Hilton about his hotel business. Conrad Hilton is one of the greatest life-changing people

Conrad Hilton family

Daughter - Francesca.

03.01.1979

Conrad Hilton
Conrad Nicholson Hilton

American Entrepreneur

Founder of the Hilton hotel chain

American entrepreneur. Founder of the Hilton hotel chain.

Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born December 25, 1887 in San Antonio, USA. The boy grew up in the family of a grocery store manager. After graduating from college in 1908, he entered the institute, where he received the profession of a mining engineer. Returning home, Konrad helped his father in the store, and when the latter was elected a deputy, he was his assistant.

With the outbreak of World War I, Hilton volunteered for the front. After demobilization in 1918, he began an independent life. Doing business became his main interest. Soon he created a bank that went bankrupt. Further, Hilton made several more attempts to create banks, but to no avail.

By chance, in 1919, he arrived in the small town of Cisco, Texas, where he stayed at the Mobley Hotel, more like a rooming house. Some observations prompted Hilton to enter the hotel business, and Conrad decided to buy this hotel.

Within a year, Conrad had made every meter of his hotel earn by increasing the number of beds and placing glass showcases at the entrance with the necessary little things: newspapers, magazines, razor blades, toothbrushes and more. The new Hilton business went well. Just a year later, he acquired three more hotels, and in 1925 the Dallas Hilton, Conrad's first own hotel, opened.

Soon Hilton began to receive invitations from all over Texas to build and manage hotels. Further, his fortune was already growing with a progression of one hotel per year. The empire expanded, and Conrad even managed to get through the Great Crisis of the 1930s with minimal losses. During this period, the entrepreneur learned to support his business during a period of economic instability, and soon hotels with his name could be found throughout the country. Hilton not only built its own, but also gradually outbid competitors' hotels.

In 1946, the Hilton Hotels Corporation was established. This hotel chain became the largest in the United States, and the corporation's turnover grew so much that in 1949 Conrad was able to buy the most luxurious hotel in New York, the Waldorf-Astoria, realizing his old dream. That same year, the first hotel outside America opened in Puerto Rico.

As a result, by the 1960s, Hilton Hotels became the most technologically advanced hotel chain in the world, with about a hundred hotels worldwide, while continuing to grow, and Conrad himself became a multimillionaire.

In 1966, at the age of 78, Konrad retired from the management of the corporation, passing the presidency to his son Barron, but remained chairman of the board of directors until the last day. "In retirement" he took up charity work, and he also liked to speak to students. Hilton also organized a Catholic foundation in his name and provided a college of hotel and restaurant management at the University of Houston.

The famous hotelier, the maestro of the hotel business, Conrad Hilton died on January 3, 1979 in the city of Santa Monica, USA. The funeral was held in a quiet, family circle.

The businessman left behind not only a huge fortune. Hilton brought the hotel business to a completely new stage of development, and his initiatives have now become world standards. It was Konrad who was the first to introduce the system of gradation of hotels according to the “star” type and the concept of “standard set of services”, which is the same for all the hotels of the company, and was the first to open the practice of selling essential items in hotel lobbies, developed a system of discounts.

Conrad Hilton family

First wife - Mary Barron (married in 1926).
Three sons - Nicholas, Barron and Eric.

Second wife - Zsa Zsa Gabor (married in 1942), actress.
Daughter - Francesca.

Third wife - Marie Franziska Kelly (married in 1976).

For the first time, all the attributes of a modern hotel appeared in this hotel chain - air conditioning, Internet booking, automatic locks in the doors of rooms. But the main innovation was the unification of the hotel and the casino

Grocer Adventurer

When future hotel tycoon Conrad Hilton bought his first hotel, he already had several business failures behind him. Having received an engineering degree, he did not work in his specialty for a single day, but immediately went headlong into financial adventures. They only brought disappointment to Hilton - each new undertaking invariably burned out, and everything had to be started from scratch. Although he showed business acumen as a child: when he helped his father in the family grocery store, sales went up sharply. But Conrad himself dreamed of more than just a job as a grocer in the American outback, which was his hometown of San Antonio at the end of the century before last. The boy saw himself at the head of a prosperous bank, a famous financier who turned over millions.

And only at the age of 31, Conrad Hilton accidentally stumbled upon a case that brought him the long-awaited millions, and turned his name into a legend. In 1919, he once again found himself broke and wondering how to put together start-up capital for new banking scams. And then Hilton bought the idle Mobley Hotel in the Texas town of Sisco. This shabby inn with ridiculous columns on the facade could only be called a hotel if you had the imagination. However, Hilton was not deprived of just fantasy - and a special, entrepreneurial fantasy. He made not only the hotel itself profitable, but even its columns, surrounding them with glass showcases with goods necessary in any hotel: newspapers, magazines, razor blades, toothbrushes and much more. As the owner of the hotel later calculated, each column brought him an additional $8,000.

famous hotelier

Success inspired Hilton, and he, forgetting about the banking business, decided to take a closer look at the previously unknown hotel business. And, apparently, he saw considerable prospects in him. In 1925, he opened the first hotel in Dallas under the brand name Hilton, which became the cornerstone of the famous hotel empire. It grew stronger, expanded and with minimal losses went through the difficult years of the Great Crisis, when Hilton, in whose veins the blood of tight-fisted Scandinavians and Germans flowed, had to save literally on everything, including even his own salary.

In 1946, the Hilton Hotels Corporation was established and became a public corporation. At this time, Hilton expanded its business far beyond Texas, after buying and leasing several luxury hotels, the hotel chain became the largest in the United States.

And in 1949, the first hotel abroad was opened - Caribe Hilton in Puerto Rico. On this occasion, Conrad Hilton founded a new company (operating in parallel with the first) - Hilton International, engaged in promoting his brand outside the United States.

Today there are Hilton hotels in almost all countries of the world. Over the past quarter century, Papa Conrad's hotel industry has been replenished with a number of luxury hotels, led by the oldest and one of the most famous hotels in New York, the Waldorf Astoria (in 1977, Hilton Hotels acquired its controlling stake for $ 35 million). The corporation also includes three- and four-star hotels of the British chain Stakis and the Scandinavian Scandic Hotels AB.

Of all the titles given to him by newspapermen, the founder of the hotel empire loved the French name of his profession, hotelier, the most. The famous hotelier passed away in 1979, but until the last day he retained the post of chairman of the board of directors. Only in 1966, on the eve of his 80th birthday, Conrad Hilton allowed himself to part with another post - the presidency, leaving it to his son Barron. Journalists noted that, along with the construction of hotels, Conrad Hilton succeeded in another construction - his family clan: by now, eight children of “Papa Conrad” and almost a hundred grandchildren and great-grandchildren are living and healthy (and some are doing business) in the world .

His autobiography Be My Guest has become a reference book for a generation of hoteliers in many countries. Because the author, who inherited double pedantry from his Norwegian father and German mother, created a whole methodological manual on the topic “how to extract maximum profit from a minimum area or volume.”

standard luxury

The corporate motto of the company: "Guaranteed luxury with affordable service of high standard quality" - attracts a wide variety of clients to its hotels - from crowned heads, business leaders and cultural and show business stars to simple married couples belonging to the middle class. As American journalists wrote, Conrad Hilton was the first to understand what has become a commonplace in the service industry today: both millionaires and people with average incomes are equally in need of real comfort and unobtrusive, but ubiquitous service, and both of them are ready to stop together for this. in the same hotels.

And the main thing that brought success to the Hilton hotel chain was innovation in the field of service and marketing. The corporation was the first to install specialized souvenir and gift kiosks (Hilton Country Store). For the first time, all rooms were equipped with such common devices today as air conditioning, direct dial telephone, multifunctional programmable alarm clocks, automatic entry doors. In 1994, Hilton became the first hotel chain in the world to have all properties equipped with automatic opening, closing, locking and blocking of entrance doors. And since 1959, the company began to open specialized hotels at airports, which offered the appropriate package of services for air passengers and flight crews of airlines. Another innovation was the reward system for regular customers - the Hilton Honors program, as well as the system of a nationwide club resort vacation. Then a revolution in the hotel services market was made by a joint project of sea cruise holidays with the Festival Cruise company.

In addition, the Conrad Hilton Company was the first in its business sector to introduce and widely disseminate a franchise system, for which a subsidiary, Hilton Inns, was created in 1965. Over time, this system was adopted by all Hilton competitors, while the company of Conrad Hilton itself today operates under franchising agreements with 1352 hotels.

Virtual booking

But the main innovations of the Hilton hotel chain saw the light after his death - when the world entered the electronic era. Following the precepts of the founding father, his followers were the first to be able to occupy all the profitable niches that opened up, mainly due to the fact that work on the "electronicization" of Hilton hotels and related infrastructure began long before the emergence of the now well-known concepts - e-business and IT technologies. . Today, competitors are forced to rush through stages of technological restructuring that Hilton has long since passed. As early as 1973, Hilton Hotels was the first in the world's hotel business to introduce the Hiltron information and reference system - with its help, the client could remotely obtain information about availability and book rooms along with rail and air tickets. The effectiveness of this system turned out to be above all expectations - it successfully worked for 26 years, and only in 1999 it was replaced by a more modern one - the Central Reservations System (CRS or Hilstar), which united more than 500 hotels around the world.

In 1985, the corporation began operating another system - the marketing Answer*Net, which connected all regional offices and hotel complexes in the United States into a single network. And a decade later, the first in the industry opened the Internet portal www.hilton.com and, with the support of American Express, its own Hilton Optima credit card system.

In 2002, Hilton's empire became one of the initiators of the creation of a unified network booking system WorldRes, which, in addition to Hilton itself, included the resources of two other leading players in the field of resort and hotel business - Accor and Six Continents.

Finally, the company recently successfully announced another innovative service solution - WLAN access based on Symbol Technologies wireless switches. This communication complex was first tested in the Frankfurt Hilton Hotel and immediately gained popularity with the administration and customers.

Roulette Hotel

But, perhaps, the most unexpected and controversial innovation was the active and systematic integration of Hilton's hotel business into a neighboring area - the gambling industry.

This alliance began in the late sixties, when two unusual hotels were built in the recognized gambling capital of America, Las Vegas - Las Vegas Hilton and Flamingo Hilton. Unlike all others built earlier, they were also gambling establishments. Prior to that, hotels in Las Vegas were built separately, casinos were built separately. And only Conrad Hilton, for all his piety, came up with a bold idea: to combine living in the "city-roulette" with the main local pastime - the game. This implied an additional system of service and various bonuses for customers. For example, restaurants and bars were placed right in the gambling halls, and each new guest was given free gambling chips for a certain amount.

The innovation was so successful that in 1987, as a result of a series of transactions, Hilton International merged with the British industrial group Ladbroke Group, whose main activity was just casinos, bookmakers, lotteries and sweepstakes. The association later became known as the Hilton Group.

The British gaming empire did not become the dominant division in the Hilton Group, but it certainly saved the hotel business during the most severe crisis associated with the main tragedy of the new century - the terrorist attacks in New York in September 2001. After them, for the entire global hotel business (as well as air passenger, tourism, and many others), the era of relative prosperity of the late 1990s was replaced by a period of decline. And for someone - and a complete collapse.

For some, but not for the Hilton Group, she once again demonstrated a rare insight, having managed to acquire a saving magic wand in the form of the mentioned gambling business. Because it quickly became clear that natural and man-made crises and catastrophes in society lead to the fact that people are less willing to travel, fly on planes and stay in hotels, but the craving for gambling in such times, on the contrary, only intensifies! Which, in general, is natural - when everything is unstable in the world, there is a growing hope to increase one's well-being with the help of fortune.

In the first years of the new millennium, the Hilton Group's hospitality sector suffered losses, but profits from another division - gambling and betting - made it possible not only to cover them, but also to increase profits in 2003 by almost $ 2 million compared to the previous year. The Hilton Group's total sales in 2003 were approximately $16 billion, of which only 19% came from Hilton International's hotel division.

The guests buzzed like a thousand bee hives and annoyed Hilton. Someone proclaimed another duty toast for happiness to the grave, drunken laughter rang out at the other end of the table - they broke a bottle of champagne, then another, a third ... The young people were clearly tired of kissing and sat with distracted faces, looking in different directions.
Waiters in starched caps and aprons brought more and more new dishes. The abundance of dishes on the tables resembled an ancient feast. On the calendar - May 6, 1950. The founder of the famous hotel chain Conrad Hilton and his ex-wife Mary Barron were present in Beverly Hills for the wedding of their twenty-four-year-old son Conrad Nicholson Jr., nicknamed Nikki. He married eighteen-year-old stunning beauty Elizabeth Taylor.

The former Mrs. Hilton kept repeating, like a broken record, that young people have everything for happiness: youth, beauty, wealth.

You and I also once had all this, dear, - impolitely interrupted the ex-wife Hilton. - And what, it helped us a lot?

Mary was confused.

What then is needed? - muttered the aged, swollen woman, but once she was not inferior to the bride in beauty.

We need a stone bride, nothing else, - Hilton snapped and took a generous sip of whiskey.

Apart from Mary, hardly anyone was able to understand this enigmatic phrase, but she understood it.

I pray to God for one thing: that our son is not in you! snapped Mrs. Barron.

He's not into me, but if I were you, I wouldn't pray to God for such dubious things, - Hilton retorted with deadly irony.

When his three sons were still teenagers, and Conrad had already determined who would be good at business, who would not. Fifteen-year-old Nikki somehow showed up at home in incredible "alligator" boots, costing, as Hilton suspected, crazy money.

I have not allowed myself to buy such expensive shoes in my entire life until today! Conrad lashed out indignantly at his son.

A wry smirk appeared on Nikki's face.

But you never had such a rich father.

“This one will do everything in life by proxy,” Hilton thought about his son. Children do not understand from what zero he started once.

At the family council, Gus Hilton tugged at his beard and averted his eyes: he was ashamed in front of his sons and wife - for the first time in his life he did not know what to do. The collapse of the financial market in 1907 led to the fact that Hus woke up a beggar. Yesterday he was rich, cheerful and self-confident. He made his fortune selling coal mines. With disgust, Gus looked at the mountain of shares, which were now not worth a penny.

It's no joke, there are eight children in the family! Gus Hilton never thought he would let them go around the world. "Do any of you have any ideas how we can get out of this situation?" Gus finally asked. And then his thirteen-year-old son Conrad spoke up. “Yes,” said a skinny, lop-eared youth, whose family name was simply Connie, in a ringing voice. - We have ten rooms. Let's make a hotel out of five or six, and we ourselves will be accommodated in the rest. Mom and girls will cook for the guests, and I will take care of the luggage and other things, you can charge two and a half dollars a day from the residents. Gus looked at his son with curiosity: what a good idea! The guy's head is clearly in place. Their city of San Antonio, New Mexico, is really in dire need of hotels: there are so many of them, and they are all expensive, dirty, with monstrous cuisine.

But the initiative, as you know, is punishable. Connie had to work harder than anyone: he went to bed at ten, got up at midnight and rushed to the station to meet the night train, which could bring potential guests. With a wide benevolent smile, he picked up the suitcases of the guests, escorted them to their rooms, gave out carefully washed and ironed linen, not forgetting about soap and a towel. The guy quickly realized, although no one taught him this, that each guest needs to be given personal attention. Connie wrote down in a small notebook what time to wake up each guest and what to cook for him for breakfast. And he never confused anything. And two months had not passed, when in the vicinity of San Antonio one could hear such conversations: “If you are in our city, by all means go to the Hilton. It has the cleanest linen and the best food...”

Thanks to the help of his son, Gus Hilton very soon corrected his affairs. Contributed to this, of course, and the fact that the value of the shares went up again.

However, Connie, already at the age of twenty, gnawed at the thought that he was "a loser sitting on his father's neck." However, America itself at the beginning of the century tried to quickly get on its feet, "grow up" and surpass Europe. In that sense, Connie was a son of his time. Having served two years in the army, having not completed his studies at the Faculty of Mining, Connie felt: it's time, his time has come, he must act!

“You have nothing to do in New Mexico, Connie,” an old businessman once dropped. - With your requests, you better go to Texas. There is oil, and oil is gold and great opportunities.”

In Sisco, a small, nondescript town in Texas, Connie came with his friend Drawn in search of good luck. The young people went to the local Mobley Inn, where they were fed a disgusting vegetable stew, thin stew, and brought water that tasted of rancid butter. Connie called over a young waitress, "Don't you have clean water?" She shrugged guiltily: the guests, alas, were poured water from the tap, and the tap water here is all just like that. The next morning, the owner of the hotel told Connie and his friend that they had to move out: a lot of new guests had arrived. Mr. Mowbley provided a bed for each newcomer only for one night, after which he simply escorted him out - he saw justice in this arrangement. The whole day Connie plowed the narrow unkempt streets: there are few restaurants, all disgusting, in stores - he went to buy a new travel bag - they can neither serve nor advise. There were a couple of banks in the town, but, Connie thought, those banks clearly didn't care about the city's amenities. Sitting on a bench, the young man watched a crowd of people with heavy luggage, in dusty clothes, gloomy and tired from the road, pouring from the station. They flocked here for oil and earnings like flies for honey. And then Hilton was pierced by the thought: a hotel! That's what this town needs, that's what will bring a sure income. And, importantly, he, Connie, has some experience in this matter.

Ten minutes later, the restless Connie stood in front of the owner of the inhospitable hotel where they spent the night - "Mobley Inn".

Forty thousand in cash, - the owner of the establishment said sourly, - and this is your lair. I have long dreamed of getting rid of it and acquiring something more decent.

Connie whistled: forty thousand for such a large room with spacious rooms is mere trifles! This Mobley is a complete idiot, or this is not clean. Hilton asked for account books and sat behind them in Mowbley's stuffy, cluttered office until late in the evening. Oddly enough, everything was in relative order. Except, of course, that income can be tripled and service improved tenfold.

I agree to buy a hotel, - Connie and Mobley shook hands. - But it will take me a week to transfer funds from New Mexico.

And here he had to break his head. Connie had only five thousand of his own funds. The remaining thirty-five must be obtained somewhere. The mother (the father of the young man had died in a car accident by that time) immediately sent five thousand, two more acquaintances also entrusted Connie with five thousand each, there was nothing left to get - 20 thousand!

Connie was sharing his troubles with Drawn when his eye fell on the sign for "Bank Sisko".

Wait a second, Connie interrupted himself, I'm here.

Entering the bank, Connie resolutely went to the president - a bald, middle-aged man in horn-rimmed glasses - and, without any preamble, announced that he wanted to buy Mobley's hotel. He has half of the funds, and he would like to borrow from the bank - the other half. The bank president looked at the young man with curiosity: lend twenty thousand to the first person you meet? “Half the money you have is your own funds? he asked. Connie told it like it is. Namely: that own funds are only five thousand. The rest was borrowed by friends. The bald gentleman once more looked at the lanky figure of Hilton and suddenly said: "All right, I'll give you the required amount." Connie couldn't believe his ears: it was so easy! A stranger came from the street and immediately got a check for twenty thousand!

However, the next day, his joy faded when the news came that a check for five thousand from one of his friends could not be covered. Without a moment's hesitation, Connie rushed to the Sisko Bank. “There was a problem,” Hilton squeezed out of himself in a stricken voice, avoiding the piercing gaze of the banker. And he told everything honestly. The banker paused, and then noticed that such a beginning could greatly complicate the relationship of the bank with a new client. Connie hung his head; he knew that. “But,” the President continued after a short pause, “there is a way out. We'll get your buddy to cover the check." Soon the Mobley Hotel became the property of the Hilton. Connie was jubilant. A couple of years later, while having lunch with the president of the first bank in his life, he wondered why the banker had given money to a complete stranger. And he replied that, firstly, because Hilton had invested in the purchase all his capital, everything that he had; and secondly, because when the first troubles appeared, he did not hide, but immediately and honestly warned the bank about the complications. The president simply understood that such a client could be trusted.

Hilton learned these two rules for life and subsequently was true to them: start by investing your own money and be absolutely honest.

Looking around his property with a master's eye, Connie noticed that there was a lot of unused space in the hotel, for example, too large a room was occupied by a restaurant - no more than twenty people gathered here at the hottest hours, and there were more than fifty seats. Hilton reduced the restaurant hall by half, but the hotel added several rooms. Later, this will also become a Hilton's strong point: the desire to use a “non-working” space that does not bring money. When, many years later, Conrad Hilton made one of the most important deals of his life - he bought the New York Waldorf-Astoria, he discovered that the famous columns in the hall did not serve as supports, but simply decorated the interior, and ordered them to be removed, placed on their place is a jewelry showcase. But it won't be soon.

In the meantime, the Hilton career developed rapidly: after the modest Mobley Hotel, Connie bought rooms at the Waldorf Hotel in Dallas for a huge amount at that time - 71 thousand dollars. But Hilton by that time had already accumulated some capital and, in addition, learned how to skillfully use bank loans.

Moving to Dallas, Hilton for the first time acquired a spacious house of his own and completely arranged it to his liking. His mother often came to visit him. Konrad spoiled the old woman with childish pleasure: he gave her golden brooches, expensive rings. “You need to get married, Connie,” Mrs. Hilton told her son. - And to give gifts to his wife.
However, what Hilton definitely did not know how to care for women. Having lived to the age of thirty-six, Conrad has never experienced a strong feeling.

At another Sunday mass in Dallas - Hilton was a Catholic - he noticed a woman sitting in front in a red hat, from under which bluish-black curls were knocked out. For some reason, Connie could not take his eyes off this hat for the whole service. The woman finally turned around - and he saw a young, pretty, very lively face and laughing blue eyes. Connie had never seen this girl here before. For the first time, a stranger made such a strong impression on the completely unromantic Hilton. Connie, not realizing what he was doing, pushed aside the parishioners slowly leaving the cathedral, hurried after the girl. He wanted to at least know where she lived. Hilton rushed after her, cursing every now and then acquaintances along the way, with whom he had to bow and exchange pleasantries. Usually emphatically polite Connie, probably, at that moment seemed very strange to many. He still missed the stranger in the red hat. The girl never showed up at the church either. And suddenly one day Connie ran into her nose to nose right on the street! The girl was accompanied by a friend of Hilton, a certain Mrs. Evans. She introduced her companion to Connie: "Meet Mary Barron, my niece from Owensboro, Kentucky."

The daughter of a not-so-prosperous merchant, Mary was more than ten years younger than Hilton. She, too, had taken a liking to this ridiculous, lanky young man, but the most charming thing about Connie Mary was his helplessness in love affairs. He did not know how to compliment the girl and was afraid to kiss her hand: he leaned over and, without touching her hand with his lips, kissed the air. Hilton made the offer also very wonderfully: “We can only get married when I open the first Hilton in Dallas.

“And if for some reason the hotel is not built, we will not get married?” Mary wondered.

In Owensboro, where Mary, at her parents' house, impatiently whiled away the time until the promised wedding, alarming news came. “Lenders refused the promised one hundred thousand. I'm desperate". “For every little thing, builders fight five times more than what I expected.” “I saw a handsome hotel in a dream. How good!” Mary was embarrassed to complain even to her close friends, who had long since married simple, kind shopkeepers, that the groom's dreams were not her blue eyes.

Conrad Hilton and Mary Barron did get married in the summer of 1925. This meant that the Dallas Hilton was finally built. The opening ceremony, attended by Mary, was nothing compared to the modest and rather hasty ceremony of the marriage that followed. Connie and Mary got married during a six-hour mass at Holy Trinity Church in Dallas.

Laughter gradually disappeared from Mary's once cheerful eyes. She cried for several hours when she discovered that the treasured red hat, a symbol of their love, was lying in the most cluttered corner of the closet. Mary Hilton already had three sons and actually had no husband. Connie, in turn, believed that everything was going as it should: his wife was with the children, he was in business. Hilton himself did not notice how he gradually turned into a real "hotel maniac." He spent all his time looking for more and more new hotels - so others indulge in a game of roulette. Mrs. Hilton, having put the children to bed, waited a long time for her husband to finally come into the bedroom. Sometimes, unable to bear it, she herself followed him into the living room and always found him bent over papers and drawings.

Mary, - without looking up from the records, Hilton once solemnly said, - I want to let you in on my plans. I decided to open one hotel a year!

On his wife's next birthday, Hilton cheerfully said: "I'm going to get presents for my lady!" Mary waited with interest to see what her husband would present to her. But Hilton came home empty-handed, sat down at the festively laid table and, kissing his wife, uttered a strange phrase: “How sensitive you are, dear, that you arranged such a holiday on the occasion of my girl!” Opened champagne. “I want to drink to my first lady! Hilton raised his glass. Mary blushed with joy: now her husband will finally say something nice to her and, probably, give her a gift. doubt, the first beauty in the city. I did not stint on decorations for her: today I bought the best drapery silk, magnificent dishes, excellent paintings. What else? .. ”Hilton, in the heat of the moment, did not even notice that Mary had long slipped out from behind the table.

The Great Depression of the early 1930s affected everyone, including Hilton. Banks have drastically cut construction loans. Hilton lost some of the hotels - he simply could not maintain them.

That unpleasant evening, Conrad returned home, singing a cheerful jazz tune and dancing. Three hotels were returned to him - in Lookbock, Dallas and Plainview - and, in addition, Maddy Bank issued an impressive loan. Mary saw his joyful face and announced that they were getting a divorce.

For Hilton, it sounded like thunder from heaven. First, he loves Mary and the children, he is quite sure of it. Secondly, he is a Catholic, and the word "divorce" tormented his ears with its unthinkability. In America in the mid-thirties, this was a serious stain on the reputation. As Mary wept, changing her handkerchiefs, Connie imagined Maddy Bank refusing to give him a loan because the divorce would make him a "morally unreliable partner." But things took a very bad turn: a few days later, the wife announced that the two eldest sons - Nikki and William - were staying with their father. Conrad never took part in the upbringing of children, it will do him good to restore mental balance. Otherwise, Mary argued, he would end up in a lunatic asylum. After that, Mrs. Hilton took her youngest son, leaving Hilton the older boys - eight and nine years old, and left for her homeland in Kentucky.

The boys... They gave him the heat. Hilton was returning home after a hard day's work, and he was greeted with surprises: the boys painted the front staircase of a neighbor's house with orange paint; shot from a slingshot beloved cat of a familiar old woman; Nikki was trying to cook dinner, which caused a gas explosion, it's good that his son survived.

In a sanatorium near San Francisco, where Hilton found himself a year later, a good-natured bearded doctor taught the businessman to live in a new way. “At six you finish the working day, even if the sky falls to the ground. And go... What do you like? Dance? ABOUT! I'm somewhat surprised. Great, then go waltz. Then - to friends. At eleven - in bed, and you will forget about heart problems. You are not even fifty, and you already feel like a ruin.

On the urgent advice of a doctor, for the first time in his life, Hilton allowed himself a vacation and bought a summer house in southern California, where there were mainly mansions of Hollywood movie stars. His neighbors in Malibu Beach were Lillian Tali van, Jack Gilbert and Gloria Swanson. Film celebrities found Hilton well-mannered, gallant and amiable. In California, the figure of Hilton, after acquiring the Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco and building the Hilton in Beverly Hills, was very popular. Now even people who were far from business bombarded Conrad with questions. Is it true that he personally reviews the list of distinguished guests in his "top" hotels every day? Hilton smiled: “Really. I maintain a whole staff of people who delicately learn about the tastes of my guests. For example, former President Hoover secretly adored mints and green apples. Stopping one day at one of the Hilton hotels, he found these delicacies in abundance. And Mary Pickford was fond of alpine violets and Belgian beer. When she visited Hilton "for a visit", her room always had both. There was even a joke about Hilton that if, say, a famous writer stops at one of his hotels, then a third of the written novel will be waiting for him on the table. “Well, how do you satisfy the tastes of unnamed guests, Mr. Hilton?” Gloria Swenson inquired. But Konrad has long learned to find an approach to ordinary guests. In fact, he learned this in the first place. The idea is simple: an inexpensive room should have such elements of luxury that would make guests feel like they are at a higher level of society than they really are. For example, Hilton ordered to hang expensive curtains in cheap rooms and frame ordinary paintings in impressive gilded frames. These trifles "made" the interior. But these are all "secrets". As for the big one, everyone knows that Hilton was the first to equip rooms with air conditioners, doors with automatic locks, take care of convenient parking lots and the best chefs for restaurants ...

In April 1940, fifty-five-year-old Conrad Hilton experienced the biggest embarrassment of his life. Red as a cancer, he stood before the judge in the city of Santa Fe. A peppy, rosy-cheeked judge asked if he voluntarily registered a civil marriage with a young woman named Zaza Gabor, a Hungarian by birth. “Voluntarily,” Hilton mumbled in a barely audible voice.

At one of the dinner parties on the occasion of the opening of another hotel, the twenty-three-year-old blonde Zaza fixed Conrad with the burning eyes of a panther, busy hunting for the prey she liked. Hilton knew too little of women to understand the intricacies of such views. It seemed to him: he is irresistible that evening, his stories about the next hotel that has turned his head are witty as never before, and Zaza bursts into laughter from his successful jokes. Konrad drew himself up and, encouraged by the sly eyes of Zaza, launched into an endless narration of his successful transactions over the past year: loans, interest, shares, stocks, the convenience of guest toilets, an innovative ventilation system ... Gabor nodded enthusiastically and laughed. Hilton continued. Never before had he met such understanding from a woman!

Seeing Zaza home that evening, which, as far as he remembers, was extremely suffocating, Hilton decided on a compliment: “You are beautiful just like Francis Drake!” Zaza looked at her beau with a slightly puzzled look: "Do you like boys?" Hilton coughed embarrassingly, then squeezed out a smile: “I already thought that there was such an understanding between us that you were from the first word ... I would never have dared to say this to my wife: she was jealous of hotels! I told you, the Francis Drake is my hotel." Gabor burst into iridescent laughter, reminiscent of the ringing of small bells, and suddenly said, looking directly into Hilton's eyes: "I think I should marry you."

Once Conrad's sister Helen warned that his failures with women happen because he does not know how to show attention to them. Helen assured that harmony is impossible if a man does not find out the name of the first doll of the chosen one, who was her first love, what is her most cherished dream. Alas, all this information about the first wife, Mary Barron, remained a secret for Conrad with seven seals. But with Zaza, he decided not to repeat the same mistakes. It's like in business: you learn from your mistakes. Conrad meticulously compiled a short list of questions to ask the woman who had captivated his imagination, and kept repeating them to himself so as not to stray. But it was not easy to get clear, direct answers from Zaza. Conrad hardly understood that instead of her favorite dolls (Gabor preferred soldiers as a child), she has two sisters - Eva and Magda. Zaza first said that she had won a beauty contest in Hungary, then she clarified that Magda won the contest, and she herself received a special prize, then it turned out that she did not participate in this contest at all, because she considered it below her dignity to compare beauty with “Hungarian ugly ". Her cherished dream? Zaza was suddenly confused. If their relationship with Hilton develops, he will be the first to know about it. After all, they will trust each other ... Gabor is sure that Hilton will help her realize her cherished dream.

As for Zaza's first love... At first, Hilton had no doubt that such a young woman's first love would, of course, be him: at school, Hilton admitted, perhaps Zaza was innocently infatuated with some mathematics teacher, like all girls. “But I was married,” Gabor said, shaking her blond mop, and added: “We got divorced. He didn't deserve me. You know, you get to know a man best when you get divorced...” Gabor bit her tongue so as not to blurt out too much, but Hilton ignored the last words. "He didn't deserve you? You must have suffered a lot ... Divorce at this age can instill distrust in marriage for life ... "

Gabor's first husband was the Turkish Foreign Minister, much older than her. Zaza told Hilton that her husband brought her to Turkey, where everything was wild and unfamiliar to her, paid little attention, was very stingy with gifts. Zaza prudently kept silent about the fact that very soon she was comforted in the passionate embrace of the country's dictator Kemal Ataturk.

Marrying a divorced woman didn't help her reputation, but Hilton is divorced himself...

“Most likely, I fell in love with her because she was my complete opposite, the antipode in everything,” Hilton wrote in his diary. “Logic against chaos, seriousness against frivolity, a buttoned-up coat against transparent negligees dangerously revealing all the charms, a 24-hour working day against 24 hours of idleness.”

Zaza was as dissimilar to her first wife, Mary, as a passionate tango to a measured minuet.

For a while everything went great. Hilton could be away for weeks on business, and at home he was always greeted by Zaza's cheerful chirping. For the first few months, Hilton diligently paid his wife's astronomical bills. Then it turned out that the losses were almost equal to the cost of another hotel. "Darling, we need to be clear about our monetary relationship," Hilton finally said firmly. In response - innocent eyes and resentfully pouted lips. "Do you want to be as mean as my first husband?" Conrad put his hand to his ear. Did he misheard? Stingy? Just as stingy? “I set you a monthly allowance. You spend it on anything, go to the hairdresser, order new curtains - in a word, this is your pocket money. But no more than that.” “Why should I spend my pocket money on curtains? - objected Zaza and suddenly asked, throwing a quick glance at her husband: - But what about my cherished dream? Conrad was worried. “My cherished dream is a collection of pretty fur coats. Small, only 30-40. Hilton had no idea how much “pretty fur coats” cost, and when he found out, he was dumbfounded: yes, for this money you can renovate several hotels! But he promised... Zaza's iridescent laughter no longer seemed like heavenly music to Hilton. He promised himself to fulfill his wife's cherished dream by twenty percent, while Gabor herself fulfilled it for the remaining eighty. By Hilton, of course. Calling out to her was like trying to reason with a statue in the park. She regularly spent tens of thousands that Hilton gave her, and even moreover she managed to spend 10-15 thousand for who knows what. Her sisters came to visit - Eva and Magda, the same beautiful twittering. They needed gifts, in their honor Zaza demanded to arrange magnificent balls, where Hilton invited the entire Hollywood beau monde.

Once, in a New York theater, Zaza saw actor George Sanders on the stage. In the evening, “at home” - in one of the Hilton hotels - she, curled up in an armchair like a cat, languidly stretched out: “It seems to me that we are getting a divorce. I'm marrying Sanders." “But we are expecting a baby!” exclaimed Hilton. Surprised, Konrad nervously crumpled the paper lying on the table. It turned out to be an important financial contract signed in the morning. Life collapsed again. And again, as with Mary, for a reason completely incomprehensible to him. In the world of business, cause and effect were tightly linked, while in Conrad's private life chaos reigned beyond his comprehension. “Women are aliens that a man cannot understand,” Hilton wrote a hackneyed thought in his diary. But no matter how beaten it may seem, its truth is indisputable: this is the second time he has broken his forehead because of a woman.

Zazu was not at all worried about the fact that she would soon become a mother: she was fed up with this tight-fisted Hilton with his always lean face and dark suit. And Sanders is handsome, leads a fun bohemian life, next to him she will feel the taste of real life. Isn't he as rich as Hilton? But Hilton is rich for everyone. Gabor divorced Konrad literally on the eve of the birth, and he had to give her a lifetime solid percentage of the profits.

After the daughter of Hilton and Gabor - Francesca was born, Zaza really married George Sanders. She imagined herself as an actress and starred in several films and serials.

Her most famous role was in the 1951 film Moulin Rouge. Zaza became a very remarkable figure in the Hollywood beau monde mainly due to the fact that, firstly, she changed husbands incredibly often - she married nine times; and secondly, due to the predilection for expensive furs and jewelry. Moreover, each new husband at first showed serious zeal to fulfill her “cherished dream”. No one else prevented Hilton from focusing entirely on his projects. Already in 1946, he founded the Hilton Hotels Corporation and began to build Hiltons abroad with might and main, starting with the first hotel in Puerto Rico. In October 1949, the cherished dream of Hilton himself came true: he got a luxurious, elegant and sophisticated beauty, the Waldorf Astoria, the most prestigious hotel on New York's Fifth Avenue. At the reception on the occasion of this transaction, Hilton appeared in the suit of the groom. “Today I am getting married to my most beloved lady and I hope it will be the most successful marriage of my life,” he solemnly said to a huge crowd of guests, among whom were the president, prominent statesmen, influential businessmen and movie celebrities. Many did not see a metaphor in his words and began to look for a bride in the crowd.

They bowed to Hilton, congratulated him, wished him happiness, broke glasses for good luck. The best New York orchestra played. The hero of the day shone like a polished gold dollar. Everything that happened really resembled a wedding. However, Hilton was no longer interested in women and resolutely refused to notice what efforts the ladies were making to attract his attention. Hilton, who was surrounded by three sons, brothers and sister, was approached in turn by several embarrassed ladies, each of whom clutched a large plush toy in their hands. Women coyly showed Hilton their dogs and cats, and each uttered the same cryptic phrase: “I named her Waldorf. It brought you luck." Hilton bowed politely. At last Sister Helen inquired what this masquerade meant. Conrad sheepishly explained that he had dined with each of these ladies a couple of times, and since, as you know, he does not have time to look after "mortal women while he is wooing immortals", he gave each toy, asking them to name it Waldorf. "Those poor things must have been hoping for something from you," Helen said sadly.

After Hilton got the Waldorf, what happened to many who achieved their dreams came true - he was overcome by black longing. Conrad still held the post of director in two corporations - American and international - "Hiltons Hotel". Waldorf's income was enormous: after the first year - a million profits. But Hilton lost the meaning of life: he successfully played roulette and won all the money in the casino. In the sons, as Hilton predicted, there was not that degree of true madness that makes a genius out of a simply successful businessman. Nikki, as you might expect, divorced Liz Taylor less than a year later and continued to squander money, indulging in empty passion for gambling. The middle son, William, immediately decided that hotels were not his calling, and started producing orange juice. “But if so, an orange should be sweeter for you than any woman!” - tried to instruct his father. But William clearly did not have a sizzling passion for oranges. Having entrusted affairs to an assistant, he married early, had five children and was mired in a household routine. Nevertheless, in 1966, Conrad Hilton nevertheless bequeathed to William the post of director of the American corporation Hiltons Hotels, he did not want to give this place to strangers, and the middle son of all children was at least the most reasonable. The youngest son of Conrad - Eric went to study at Cornell University at the faculty of hotel business and management, but dropped out. Father only snorted to himself: no one taught him anything; learn by scent, by intuition, by practice, looking into the eyes of competitors. Is it possible to learn such a living thing from lectures and textbooks?

Eighty-eight-year-old Hilton, who settled in retirement in southern California, began to visit regularly biographer Daryal Hotton. He raised a microphone to the old man's mouth and tried in vain to talk the magnate. Hilton, with trembling hands, thrust into him what he wrote at night: on many pages the character of each of his hotels was painted. "Las Vegas Hilton" - absurd, capricious, easily accessible ... "Chicago Hotel" - proud, scornful pettiness, with an eagle profile. The biographer, reading these notes, shrugged helplessly. At a certain hour, an elderly woman appeared in the office where they “worked” and brought tea and small sandwiches on a tray. It was not a servant, as Hotton first decided, but Hilton's last wife, Mary Francis. He married her at eighty-eight. Why she needed this old billionaire, it's easy to guess, but him? “Mrs. Hilton is the spitting image of Dallas Hilton,” the old businessman kindly answered the biographer's question. - Poured out. The same neatness, thoroughness, even the same posture - you look closely. And it's as cozy as the Dallas Hilton," the old man chuckled.

After much persuasion, Daryal persuaded Hilton to show his diaries: since the conversation does not work, the diaries will serve as a serious help in collecting material about the life of the famous interlocutor.

... “I told my confessor in confession: my whole life has been a game. Is it a sin? Hotton read the entry in his diary. - And the confessor explained to me an amazing thing: God is always on the side of those who win and make a profit. God loves those who profit. I was comforted by this fresh theological idea, because my poor mother taught me something very different. At the beginning of the 20th century, it was believed that God loves the losers and the poor, but now the opinion at the top has changed. Well, it will be easier for me to die.”

Conrad Hilton died in 1979. It is said that his last words were: “Take care of my ladies. I beg you."

Conrad Nicholson Hilton (Conrad Nicholson Hilton; 1887 - 1979) was an American entrepreneur and investor. Company Founder Hilton- a global hotel chain.

Hilton was born December 25, 1887 in San Antonio, New Mexico, USA. His father, August Halvorsen "Gus" Hilton, was a Norwegian immigrant with his own grocery store, and his mother, Marie Genevieve, was from a devout Catholic American family of German origin. Hilton was the seventh child in their family.

Hilton trained at the New Mexico Military Institute, St. Michael's College (now Santa Fe College), and the New Mexico School, now New Mexico Tech. He was a member of the international Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. When he turned 21, he took charge of his father's shop, but quickly became disillusioned with the monotony of the business. During this time, he developed his entrepreneurial skills. Seeking new opportunities, Hilton joined the Republican Party and was elected to New Mexico's first state legislature in 1912, when the territory became an official U.S. state. He served two terms before leaving politics. During World War I, Hilton served in the US Army. After serving two years, he was sent home due to the death of his father.

Hilton's mother, having been brought up in the canons of the Catholic Church, instilled in Conrad a love of prayer, whenever he was worried or anxious about something: whether it was upset from the childhood loss of a beloved pony, or serious financial losses during the Great Depression. His mother continually reminded him that prayer was the best investment he would ever make.

Hilton's first purchase was the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, where he went during the oil boom to open his bank. But his plan to invest in a bank in an oil booming city fell through, and that's when he checked into the Mobley Hotel. Here he saw the potential of this institution and having bought it immediately began repairs. He saw exactly where the mistakes were made in the management of the hotel and immediately began to correct the situation, increasing efficiency. Soon the hotel had a restaurant and a dance hall, as well as an innovation by Hilton, not previously seen in any hotel, a newsstand located in the lobby of the hotel. All his efforts were aimed at meeting the needs of the client. Hilton believed that the hotel staff is responsible for the happiness and comfort of each guest.

Within a year, Conrad's investment paid off in full, so he continued to buy hotels throughout Texas. With the company's proceeds, he bought the Melba Hotel in Fort Worth and the Waldorf Hotel in Dallas. In 1925, Hilton leased land in Dallas and built his first high-rise hotel, the Dallas Hilton, at a cost of $1 million. From that moment on, Hilton set, and I must say, successfully coped with the task of building a hotel every year. The Dallas Hilton was followed by the Abilene Hilton in 1927, the Waco Hilton in 1928, and the El Paso Hilton in 1930. Hilton built his first hotel outside of Texas in 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the Andaluz Hotel. During the Great Depression, Hilton lost several of its hotels and was on the verge of bankruptcy. The new owners offered him to buy the hotels and left him as a manager. Over time, Hilton bought his hotels and continued to build new ones. In 1946, he founded the Hilton Hotels Corporation, reorganized as the Hilton International Company in 1948.

In the 50-60s. the international expansion of the Hilton hotels continued in leaps and bounds. The Hilton Company was the world's first international hotel chain. Hilton owned the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, the Palmer House Hotel in Chicago, the Plaza Hotel in New York, and the most luxurious Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York, which Conrad dreamed of buying for a very long time. In 1954, he bought the Statler hotel chain and renamed them the Hilton.

The first overseas Hilton hotel appeared in the city of Madrid in Spain in 1948, after which the Hilton Hotels International company was created. He continued to develop both directions, both domestic and foreign. Ultimately, he had 185 hotels in the United States and 75 overseas hotels.

Conrad Hilton died on January 3, 1979 at the age of 91 and was buried at Calvary Hill Catholic Cemetery in Dallas, Texas. He left most of his wealth to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, which he established in 1944 for charitable purposes.

Add to bookmarks

Add comments

famous hotelier

Best of the day

standard luxury

Virtual booking

Roulette Hotel

But, perhaps, the most unexpected and controversial innovation was the active and systematic integration of Hilton's hotel business into a neighboring area - the gambling industry.