Conrad Hilton

Hilton was born in San Antonio, in what was then the New Mexico Territory, to Norwegian-born Augustus Halvorsen Hilton (1854–1919) and Mary Genevieve Laufersweiler. He attended the Goss Military Academy (since renamed as the New Mexico Military Institute) and St. Michael's College (now Santa Fe University of Art and Design), and the New Mexico School of Mines (now New Mexico Tech). From 1912 to 1916 Hilton was a Republican representative in the first New Mexico Legislature, when the state was newly-formed.[1] He served two years in the U.S. Army during World War I. While Conrad was in France with the army after the war, his father was killed in a car accident.[2]

The most enduring influence to shape Hilton's philanthropic philosophy beyond that of his parents was the Catholic Church and his sisters. He credited his mother with guiding him to prayer and the church whenever he was troubled or dismayed—from the boyhood loss of a beloved pony to severe financial losses during the Great Depression. His mother continually told him that prayer was the best investment he would ever make.[2]

As a young boy, Hilton developed entrepreneurial skills working at his father's general store in Socorro County, New Mexico, which was partially converted into a 10-room hotel.[3][4] This was followed by varied experiences, including a stint as a representative in New Mexico's first State Legislature and a career decision to become a banker.

Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas

It was with the intention of buying a bank that he arrived in Texas at the height of the oil boom. He bought his first hotel instead, the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, in 1919,[3] when a bank purchase fell through. The hotel did such brisk business that rooms changed hands as often as three times a day, and the dining room was converted into additional rooms to meet the demand.[2][5] He went on to buy and build hotels throughout Texas, including the highrise Dallas Hilton, opened in 1925; the Abilene Hilton in 1927; Waco Hilton in 1928; and El Paso Hilton in 1930. The first hotel outside of Texas that Hilton built was in 1939 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Today it is known as the Hotel Andaluz. During the Great Depression, Hilton was nearly forced into bankruptcy and lost several of his hotels. Nevertheless, he was retained as manager of a combined chain, and eventually regained control of his remaining eight hotels.

Over the next decade, he expanded west to California and east to Chicago and New York, crowning his expansions with such acquisitions as the Stevens Hotel in Chicago (then the world's largest hotel, it was renamed the Conrad Hilton), and the fabled Waldorf-Astoria in New York. He formed the Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1946, and Hilton International Company in 1948.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Hilton Hotels' worldwide expansion facilitated both American tourism and overseas business by American corporations. It was the world's first international hotel chain, at the same time establishing a certain worldwide standard for hotel accommodations. In 1954, Hilton Hotels bought The Hotels Statler Company, Inc., for $111 million, then the world's largest real estate transaction. In all, Hilton eventually owned 188 hotels in 38 cities in the U.S., including the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C., the Palmer House in Chicago, and the Plaza Hotel and Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, along with 54 hotels abroad. He later purchased the Carte Blanche Credit Company and an interest in the American Crystal Sugar Company, as well as other enterprises.

Hilton received honorary degrees from the University of Detroit (1953), DePaul University (1954), Barat College (1955), Adelphi College (1957), Sophia University, Tokyo (1963), and the University of Albuquerque (1975). Hilton's autobiography, Be My Guest,[6] was published in 1958 by Prentice Hall. In 1966, Hilton was succeeded as president by his son Barron and was elected chairman of the board.

In 1925, Hilton married Mary Adelaide Barron (1906–1966). They had three children, Conrad Hilton Jr., Barron Hilton and Eric Hilton, before divorcing in 1934.

In 1942, Hilton married actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. They had one child, Francesca Hilton, before divorcing in 1947. Gabor wrote in her 1991 autobiography One Lifetime Is Not Enough that she only became pregnant by Hilton after he raped her during their marriage.[7] Their daughter Francesca died in 2015, at age 67, from a stroke.

In 1976, Hilton married Mary Frances Kelly. Their marriage lasted until his death in 1979. Mary Hilton died in 2006, at the age of 90.

Hilton bought the 10644 Bellagio Road in Bel Air, Los Angeles in 1950 and occupied the house until his death in 1979. Hilton described his enchantment with the house as "...a case of love at first sight...I couldn't resist it, one of the fabulous houses of the world". He renamed the property the Casa Encantada.[8]

On January 3, 1979, Hilton died of natural causes at the age of 91. He is interred at Calvary Hill Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery in Dallas, Texas. He left $500,000 to his two surviving siblings, $100,000 to his daughter Francesca, and $10,000 to each of his nieces and nephews.

Hilton bust displayed at The Mobley, his first hotel in Cisco, Texas

• The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation was established in 1944 by Conrad N. Hilton. Its mission is the alleviation of human suffering worldwide.
• Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize created in 1996 by The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.
• The Conrad N. Hilton College is a hospitality school of the University of Houston named after Conrad Hilton.
• The Conrad N. Hilton Library at the Hyde Park campus of the Culinary Institute of America.
• The Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Business Ethics, The Hilton Distinguished Entrepreneur Award, and the Conrad N. Hilton Endowed Chair of Entrepreneurship at the College of Business Administration Loyola Marymount University.
• In 2009, actor Chelcie Ross played the role of Conrad "Connie" Hilton in the television show Mad Men for 6 episodes.

• Be My Guest, Autobiography of Conrad Hilton (Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1958)
• Inspirations of an Innkeeper (privately printed, 1963)

• Dabney, Thomas Ewing The Man Who Bought the Waldorf: The Life of Conrad N. Hilton (Duell Sloan & Pearce, 1950)
• Bolton, Whitney The Silver Spade; the Conrad Hilton Story. with a foreword by Conrad Hilton (New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1954)
• Comfort, Mildred Houghton Conrad N. Hilton, Hotelier (Minneapolis: T.S. Denison & Company, Inc., 1965)
• Oppenheimer, Jerry House of Hilton: From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege (Three Rivers Press. 2007)
• Alef, Daniel Conrad N. Hilton: Reveled in Hotel Deals (Titans of Fortune Publishing, 2009)
• Hilton, Conrad N. Be My Guest (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1958)

• Biography: Conrad Hilton, The Innkeeper to The World (Video)
• Conrad N. Hilton College at University of Houston
• Conrad Hilton's Secret of Success
• Conrad Hilton, Collector of Hotels (New York Times Magazine, 1949)
• Innkeeper to the World (TIME, 1963)
• The Key Man (TIME, 1949)
• Waldorf-Astoria as Hotels No. 16 (TIME, 1949)
• Conrad N. Hilton Foundation
• San Angelo's Heartbreak Hotel History of second Hilton hotel built in San Angelo, TX in 1928, and Conrad Hilton's bankruptcy (San Angelo LIVE! Magazine, 2007)
• Mad Men: See the Real Conrad Hilton– image slideshow by Life magazine
• Conrad N. Hilton early life in New Mexico