PROFILE Tireless Dancer Is Mine Host To World

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30280, 5 November 1963, Page 23

PROFILE Tireless Dancer Is Mine Host To World

IB*

SIMON KAVANAUGH)

LONDON. Conrad Hilton has founded a multi-million dollar inter* national empire on bed and breakfast.

This combination of Scandinavian stolidity and shrewdness and American drive owns, leases, or operates under management contract 51 hotels, strategically placed for earning capacity from one end of the world to the other.

They range in size from 170 to 3000 rooms adding up to a total of 36,000 rooms and gross more than £B3 million a year. Many of his 30,000 employees are multi-lingual. Hilton's is the traditional Horace Greeley “Go-West-Young Man’’ American romance of success. He took Greeley's urge to heart, spread to all points of the compass, and is now a model for all American youth who aspire to tsars of commerce. The large adobe house in New Mexico that he grew up in initiated him into the trade. When his brothers and sisters left their home to work elsewhere his Norwe-gian-born father seized the opportunity to go into the hotel business.

Soliciting Trade Conrad went on almost permanent night duty. His job was to meet possible clients at the local railway station—they were mainly travelling salesmen—and take them to the “hotel” where they got bed and breakfast for a dollar. Father and son proved to be a good team. They made a partnership of it in 1915. After service in World War One Conrad Hilton went to Texas to buy a bank, but an abrupt price rise made him change his mind, switch his attention to hotels and buy one.

He learned what it was like to work under pressure.

Cleet), the town in which it I was situated, was enjoying i an oil boom. Custom rotated three times a day. rooms being let for eight-hour periods. He used his own bed for short periods only. Financial Crisis He next bought eight small hotels in Texas and was on the upward climb when he was hit by the depression. Eighty-one per cent of the hotels then in business went was forced to sell three of his hotels hanging on to the others only by exercising economies that left i a permanent mark on him. j When he was a half million | dollars in debt his solicitor advised bankruptcy, a stigma he could not face. At a time when financial belts were being pulled in all over the world he somehow managed to get backers. Now he says with a smile: "I got the lucky breaks.” He has been married twice, divorced twice. His second and last wife, Zsa Zsa Gabor, “brought headaches and heartaches,” he wrote in his autobiography, "Be My Guest." "It was a little like holding on to a Roman Candle, exciting, but you never quite knew when it would go off.” Hilton, described as having the "energy and drive of a man of forty” is planning to establish hotels in Prague, Warsaw, Shanghai and Moscow. These are in addition to the 10 he has already planned for 1964. Political Outlook He sees his chain of international hotels as a bulwark against the Iron Curtain. It is his belief “that by building these hotels and gathering peoples from many nations under the same roof we are aiding peace, helping the Free World fight Communism." He talks easily of the millions of dollars involved in ventures to come, but adds, “none of that is our money. We get other people to put up the money, then we run the hotel and pay back over 20 or 25 years. And I will not start on any venture until every cent is covered." A built-in part of his business acumen consists partly of consideration for those who work for him—“l try to make everyone around me just a little bit • r ich”—and partly to a shrewd appreciation of customs and manners.

He secured the operating rights of a hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico, because he was the only one out of seven hotel executives approached who replied in fluent Spanish. Another of the keys to his

success, he maintains, is that he keeps the distinctive character of the hotels he invests in and seeks efficiency rather than standardisation. This he has applied even to the motel field, though he prefers to call them Hilton Inna.

Towel Warmer* He envisages “futuristic” looks for the hotel* now in operation, including radio and television in each room, and automatic answering devices for telephones. Bath rooms will be fitted with ultraviolet equipment, sunray lamps and towel warmers. Furnishings will include plastic carpets that need little cleaning effort and super tough plastic furniture. As he looks down from what may seem an almost impregnable position Hilton no doubt reflects on the setback to his ambitions that came in April, 1955, in the United States. The Attorney General. Herbert Brownell, filed an action accusing Hilton hotel* of violating the anti-merger section of the Clayton Anti-Truat law. Forced to give ground he sold two hotels. This may not seem a very serious dent in his sprawling empire, but it proved that not even he ww outside the law. Religious Belief* When 75-year-old Hilton, a devout Roman Catholic, was asked how he equated his religious belief* with the world of big business, he replied: “This is something everyone has to figure out for himself. I pass no judgment on others. I ask for none.” These succinct sentences give another insight into hi* assurance. Hilton, president and chairman of the board of Hilton Hotel* Corporation, is a* unsparing of his three son* as he is of himself. No doubt he envisaged a dynasty of hoteliers.

With this in mind he started them all at the bottom, a move that has proved to be a partial failure. His second son recently gave up hi* job with the Hilton Credit Card Division.

Hilton does permit himself relaxation. He is • good golfer, an accomplished pianist. But even in leisure his business drive shows through for he is described as “a tireless dancer.”