldn’t take their eyes off them. Although the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were also on board (occupying the bridal suite), it was the new Mr. and Mrs. Hilton whom everyone wanted to see. Everywhere they appeared, throngs gathered to get a good long look at them, but especially at Elizabeth. Even the crew of the ship surrounded the movie star, pleading for an autograph “and practically knocking over Nicky in the process,” recalled Melissa Wesson, who was also on the cruise on her honeymoon.

  The cruise chaos was maddening to Nicky. Elizabeth was his new bride, yet she seemed to belong to everyone but him. To Nicky, it felt as if people were listening at the door of their stateroom, or trying to look through cracks to get a glimpse of them—and he was probably right. “I didn’t marry a girl,” he declared angrily. “I married an institution.”

  Out of frustration, Nicky began to distance himself from Elizabeth and the chaos that surrounded her. He turned cold toward her, staying out all night drinking and gambling in the casino, leaving his new wife alone waiting for his return. In time there would even be stories of Nicky having pushed and shoved and been otherwise physically abusive toward Elizabeth on the deck of the ship. Somewhere along the line, he had developed a terrible temper. He certainly proved on this cruise that he could be explosive. “I thought he was a nice, pure All American boy,” Elizabeth told the writer Paul Theroux in 1999. “Two weeks later, wham! Bam! All the physical abuse started.”

  “He wasn’t that way as a kid,” said Bob Neal of Nicky. “It was gradual. After he got out of the service, we noticed that little things started pissing him off. I think he was just unhappy, or restless… or… well, we couldn’t understand it. Back then, you didn’t analyze people as much as you do today. Back then, you just took it in, thought that it was strange, and moved on. You didn’t sit around trying to figure people out. But now, looking back on it, I think he was incredibly disappointed himself. I think he wanted a lot for himself, he believed in himself so much, and every time he took a misstep, it made him hate himself a little more—and thus the temper. That’s my theory, anyway.

  “He also began drinking too much, and I also think this bad habit started in the service. There were signs that Nicky was getting worse, especially during the honeymoon with Elizabeth.”

  “He loathed being known as Elizabeth Taylor’s husband,” Marilyn Hilton would recall of Nicky many years later. “He did not like being called Mr. Taylor. He was the I’m-the-boss-and-you-do-as-I-say type. He had a terrible temper and could be a real bastard,” she continued of her brother-in-law. “But he also could be sweet and gentle and really wonderful.”

  “She left Nick three or four times on their honeymoon while in Europe,” Marilyn Hilton would say of Elizabeth.

  Others saw another side to the story.

  “Imagine being stuck on a cruise ship for three months with a woman who’s really, really pissed off at you,” said one of Nick’s close friends. “She started hitting him out of frustration when he didn’t do what she wanted him to do, and that wasn’t the best way to deal with Nicky, believe me. He’d hit you back, for sure.”

  Bob Neal added, “By the time they got to New York, Nick was sick of all of it and, I dare say, sick of Elizabeth too. ‘She’s so goddamned demanding,’ he told me when he got back to Los Angeles. ‘You can’t please her. I don’t think anyone in the world is as spoiled as she is. You would not believe how bitchy she is too.’ So it’s safe to say they were not getting along at all. Or, as he told me, ‘It was three months of hell.’ ”

  After the honeymoon was over, Elizabeth Taylor stayed in New York for a couple of weeks, likely trying to come to terms with the ordeal she’d just been through on the high seas. Meanwhile, Nicky Hilton returned to Los Angeles. “Nick was resentful, hot-tempered, and handled himself accordingly,” recalled Conrad. “Sometimes his temper flared and he stalked out. By the time they came home on the Queen Elizabeth,” Conrad added sarcastically, “the papers were printing tall tales of a separation.”

  Those tales weren’t quite as tall as Conrad suggested.

  Elizabeth Suffers a Miscarriage

  The moment he got back to Los Angeles, Nicky made a beeline to Conrad’s house. When he opened the door to his father’s study, he found him in there with a battery of attorneys, in the middle of a meeting. Conrad remembered Nicky looking “absurdly young.”

  “I’m sorry, Pop. I’ll come back,” Nicky said, apologizing. “Business first.”

  “No,” Conrad said. “Family first.” He then asked the lawyers to please leave him and his son alone. What followed was a difficult conversation. Nicky said he hadn’t wanted to disappoint his father; he truly hoped he could make a go of it with Elizabeth, the way Barron had with Marilyn. Now that it was becoming painfully clear to him that such would not be the case, he was feeling sad and incredibly defeated. He was also bitterly disappointed in himself. “I’m really sorry, Pop,” Nicky told Conrad. “I’ve made a real mess of things. As usual.” He also told his father that much of what had been reported about his behavior on the ship was exaggerated. “It’s not true, and those writers know it,” he said, slamming his fist on his pop’s desk. “It doesn’t matter though; they’ll print whatever they want to print.”

  Conrad understood. He’d been through the same sort of thing with Zsa Zsa. “You know what’s true and what isn’t,” he told Nicky, according to his later memory of the conversation. “You just have to hang on to the truth. And what have I always told you, Nicky: Be big. You have to be big.”

  Nicky nodded his head. Later, Conrad would say, “I did my best,” but there was simply no way to cheer his son up that day. Compared to the happy union his brother Barron had been enjoying for years with Marilyn, Nicky’s relationship with Elizabeth was a real disaster. He felt like a failure. In a sense, though, that was something else he had in common with his father. Certainly Conrad felt like a failure as well in that he had had two bad marriages. He wasn’t nearly as judgmental of Nicky as Nicky believed. He understood Nicky—maybe even better than he understood Barron.

  Deeply conflicted, Nicky didn’t seem to have much capacity for diplomacy, especially where Elizabeth was concerned. Instead of trying to reason with her, he would just scream at her, which didn’t make the situation any better and actually just made it worse. “She would then jump on him like an angry cat,” said Bob Neal, “punching and scratching, really enraged. Then Nicky did what Nicky would do. He’d say, ‘Get the hell away from me, you crazy broad, you,’ and he’d smack her just once and she’d go flying. She would cry, ‘How coul
d you?’ He would then feel terrible about himself, so disappointed in himself. Then, a couple days later, it would happen again. It was an awful cycle.”

  In the fall of 1999—almost fifty years after she and Nicky Hilton were divorced and thirty years after Nicky was dead and gone—Elizabeth Taylor would tell writer Paul Theroux in an interview for Talk magazine that she finally walked out on the marriage after Nicky caused her to have a miscarriage. She explained, “He was drunk. I thought, ‘This is not why I was put on earth. God did not put me here to have a baby kicked out of my stomach.’ I had terrible pains. I saw the baby in the toilet. I didn’t know that I was pregnant, so it wasn’t a malicious or on-purpose kind of act. It just happened.” Elizabeth became so upset in the telling of the story, wrote the writer, that she was forced to leave the room to compose herself. When she returned, she apologized, explaining, “I have never spoken about this before.”

  As it happened, after Elizabeth and Nicky returned from their honeymoon, Elizabeth began filming the sequel to Father of the Bride, called Father’s Little Dividend, in which her character introduced in the first movie becomes pregnant. Her stand-in for the move, Marjorie Dillon, recalls of Elizabeth’s miscarriage at the time, “It was an early pregnancy—she wasn’t far along. One day, she fainted on the set and had to be rushed home. Nicky’s uncle was an obstetrician and he came to the house, but Liz had already miscarried. She was in bed and wanted Nicky to stay with her, but he had already made plans to go deep-sea fishing. He gave her a kiss and said, ‘I’ll be back in a couple of days. Marge will spend the night with you.’ I did, of course, and that’s when she cried and cried.”