AllMovie

Join A&E's popular series Biography as they profile one of the most successful entrepreneurs in our country's history, Conrad Hilton.Born in a primitive adobe dwelling on Christmas Day, 1887, in San Antonio, New Mexico Territory, Conrad Hilton was one of seven children born to a Norwegian immigrant father and a German-American mother. Working at his father's general store, the young boy developed entrepreneurial skills that would guide him for a lifetime. After World War I service he began buying Texas hotels, beginning with his first purchase, the 40-room Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas. Eventually by the 1930s--40s to such grand establishments as Chicago's Palmer House (1945) and the Waldorf-Astoria, New York (1949). He formed Hilton Hotels Corporation (1946) and Hilton International (1948) and by the time of his death he controlled the largest hotel organization in the world.