The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty

by Taraborrelli, J. Randy

  “You know, when I was your age, everything was right up here,” Conrad said, pointing to his head. He then recalled that when he started in business, he always knew every detail of everything that was going on, because “back in my day, that’s how we operated.”

  Was Conrad purposely trying to pick a fight with Nicky? Maybe not. But Nicky was offended anyway. “What are you trying to say?” he demanded.

  “Nothing,” Conrad answered. “I’m just having a conversation with my son, that’s all.”

  Nicky stood up to face his father. “Look, I know I’m a disappointment to you,” he told him defensively. “But see this, right here?” he asked, gesturing to himself. “This is the best I could do with what I had to work with.”

  Conrad stood in place looking at Nicky with a furrowed brow as if trying to completely digest what he’d just heard. Then, seeming upset, he turned and strode toward the door.

  Nicky visibly crumbled. “Wait, Pop,” he pleaded. “Hold on a second,” he said as he ran after him. “Wait!”

  It’s not known what happened between Conrad and Nicky after they left the living room. However, whatever transpired in the next fifteen minutes was likely not pleasant, at least judging by Nicky’s demeanor when he returned and sat back down on the couch next to Bob Neal. He seemed utterly defeated. “I shouldn’t have lost my cool,” he said as he buried his face in his hands. “I just feel like I’m such a failure in his eyes.” He poured himself another scotch.

  “But that’s not true,” Bob Neal said. “Don’t be so down on yourself. Your old man thinks you’ve done a great job, or he wouldn’t have promoted you.”

  Though Nicky tried to listen to his friend’s words of encouragement, they seemed to slide right off him. “I’m tired of being misunderstood,” he concluded with tears in his eyes, “by my old man, by my brother, by everyone. It’s wearing me down.” He buried his head in his hands for a moment as if he was about to unleash a torrent of tears. But he didn’t. Or… maybe he couldn’t.

  The two friends then talked about aging and how upsetting were the consequences of the time. Nicky said that he never imagined his father would change so much as he aged. “He was always a man you could reason with,” Nicky said. “Now he’s just so cantankerous.” Then, in a moment of sheer wisdom and understanding, he added, “I think he’s afraid. I get it, Bob. He’s afraid of dying. But… hell, man. So am I,” he concluded. “I’m not ready to go either, pal.”

  Bob assured his friend that he had “plenty of years ahead.” At that, Nicky smiled. “You know what I’m looking forward to?” he asked with a mischievous grin. “I’m looking forward to the day when I’m eighty and I can give my sons what-for and they just have to put up with it because, well, they got no choice—and the hell with both of ’em because that’s just the way it works! Right?” At that, both men laughed, touched their glasses, and threw back another shot.

  Nothing Personal

  It happened in the middle of January 1967. That’s when Conrad Hilton and Charles C. Tillinghast Jr., chairman of the board of TWA, agreed in principle on a merger between TWA and Hilton International. The deal would call for TWA to issue for each share of Hilton International a combination of .275 of a share of TWA common, and a half share of a new issue of TWA preferred. This exchange of stock would benefit the Hilton Hotels Corporation with at least $250 million, and the understanding that the Hilton name would remain on its hotels abroad. Many—but certainly not all—of the executives working for the company would keep their jobs. However, Hilton’s international division would now be wholly owned not by Conrad Hilton but by TWA.

  Frank G. Wangeman, an executive of the Hilton Hotels Corporation at the time of the merger, recalled, “As a senior vice president, and subsequently a director of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, I retained a policymaking role. Thus did I witness the transaction that Conrad Hilton would forever regret. Trans World Airlines came to us and said, in effect, ‘If you sell your overseas business to us, with our international know-how, we can make that company grow faster for your shareholders.’ So he went for it.”

  This was bad news for Nicky Hilton. Basically, since he ran the foreign division, it meant that he would either be out of a job or seriously demoted. Everything was about to change in his life, and as Conrad’s attorney at the time, Myron Harpole, put it, “The Cain and Abel story of Barron and Nick was about to escalate to a whole new level.”

  “But,” Myron Harpole hastened to add, “Mr. Hilton also had reasons that did not involve Nicky for wanting to sell the foreign properties. For instance, the Havana Hilton had been taken over by Castro, and then they had an attack on the hotel they owned in Cairo. He told me that he was beginning to become concerned about the vulnerability of his hotels in foreign locations. That worry also played into the decision, as well as, of course, any disappointment in Nicky.”

  Myron Harpole was not involved in these delicate negotiations, but as Conrad’s attorney at the time, he was well aware of what had transpired around them. “Barron thought it was good business, the money was good,” he recalled. “Conrad wholeheartedly agreed. Unfortunately, the consequence of this decision would be the deprivation of a role in the company for Nick. I think now, in retrospect, given Nick’s temperament and insecurities, perhaps more consideration could or should have been given to what such a decision would have meant to his pride and self-worth. But Nick wasn’t controlling his personal life all that well, and that made him vulnerable. Nicky was so idealistic, I’d have to say that he truly did not see it coming.”

  The notions of power and money had never been as important to Nicky as they were to Conrad and Barron. It was always approval that Nicky sought. “But you couldn’t really be a successful Hilton without placing some premium on power and money,” observed Noreen Nash. “Conrad and Barron thought alike when it came to that. Barron used to say, ‘Along with money comes power and along with power comes money.’ Nicky was more emotional, more sensitive. He let his heart rule many of his decisions. Not Conrad and Barron. They were tougher. They were of the same mind.”

  “Nicky and I were in Africa opening the Hilton hotel in Rabat when those negotiations took place,” recalled Trish Hilton. “Because I had studied French, I was able to give the opening remarks in celebration of the hotel completely in that language. Nicky was so proud. We were like a royal couple, hosting one of the most successful press junkets in Hilton history. However, Barron and Conrad were not there. Though Nicky and I both felt it odd, Nicky took it as a vote of confidence. ‘They must think I’m doing pretty good if they’re putting me out here on my own,’ he said. Unfortunately, that’s not what was going on at all.”

  “I love you,” Nicky had told Trish on New Year’s Day 1967 as they toasted each other. Neither had any idea of what was in store for them. In that moment, they were just ecstatically happy in their marriage, and that’s all that mattered to them. “I want you to know it, Trish. And I want you to believe it every day,” he concluded, “for the rest of your life.”

  Trish was moved by her husband’s sudden burst of sincerity. “Why are you saying this to me now?” she asked him, her eyes brimming with tears.

  “Because I should have said it a long time ago,” he told her. “I’m sorry if I ever made you feel otherwise.” He added that he knew what it was like to be let down by a loved one. “I know what’s that’s like, Trish,” he said. “And I’m sorry.”

  Nicky had not been a perfect husband, that much was certainly true. He had a quick temper, and of course, his addiction to Seconal and alcohol had taken on the role of a mistress in his marriage: It was always present, always intrusive. Still, Trish fought what she refers to as “the good fight,” and did whatever she could to support and love her husband. Whatever his faults, he never cheated on her and he never physically abused her, just as he had promised so long before. She had never met anyone who believed in her as much as he did. He worshipped the ground she walked on, felt she could do no wrong. Therefore, s
he wanted to be there for him. In the coming months, Nicky Hilton would find that he needed Trish more than ever.

  Showdown

  I think it was about the first week in February of 1967 when we learned that Conrad and Barron were about to sell Nicky’s division,” Trish Hilton recalled. “No one discussed it with us. Nicky saw an article about it in Time [the issue dated January 27, 1967], and that’s how he found out about it. There wasn’t anything we could do but just sit back in shock and look at each other… and wonder… why? It was such a crushing moment, so disillusioning on so many levels. ‘You are the strongest man I know. You will fix this,’ I told Nicky. ‘You’re goddamn right I will fix this,’ he said. He was upset.”

  Not surprisingly, Nicky set up an immediate meeting with Conrad and Barron. Bob Neal was also present; he had shown up with Nicky, and Nicky said he wanted him to stay as a “witness.” That Nicky felt he needed a witness suggests that he was perhaps beginning to think in a more tactical way about his future with the company. The four men were seated in Conrad’s office—Conrad behind his desk and Barron, Nicky, and Bob seated across from him.

  “What the hell, Pop?” Nicky began, turning to his father.

  According to Bob Neal, Conrad and Barron glanced at one another as if waiting to see who would answer first. Barron took the lead. “Look, it’s just a good business move,” he told his brother. “It’s not personal. You’ve got to believe that, Nick.” He added that the three of them could discuss the strategic reasons for the decision at another time. For now, he said, he and Conrad just wanted Nicky to understand that “this is not a personal thing against you.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Nicky asked angrily. “It’s not personal?” He reminded Barron that the family had hosted a party not even a year earlier where it was announced that he was running the international division. Speeches were made, toasts given. The next day, he reminded them, press releases were issued to the media. He had then started the job, as promised. “Now, it looks like you’re saying, ‘Never mind all that,’ ” he observed. “ ‘Turns out Nick Hilton couldn’t do it after all. Sorry for the misinformation.’ To me, that’s very personal.”

  “Nick, you aren’t listening,” Barron insisted. “Again, this isn’t about you,” he reiterated. “This is about the company.”

  “Maybe we should all just cool down a little,” a worried Bob Neal injected. He reminded them that they were family, that they loved each other. “Come on, Barron,” Bob said, turning to him. “This is Nicky. This is your brother.”

  “This doesn’t concern you, Bob,” Barron said, now seeming insulted.

  Trying to get things back on track, Nicky said that he believed the merger to be a terrible idea. However, if it was their decision, he would have to live with it. His big question to them, he said, had to do with why he had been left out of the loop.

  “We wanted to bring you in,” Barron explained, “but you were nowhere to be found, Nick.” He added that he and Conrad would never have intentionally made such an important deal behind his back. Nicky had been completely unavailable, Barron claimed, and he knew it. At that, Nicky looked at his brother blankly, as if he didn’t know how to respond. Had he been all that unavailable? In the moment, it was as if he couldn’t seem to remember.

  “As we have repeatedly told you, Nick, this isn’t about you,” Conrad said, rising from his chair. He said that the three of them could discuss the matter later—preferably without Bob Neal’s presence—after they had a chance to cool down. “For now,” he concluded, “that will be all.”

  “That will be all?” Nicky asked, looking defeated. He rose from his chair and turned to Bob Neal. “Let’s get out of here,” he announced. “I don’t have to listen to this.”

  “But wait!” Neal protested. “There’s got to be something we can do,” he said, trying to act as peacemaker. “We can’t leave it like this!”

  “No. I’m done, Bob,” Nicky said, shaking his head. Then, as he stood in the doorway, he looked at his father and brother and concluded, “I’ve worked hard for this company. I deserved to be in the loop, that’s all I’m saying.” And with that, he stormed out of the office, Bob Neal following close behind. Barron ran after them. “Nick, wait up!” he exclaimed.

  Nicky stopped just as Barron caught up to him. “I’m worried about you,” Barron said, putting his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “Come to the house later tonight so you and I can talk this thing out. Bring Trish. Have dinner with me and Marilyn. Maybe eight?” Nicky looked at him and nodded, now seeming calmer. It was as if just a single caring gesture from Barron was all that was needed to defuse the situation and alter Nicky’s mood. Now he just seemed exhausted. “Okay, Barron,” Nicky said, nodding. “I’ll see you tonight.”

  Barron grinned at him. “And don’t be late,” he added, patting Nicky on the shoulder.

  “Yeah, right,” Nicky remarked, smiling halfheartedly.

  “See to him then, will you please?” Barron asked Bob Neal as he ran off to catch up with Conrad.

  A Done Deal

  After he had time to get over the upsetting meeting with his father and brother and then marshal his strength for the battle that was clearly ahead, Nicky Hilton went about the business of trying to align himself with the necessary number of board members who might be able to veto any sort of merger with a majority vote. As it happened, Nicky’s greatest ally would turn out to be Conrad’s close friend, longtime confidant, and business associate Colonel Henry Crown. Crown, former owner of the Empire State Building and a long-standing member of the board of the Hilton Hotels Corporation, also felt strongly that selling the international division was a big mistake, and he told Conrad as much. A slight, short, gray-haired man with a gray mustache, Crown had recently been offered by Howard Hughes a chance to take controlling interest in TWA. He turned it down simply because he felt TWA was not a solvent investment.

  “Gentlemen, let’s be reasonable about this thing,” Nicky said in one board meeting about the matter, according to someone who was present. “Forget about any personal feelings,” he said. “You want to talk about business? Fine.” He continued by noting that foreign travel was booming at this time and was only going to get bigger. The Hiltons needed to stay in the game.

  “Quite right,” Henry Crown said. He added that the Hilton brand was huge overseas. Divesting at this time would be a huge mistake.

  “But the expectation is that TWA stock will rise,” Barron said, defending the merger, “and all of us will be the better for it.”

  “I have taken many risks in my life, gentlemen,” Conrad finally said. He added that while he did see this present move as just such a risk, he also saw it “as a winning situation.”

  “But what’s on the table is us losing the rights to the Hilton name overseas, Pop,” Nicky argued. He noted that Conrad had worked hard to make the company’s brand international. “Why in the world are you doing this?” he asked.

  “TWA is in the process of negotiating to compete with Pan American with new routes to China, and we have hotels there waiting,” Conrad answered. “And TWA is getting ready to roll out their new fleet of enormous Boeing 747 jets in the next few years. People are flying, Nick, and planes are carrying them…”

  “My point exactly,” Nicky countered. “And we have the hotels in each country for them to stay in. So why are we handing it all over to TWA?”

  No matter how many different ways the merits of the merger were explained, they made little to no sense to Nicky, Henry Crown, and several of the other board members. However, any meetings about the matter seemed to be little more than a formality. It really was a done deal.

  Trish Enters Conrad’s Den

  Trish Hilton was still determined to help her husband at all costs. Frightened, intimidated, and feeling out of her league, she gathered her courage to meet with her father-in-law, Conrad Hilton, at Casa Encantada. Appealing to him would take nerve, because she well understood that Conrad came from an age cohort that
did not take women seriously in business. It was a simple generation gap. He had an old-fashioned way of thinking about females in the workplace, and at almost eighty, he wasn’t likely to change his mind about it. Would he listen to advice from a woman? He did have Olive Wakeman in his life, Trish decided, so maybe it was worth a try. “But I probably should have known better,” Trish Hilton would say many years later. “I’m sure I did know better, and that’s why I didn’t tell Nicky I was going. He would have tried to talk me out of it, telling me it was inappropriate.”

  As soon as Trish walked into Conrad’s mammoth drawing room, she realized for the first time that Casa Encantada seemed a tad run-down. “It definitely needed a woman’s touch,” she later recalled. “It was as if Connie hadn’t changed the furniture at all since he moved in. It was still majestic, with the elegance and grandeur of an estate found, maybe, in the south of France. However, you could plainly see that no female had ever lived there. A woman would have been more conscientious about the state of the furnishings. Even the drapes looked as if they needed to be replaced. As I looked around, I realized that the whole place needed a fresh coat of paint.”

  “Thank you for being on time,” Conrad said as he greeted Trish. “You know how I am, Trish. I don’t like to be kept waiting.” He was smartly dressed in a finely tailored suit, his Old World formality on full display, not only in his sartorial splendor but also in his very proper demeanor.

  “Of course, I know that, Connie,” Trish said as she embraced her father-in-law.

  “Never been late a day in my life,” he continued with a chuckle.