WHEN YOU SLAP SOMEONE, MAKE IT COUNT
That’s exactly what Zsa Zsa Gabor did in what became known as “the slap heard ’round the world.” It sparked a three-week, outlandish, movie-like trial that a judge later described as Gabor’s greatest publicity stunt.
I didn’t know about Gabor’s famous slap until Teresa and I were watching Monsters on Netflix. It’s the story of Lyle and Erik Menendez’s gruesome murder of their parents on a Sunday night, August 20, 1989, while they were watching television in their Beverly Hills home.
During the movie, there was a brief cutaway scene of a flamboyant blonde—actress Zsa Zsa Gabor—being pulled over by a police officer for expired license plates. She was driving a Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible. Gabor, never one to shy away from confrontation, chastised the officer and sped away. When he pulled her over again and tried to remove her from the car, she slapped him.
I looked over at Teresa and said, “I’ve got to pause the movie for a moment and Google: Did Zsa Zsa Gabor slap a Beverly Hills policeman?” I found the answer and discovered she did, and also that Zsa Zsa had been married nine times! That sent me down a Google research rabbit hole. Here’s the scoop on her nine marriages…
GABOR’S LOVE LIFE
Gabor was married nine times, divorced seven times, and had one marriage annulled because she married while still legally wed. That annulled wedding, which took place in Puerto Vallarta in 1982, was to Mexican businessman Felipe de Alba. The marriage lasted just one day because her divorce from husband number seven hadn’t been finalized yet.
Her first husband was Turkish diplomat Burhan Asaf Belge. Her third, actor George Sanders—whom she once called the love of her life—later married Gabor’s sister Magda. Sanders wrote in his autobiography that Zsa Zsa was a modern-day Madame de Pompadour, Queen of Sheba, and Cleopatra all in one.
Her second marriage in 1942 was to Conrad Hilton, the founder of Hilton Hotels. She was 25, he was 55, and they remained married for five years. Gabor’s only child, Francesca Hilton, was born from this marriage.
Her ninth and final marriage was to Prince Frederic von Anhalt in 1986, and they remained married until her death in 2016 at the age of 99. Zsa Zsa had some funny observations on marriage: “A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.”
She also quipped, “I believe in large families: every woman should have at least three husbands.” Now, back to the slap that put Zsa Zsa back on the map…
THE SLAP AND THE TRIAL
Here’s my slightly condensed version of a recount of what happened from a 2016 Los Angeles Times article.
“In 1989, Gabor was driving her Rolls-Royce Corniche convertible when Beverly Hills Police Officer Paul Kramer pulled her over for expired tags. While he was checking for other violations, Gabor sped away.
When Kramer went after Zsa Zsa and pulled her over again, things escalated. She slapped the officer, later claiming he manhandled her and she was acting in self-defense. Kramer said that was not true. He wrote up a ticket and a trial ensued.
The trial was more of a circus than a legal proceeding. Gabor lashed out at Kramer, even accusing him of having multiple gay lovers. She contradicted herself on the stand and claimed police tapes of her were doctored to show her using vulgar language. At one point, she told reporters, ‘In Nazi Hungary, they were fairer than here. Here, they don’t kill you. They kill you with words.’
Things got even more absurd when a fight broke out between a Zsa Zsa impersonator and a man wearing a ‘Hang Zsa Zsa’ T-shirt at the courthouse. The judge accused Gabor of milking the trial for publicity and called her behavior a mockery of the justice system. District Attorney Ira Reiner also criticized her, saying, ‘What started as a minor incident became a media spectacle because of her conduct.’
In the end, Gabor was sentenced to three days in jail, fined $12,937, ordered to complete 120 hours of community service, and required to undergo a psychiatric evaluation (she was acquitted of disobeying an officer).
When asked how she felt about going to jail, she joked, ‘It’ll be wonderful—I’ll have time to write my book. Bistro Gardens even promised to serve me food three times a day.’ When asked what she planned to do, she simply said, ‘I’m going home to collapse in my swimming pool.’ Then, she drove off in her Rolls-Royce.”
Zsa Zsa starred in dozens of movies in the 1940s and 50s. By the 1980s, she was out of the limelight. The incident launched her on a celebrity comeback. She made that slap count.
BIG GIRLS DON’T CRY
Speaking of making a slap count, have you seen the movie Jersey Boys? It’s about The Four Seasons, one of my favorite singing groups. Big Girls Don’t Cry, the group’s second big hit (after Sherry), was inspired (according to the song’s writers, Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio) by a movie where John Payne slaps Rhonda Fleming and she defiantly retorts, “Big girls don’t cry.” It was another slap that counted, validating that Sherry was no fluke and propelling the group to ultimately sell over 100 million records.
MAKE IT COUNT
I am not recommending that you slap anyone, but if that time comes learn a lesson from Zsa Zsa… make it count.
