Hilton began because a Texas bank seller put his price up by $5,000.
In 1919 Conrad Hilton went to the oil town of Cisco to buy a bank for $75,000, and the seller wired back that the price was now $80,000. “He can keep his bank!” Hilton said, and walked across the street to the Mobley, a hotel he bought for $40,000. “Frontier found,” he wired his mother. “Launched first ship in Cisco.”
Hilton on Brandseum