Conrad HiltonConrad Hilton was born on December 25, 1887 in Socorro, New Mexico Territory (now New Mexico). One of eight children, his father was a businessman who at various times owned or operated a general store, bank, telegraph office, the local post office, and a hotel. The hotel was a small one built from the ground up. As the children left home Conrad's parents rented their rooms to boarders for $2.50 day. The Conrad children met people at the nearby train station and carried their luggage to the boarding house. This was Conrad Hilton's introduction to the hospitality industry. Conrad then opened a small bank, but soon after the outbreak of World War II, he sold it and enlisted in the U.S. Army. Second Lieutenant Hilton was to France to work in the Quartermaster Corps. He saw very little combat action. While he was in France, Hilton's father died in a car accident. Hilton was discharged from the U.S. Army on Feb, 11, 1919, and went back to New Mexico to take charge of his father's business operations. While Hilton was in France, his father had lost the general store because merchandise was hard to locate during the war. His other businesses were also in decline. Hilton felt constrained by the tiny amount of business, so he closed or liquidated what was left. Hilton left for Wichita, Texas with plans to buy a bank. Wichita didn't work out, and he set out for the little Texas town of Cisco. He found a bank for sale and reached an agreement with owner. The deal fell through at the last moment. He walked across the street to the Mobley Hotel, and several days later closed a deal to buy it. In his autobiography Be My Guest, he described the hotel as a "cross between a flophouse and a gold mine." Hilton recouped the money he invest in the Mobley in only one year. Hilton then bought two Texas hotels - the Melba, in Fort Worth, and the Waldorf in Dallas. In 1925, Hilton built the first hotel that carried his name. In 1929, Hilton consolidated his properties under the name Hilton Hotels, Incorporated - the year the stock market crashed. A year later the crown jewel in the Hilton empire opened, the El Paso Hilton. Hilton eventually lost almost everything he owned during the Great Depression, including his fist wife who divorced him. Hilton slowly begin to put his business back together. By 1937, he owned eight hotels and was out of debt. He was able to buy some properties for pennies on the dollar. His best buy was the Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco. He bought the hotel for $275,000. It had cost the original owners $4 million to build. While Hilton was building his empire bigger and better than before, he picked up a trophy wife, the glamorous actress Zsa Zsa Gabor. The marriage wasn't recognized by the Catholic Church which bothered the deeply religious Conrad Hilton. The marriage lasted only four years. The marriage to Zsa Zsa helped Hilton attain a celebrity status that was beneficial to the Hilton brand. Hilton was often in the news, and he enjoyed the attention. A copy of Be My Guest was placed in every one of his hotel rooms - next to the Gideon Bible. In 1947, Hilton's company became the first hotel chain to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Hilton, the largest shareholder, owned $9 million worth of stock in the company. In 1948, Hilton opened his first foreign hotel, the Castellana Hilton in Madrid,Spain. In 1949, Hilton leased New York's Waldorf-Astoria, widely considered to be the world's best hotel. He had carried a picture of the Waldorf in his wallet for years, dreaming of one day owning it. In 1954, he made the biggest real estate deal in history when he bought the Statler Hotel chain for $111 million. In 1976, at age 89, Conrad Hilton married Mary Frances Kelly of Santa Monica, CA. He died of pneumonia in Bel Air, California on January 3, 1979. He was 91. At his death, the company owned 185 hotels in the United States and 75 in foreign countries. The autograph of Conrad Hilton is easy to find. Signatures sell in the $40 - $50 range. A typed letter with his signature sells for about $100. A signed photo sells for about $75. A signed copy of his autobiography "Be My Guest" can be found for around $100. I own a signed copy of a biography, "The Silver Spade ... The Conrad Hilton Story," published in 1954. Hilton wrote the forward for the book. He inscribed it, "John B. Sclabossi who has worked long and faithful at Casa Encantada, with very best wishes, Conrad Hilton Los Angeles Aug 31, 1955."
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Hilton was only 21 when he began managing his father's general store. While still in his early twenties, he was elected to the state legislature of the new state of Mexico. As a Republican, he served two terms.
Many people today follow the adventures of two of his great-grandchildren, Paris Hilton and Nicky Hilton.