The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty

by Taraborrelli, J. Randy

  Between the two of them, Marilyn and Pat had raised twelve Hilton children, so it wasn’t as if they didn’t know how to handle an infant. “Still, you would have thought she might have left some instructions for us,” a dismayed Pat told Marilyn as the two women took turns cradling the crying infant, “maybe feeding times?”

  Marilyn laughed. “Well, look, she’s young,” she said. “She doesn’t know any better. She probably figured as Paris’s grandmother I wouldn’t mind.”

  Pat agreed. “Still,” she said, “back in our day, we wouldn’t have thought to just leave a baby for the entire day without at least warning the people you were leaving her with.”

  “Well, back in our day, a lot of things were different,” Marilyn said as she changed little Paris’s diaper. “Back in our day, as I recall it, we pretty much never left the house when we had that first baby, did we? I was a nervous wreck when I had Barron Jr.” She recalled that she was twenty when she had her first child, two years younger than Kathy. She added that she didn’t really feel comfortable leaving Barron Jr. for an entire year, “and then, by that time, I had Hawley, and then, a year later, Steve, and then five more in rapid succession” she remembered. “So it’s safe to say I never felt comfortable leaving the house,” she added, laughing. “And we had help, too! Things are sure different today. Women are different.”

  When Kathy returned, the two Hilton wives took her to task for leaving Paris with them and not first asking if they minded babysitting for the day. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry,” Kathy said, seeming mortified. “But I just had some things I had to take care of.”

  “Believe me,” Marilyn told her daughter-in-law with a patient smile, “for the next eighteen years you will have many things that will need to be taken care, none of which you will ever have time to take care of, because,” she concluded while handing her granddaughter back to her mother, “this child comes first.”

  By Paris’s eighteenth birthday in 1999, she had attended seven private and/or parochial schools before being expelled from the Canterbury Boarding School in Milford, Connecticut, for “violating school rules.” She later earned her high school diploma equivalency via the GED (General Educational Development). Like her grandfather Barron, she wasn’t a good student, but there was something about her that was special, unique. Her mother always knew it, too—as the nickname ‘Star’ suggests—and encouraged her to, as Paris once put it, “think outside of the box. There are a lot of things a Hilton can do,” she told me. “You have the name, you have the looks. But do you have the imagination? Do you have the creativity? Do you have the ambition? My answer to all three questions was: yes, yes, and yes!”

  When Paris was nineteen, T Management, Donald Trump’s talent agency, signed her to a modeling contract. “I guess you could say that I believed in her when most people didn’t,” Trump says. “Paris actually wanted to be a veterinarian when she was a little girl. But I saw her as something else. She was always incredibly unique, an interesting look. There was something about her that evoked a 1960s modeling sensibility. She had done a few things before coming to me, but I like to think that we buffed up the diamond that is Paris Hilton.” Other agencies Paris worked for included Ford Models in New York and Premier Model Management in London. “I was so taken aback when I saw that Paris looked so much like Conrad,” says Conrad’s niece Frances Peterson. “Conrad had those beautiful, crystal clear blue eyes and so does Paris. It’s uncanny. It just struck me how much she looks like her great-grandfather.”

  With the passing of just a few years, the tabloid press soon began to refer to Paris and her sister Nicky, along with girlhood friends Nicole Richie and Kim Kardashian, as “celebutantes” or “celebutards.” Though she secured her place in gossip columns through her hard-partying ways and rumored affairs with celebrities, it was the release of a scandalous sex tape in 2004, 1 Night in Paris (with then boyfriend Rick Salomon), that gained her instant notoriety. “It was the most embarrassing, humiliating thing that has ever happened to me,” she has said.

  The Hiltons took an immediate stand against the tape, issuing a collective statement about it: “The Hilton family is greatly saddened at how low human beings will stoop to exploit their daughter Paris, who is sweet-natured, for their own self promotion as well as profit motives. Paris is working hard on her career. The release of a private tape between a younger girl and an older boyfriend is more than upsetting. Anyone in any way involved in this video is guilty of criminal activity and will be vigorously prosecuted.”

  Though many lawsuits were exchanged, the settlement between the parties was never revealed. It’s been reported that Paris finally received a portion of the profits made from the tape, though she has denied that this is true. She does admit, however, that the sensational tape and its aftermath caused members of her immediate family to seek therapy together to figure out how to navigate the rocky terrain ahead, both personally and professionally. “It was not some random guy in that tape,” she recalls. “It was someone I was with for years, so the betrayal was the hardest part. He took something away from me, my reputation, basically. People thought I was a slut, and some still do. It’s something I’ll have to one day explain to my children. So, no, I will never forgive him. But I have moved on, because that’s what Hiltons do. We survive.”

  One advantage to the publicity—both good and bad—was that it went a long way toward establishing Paris Hilton as a household name. She knows how to use the media, and is not adverse to allowing it to use her in exchange. The release of the tape coincided with the debut on Fox TV of her reality series, The Simple Life, costarring Nicole Richie, garnering 13 million viewers, and earning its two stars international recognition.

  In her youth, Paris kept the Los Angeles cops and courts busy with charges of speeding, reckless driving, DUI, a parole violation, driving with a suspended license, failure to enroll in a court-ordered alcohol education program, and marijuana and cocaine possession, the latter causing her to be banned from entry into Japan because she was considered “undesirable.” She served time in jail, with an early release. She has also written two autobiographies (one of which, Confessions of an Heiress, was a New York Times best seller); a book about her Chihuahua, The Tinkerbell Hilton Diaries; and in 2011 starred in a reality TV program called The World According to Paris.

  While Paris’s occasional film and TV work contributed to her pop-culture high profile, her real focus has been to establish her brand name as a fashionista with an astounding number of business platforms in her ever-expanding empire, including fragrances (ten at last count), handbags, watches, footwear, sunglasses, pet products, stationery, bedding, and clothing she either designed or endorsed, sold in fifty-five Paris Hilton Stores worldwide and earning her more than $10 million a year. Credit for much of Paris’s success should go to her mother, Kathy, who has often been a smart businesswoman and savvy negotiator on her daughter’s behalf. It’s also safe to say that Paris herself has exhibited over the years the kind of business acumen demonstrated by both her grandfather and great-grandfather. Her fragrances alone have reportedly earned $1.5 billion in the last decade. In 2013 she signed a major DJ contract with a famous nightclub in lbiza. And in October of that same year Paris released a new single and video, “Good Time,” on Cash Money Records, produced by Afrojack (and featuring Lil Wayne); a new album is scheduled for release in 2014. “It’s just part of my brand,” she told Piers Morgan of CNN. “I see myself as a businesswoman and a brand. And singing is just something that adds to my brand.” Her net worth is said to be as much as $100 million.

  “Rather Silly”?

  Just having the last name Hilton, people assume that everything was handed to me and that I’ve never had to work a day in my life,” Paris Hilton told a writer in 2006 when she was promoting her album, Paris, which was released on her own label, Heiress Records, in association with Warner Bros. “But the truth is that I have worked hard, I’ve done it all on my own. I like to think that I was influenced by m
y great-grandfather to make a place for myself. Yes, obviously I have had the advantage of the name, and the family genetics. But all of the Hiltons have a big pair of shoes to fill. None of us will ever be Conrad. None of us will ever be Barron. We just do what we can, and that’s all that’s ever been asked of us by my parents and other relatives.”

  When she says that she’s had to work hard to get ahead, she’s likely referencing the fact that, as is well-known in her family, a mere biological connection to the Hilton fortune does not guarantee a free ride. Like his father and grandfather, Paris’s father, Rick Hilton, made it a practice never to give his children “mad money” with which to live their lives. He’s been just as stringent about that rule as his ancestors. Paris learned she had no choice but to make something of herself. The alternative was an upper-middle-class lifestyle—and she was not cut out for upper-middle-class. Paris Hilton is, in many ways, a self-invented, independent woman. In that regard, it’s difficult to resist the temptation to compare her to Zsa Zsa Gabor. Though the two are distantly related, from all accounts, they have never met. “I think she’s rather silly,” Zsa Zsa said of Paris in 2007. “She does too many things for publicity.”

  Like Paris, Zsa Zsa Gabor wasn’t known for her acting or singing either. Like Paris, she was known for being known… she was famous for being famous. However, Zsa Zsa had the ability to sit with the host of a television program and engage in witty, provocative, and entertaining repartee. She had no pretense; she was purely herself, whether on camera or off. She knew how to tell a good story, and people loved hearing her tell it. For her part, Paris is more at ease when it comes to responding to questions shouted out at her by paparazzi, and in an age when the attention span of a point-and-click generation is often limited to just a few moments before interest is completely lost, Paris’s brand of quick-wittedness is more than enough to keep her in the news.

  It has also helped Paris—as it did Zsa Zsa—that she is uncommonly beautiful and knows how to take a good picture. Like Zsa Zsa’s, her love life has also been somewhat turbulent, which many people find compelling. But Paris has also made much, much more money in her lifetime than Zsa Zsa ever made. Her vision is greater than Zsa Zsa’s ever was, and it’s safe to say that even Zsa Zsa Gabor—who was influenced to “think big” by Conrad Hilton—never could have imagined a life for herself quite as “big” as that of her ex-step-great-granddaughter, Paris Hilton.

  In lieu of millions of dollars just handed down to them, Hilton heirs have the opportunity to use the Hilton name to do whatever they can with it. If they are creative enough to parlay the name into great wealth—like Paris Hilton—more power to them. If not—like most, if not all, of her cousins—that’s their choice too. At thirty-three, Paris has more than secured her future. A less controversial figure than she once was, she seldom makes headlines these days, causing some to wonder if a fickle public has had enough of her. However, according to those who know her best, Paris Hilton has simply grown up and is now making better life choices.

  As of this writing, Paris Hilton is in a steady long-term relationship with a successful model, the Spanish-born, twenty-two-year-old River Viiperi. During an appearance on The Wendy Williams Show on May 2, 2013, she said that she hoped to start a family with him. “I think that’s the meaning of life, to have children and have a family one day,” she explained. “I am so in love. I feel so lucky to have met him. He’s one of the kindest, most loyal men I’ve ever met in my entire life, and he treats me like a princess.”

  How Did Conrad Do It?

  Rick Hilton’s family has kept a high public profile in recent years. Along with Paris, Nicky (whose full name is Nicholai Nicky Olivia) and her brothers, Barron II and Conrad III, are in the public eye.

  Nicky, born on October 5, 1983, has run a couple of successful clothing lines and has designed a line of handbags. She has also worked extensively as a model. In 2006, she even dabbled in the hotel business by opening two Nicky O Hotels, one in Miami and the other in Chicago, careful not to use the name Hilton on it. “I’ve been around hotels my whole life,” she told People magazine in 2006. “I know a good hotel when I see one.” Unfortunately, she learned the hard way that it’s a tough business; the hotels didn’t last long.

  “Nicky is actually a savvy woman,” says one person who worked with her in her hotel enterprise. “She talked a lot about her great-grandfather Conrad, and her grandfather Barron, and also her dad, Rick. These men have had a big influence over her and her sister, Paris. Having worked with Nicky, I can tell you that she’s a smart businesswoman who has made a fortune for herself, if not in the hotel business certainly with her lines of clothing. She and Paris understand how to create and develop a brand. They understand marketing and promoting, and if that isn’t all from the canon of Conrad Hilton, I don’t know what is.”

  Like her sister, Nicky has also made headlines with her personal life, such as when she married childhood friend Todd Andrew Meister in 2004, a marriage that was eventually annulled.

  Nicky’s mother, Kathy, hosted a network reality television show for NBC in 2005, I Want to Be a Hilton. In the series, fourteen young people, male and female, engaged in competitions relating to art and culture, beauty and fashion in order to gain the opportunity to live a glamorous high-society lifestyle. One by one, each contestant was eliminated by Kathy Hilton, using the catchphrase “You’re not on the list.” The winner was finally awarded a $200,000 trust fund, a new apartment, clothing, and, according to the NBC press release, “the opportunity to become friendly with the Hiltons.”

  Some critics were puzzled by Kathy Hilton’s program, because they felt it promoted a stereotype of the Hiltons as being silly and superficial, which was obviously not her intention. “When I was a kid people wanted to be an Oscar Mayer Weiner,” wrote a critic for the Hollywood Reporter. “Now they want to be a Hilton. Or so we’re told. Not that the two are very different, actually. You don’t want to know what’s really inside either one—and both tend to hide behind their buns. ‘I Want to Be a Hilton’ supplies further evidence of the decline and fall of Western civilization.”

  Kathy Hilton’s business instincts are usually quite astute, as she has proved with many aspects of her daughter Paris’s career. However, with her foray into network television, she likely learned that a fine line exists between taking a tongue-in-cheek approach to the family’s flamboyant reputation and exploiting it in a way that might be viewed as distasteful. Unfortunately, her series ran for only one season. Most recently, Kathy, who at fifty-five remains a stunning—and often outspoken—blonde, has been seen as a regular on the OWN network reality program Life with LaToya, starring her longtime friend LaToya Jackson.

  Kathy and Rick’s sons, Conrad III and Barron, have led mostly quiet lives, though both did put the family in headlines when they were involved in separate high-profile automobile mishaps. Luckily, both young Hilton men have the advantage of coming from a close-knit family with parents who have not only been loving but often strict. It obviously doesn’t mean the Hilton offspring won’t sometimes get into trouble. It does, however, mean that they have a strong foundation upon which to stand when faced with problems.

  “Look, it’s not easy raising kids these days,” Kathy Hilton has said, “and just because we’re Hiltons doesn’t mean that we don’t have the same kinds of problems as everyone else, only ours are magnified by the media. We are a close family. We have a great love for one another. We have always been willing to tell the truth to one another and face the consequences, knowing that we, as a family, will be okay. And, of course, we also believe in the old adage: This, too, shall pass.”

  As they have gotten older, this next generation of Hiltons has also become interested in their family history, particularly in the life of their great-grandfather Conrad. Part of their interest may be because of the inclusion of an intriguing story line in the AMC series Mad Men in which advertising man, Don Draper, lands the account of a successful hotelier named… Conrad Hi
lton. The creators of the show actually went to great lengths to try to depict Hilton in as accurate a way as possible. “The producers knew pretty much nothing about Conrad, so they contacted us,” confirmed Mark Young of the Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. “We were able to supply a lot of information, photographs, and other memorabilia from which they were able to build their character. They wanted to be as accurate as possible in capturing Conrad, the way he walked and talked, the Stetson hat, all of it, his personality.

  “Since Mad Men, many young Hilton family members—the offspring of Nicky, Eric, and Barron—have been here to the archives,” says Young. “Conrad Hilton was such an icon in our culture, but to them he’s their grandfather or great-grandfather. They want to know about him, what influenced him, how he became the man he became. ‘Tell us about Conrad,’ they would say. ‘How did Conrad do it? How did Conrad achieve what he did in his lifetime?’ It’s a great and inspiring family story, and I think it matters to them a great deal, as well it should.”

  End of an Era

  Today, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation is a private holding company, a family institution that is not public and thus not vulnerable to any sort of takeover attempt. With Hiltons sitting on the board of the foundation, the family maintains complete power and control over it.

  In 1996, after thirty years as CEO of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, William Barron Hilton finally retired. Steve Bollenback succeeded him, while Hilton continued to chair the board.

  In 2007, the Hilton Hotels Corporation, with its nearly three thousand hotels in seventy-six countries, was acquired by the private equity firm of Blackstone Group LP. The company agreed in February of that year to a cash deal of $20.1 billion from Blackstone. “It could be argued that this news marks the end of an era,” wrote a journalist for Fortune magazine. “The company started by Conrad Hilton, in effect, no longer exists.” Barron Hilton explained, “Despite my tremendous family pride, I knew Hilton Hotels Corporation had grown to the point where it could thrive, even without a Hilton family member at the helm. I had been a member of the Hilton Foundation board since 1954. It was only after the sale of our companies that I proudly became chairman of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.”