Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors behind the Legend

Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors behind the Legend

For decades, the Gabor dynasty was the epitome of glamour and fairy tale success. But as biographer, film historian, and Gabor family friend Sam Staggs reveals, behind the headlines is a true story more dramatic, fabulous, and surprising than their self-styled legend would have you believe . . .

In 1945, after barely escaping Hitlerâ€™s invasion of Hungary followed by â€œliberationâ€ of the country by the Red Army, three members of the Gabor familyâ€”Jolie, her ex-husband Vilmos, and their daughter Magdaâ€”arrived in New York City. In Hollywood, their other daughters,
Zsa Zsa and Eva, had worked feverishly throughout the war years to secure their rescue from the Nazisâ€™ plan to exterminate the Jews. Stepping off the boat, Jolie, the iron-willed matriarch, already had a golden future mapped out for her sharp-witted, cosmopolitan beauties.
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Over the next six decades, with twenty-three husbands between them (suave All About Eve star George Sanders would wed both Zsa Zsa and Magda), scores of lovers, and roller-coaster rides in film, television, theater, and business, the elegant yet gloriously bawdy, addictively watchable Gabors carved a niche in the entertainment industry that made them world-famous pop-culture icons. But beneath the artifice of Dior and diamonds was another side to the story they never revealed: the whole truth.
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This first verifiable history of the Gabors casts a startling new light on these extraordinary women. Finding Zsa Zsa reveals the tumultuous and often unforgiven battles between mother and daughter, sister and sister, wife and husband; Evaâ€™s â€œbeardedâ€ romance with Merv Griffin that allowed them both to seek same-sex lovers; Zsa Zsa's involuntary confinement in a mental hospital; her life-long struggle with bipolar disorder; and her lastâ€”unconsummatedâ€”marriage to the manipulating faux prince Frederic von Anhalt. Here too is the untold story of Zsa Zsaâ€™s daughter, Francesca Hilton, a gifted photographer who eschewed the Gabor lifestyle and paid a sad price for her independence. The story of family patriarch Vilmos Gabor, who returned to Hungary only to be trapped behind the Iron Curtain, reads like a Cold War spy thriller.
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Culled from new interviews with family, colleagues, and confidantes, and the unpublished memoirs of the author's friend Francesca Hilton, Finding Zsa Zsa finally introduces fans to the Gabor family they never knew, including many never-before-seen photos. Itâ€™s a riveting, outrageously funny, bittersweet, and affectionately honest read of four women who were vulnerable, tough, charitable, endlessly fascinating, and always glamorous to a fault.
Country USA
Brand Kensington
Manufacturer Kensington
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber Illustrations, unspecified
Color Multicolor
ReleaseDate 2019-07-30
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781496719591

Country	USA
Brand	Kensington
Manufacturer	Kensington
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	Illustrations, unspecified
Color	Multicolor
ReleaseDate	2019-07-30
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781496719591

Finding Zsa Zsa: The Gabors behind the Legend

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