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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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091189
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09118900.044
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1990-09-17
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NATION, Page 27Revenge of the Little PeopleHotel queen Leona Helmsley could trade penthouse for pen
Despite all the hotels, the Empire State Building, the $5
billion fortune, Leona Mindy Rosenthal Helmsley never fully
realized she was rich and didn't have to worry anymore. She may
have married the billionaire boss in 1972, but underneath the
designer clothes she remained the young Chesterfield girl, hustling
cigarettes to make a living. In her two-month trial, the daughter
of a Brooklyn milliner emerged as a penny-pinching tyrant who tried
to stiff just about everybody.
Last week Leona, 69, was acquitted of extortion but convicted
on 33 counts of tax evasion (husband Harry, 80, was found
incompetent to stand trial). She had bilked the Federal Government
of $1.2 million in taxes between 1983 and 1985 by billing her
business for millions in such personal luxuries as a $1 million
swimming-pool enclosure, a $130,000 sound system modeled after one
at Disney World, a $13,000 barbecue pit, $468 in underwear, even
a $58 leg waxing.
Lots of rich people are chintzy with the help and lavish with
themselves, but few are as proud of it as Leona Helmsley. Until
1971, Harry Helmsley lived modestly in a suburban ranch house with
his Quaker wife of 33 years. Leona, a divorcee working in one of
his offices, arranged to meet him in 1970. They married in 1972
and launched a high-profile social career that included several
charity balls a week, an extravagant annual "I'm Just Wild About
Harry" birthday party and endless public displays of affection.
Soon a grinning Leona was featured in national ads as the imperious
queen standing guard at Helmsley hotels, while at home she played
harsh lady of the manor, refurbishing an $11 million mansion
largely at company expense.
No amount was too small to fight over. After the sudden death
of her only son at age 40 in 1982, she sued and won the lion's
share of his $149,000 estate, leaving his four children with $432
each and his widow $2,171.
As testimony revealed, she was as ferocious with her employees
as a bulldog, albeit one with a face-lift, summoning workmen with
"Hey, you with the dirty fingernails!" and icily firing a vice
president at Christmastime while being fitted by her dressmaker.
Her lawyer tried to turn this around with what might be called "the
bitch defense," arguing that she was so despised that her
underlings would stop at nothing to create a federal case against
her.
She still does not have much in common with "the little
people," the ones who, she said, "pay taxes," not to mention scrub
her bathrooms and proffer peeled shrimp when she yells, "Fishy!"
As she descended the steps of the courthouse, she carelessly tossed
her jacket to a servant and stepped into her waiting limousine.
That may change after sentencing on Nov. 14. Though appeals are
sure to delay the reckoning, the queen could theoretically be sent
to a federal dungeon for more than 100 years.