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Leona Helmsley “The Queen of Mean” Leona Helmsley's official business title is "President of the 21 Harley and Helmsley Hotels," but a better title might be "Queen." From her lavish pink office at the Helmsley Place Hotel in midtown Manhattan, she manages her nearly 5,000 employees with a firm hand and uncompromising eye for detail. The Helmsley Place is the only New York hotel to receive AAA's Five Diamond Award Leona Helmsley was born Leona Mindy Rosenthal in New York City on July 4, 1920. The daughter of a local hat manufacturer, Helmsley graduated from New York City public schools and then enrolled in the English program at the city's Hunter College. The ambitious and attractive young woman decided after her sophomore year, however, that there were quicker ways to achieve success, so she left Hunter for the more profitable profession of modeling. After working as a model for a number of years--Helmsley would be one of several Chesterfield cigarette girls to grace that company's print ads--she married attorney Leo Panzirer in 1939, and had a son, Jay. Helmsley and Panzirer divorced, after their son was older and at this time the 42-year-old Leona was forced to reenter the job market. In 1962 she got a job as a rece