Sari Gabor

“I am a marvelous housekeeper. Every time I leave a man, I keep his house.”

‘Who is Sari Gabor?’ I can hear you asking. If I said Zsa Zsa Gabor --- would you be any the wiser? I remember my grandmother talking about this ‘lady’ when I was a little girl but never really knew who she was. I was researching something quite unrelated when this name came up, and I could see me sitting on my grandmother’s lap, drinking tea out of a child’s cup (I must have been five years old) and nan talking about Zsa Zsa Gabor. So --- who was Zsa Zsa Gabor?

Sari Gabor was born on 6th February, 1917, in Budapest, Hungary. She was the middle of three daughters and her father was a soldier, Vilmos, and her mother, Jolie, an heiress to an European jewellery business. The family lived a life of luxury, having servants, going on extensive vacations and the girls going to expensive boarding schools. Sari herself started calling herself “Zsa Zsa” at a young age and the name stuck. Her parents were of Jewish ancestry and her mother ‘escaped’ Hungary during the time of the Nazi occupation of Budapest. Zsa Zsa herself left in 1941, three years prior to the takeover. Zsa Zsa’s older sister, Magda, became an American socialite, and her younger sister, Eva, became an American actress and businesswoman.

Zsa Zsa was sent to a Switzerland boarding school when she was 13, and it was here that Zsa Zsa was ‘discovered’ by Richard Tauber, the famous operatic tenor. He invited the teenager to sing in his new operetta “The Singing Dream.” The young girl spent 3 months at the Vienna Acting Academy and then went on the stage at the Theater an der Wien.

In 1936, Zsa Zsa was crowned Miss.Hungary but because she had lied about her age, Zsa Zsa was disqualified. The following year, ‘she’ proposed to the 35 year old Turkish government official Burhan Asaf Belge and the couple married. In her own words: “I pay all my own bills. I Want to choose the man. I do not permit men to choose me.” Zsa Zsa’s parents were delighted with the marriage and showered their daughter with expensive gifts, including a 10-karat diamond.

This was the first of 9 husbands and in 1941, the couple went their separate ways. In the same year, Zsa Zsa’s parents divorced, and Zsa Zsa and her mother moved to America. Zsa Zsa now divorced her first husband. Having just arrived in America, Zsa Zsa met Conrad Hilton (the hotel magnate) and the couple married in 1942. They had a daughter, Francesca, but the couple still divorced in 1946.

In 1944, along with Victoria Wolf, Zsa Zsa co-wrote the novel “Every Man For Himself.” Although it was fiction, (apparently) some of the novel was taken from Zsa Zsa’s life. The book was bought by an American magazine.

Zsa Zsa’s good looks and charm took her to Hollywood and her film debut was in 1952 in the film “Lovely to Look At.” She also had a part in the Ginger Rogers and Fred Allen film “We’re Not Married!” Other films Zsa Zsa appeared in are: “Moulin Rouge”, “Death of a Scoundrel”, “Touch Evil”, Frankenstein’s Great Aunt Tillie”, and “A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” (plus others).

Zsa Zsa also appeared in television --- the Life of Riley / Playhouse 90 / Burke’s Law and even Batman. Yet it was her personal life which kept the public’s attention!

As well as her first ‘husbands’, Zsa Zsa also married: George Sanders, Herbert Hunter. Joshua Cosden, Jack Ryan, Michael O’Hara, Felipe de Alba and Frederic Prinz von Anhalt. Zsa Zsa always said that she married 8 men but history (and evidence) says that it was 9.To the outside world, Zsa Zsa ‘appeared’ to be an icon of European glamour, luxury and she was self-indulgent. Her favourite word was “dahlink” which she said to everyone. Her vivacious and dramatic personality made Zsa Zsa ‘tabloid fodder’ and she was more famous for her wealth and many husbands than she was for being an actress.

A well-known incident happened in 1989, when she slapped a police officer after she was stopped for a driving violation. Zsa Zsa was sentenced to 3 days in jail!

In 2002, Zsa Zsa was involved in a car accident, from which she never recovered and ended up in a wheelchair. She had several strokes and operations and ended up on life support. At the age of 99, Zsa Zsa Gabor died of cardiac arrest --- she had been on life support for 5 years. Around 100 mourners attended the funeral which was a Catholic ceremony. Her parents may have been Jewish but Zsa Zsa chose to be Catholic.

“I never hated a man enough to give his diamonds back” --- Zsa Zsa Gabor.

You have to admit, she was a real character!