March 28, 2018
After I mentioned Zsa Zsa Gabor in the Valentine's Day column last month, I've received reader questions about the most famous of the three Gabor Sisters.
The one and only time I ever interviewed Gabor was in 1992 when she was in Chicago performing her nightclub act.
I recall the performance, mostly banter with the audience, a bit of singing and some career reflections, as very short. It began with her coming to stage from behind a curtain in full glam garb, including a form-fitting gown fringed in feathers, sequins and rhinestones, while led on stage in gold, diamond and ruby-encrusted handcuffs by a hunky uniformed police officer.
Of course, she was poking fun at herself and her 1989 arrest, jail time and community service for slapping a police officer after she was arrested in Beverly Hills.
At the time, Gabor was driving her Rolls Royce Comiche without a registration and without a license (both were in the glove compartment, but were expired). She was also driving with an open container of alcohol, i.e., a silver flask of bourbon (she later told the sentencing judge: "Dahling, I like a little bourbon in my Diet Pepsi"). She also had to face the charges of battery of an officer (she slapped the arresting motorcycle officer, Paul Kramer, who she later described in court as "GORGEOUS but mean, and he looked just like that dahling Tom Selleck") and disobeying an officer.
Gabor lived a long and colorful life spanning nine marriages before her death at age 99 in December 2016. On April 14, her ninth and final husband, Prince Frederic von Anhalt , will guide Heritage Auctions with their sale of nearly 500 of the actress' personal possessions. Following her death, the husband of 30 years (which is longer than the length of all of her other marriages combined) had to move out of the Bel Air mansion Gabor bought for $250,000 from Elvis Presley in 1974. Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes originally built the 26-room home, which has six bedrooms, seven bathrooms and a large pool and terrace, in 1955.