Finding Zsa Zsa

The Gabors Behind the Legend

By: Sam Staggs

Narrated by: Paul Boehmer

Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

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 Hitler's invasion of Hungary followed by "liberation" of the country by the Red Army, three members of the Gabor family - Jolie, her ex-husband Vilmos, and their daughter Magda - 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 Nazis' 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.

Over the next six decades, with 23 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.

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; Eva's "bearded" 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 last - unconsummated - marriage to the manipulating faux prince Frederic von Anhalt. Here, too, is the untold story of Zsa Zsa'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, plays like a Cold War spy thriller.

Culled from new interviews with family, colleagues, and confidantes, and the unpublished memoirs of the author's friend Francesca Hilton, Finding Zsa Zsa finally introduces fans to the Gabor family they never knew. It's a riveting, outrageously funny, bittersweet, and affectionately honest listen of four women who were vulnerable, tough, charitable, endlessly fascinating, and always glamorous to a fault.

©2019 Sam Staggs (P)2019 Blackstone Publishing

Interesting, slightly flawed

While I did enjoy the book and find it to be quite believable, unlike much Gabor lore, the performance was dry and droning. There was more opinion on the main subject than is appropriate for a biography, and political commentary totally irrelevant to the story and inappropriate to a record that may be referenced for the main content long after that commentary is no longer relevant.

Also Finding Eva

I would recommend this book even to those who, like me, only have a passing interest in the Gabors. I enjoyed Eva in Green Acres when I was a kid and Zsa Zsa was in one film that I really admire, the 1952 Moulin Rouge. I listen to a big variety of audiobooks, but I got this one because I've been friends with the author, Sam Staggs, for about twenty-five years. To me it seems a little surreal to hear Sam's style spoken in a different voice. He's an author whose personality and sense of humor come across in his writing. Paul Boehmer gives a good narration and he's especially fun when he can imitate a well-known person like Henry Kissinger. I had previously heard his narration of The Jungle and Big Deal but this is the one makes me want to listen to some of his other performances.

Love, love, love the Gabors

Thorough, detailed, and perfectly narrated this book covers the life of the Gabors sisters and mother. Although late in life Zsa Zsa was portrayed as a joke on TV her determination, chutzpah and fearlessness made her a legend.

Great book, i highly recommend it. It will be hard to put down.

a little hard to follow

a good book but for me not easy to keep my attention. loved these two ladies in my youth. and really looked forward to listening to this. very complex figuring out where I'm at, Hungry, America or Europe . but I can see like most books I've listen to, the author makes no secret of hating Trump. an other idiot leftist that didn't know how good they had it.

Exactly what I wanted

I love the Gabors and have wanted to read a proper, RELIABLE, biography on them for awhile now, but none seemed to exist...so I was very excited for this book, and it did NOT disappoint!!!

Myth vs Truth

Sam Staggs has done an excellent job in separating the Gabors's fanciful tales from hard stone facts. It is a hilarious as well as a heartbreaking story. The narrator is excellent in relating their triumphs and tragedies. I personally love the author's Hollywood tales, and this is his best work. He really put his heart and soul in this book! No matter what you think about the Gabors, this is a fascinating book! Highly recommended!

Book was so good!

What a great story! There is so much interesting stuff in it! The narrator, however, sounded like a robot but the story is so good you get used to it.

Inserting Liberal Opinions

This book was interesting until while a speaking about a dictator and torture felt the need to compare this dictator to Donald Trump. What has he got to do with anything. I'm sick of things like this being inserted into a book for no reason other than a liberal lunatic rant. Itcaused me to stop listening.

Terrible

Ridiculous listing of pr type hype and atrocious reader - lousy accents and overly dramatic recitations. I couldn’t stand it and had to return. Should be negative 4 stars if available