With news reports indicating that Zsa Zsa Gabor is in her final days, I used Wikipedia to read up on her and her family. One thing immediately struck me: it seems like the apples didn’t fall far from the tree in this case. Mama Gabor had a string of unsuccessful marriages, just like all three daughters. One thing I found interesting is that neither Magda nor Eva ever had any children, and Zsa Zsa had only one, with Conrad Hilton, who she claimed was conceived after Conrad raped her. (I’m no psychologist, but that’s got to put a kink in the parent/child relationship.) It seems like none of the Gabor sisters ever wanted any children.
The Gabor Sisters are actually are all men. So is the mother really their father. That explains the absence of kids 
Moved MPSIMS --> Cafe Society
My mother says, and I have no reason to doubt her, that the Gabors were the first people “famous for being famous.”
It seems that Eva, at least, aspired to become a “real” actress. Looking at her biography, she had appeared in films starting in her early 20’s and had a handful of stage appearances. Eventually, of course, she ended up just being the youngest Gabor sister.
While their is a lot of truth in that, and as a child I heard of the Gabors longs before I heard of movie stars such as Marlon Brando, John Wayne, Bette Davis and Katherine Hepburn, I’d submit the first celebrity was in 19th century England Lillie Langtry, “The Jersey Lily”.
And one very successful TV series – at least until CBS nixed the hix pix…
20 marriages and just one child among those three sisters. I give them credit for being demographically responsible.
Zsa Zsa was good in Moulin Rouge as the unstable prostitute with the love hate relationship for Toulouse Lautrec (Jose Ferrer). Most of her roles didn’t require her to act as anything other than Zsa Zsa of course, and with that thick of an accent she wasn’t in the lead for many serious roles.
I’ve actually read the sisters referred to as courtesans before, and there’s some truth to that except that unlike most courtesans they married rich old men rather than just be kept by them. In old age Zsa Zsa became the keeper when she married the piece-of-shit ersatz prince she’s married to now.
Zsa Zsa made jokes about her own golddigging:
“I’ve never hated any man enough to return his diamonds”
or
“I’m the world’s greatest housekeeper. Whenever I get divorced I always keep the house.”
She has said the love of her life was Porfirio Rubirosa, who was a golddigger himself, marrying both Doris Duke and Barbara Hutton as well as marrying and having affairs with other very rich women who left him richer than he found them. She was responsible for his break up with Hutton.
Conrad Hilton clearly didn’t believe Francesca was his daughter. He took no interest in her (he did with his sons and his grandkis) and out of an estate worth several hundred million dollars he only left her $100,000, and that was negated if she contested the will (which she did, unsuccessfully, though I think the Hilton family may have given her some money to drop it). That’s unlikely for an old man with an only girl and her fathered when he’s in his 60s or thereabouts.
Hardly sad that a 94 year old woman is dying- amazing she’s made it that long (she’s survived Nazis and poverty and lots of other not good very bad things) but it will be another “end of an era” thing, along with the Rat Pack and other non-rock icons of the 50s and 60s.
Zsa Zsa was near penniless back in the 90s after several lawsuits left her broke (Elke Sommer suing her for libel being the most expensive) and had to declare bankruptcy. In more recent years it’s clear from the squabbling between Prince Pieceofshite and her daughter that she is L-O-A-D-E-D. I wonder if her sister Eva left her most of her estate. (Eva was the most successful as far as acting plus some fat divorce settlements plus letting Merv Griffin handle her money plus the wig company [which may have seemed a joke as it mainly advertised in National Enquirer and other tabloids but it was an extremely successful money maker.)
Sorry - Zsa Zsa did not play the unstable prostitute in Moulin Rouge. That part was portrayed by Colette Marchand. Zsa Zsa was pretty awful in the film, playing one Jane Avril and known to have been the inspiration for Lautrec’s famous snake-entwined performer poster..
In that film, Zsa Zsa’s singing was dubbed and she lip-synced so badly as to be laughable. Beautiful, yes. Talented? Not in this film.
According to wiki, the Prince von Ersatz claims he and Zsa Zsa lost $10 million with Bernie Madoff, though the claim is disputed. He’s also claimed he was the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s baby and that three attractive women robbed him and left him naked handcuffed to the steering wheel of his Rolls (why would you steal a guy’s jewelry and cash and leave his Rolls?), so who knows.
It’s an interesting comparison contrast: Zsa Zsa was the idea of a good time girl in the 1940s-1950s. Her 2nd husband’s great-granddaughter Paris Hilton is that for the 21st century. None would ever think to put Zsa Zsa and Paris in the same league as far as sleaziness goes however; if Z had nude pics or a sex tape (and they did exist in the 1940s and before) she kept it under raps.
[Emily Litella]Never mind.[/Emily Litella]
:smack:It’s been a long time since I saw it, but I remembered the crazy prostitute was good and Zsa Zsa was on the poster so I somehow merged the two.
That’s pretty much how everyone works.
hey you guys a little respect. This is not just any gold digger. You are talking about the Queen of Outer Space.
Because leaving him handcuffed naked in an American-made car would have been gauche.
To be fair there was probally more than one child; Francesa was just the only one brought to term.
“A procedure? I’ve had more kids pulled out of me than a burning orphanage!”
Evie Harris from Girls Will Be Girls, a character modeled in part on the Gabor sisters (and every other celebrity from the 60s and 70s)
Very nice slideshow of Zsa Zsa in her early days.
http://www.life.com/image/first/in-gallery/47371/zsa-zsa-gabor-in-her-heyday
She was easily twice as beautiful as Marilyn Monroe.