What? Marc wrote a Paris Hilton Roo Tale? As Paris Hilton might say, “that’s hot.”
Last fall, I did what most Roos do during Homecoming. I watched some Austin College football. And I stayed up late at the Hilton Garden Inn. Those two things go together like peas and carrots. And here’s a story explaining why.
Kangaroo Mack Saxon was an AC business major. But his first priority was football. Saxon led the Roos to a 1923 TIAA conference title, earning All-Conference recognition. His play in a loss to the Texas Longhorns caught the eye of UT Coach E. J. Stewart, who later persuaded Saxon to assist him with coaching duties at the University of Texas-El Paso (UTEP). A few short years later, Saxon was the Head Coach in El Paso.
El Paso is also where Conrad Hilton got his start in the hotel business. A native of the El Paso region, Hilton opened a number of hotels in the state of Texas during the Roaring Twenties. Hilton’s family life began that decade as well, when he married Mary Barron in 1925. Kids Nicky, Barron, and Eric soon followed. In 1930, Hilton opened a hotel in his adopted home of El Paso.
But the Great Depression hit both Hilton’s business interests and marriage hard. To stay afloat, Hilton sold all hotels but the one in El Paso. Avoiding bankruptcy consumed his every waking moment, which strained his marriage. And Mary was not in the union for the money. She wanted a true relationship that had suddenly begun to fray.
From “The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty,” by J. Randy Taraborrelli:
“’Like the Depression itself, what happened to Mary and me didn’t come all at once,’ [Conrad Hilton] would recall. Because [Conrad] was gone all the time working, Mary was left feeling miserable and alone. It was at a local charity event that Mary met the handsome Mack Saxon, a famous Texas football coach.”
“Tall, strapping, and good-looking, he must have been difficult to resist. Mary was drawn to Saxon. He listened to her problems, was present for meals, and even seemed to take an interest in her young sons. But perhaps more important to her, he appreciated her as a woman.”
Mary divorced Conrad Hilton in 1934. One year later, Mary and Mack were married in El Paso. Their marriage would stay strong for the rest of their lives, despite a lack of Hilton riches. It was a humble relationship that was pure country, a Texas version of “Green Acres” with “land spreading out so far and wide, keep Manhattan just give me that countryside.”
Conrad Hilton’s hotel interests soon began to expand again, but his second marriage was the exact opposite of his first. Hilton’s union with socialite Zsa Zsa Gabor in 1942 was one of convenience, as the hotel magnate gobbled up Manhattan properties from the Plaza to the Waldorf Astoria. This second marriage was pure city, a New York version of “Green Acres” with the couple “just ador[ing] a penthouse view, darling I love you but give me Park Avenue.”
Those Green Acres lyrics were sung by Zsa Zsa’s sister Eva Gabor.
Despite the 1934 divorce, Conrad and Mary were both committed to their children. And so was Mack Saxon. All three were central figures in the lives of the three kids. Nicky Hilton was raised primarily by his father Conrad. Eric Hilton was raised primarily by Mary and Mack; “my main inspiration was my stepfather Mack Saxon,” Eric would remark much later. And Barron, the middle child and future Hilton Chair, President, & CEO, was raised by all three.
In 1940, the Hilton family left New York City to visit Mary and Mack in El Paso. Conrad Hilton was enthusiastic about the trip, even putting up the entire family in two suites at his El Paso Hilton. Mary, Mack, and the kids spent a wonderful day in the city. That night at the Hilton, a tragedy nearly occurred.
From “The Hiltons: The True Story of an American Dynasty,” by J. Randy Taraborrelli:
“That night, Mary somehow fell asleep while smoking a cigarette; her bed went up in flames. Mack Saxon, who was asleep in a room across the hall, was awakened by the smell of smoke. He raced into the [room] to find Mary standing there with Eric, choking and sobbing hysterically.”
“[Mack] scooped her and the boy up and got them out of the suite as quickly as possible. Then he raced into her suite looking for Barron. When he finally found the boy, he rescued him as well. By the time Mack went back into the suite to search for [Nicky], the room was so filled with think black smoke that it seemed impossible to locate the boy.”
“Luckily, Mack found a gasping Nicky standing in front of a living room window, desperately trying to open it for air. He grabbed the teenager and pulled him out of the suite, which by now was engulfed in flames. The frightening ordeal generated screaming headlines the next day in the El Paso Herald.”
What? A Roo football player saved Barron Hilton from a raging inferno? As Paris Hilton might say, “that’s hot.”
Barron Hilton, named after his mother Mary Barron, at first decided to enter the world of professional sports. He is responsible for, among others, the AFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, the AFL-NFL merger, and the Super Bowl. Of the Chargers, the 1959 San Francisco Examiner noted that “[Barron Hilton’s] pro football team will probably play in the Rose Bowl. [Hilton’s] closest relation to football previously was when his mother married the late Mack Saxon, [UTEP] coach, and Barron followed the fortunes of that team.”
After World War II, Conrad Hilton used postwar prosperity to turn his Hilton Hotels enterprise into a thriving national business and American icon. His son Barron Hilton would eventually take over the Hilton reins and make the enterprise global. Under Barron Hilton’s leadership, Hilton Hotels would expand to 114 countries, 5,800 hotels, nearly 1 million rooms, and 17 brands. One of those Barron Hilton brands was the “Hilton Garden Inn.” Barron Hilton passed in 2019.
Mack Saxon sadly passed too early in 1949. But his widow Mary never forgot her one true love. She worked tirelessly to establish an El Paso Athletics Hall of Honor, and then pushed to have her husband placed within. She was successful, and Mack Saxon was inducted posthumously into the El Paso Hall in 1960. Mary was there to accept the honor in his absence. The UTEP ceremony took place, not surprisingly, at the El Paso Hilton.
Elite American families are often a complex combination of both success and pathology, inspiring both awe and pity. The Hilton family is no exception. Barron Hilton’s grand-daughter Paris Hilton is a prime example. Family members from extravagant wealth will always struggle with “The Simple Life,” the name of Paris Hilton’s highly rated show that was inspired by the “Green Acres” of her grand-step-mother’s sister Eva Gabor.
Paris Hilton recently became a mother. She named her son Phoenix Barron Hilton, noting that the middle name was a tribute to her beloved grandfather. But grandfather Barron was himself named in honor of his mother Mary Barron, who left future fame & fortune for love with a good lookin’ Austin College quarterback.
As Paris Hilton might say, “that’s hot.”
There are always stories which make Marc stop and wonder, and this one certainly does. Did Roo Mack Saxon bravely save Barron Hilton from certain doom? And did that heroic act ensure that Hilton hotels would thrive in the American century to follow? Who knows the answer to that question? But it is certainly fun to write a Roo tale which makes the case that, as hard as it is to fathom, “without Austin College football, there would never have been a Hilton Garden Inn.”
https://stories.hilton.com/hilton-history/hiltons-first-hilton