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Jolie Gabor

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Socialite

The Resume

    (September 29, 1896-April 1, 1997)
    Born in Budapest, Hungary
    Birth name was Janka 'Jansci' Tilleman
    Later known as Mrs. Edmund de Szigethy
    Jewelry entrepreneur
    Mother to the famous 'Gabor sisters' -- Magda, Zsa Zsa and Eva -- who called her 'Mama Jolie'
    Married Vilmos Gabor in 1914, legally divorcing him in 1939
    Proprietor of handmade-costume-jewelry shops, Jolie's and Crystello, both started in Budapest in the 1930s
    Opened a successful American costume jewelry business, called Jolie Gabor (based on borrowed capital from her daughters) originally based in New York City in 1946
    Eventually sold the successful Jewelry store chain in the late 1980s to Hungarian businesswoman and philanthropist Madeleine Herling
    Co-wrote 'Jolie Gabor's Family Cookbook' (with Jean & Ted Kaufman, 1962) and 'Jolie Gabor' (with Cindy Adams, 1975)

Why she might be annoying:

    She admitted to lying about her birthdate so often that even she couldn't tell her own accurate age.
    She was a hyperactive stage mother who lived her ambitions through her children.
    She was an instigator, fueling her daughters' competitive sibling rivalry for her approval their entire lives.
    She claimed to have been given a boy's name ('Jansci') because her parents wanted a son, but her official birth certificate contradicts this.
    She got her daughter, Zsa Zsa, disqualified from the 'Miss Hungary' contest she won after it was revealed that she lied about her daughter's age (although some claim it was because she was caught trying to bribe a judge).
    She regularly fought with and separated from her first husband throughout their twenty-two year marriage (once he even bargained in advance for the next departure/return by promising her a ruby).
    Her ghost writer, Cindy Adams, said of her and her daughters, 'they would lie about everything... They have always lived with no reality; there was never any truth to anything.'
    Adams specifically recounted attending preparations for Eva's wedding and noticing a giant cross at the ceremony, despite their being Jewish. When she asked what the cross was for, Jolie allegedly replied ''Eva's new about-to-be-husband hates the Jews, so in this book you make us Catholic!'

Why she might not be annoying:

    She was aunt-in-law to Congressman and Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos.
    She married only three times. (For a Gabor, that's practically monogamous!)
    To think she was once the most famous 'Jolie' in the world! That is, until you know who came along...
    Her in-laws and a large number of her friends/family members were killed by the Nazis in concentration camps.
    She was a self-made woman who rose from humble means and succeeded in teaching her daughters how to get the best out of life.
    She said 'for my age I am a miracle. I am attractive. I am talented... I am the life of a party. I have always friends. I have a younger husband who adores me.'
    She was apparently never made aware of her daughter Eva's 1995 death, likely due to the onset of age-related memory loss.
    She died less than two years later, with her daughter Magda following her a year later, leaving Zsa Zsa the only surviving 'Gabor.'
    She gave Maria Callas' estranged 'stage mother,' Evangelina 'Litsa' Callas, a job in one of her shops when she learned during a joint interview that she was penniless with no support (and regularly took umbrage at the suggestion that it was done 'for publicity').
    She was good friends with Ike and Mamie Eisenhower (Mamie regularly frequented her shops; Ike was a fan of her cookbook recipes, once even calling for cooking tips).

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 21 Votes: 61.90% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 23 Votes: 47.83% Annoying