House of Hilton: From Conrad to Paris: A Drama of Wealth, Power, and Privilege (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Master of the quick celebrity bio (Idol: Rock Hudson, etc.), Oppenheimer does a cursory, glib job of dishing the dirt on the famous hotelier dynasty established by Conrad Hilton by the 1920s. Oppenheimer begins and ends his increasingly sordid saga with the plight of the youngest in the Hilton line, arriviste Paris, who made herself an instant household name in 2002 with an erotic home video pirated on the Internet. Oppenheimer works backward from Paris's maternal line, which stars a succession of pushy stage moms and gold diggers like her mother, Kathleen, a successful child model; he then moves on to her paternal line, featuring great-grandfather Conrad Hilton, a big-talking Catholic German from San Antonio, Tex., who made a name and a fortune buying hotels, eventually marrying the apocryphal Miss Hungary, Zsa Zsa Gabor. However, with his first wife, Mary, he produced the three sons (Nick, Barron, and Eric) who would fuel the subsequent family slide, especially glamorous firstborn Nicky, the deeply alcoholic Hollywood skirt chaser who had the honor of being Elizabeth Taylor's first husband (for seven months). The reader will gasp to learn of the Hilton men's sexual athletics—and shudder to hear that such a privileged family could be so shockingly uneducated and uncouth. (Nov. 17)
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Product Description

This intimate, shocking—and thoroughly unauthorized—portrait of the Hiltons chronicles the family’s amazing odyssey from poverty and obscurity to glory and glamour.

From Conrad Hilton, the eccentric “innkeeper to the world” who built a global empire beginning with a fleabag in a dusty Texas backwater, to Paris Hilton, his great-granddaughter, whose fame took off with a sex video, House of Hilton is the unauthorized, eye-popping portrait of one of America’s most outrageous dynasties.

If you want to know how Paris Hilton became who she is, you have to know where she came from. From scores of candid and exclusive interviews, from private documents and public records, New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer has dug deeply into her paternal and maternal family roots to reveal the often shocking, tragic, and comic lives that helped shape the world’s most famous and fabulous “celebutante.”

The cast of characters includes Paris’s maternal grandmother, a materialistic “stage mother from hell.” There is Paris’s maternal grandfather, who became an alcoholic housepainter. The life of Paris’s mother, Kathy Hilton, groomed by her mother to be a star and marry rich, is candidly revealed, too, as is that of Paris’s father, Rick, Conrad’s grandson.

Paris’s tabloid antics are truly in the Hilton tradition. Set against a glittery Hollywood backdrop—with appearances by stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Natalie Wood, and Joan Collins—House of Hilton brings to light a cornucopia of closely held Hilton family secrets and sexual peccadilloes, such as the many affairs and the nightclub-brawling, boozing, and pill-popping life of Paris’s great-uncle, Nick Hilton. The story of his hellish marriage to Liz Taylor alone rivals any of today’s Hollywood breakups.

Behind it all was Conrad Hilton, who built his worldwide empire through the Great Depression while others were jumping out of windows. A devout Catholic publicly, his personal life was that of an unrepentant sinner. His first marriage was to Mary Barron Hilton, a sexy, hard-drinking, gambling Kentucky teenager half Conrad’s age. Wife number two was the gorgeous Zsa Zsa, who, like Paris, was famous for being famous. Their tumultuous marriage and headline-making divorce are revealed here in all their juicy glory.

In all, House of Hilton is a gripping American saga, from the fire and passions that built a business empire to the debauchery and amorality passed on from one generation to the next.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Crown (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0307337227
• ISBN-13: 978-0307337221
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,150,987 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Be our guest, November 22, 2006

By	E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The Hilton name has become synonymous with trashy behavior, media stunts and sex tapes, as well as one of the most infamous nonentities of the twenty-first century.

So it was inevitable that somebody would write a juicy tell-all about that family. It's misnamed, however -- Jerry Oppenheimer's "House of Hilton" should have been called "Paris Hilton and the Four Generations From Hell That Spawned Her." Because that basically describes this moderately juicy little tell all, which could use more telling and more Hiltons.

After an introduction revealing that Kathy Hilton is basically an older version of her daughter -- and unafraid to come up with ridiculous lies -- the book starts delving into her family history... backwards. Kathy and Rick became the trashy, demanding lordlings of the hotel, treating the less moneyed as so many unpaid servants so they could go partying.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, it turns out. Kathy was the daughter of a frustrated singer (known as Big Kathy) who got pregnant, and had to give up her aspirations. But instead she decided to achieve fame through her daughters, turning them into diva child actors -- and Kathy into a younger version of herself. Namely, a psychotic user of everyone she came across.

Just when you're despairing of anything about the title family, Oppenheimer thankfully changes his focus to Conrad Hilton, the last of the clan to do any real work. He was a shrewd businessman who turned a single dusty hotel into a massive chain -- the Depression was only a stumbling block for this guy. He was also a devoted womanizer, with a pair of sultry spitfire wives -- one of whom slept with his son.

But his children and grandchildren managed to outpace Connie's wild life. While he made an empire, son Nicky married and divorced Elizabeth Taylor, chased numerous starlets, and immersed himself in drugs and booze. And then there is Nicky's great-niece -- the infamous Paris, a media prostitute reknowned for constant sex, partying, drunkenness and snotty behavior. And her X-rated tape, of course.

"House of Hilton" never pretends to be an objective classy tell-all. After all, look at the subject matter -- Oppenheimer covers everyone from Mafia sons to slutty celebutantes, sociopathic stage moms to abused A-list actresses. It's like a soap opera, except nobody would allow some of these things on daytime television.

Oppenheimer writes in a sort of tabloidy, chatty style here, which isn't surprising when he credits a number of gossip sites and tabloid magazines. But he does turn out interesting tidbits about the Hilton family that weren't previously out in the open. And he casts a jaded eye at older material, such as Nicky Hilton's abuse of Elizabeth Taylor, for the brief months of their marriage.

The only problem with "House of Hilton" is perhaps that it could have used a little more juice and scandal, and it spends too much time on people who are NOT Hiltons even by marriage, such as Big Kathy and her ex-husbands. It would have been more interesting to hear the personal peccadilloes of lesser-known Hiltons than to hear about Big Kathy putting screws in a cheeseburger.

Oppenheimer spends too much time on the Richards family in "House of Hilton," but the book picks up substantially in the second half when he gets to the Hiltons themselves. Light and frothy, with a moderate amount of juice.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun Read!, November 16, 2006

By	New Reviewer (Jackson, MS) - See all my reviews

This was a fun book to read. I was hoping, though, that it might focus on Hiltons other than just Paris' parents and grandparents. I wanted to know what some of the other Hiltons are up to. I am sure they can't all be like Rick Hilton. I definitely hope some find that education is a good thing - Paris' immediate family sound as if they're dumb as rocks.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars House of '2 Kathies and Uncle Nick", January 23, 2007

By	Erich E. - See all my reviews

This book is totally mis-named. It gives very little inside about the 'House of Hilton' as the public and hotel professionals would see it. It seems as if the author was indeed influenced by the powers-that-are, and it appears strongly that he changed course on more than one occasion for reasons known/unknown.

As the published product comes across, the author picks mostly on Paris Hilton's grandmother (Big Kathy), which is no longer amongst the living, and then on Conrad's oldest son, Nick, which is also amongst the dead. Other than that Nick would be the great-uncle of the current media 'bore', there is no connection whatsoever between these two (2) main characters of the book.

That Conrad Hilton liked the girls has never been a secret at all. He made his pursuits with humor, charm and much class. That he is made out as a cheapscate, which he was not at all, must have come from the line of 'Big Kathy'; but then again, good, old Connie is dead as well...

Erich E.