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Leona Helmsley dies at age 87 |
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Written by Corky Siemaszko, MCT
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Monday, 20 August 2007 |
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Leona Helmsley, the haughty hotel baroness who once famously declared "only little people pay taxes," has died of heart failure at her summer home in Greenwich, Conn., her spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said Monday. She was 87.
Helmsley, who was known for the high-handed way she ran the Helmsley hotel empire — and for her cruelty to underlings — was remembered by Rubenstein as a good friend and generous philanthropist who "gave tens of millions of dollars to charity right up until the last months of her life."
"Leona was a great businesswoman in her own right who created a tremendous brand and success with Helmsley Hotels and was a wonderful partner and wife to Harry Helmsley," Rubenstein said in a statement. "I was very proud to represent her for so many years."
In 2007, Forbes magazine ranked her as the 369th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $2.5 billion.
Helmsley was so reviled by the public that many cheered when she was convicted in 1989 of evading $4 million in taxes. And after she fired a hotel manager because he was gay, she was forced to endure a humiliating trial, where she was branded a bigot and ordered to shell out $554,000.
In 2003, Helmsley's lawyers took a poll and discovered, to their dismay, that their boss was the most despised public figure in New York.
Never mind that Helmsley responded to the Sept. 11 attacks by giving $5 million to the New York Police & Fire Widows' and Children's Benefit Fund.
Never mind that Helmsley funded a $30 million charitable foundation, or that since 1990 she has had the Empire State Building lit up in lavender for Gay Pride week.
The public record shows that Helmsley was married four times to three men (she married and divorced garment industry executive Joseph Lubin twice) but truly loved just one — and his name was Harry.
Real estate baron Harry Helmsley's love was more than enough to propel the ambitious daughter of poor Polish Jewish immigrants into a world of wealth and power — light years removed from her humble roots in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn.
Born Leona Mindy Rosenthal in Marbletown, N.Y., she claimed to have been an English major at Hunter College when she ditched academia to become a model named Mindy Roberts, and posed in ads as a Chesterfield cigarette girl.
Her first marriage to Leo Panzirer ended in the divorce in 1959 but produced her only child, Jay Panzirer, who died of a massive heart attack in 1982, at age 40. She later married Lubin.
Amid the marriages, Hemsley renamed herself Leona Roberts and went to work as a receptionist for a real estate company. Soon she was company president and attracted the attention of Harry Helmsley, who got rich after the Depression by buying buildings from firms that went bust.
In 1970, Harry Helmsley hired Leona as a senior vice president with a $500,000 salary. Two years later, Harry dumped his wife of 33 years and married Leona, who had just split from Lubin.
Harry Helmsley turned over management of his realm to his new wife and together they built a $5 billion property empire with a portfolio that included interests in the Empire State Building, the Park Lane Hotel on Central Park South, and the Helmsley Hotel on 42nd Street.
"They had wonderful ads conveying that she was the queen of the hotels that Harry owned and you had the feeling that she made sure that everybody did their job," former New York City Mayor Ed Koch said.
Did she ever. Lawyer Alan Dershowitz told a story about breakfast with Leona Helmsley and what happened to the waiter who carried over a cup of tea with "a minuscule amount of water spilled" on the saucer.
"She grabbed the cup from me, and threw it down, shattering it all over the floor," he said. "Then she called the waiter over, and she told him to get on his hands and knees and plead with her for his job back."
To Harry Helmsley, Leona could do no wrong, and their mutual devotion knew no bounds. She threw lavish birthday bashes where her workers wore "I'm Just Wild About Harry" buttons.
And Leona Helmsley was as tight with the coin as her husband. After her son died, she sued Leo Panzirer's estate to recoup the $7,000 it cost to fly the casket to New York for the funeral.
The Helmsleys' world went into freefall in 1986 when investigators began uncovering evidence that they had been billing their company to pay for their lavish lifestyle.
"Of course we're innocent," Harry Helmsley said.
Future mayor Rudy Giuliani, then a federal prosecutor, persuaded a jury to decide otherwise. Leona Helmsley was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay a $7.1 million fine. She served 18 months.
Harry Helmsley, who was too senile to stand trial, died in 1997 at age 87.
"My fairy tale is over," Leona Helmsley said at the time. "I lived a magical life with Harry." | Only registered users can write comments.
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