Dysfunctional Family Businesses: Hilton

By Mike Schuster Jun 30, 2009 7:55 am

It's not all Paris' fault.

Comment

Monsoons. Pneumonia. Screech.

These are just a few things the American public has a higher opinion of than the Hilton family. For nearly a century, the Hiltons have been leaders in the hotel business and participants in some of the most notable scandals the country has ever seen.

And it wasn't all Paris' fault.

Problems for the Hilton clan started back in 1929, 10 years after grand patriarch, Conrad Nicholson Hilton, Sr., founded his first hotel in Cisco, Texas. The stock market crash was a cancer for the hotel business and upended owners -including Hilton.

By 1930, he was on the brink of bankruptcy with 8 hotels and debt of half a million dollars. Legend has it that a hotel bell boy slipped Conrad $300 -- his life savings -- just so his family wouldn't go hungry.

Next was a tumultuous partnership between Conrad and the Moody family of Galveston, Texas. After defaulting on a $300,000 loan, Hilton was forced to surrender his hotels to the Moodys and work as manager. But after lengthy litigation -- suits and counter-suits -- he emerged the victor with 5 of his 8 hotels.

But Hilton's personal life suffered during the trials. He divorced his wife Mary after 9 years of marriage. So began a lifelong relationship with the tabloids.

In 1942, Conrad married model and future starlet Zsa Zsa Gabor, netting front-page spreads with his new arm candy. Their union came under fire, however, when in 1991 Gabor's biography, One Lifetime Is Not Enough, alleged the birth of the couple's only child was the result of Conrad raping her.

Hilton Family

Conrad "Nicky" Hilton Jr. also stepped in front of the flashbulbs when he married actress Elizabeth Taylor in 1950. But in typical Liz Taylor fashion, their marriage ended a year later.

Nicky's younger brother, Barron, grew to play an integral role in the family business: He was made vice president of the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1954, and took over as president 12 years later. Although he oversaw many profitable ventures, and engineered the $112 million purchase of 2 properties in Las Vegas, Barron was in for surprise at the reading of his father's will in 1979.Twitter: @mcs212