Zsa Zsa Gabor once flirted with me. But then, Zsa Zsa flirted with every man she ever met and then some.
I was minding my own business at that point, sharing a house in Lake Worth, FL. with Brian Hogan, a former reporter for the National Enquirer. We were both working with Byron Lutz, a hippie publisher who owned a scandal sheet called the Get Rich News. Right down the hall from us in our office complex was Neal Blinco, a London tabloid writer who wrote for some of the wildest magazines in the world.
Byron came by my desk.
“Blinco says Zsa Zsa Gabor is in Wellington, FL. putting on some polo contests with her string of polo horses.” – he said. “If you want, I can get you a luncheon date with her.”
Next afternoon I showed up at an exclusive French restaurant in Palm Beach. Zsa Zsa was paying for it, but you wouldn't know it from the way she gushingly greeted me at her table. Her manager was with her.
“Pay no attention to her.” he said as I took my seat. “She's this way with all men.”
Zsa Zsa shrieked with laughter. “That is why I have been married nine times.” she said. “I choose my men. My men don't choose me.”
One of three daughters, Zsa Zsa was born in Hungary and was crowned Miss Hungary in 1936. In her biography, she said she and her sisters, Eva and Magda, were raised by their mother to attract and marry wealthy men.
She grew to fame by becoming a witty guest on some of the best-known television shows in history -- Milton Berle, Jack Paar, Johnny Carson and David Frost, where she generally played herself.
She had no serious film roles unless you count WON TON TON, THE DOG WHO SAVED HOLLYWOOD or FRANKENSTEIN'S GREAT AUNT TILLIE.
We were sipping our wine when I told her I had once visited the town where her former husband Conrad Hilton had operated a hardware store with his father, Gus. The town, White Oak, N.M., no longer exists.
“Really?” Zsa Zsa said.
“Today it's a Ghost Town.” I said. “Conrad and Gus went to Texas where they opened their first hotel. They had been planning to open a bank but changed their minds.”
Zsa Zsa spoke highly of Hilton as she did of all of her husbands. She seemed to enjoy her naughty image as the woman you had to marry to take to bed.
“Will this be a nice story about me, or will it be smut?” she asked cheerfully. “Because if it is smug…”
“You can sue me as soon as my attorney gets out of jail, Ms. Gabor.” I said. She shrieked with laughter. She promised if I wrote a good article, she would make me a home cooked dinner of spaghetti, meatballs and garlic bread. We shook on the deal.
The article was published (it was very nice to her) and, true to form, I never saw Zsa Zsa again.
Vanenhox 4 years ago
It was not Zsa Zsa who was on the old sixties sitcom Green Acres, but her sister Eva. It is interesting that she was maybe a pioneer for reality stars of today who all strive to be "famous for being famous." I read a little more about her online out of curiousity. She lived to be 99 years old and stubbornly hung on after...
It was not Zsa Zsa who was on the old sixties sitcom Green Acres, but her sister Eva. It is interesting that she was maybe a pioneer for reality stars of today who all strive to be "famous for being famous." I read a little more about her online out of curiousity. She lived to be 99 years old and stubbornly hung on after having a leg amputated. Ironically she had problems with her last much younger husband. She also lost a lot of money to Bernie Madoff....Interesting....
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