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Hotel magnate Conrad Nicholson Hilton was born on Christmas Day of 1887 in San Antonio, New Mexico. He was the son of Mary Genevive (Laufersweiler), who was of German descent, and August Halvorsen Hilton, a Norwegian immigrant, born in Hilton, Ullensaker, Akershus, Norway. His father ran a string of businesses, including renting rooms to transients, and during his younger years Conrad helped him out. Later he attended the New Mexico School of Mines, but soon afterwards decided to join his father's business interests, and he became a partner. He also became active in state politics, and was elected as a Republican to New Mexico's state legislature--its first--in 1912. His term expired in 1913 and he went to work for a local bank in his home town, and two years later became its president. His banking career was interrupted by service in the army during World War I, but after the war he returned to his chosen profession and attempted to expand his banking business. When negotiations to buy a small Texas bank fell through, he decided to invest in a Texas hotel. His investment was successful and led to his buying several other hotels across Texas. His budding hotel empire was crippled by the Depression of the early 1930s, but he had previously bought a string of oil leases that turned out to be quite profitable, and the money he got from them enabled him to stay in the hotel business, although he was forced to reduce his operations. In 1938 he expanded his business into hotel construction, but also kept his hand in hotel acquisition, buying such prestigious establishments as the Plaza and Roosevelt hotels in New York and the Palmer House in Chicago. In 1949 he bought what was generally considered the finest hotel in the US: the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City.

In 1946 he had organized his holdings into the Hilton Hotel Corp. He became renowned in the hotel business for his financial and management acumen, being able to turn every conceivable space in his hotels to profitable use. He bought and/or built luxurious resort hotels around the world, and in 1954 he acquired a majority interest in the rival Statler Hotel chain. In 1966 he decided to retire and turned over the running of his company--which owned more than 60 hotels in the US alone--to his son, Barron Hilton.