Zsa Zsa Gábor was born in
Budapest, Hungary in February, 1917. She won a Miss Hungary beauty
contest in 1936, but was disqualified for being underage. Because her mother, Jolie, was
Jewish, Zsa Zsa, her sisters, Eva and Magda, and Jolie were forced to
flee Hungary when the Nazis threatened to invade their country.
Zsa Zsa's initial fame in the United States came from her work as an actress.
She made a few
good films in the early 1950s including Moulin Rouge (1952) and
Lili (1953), but rapidly declined to the B list with the prophetic
Queen of Outer Space (1958), and eventually
was limited to cameos, often playing-herself.
Zsa Zsa
essentially invented the concept of celebrity and being famous just for
being famous.
Her celebrity persona,
came from her talk shows appearances in the
1950s and 60s.
Her big, break came from her appearance on
Bachelor's
Heaven, in
which the panelists took turns answering stupid questions
from the lovelorn. In answer to the question "My husband is a traveling
salesman, and I know he strays. How can I stop him?" Zsa Zsa replied
"shoot him in the legs."
Zsa Zsa was referred to in the Congressional Record
as "the most expensive courtesan since Madame de Pompadour" by Representative Wayne Hays of Ohio in reference to her liaison with
Dominican Dictator Generalissimo Rafael Trujillo who presented Zsa Zsa with
a Mercedes and a chinchilla coat because she have him "a good time."
Trujillo was apparently a sucker for good times since he also gave Kim Novak
a Mercedes and a chinchilla coat, thereby adding a new dimension to the
concept of "hostess gifts."
The Gabor/Novak/Trujillo affair was one of several Zsa
Zsa love triangles
that hit the tabloids.
Other included Zsa Zsa, Barbara Hutton and Porfirio Rubirosa (the Dominican
playboy/diplomat/racecar driver); and Zsa Zsa, George Sanders, and George
Sanders (the penultimate narcissist). Sanders was her fourth husband whom
she married after divorcing Conrad Hilton which makes her Paris and Nicky
Hilton's half-great, great aunt.
Hilton and Gabor's only child, born after their divorce, is Francesca Hilton
In 2005, Zsa Zsa accused Francesca of larceny and fraud, and filed a
lawsuit against her in a California court.
On June 14, 1989, Zsa Zsa was accused of
slapping the face of a Beverly Hills police officer named Paul Kramer when
he stopped her for a traffic violation. She was found guilty of the assault
in a well-publicized trial and sentenced to three days in jail. She
later complained that she was denied a jury of her peers, saying 'It was not
my class of people. There was not a producer, a press agent, a director, an
actor."
An appropriate way to celebrate
Zsa Zsa's birthday is with an Hungarian Tart
which we suggest watching with
Moulin Rouge.
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2/3 cup ground unblanched almonds
1&1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 hardboiled egg yolks, sieved
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1&1/4 cups
Rose's Lime Marmalade, sieved
4 TB
Cointreau
3/4 cup ground almonds
1 TB
grated lemon zest
4 cups pitted and halved plums
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