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Today’s Jewish Birthday: Zsa Zsa Gabor

February 6, 2024
Zsa Zsa Gabor (Photo: Wikipedia)

Zsa Zsa Gabor (Feb. 6, 1917 – Dec. 18, 2016) was born as Sari Gabor in Budapest, Hungary to jewelry store owner Vilmos Gabor (né Grun) and his wife Janzieka “Jolie” Tillemann, who were both Jewish. As a little girl, she couldn’t pronounce her own name, winning the nickname of Zsa Zsa after her efforts. At age 16, she placed as second runner up in the Miss Hungary pageant, leading to a stage career in Vienna, Austria. While immigrating to the U.S. in 1941, she spread the tale that she had danced with Adolf Hitler twice, but later in life said that it was Josip Broz Tito, the Yugoslavi Communist strongman. In 1944, aided by her second of nine husbands, Gabor’s parents fled Budapest during the Nazi invasion. That same year, Gabor cowrote Every Man for Himself with Victoria Wolf. In the 1950s, she appeared in such films as Moulin Rouge; Lovely to Look At; We’re Not Married; Lili; Touch of Evil; and Queen of Outer Space. She was a regular guest on television talk shows and comedy specials.

Gabor was married nine times, in order to Buthan Belge, Conrad Hilton, George Sanders, Herbert Hutner, Joshua S. Cosden, Jack Ryan, Michael O’Hara, Felipe de Alba, and finally a 30-year marriage to Frederic Prinz von Anhalt which lasted from Aug. 14, 1986 to Dec. 18, 2016. She once quipped, “I am a marvelous housekeeper: Every time I leave a man I keep his house.” Gabor’s only natural-born child, Constance Francesca Hilton, was born March 10, 1947. She and von Anhalt adopted at least ten adult men who paid fees of up to $2 million, so they could claim descent from Princess Marie-Auguste of Anhalt, a member of the German nobility. Zsa Zsa as an adult professed Catholicism and her funeral, just months short of her 100th birthday, was at the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills. Her ashes were interred temporarily at Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery until 2021 when they were reinterred at the Kerepesi Cemetery in Budapest to fulfill her wish to return to Hungary. Sister Magda Gabor was a socialite and sister Eva Gabor was an actress.

Next, February 7: Herb Kohl

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SDJW condensation of a Wikipedia article

 

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