Stevens Memorial Library (North Andover)

Finding Zsa Zsa, the Gabors behind the legend, Sam Staggs

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages [395]-399) and index

collective biography

illustrationsplates

index present

non fiction

Finding Zsa Zsa

bibliography

1109843853

Sam Staggs

the Gabors behind the legend

In 1945, after barely escaping Hitler's invasion of Hungary followed by "liberation" of the country by the Red Army, three members of the Gabor family--Jolie, her ex-husband Vilmos, and their daughter Magda--arrived in New York City. In Hollywood, their other daughters, Zsa Zsa and Eva, had worked feverishly throughout the war years to secure their rescue from the Nazis' plan to exterminate the Jews. Stepping off the boat, Jolie, the iron-willed matriarch, already had a golden future mapped out for her sharp-witted, cosmopolitan beauties. Over the next six decades, with twenty-three husbands between them (suave All About Eve star George Sanders would wed both Zsa Zsa and Magda), scores of lovers, and roller-coaster rides in film, television, theater, and business, the elegant yet gloriously bawdy, addictively watchable Gabors carved a niche in the entertainment industry that made them world-famous pop-culture icons. But beneath the artifice of Dior and diamonds was another side to the story they never revealed: the whole truth. This first verifiable history of the Gabors casts a startling new light on these extraordinary women. Finding Zsa Zsa reveals the tumultuous and often unforgiven battles between mother and daughter, sister and sister, wife and husband; Eva's "bearded" romance with Merv Griffin that allowed them both to seek same-sex lovers; Zsa Zsa's involuntary confinement in a mental hospital; her life-long struggle with bipolar disorder; and her last--unconsummated--marriage to the manipulating faux prince Frederic von Anhalt. Here too is the untold story of Zsa Zsa's daughter, Francesca Hilton, a gifted photographer who eschewed the Gabor lifestyle and paid a sad price for her independence. The story of family patriarch Vilmos Gabor, who returned to Hungary only to be trapped behind the Iron Curtain, reads like a Cold War spy thriller. Culled from new interviews with family, colleagues, and confidantes, and the unpublished memoirs of the author's friend Francesca Hilton, Finding Zsa Zsa finally introduces fans to the Gabor family they never knew, including many never-before-seen photos. It's a riveting, outrageously funny, bittersweet, and affectionately honest read of four women who were vulnerable, tough, charitable, endlessly fascinating, and always glamorous to a fault.--, Publisher's description

Introduction: Five nights in the fifties -- Gábor úe és Gáborné (Mr. and Mrs. Gabor) -- The mother of them all -- The best little finishing school in Switzerland -- Tempest on the Danube -- Starter marriages -- Turkish rondo -- Eva and Eric -- E.G., phone home -- It was a B-picture only to those too lazy to go down the alphabet -- The California gold rush -- Inferno -- The hour of lead -- West Hills Sanitarium -- The world was all before them -- We were both in love with George -- Backstage at... We Were Both in Love with George -- An actress prepares -- Pink Danube -- Husbands get in the way -- Moulin Rouge -- The destroyer -- Honky-tonk Gabor -- It didn't stay in Vegas -- Mama, don't cry at my wedding -- Ruszkik haza! (Russians go home!) -- If mama was married -- The Trujillo stink -- The queen of negative space -- Shatterproof -- Dahling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue -- Another one gone, and another one bites the dust -- Don't cry for me, Philadelphia -- The ninth circle -- He who gets slapped -- Foul deeds -- Not waving but drowning -- Could this perhaps be death? -- They are all gone into the world of light

adult