August 17, 2010. Muggy and overcast in New York with thunderstorms predicted (no go).
Los Angeles. As of this writing, they have given the last rites to Zsa Zsa Gabor before she left the hospital on Sunday, returning to her home in Bel Air. One of the most famous blondes of the 20th century is in her mid-nineties, the exact year somewhat clouded early on in the saga.
I met Zsa Zsa in 1980 in Beverly Hills. She was a friend of our mutual friendLady Sarah Churchill. Sarah first met Zsa Zsa when she went to Blenheim to stay with Sarah's father Bert, the 10th Duke of Marlborough.
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| Zsa Zsa, when I knew her. |
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Sarah was a big party giver out there, and Zsa Zsa was a frequent guest. Sarah often prepared the food for her dinner parties (with the total attentiveness of her Jamaican maid). She was quite proud of her culinary talents. Zsa Zsa, on the contrary, always complained to her friend, her hostess, briefly in her Hungarian accent, "Dahling, the food is terrible. You need a good cook."
On the surface both women liked each other for the most superficial reasons. Zsa Zsa, to Sarah, was very funny and clever. Sarah to Zsa, cuisine aside, was a duke's daughter ... and a Vanderbiltheiress.
Underneath that mondaine verneer, however, both women were independent-thinking, tough and liked the spotlight. For Zsa it was a living. For Sarah, who never sought it out, it was just being a Churchill; she enjoyed the attention. They understood each other. And they both liked dogs and always had more than one around the house.
Zsa Zsa had another husband when I first met her – a big , tall Irishman named Michael O'Hara. He looked liked a once upon a time fullback for the USC team who traded in his uniform for bespoke suits, looking like a banker and in the construction business. O'Hara was definitely younger than Zsa although she looked like the "star" image that she perfected. She must have been in her early sixties. Mr. O'Hara might have been ten or twelve years younger.
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| Zsa Zsa Gabor, circa 1940. |
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They lived up on Bel Air Road in a big moderne pavilion style villa that had been built by Howard Hughes, from whom Zsa Zsa bought it. It was movie set grand. Tall double doors at the entrance in a faux-Regency pose. There was a high ceilinged, square, all glass lanai-like sitting room that looked out on the pool, and the hills and the canyons beyond. With a flick of the switch, the entire wall/window facing the pool, rose into the ceiling, merging the outdoors and indoors. To a kid from a small town in New England this was ultimate Hollywood luxe. And cool. Built by Howard Hughes. Now the property of Zsa Zsa.
I'd seen her many times on television. It was the same personality off-camera except not making with the jokes. She was one of the three famous Gabor sisters. They were businesswomen, sometimes shrewd, sometimes misled by men they trusted (who often took advantage of them financially). They were famous for being frou frou and frivolous. That was the act, and they made a good living at it. The eldest was Magda (who married and stayed pretty much out of the limelight). Eva, a couple of years younger than Zsa Zsa, had the most success as a straight actress, especially with a long running series calledGreen Acres.
Zsa Zsa was neither a comedienne, a leading lady or even a serious actress. But she was very good at playing Herself. She made a very good living as an over-the-top femme fatale. She even married rich men and tossed them aside when she was finished with them. Her glamour and celebrity were part of her allure, and men fell for it, making her a kind of trophy wife.
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| Zsa with Jack Paar and Jayne Mansfield. |
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By the late 1950s, she was a regular on the Jack PaarTonight Show, and one of the most famous women in America, having been married to Conrad Hilton and having stolen Porfirio Rubirosa away from Doris Duke before he ran off with Barbara Hutton for three months (or something along those lines). Her fling with Rubirosa gave her an added measure of sexual appeal, as she was a beautiful woman and he was a ladykiller who could have the richest women in the world.
After all that, Zsa Zsa, with such portfolio was a great talk show guest. She looked like the image of a courtesan and played it to the hilt, joking about it too, the European version of the dumb blonde. Dumb like a fox. But soft, and gentle, and not a bitch.
She married for money, she admitted, although most were brief. "I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house."
That line wouldn't play today, but in the buttoned-up, walk-the-line 50s and 60s, it was hilarious. Sex, feminine wiles, male daftness (when it comes to sex) and worldly goods like diamonds, emeralds, Rolls Royces and mansions in Bel Air. |
