If a Texan banker kept to his word in 1919, then the hotel world as we know it might be a remarkably different place.
More than 3,730 properties in more than 82 countries would have a different name emblazoned on their walls, on their menus, and monogrammed on their pillows; and we would have lost one of the most influential and iconoclastic of hoteliers of the twentieth century.
In 1919, thirty-two year old Connie Hilton, a lanky WWI veteran with dreams of becoming a banker, travelled 568 miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Cisco, Texas with the intention of buying a bank for an agreed price of $75,000. Yet upon arriving in Cisco, Hilton received a devastating telegram from the bank owner: “Price up to $80,000 and skip the haggling”. Hilton, a straight-shooter with an inveterate code of honour, was outraged by the banker’s last minute attempt to renege with what he considered was a done deal. As Hilton writes in his 1957 memoir Be my Guest, “Once, many years later, I was to stand raise after raise in price from a man named Healy to get the biggest hotel in the world (The Stevens, now Hilton Chicago). I didn’t like it then. I didn’t like it that day in Cisco.”
Upon receiving the telegram, Hilton informed the telegrapher— in no uncertain terms— that the banker could keep his bank; and stormed into the building across the road, an establishment that operated under the name of “The Mobley Hotel”.
By Billy Hathorn (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
The Mobley Hotel, a nondescript pile of plain red brick with a stucco roof and a long wooden porch, seems a decidedly unromantic setting on which to launch a brilliant hotelier career. As Hilton describes it, “The Mobley Hotel, when I first saw it, looked like a convenient place to sleep, nothing more.” Yet despite an unprepossessing exterior, the inside of The Mobley Hotel proved to be much more intriguing to the ever entrepreneurial Hilton.
In a temper as result of his failure to purchase his longed-for bank, Hilton’s mood failed to improve when the proprietor Mr. Mobley informed him that there was no room available until another eight hours—and that he didn’t approve of young men loitering. Hilton was intrigued by the implication that Mobley had a turnover of guests every eight hours, or three times a day. This, as he writes, could be a lucrative venture that potentially, could have “banking beat all hollow”. Chatting with Mobley, Hilton soon discovered that the owner was dissatisfied with the life of a hotel operator.
At the turn of the 20th century the town of Cisco had become a nexus for oil-hunters obsessed with the dream of liquid gold. Mobley did not relish being the operator of a glorified boarding house when so many of his guests were leaving its doors as millionaires. Always quick to spot an opportunity, Hilton asked if the hotel was for sale. “Fifty thousand cash and a man could have the whole shooting match including my bed for the night” was the reply.
One week later, and after a thorough perusal of the books, Hilton was the owner of his very first hotel for $40,000—roughly $540,000 in today’s money—and soon began to dream of a “Texas wearing a chain of Hilton Hotels”. The purchase of The Mobley Hotel would be the turning point of Conrad Hilton’s life and marked the beginning of a great romance with the hotel industry that would lead to a vast empire and dynasty. He never returned to banking.
Today the exterior of The Mobley Hotel remains much the same as it did ninety five years ago. Situated on a street now named Conrad Hilton Boulevard in honour of the young man who made hotel history in that very spot, the building itself now hosts the Cisco chamber of commerce, while also serving as a community centre and museum. A great, grand and famous hotel it will never be, but the impact this small inn has on our industry’s history remains incalculable. It is—in all likelihood—the most important hotel that you never knew about.
Hilton, C. (1957). Be my guest. 1st ed. [New Jersey]: Prentice-Hall.
About the author
Claudette Palomares works for Arbon Publishing. For more about Conrad Hilton and his new style of hotelier, grab a copy of Great, Grand & Famous Hotels, available online from Arbon.
