Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors behind the Legend

by Sam Staggs

Overview

For decades, the Gabor dynasty was the epitome of glamour and fairy tale success. But as biographer, film historian, and Gabor family friend Sam Staggs reveals, behind the headlines is a true story more dramatic, fabulous, and surprising than their self-styled legend would have you believe . . .

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Culled from new interviews with family, colleagues, and confidantes, and the unpublished memoirs of the author's friend Francesca Hilton, Finding Zsa Zsa finally introduces fans to the Gabor family they never knew, including many never-before-seen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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496719591
Publisher:	Kensington
Publication date:	07/30/2019
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	522,774
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Sam Staggs is the author of six books, including four biographies of movies: All About “All About Eve”; Close-up on “Sunset Boulevard”; When Blanche Met Brando: The Scandalous Story of “A Streetcar Named Desire”; and Born to Be Hurt: The Untold Story of “Imitation of Life.” He has written for publications including Vanity Fair, Architectural Digest, and Opera News. He lives in Dallas, Texas.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction: Five Nights in the Fifties 1

1 Gábor úr és Gáborné (Mr. and Mrs. Gabor) 15

2 The Mother of Them All 30

3 The Best Little Finishing School in Switzerland 38

4 Tempest on the Danube 48

5 Starter Marriages 59

6 Turkish Rondo 70

7 Eva and Eric 84

8 E.G., Phone Home 89

9 It Was a B-Picture Only to Those Too Lazy to Go Down the Alphabet 95

10 The California Gold Rush 108

11 Inferno 118

12 The Hour of Lead 124

13 West Hills Sanitarium 132

14 The World Was All Before Them 144

15 We Were Both in Love with George 155

16 Backstage at… We Were Both in Love with George 160

17 An Actress Prepares 166

18 Pink Danube 174

19 Husbands Get in the Way 182

20 Moulin Rouge 190

21 The Destroyer 198

22 Honky-tonk Gabor 207

23 It Didn't Stay in Vegas 218

24 Mama, Don't Cry at My Wedding 225

25 Ruszkik Haza! (Russians Go Home!) 235

26 If Mama Was Married 245

27 The Trujillo Stink 254

28 The Queen of Negative Space 268

29 Shatterproof 277

30 Dahling, I Love You, but Give Me Park Avenue 286

31 Another One Gone, and Another One Bites the Dust 306

32 Don't Cry for Me, Philadelphia 317

33 The Ninth Circle 324

34 He Who Gets Slapped 330

35 Foul Deeds 340

36 Not Waving but Drowning 349

37 Could This Perhaps Be Death? 367

38 They Are All Gone into the World of Light 375

Acknowledgments 391

Selected Bibliography 395

A Note on Sources 401

Index 405

Editorial Reviews

06/24/2019

Celebrity biographer Staggs (Inventing Elsa Maxwell) dishes up an entertaining biography of the glamorous Gabor sisters: Eva, Magda, and Zsa Zsa. Beginning by parsing the contradictory versions of the Gabor family’s days in Hungary before and during WWII-era German occupation, Staggs is unapologetically fond of these three women, who were groomed by their controlling mother, Jolie, to pursue fame above all else. Eva and Zsa Zsa arrived in America shortly before WWII and were pursuing movie careers when, after the war, they were joined by the other Gabors. Magda and Eva strived to be taken seriously as actresses even as they and Zsa Zsa—content to headline B movies, perhaps most memorably in Queen of Outer Space—became better known for their tempestuous personal lives. Zsa Zsa’s ill-fated marriage to hotel magnate Conrad Hilton was tabloid fodder for years. As Hollywood’s studio system faded, Magda worked in regional theater, Eva found a signature role on Green Acres, and Zsa Zsa became a talk show regular. While readers may sometimes lose the narrative thread of Staggs’s painstakingly detailed account, his take on the Gabors—oft-derided in their day as exemplars of style over substance—as hardworking show business survivors is clear and refreshingly admiring. Pop culture buffs will just adore this penthouse view of the Gabors. Agent: Eric Myers, Eric Myers Agency. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

Advance praise for Sam Staggs and Finding Zsa Zsa

“Pop culture buffs will just adore this penthouse view of the Gabors.”
—Publishers Weekly
 
“A colorful history of the glamorous pop-culture icons.”
—Kirkus

“The Gabors—Zsa Zsa, Eva, Magda and Mama Jolie—invented modern celebrity. But don’t go thinking they’re simply early Kardashians. The Gabors worked hard for their fame—in movies, television, and stage productions—and in the public eye, always elegantly turned out and scattering bon mots like diamonds. Sam Staggs has revealed a group of women who were witty, resourceful and most all, intelligent.”
—William J. Mann, author of The Contender: The Story of Marlon Brando
 
“Sam Staggs’ Finding Zsa Zsa is a meticulously researched and always surprising history of four beautiful and shrewd women who cut a wide swath through Broadway, Film, Television and Cafe Society.  Much like his glamorous subjects, Sam Staggs gives his story a witty, breezy style that is delightful and entertaining but tough minded and impossible to resist."
—Charles Busch, Actor and playwright, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom and The Tale of the Allergist's Wife
 
“What an incredible tale of an incredible life, and what a kind soul Zsa Zsa was! I remember the moment she rejected all those furs that we both grew up thinking were desirable and then found out were despicable.”
—Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA

"Tumultuous, passionate, and unapologetic, it's a loving look at the family that was equal parts allure and notoriety." 
—Discover Hollywood

“Rollicking and gossip-filled…. Staggs creates an engaging and fascinating family saga filled with fresh insights from newly conducted interviews. He also corrects lore spread through fanciful memoirs written by all four Gabors. This is a big, irresistible beach read. Staggs's delicious gossip-fest gives the Gabor sisters respect while also enjoying their outrageous tabloid antics and love affairs.” 
—Shelf Awareness

From the Publisher

2019-06-11
A colorful history of the glamorous pop-culture icons of the previous century.

In this latest biography of the Gabors, film historian Staggs (Inventing Elsa Maxwell, 2012, etc.) attempts to "set the record straight" in portraying their larger-than-life history and the numerous legends, rumors, and scandals connected to each family member: sisters Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva, and mother, Jolie. As the title indicates, Zsa Zsa takes center stage throughout the narrative. "Clichés about this legendary family seem indestructible," writes the author in the preface. "I hope, however, to have punctured two of the silliest. The first is that they were famous for being famous….The other outlandish notion is that they somehow foreshadowed the Kardashians and others of that ilk. This one is nourished by those who know nothing of the Gabors and too much about the Ks, not one of whom has the sophistication…of an Eva or a Zsa Zsa." The Gabors indeed live jet-setting, productive lives and individually achieved a vast array of accomplishments in the entertainment and fashion industries. Yet perhaps their biggest achievement was one of self-invention. As refugees from Hungary landing in the United States, they carefully cultivated their mystique of glittering fabulousness and spent their lives preserving that image. Though certainly more cosmopolitan than the likes of the Kardashians, they frankly did foreshadow the glamorous lifestyles of current celebrity sensations. Ultimately, the book is an old-fashioned Hollywood biography, however respectfully eschewing the malicious Kitty Kelly style of dishing. Staggs diligently references sources and allows their personalities and escapades to come vividly to life, including their numerous love affairs and marriages (more than 20 among the three sisters) and their many career milestones. Beneath all the glitz, these were business-savvy women, and the author misses the opportunity to claim their relevance for contemporary readers, leaving them enmeshed within their long-reigning "camp" status. Theirs is an interesting, occasionally wayward American success story begging for a revisionist approach to the telling.

An entertaining yet predictable portrait of a flamboyantly iconic family.

Kirkus Reviews