Those Glamorous Gabors: Bombshells from Budapest

by Darwin Porter

Overview

Born in Central Europe during the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, three “vonderful vimmen”—Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda Gabor—transferred their glittery dreams and gold-digging ambitions to Hollywood. They supplemented America’s most Imperial Age with “guts, glamour, and goulash,” and reigned there as the Hungarian equivalents of Helen of Troy, Madame du Barry, and Madame de Pompadour.

More effectively than any army, these Bombshells from Budapest conquered kings, dukes, and princes, always with a special passion for millionaires, as they amassed fortunes, broke hearts, and amused sophisticated voyeurs on two continents. With their wit, charm, and beauty, thanks to training inspired by the glittering traditions of the Imperial Habsburgs, they became famous for being famous.

“We sold the New World high-priced goods from the Old World that it didn’t need, but bought anyway,” Zsa Zsa said.

In time, they would collectively entrap some 20 husbands and seduce perhaps 500 other men as well, many plucked directly from the pages of Who’s Who in the World.

At long last, Blood Moon lifts the “mink-and-diamond” curtain on this amazing trio of blood-related sisters, whose complicated intrigues have never been fully explored before.

Orson Welles asserted, “The world will never see the likes of the Gabor sisters again. From the villas of Cannes to the mansions of Bel Air, they were the centerpiece of countless boudoirs. They were also the most notorious mantraps since Eve. I can personally vouch for that.”

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781936003365
Publisher:	Blood Moon Productions
Publication date:	09/10/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	750
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

HUNGARIAN RHAPSODIES: Celebrity biographer Darwin Porter, a former entertainment columnist for The Miami Herald, has been fascinated by the Gabor's "new Hungarian dynasty" since he first began entertaining Jolie Gabor, the family's savvy matriarch, at his home in New York City in collaboration with the publication of one of her cookbooks. Since then, his interest in the Budapest Bombshells (aka the Man-Eating Magyars) has carried him into the salons, some of them in Austria and Hungary, of dozens of eyewitnesses, each eager to share their insights into the tricks and techniques of some of the greatest courtesans of the 20th century.

Read an Excerpt

“It’s hard to describe the phenomenon of the three glamorous Gabor girls and their ubiquitous mother. They burst onto the society pages and into the gossip columns so suddenly, and with such force, it was as if they’d been dropped out of the sky.”
—Merv Griffin

“Zsa Zsa Gabor is an original. Her free spirit, eccentricity, and wicked wit made her one of the most memorable celebrities of our time. I must make a movie of her incredible life.”
—Italian film director Gabriela Tagliavini

“The Gabor sisters are three of the world’s true celebrities. They are famous for being famous.”
—Elsa Maxwell

“Getting divorced just because you don’t love a man is almost as silly as getting married just because you do. I’m an excellent housekeeper. Every time I get a divorce, I keep the house.”
—Zsa Zsa Gabor

“I was the first actress in the family, and I am still the only actress in the family. I shouldn’t be saying it, but it slipped out!”
—Eva Gabor

“The world will never see the likes of the Gabor sisters again. They were the last dying gasp of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. From the sands of the French Riviera to the mansions of Bel Air, they were the centerpiece of countless boudoirs. They were also the most dangerous mantraps since Eve.
—Orson Welles

“Pompadour, Du Barry, Marie Antoinette—what had they on us?”
—Zsa Zsa Gabor (1940)

“George Sanders wrote, ‘Whatever else could be said about Zsa Zsa, one thing is certain: she has a lot of guts. And audacity, we might add. Delicious, disarming audacity, the kind that made her name a synonym for ‘fun.’ The kind that reduced powerful men to puppies.”
—Gordon Taylor

“Every age has its Madame Pompadour, its Lady Hamilton, its Queen of Sheba, its Cleopatra, and I wouldn’t be surprised if history singles out Zsa Zsa as the twentieth-century prototype of this exclusive coterie. Zsa Zsa is perhaps the most misunderstood woman of our times. She is misunderstood because she is guileless. She allows her vitality and instincts to spring from her without distortion. She doesn’t disguise her love of amorous entanglements or jewels or whatever else catches her fancy, because her character is pure. She is whole-cloth. An isotope of femininity. In a sense also radioactive and fissionable. Not for her is the conventional mask of studied behavior. Her behavior is spontaneous and genuine.”
—George Sanders, in Memoirs of a Professional Cad (1960).

“One man was never enough for my Zsa Zsa, Eva, and Magda. In addition to a husband stashed away somewhere, each of these beauties needed to have at least two men on the leash at all times. They wanted men who were sensually different—take Zsa Zsa, for example: Rubiroso for lust; George Sanders for urbanity; or Jack Kennedy for aphrodisiac power. Rubi for Paris; George for Hollywood, and JFK for Washington.”
—Gabor family friend and café society chanteuse, Greta Keller

“The casting couch was a very busy place when I arrived in Hollywood. I often found myself on it. Many, many actresses did likewise, more than they admit.”
—Eva Gabor

“Zsa Zsa was my stepmother…and a real hot number. When father didn’t have her in his bed, I had her in mine.”
—Nicky Hilton

“There was nothing that Eva Gabor ever thought of as sinful.”
—Debbie Reynolds

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Prologue
Chapter One
Budapest--”In Za Beginning”
Chapter Two
Goulash Lolitas Snare Their First Husbands
Chapter Three
The Gabor Sisters as War Brides
Chapter Four
Sisters #2 and #3 (Zsa Zsa and Eva) Invade the New World
Chapter Five
Hollywood Discovers Magyar Chic
Chapter Six
How to Marry a Millionaire
Chapter Seven
Hungarian Rhapsodies in Amerika! Amerika!
Chapter Eight
What’s Love Got to Do With It?
Chapter Nine
Public Images, Private Pain
Chapter Ten
Don’t Ask For Forever
Chapter Eleven
Love Goddesses and Their Private Passions
Chapter Twelve
The Hunters and the Hunted
Chapter Thirteen
When Roses No Longer Bloomed in May
Whatever Happened to Magda?
Chapter Fourteen
Green Acres Deep in December
Whatever Happened to Eva?
Chapter Fifteen
As Long as Memory Lasts
Whatever Became of Zsa Zsa?

Acknowledgments

Recording the Voices of Jolie, Magda, Zsa Zsa, and Eva
Collaborators in the Production of this Book