Queen of Versailles Storyville

-I'm in pain.

-Is this Santa Claus?

-I'm in pain.

He always said, "Trust me."

And I put my trust into him, so if, so...

We'll see what happens.

Look, look. Mm-hm...OK.

BABY CRIES

In the breakfast room, the lock, if you pull on it, it comes out.

But I'll be there in two minutes and I'll show 'em when I come in.

Damn, the house is falling apart.

Why do you think she's trying to block you?

You said, you, you don't care what I do.

I said, "I don't care what you think."

We're home.

There's no place like home. There's no place like home.

-It's always nice to be home.

-And no place like your own bed.

Through these hallowed gates.

Mrs Florida 93.

SHE LAUGHS

Aw, look, look at her. She's worn out.

Look at me, I got to come home in my socks.

Cos my children took my shoes.

My name is Jacqueline Siegel. I am in Orlando, Florida.

I'm a 43-year-old mother of eight. I am from Binghamton, New York.

I'm not a city girl, I'm a small town girl.

Tell me when you're ready. My name is David Siegel.

I'm 74 years old.

I am the founder, president, CEO, of Westgate Resorts,

the largest privately owned timeshare company in the world.

When I grew up in Binghamton, NY,

pretty much the only place to work and make money, was IBM.

And I figured I could either be a secretary

and work for an engineer, or I could be an engineer.

So I got my computer engineering degree.

And then I worked at IBM.

I had this little cubicle, but there's hundreds of other people,

engineers in their own cubicles, and then I came into the office

early one day and I asked my manager,

"Which project are you working on?"

He says, "I wrote my own programme to count down the years, days,

"months, weeks, minutes, down to the second of when I retire."

And I said, "Well, why would you do that?"

He said, "Because that's when I'm going to start living my life."

And I said, "Wow!" I put in my resignation.

I was out of there in a week.

I packed my bags and I moved to New York City and started modelling.

Then I met a man on Wall Street, I got married,

he moved me to the Everglades, and while I was down there,

I saw an ad in the newspaper to win Mrs Florida.

I entered it.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your brand-new Mrs Florida.

Here is Jacqueline Salomon.

And then I ended up getting a divorce.

And I met my current husband through Mrs World.

Mrs Florida 95 invited me to her husband's 40th birthday party,

and being a bachelor that had just gotten out of a 27 year marriage,

first person I saw was Jackie, and, uh, I was smitten.

I thought she was the most beautiful girl in the world.

It took me a while to fall in love with him.

It just really felt wonderful to be so adored.

That's what attracted me.

There's 30 years between us.

-Tell ya, he doesn't need Viagra.

-SHE LAUGHS

But at least there is that option if he does, like,

I don't know, ten years from now.

But at least there is that option.

It's show-and-tell there, so I got to get them to school.

Bye.

All right, let's hurry.

C'mon. Let's go this way so China doesn't bite us.

THE GIRLS CHATTER

Bye, have a nice day.

Can't see what she sees in me, but, uh, we have a great relationship.

What she lacks in being a housekeeper, she makes up in,

she loves people, has more friends, she's a big extrovert,

but a good person, good heart and a good mother.

Oh, look at the dog, he's eating a cockroach.

I grew up in a one-bathroom, three-bedroom house,

and I can remember I would have to wait in line to use the bathroom.

In this house, we have, I think, 17 bathrooms.

In our new house, we have 30 bathrooms.

-SHE CHUCKLES

-So you won't have to keep your legs crossed very long.

The reason why we really want the bigger home, for one thing,

I think my husband deserves it.

I think it'd be like, like a lifetime achievement.

I think he's worked so hard.

And, even though this house, which is 26,000 sq ft, is so big,

we're bursting out at the seams.

< Bye, girls.

I'm going to go look at our new house, OK?

Look at this thing! Oh, my God!

We went to France and we saw Versailles

and we were inspired by the French architecture.

I drew it on the back of an envelope on my way to Las Vegas.

In Las Vegas, we looked out our window

and we kind of copied the top three floors of the Paris hotel.

Probably should have used smaller envelopes,

because it turned out to be the largest home in America.

We never sought out to build the biggest house in America.

It's just, it just, like kind of happened.

-This is so beautiful.

-This is our grand ballroom.

We have the grand staircase on each end.

Mm-hm. This is a palace.

Can you imagine like the dances and the parties?

I said, "Well, I'd like to have a bowling alley."

And then he says, "I want a health spa."

And then I said, "We need maid's quarters."

I forgot how many kitchens. Ten kitchens. We have a sushi bar.

Two tennis courts. One will be a stadium court.

A full-sized baseball field,

which will double as the parking lot when we have parties.

This is our ice-skating/roller rink.

The children have their own wing.

They have their playroom with a stage where they can perform

and do their little whatever they do.

OK, this is the staircase that I would come up

if I was going to visit the children.

We wanted to put everything that we could dream of in this home.

-And we're going to have, like, an orchestra up here.

-Uh-huh.

For black tie affairs.

The house will be filled with Louis XIV type antique furniture.

That's our observation deck.

Every night, we go up there to watch the Disney fireworks.

So by the time we both got what we wanted,

now it's 90,000 square feet.

Jackie, is this your room?

-No, that's not my room.

-Where is your room?

That's my closet.

Oh, no way! No way.

My husband filled the garage up with from our marble from China.

This is what 5 million worth of marble looks like.

Oh, I've got to go kiss my dog.

My husband knew how special Chanel was to me,

so he had her stuffed for me and now she's upstairs.

And this one, a staff member ran over him in the driveway,

but now he's on my piano.

So you ask me why I'm building the largest home in America,

my answer is because I could.

You mention being a kingmaker

and having a big role in the 2000 election.

I sure did. I got George W elected President.

Personally got him elected President.

It is nice to be here

with so many good folks from the great state of Florida.

'Businessman David Siegel says America owes a lot to him.'

I think we are responsible for George Bush becoming President.

Now, had I not stuck my big nose into it, um, there would,

there probably wouldn't have been an Iraqi war.

HE CHUCKLES

And maybe we might have been better off, I don't know.

How were you personally responsible for the re-election of George Bush?

I-I-I'd rather not say.

Cos it may not necessarily have been legal.

LAUGHTER

Jackie, can you imagine falling down these stairs?

-Here she is, Miss America.

-America.

This is so pretty!

This is like the nicest, grandest house in all of the United States.

Right here.

What I have today is what I worked hard for.

A fellow came to me in 1980 and he said

he wanted to buy ten acres of my orange grove.

He said, "I'm going to time-share it."

I said, "What's that?" He explained the concept to me.

I fell in love with the concept, I didn't sell him the land.

I decided to build a time-share resort

in the back of my orange grove.

I started building 16 units, which I thought was more than I'd ever need.

And people started buying them.

We now have 28 resorts in 11 states.

The three largest time-share resorts in the world are all

Westgate Resorts.

We are considered the Rolls-Royce of the time-share industry.

They call me the time-share king.

I built one of the icon properties in Las Vegas.

It's 52 stories of beautiful blue glass. At the last Miss USA,

Donald Trump said, "Congratulations on your new tower."

He said, "It's got one problem with it."

He says, "When I stay in my penthouse suite,

"I look out the window - all I see is 'Westgate'."

He said, "Can you turn your sign down a little bit?"

I have the brightest sign on the Strip.

Well, we want to go to this and we want to go tonight.

Hopefully, we can set you up for the presentation

tomorrow morning at 10 o'clock.

We're going to do a walk-through of the building,

and then we'll have a light breakfast or a lunch, and in return,

we give you guys a show tickets to any of the shows listed here.

You guys make over 60,000?

-Yeah.

-Yes. Are you married? BOTH: No.

Are you guys, you're a couple, though, right? Of course...

BOTH: Yeah.

Now the top five floors of our building are like

penthouse condominiums, full ownership.

Sylvester Stallone, Bruce Willis, The Rock, Usher,

those are some of the celebrities that own upstairs.

This isn't just a celebrity wall of fame or who's who,

this is David Siegel, our developer and owner.

A lot of these are different charity events

he donates a lot of time and money to.

So that's a good thing. Let's go on out into the hallway.

You know, the typical time-share family will stay in a motel

with two queen-size beds, small TV on the dresser and one bathroom.

When they walk into the room, the kids want

to turn on their cartoons, the wife wants to watch her soap operas,

and the husband wants to watch his football game or sporting event.

They get up in the morning, they go in the bathroom,

the wife goes in, steams up the mirror

so the husband can't shave, they go out, and we have a booth.

And we said, "Well, if you only spend 90 minutes

"and see what we have to offer, you can get free Disney tickets."

And at 7 o'clock in the morning, they're lined up at my resort.

As they're getting out of the car, the wife is saying to the husband,

"Don't you dare buy anything."

And he says, "Oh, don't you worry, they won't sell me anything."

-You guys ready for the wow factor?

-Yeah.

-THEY LAUGH

-All right, this is our four bedroom.

This is 2,382 sq ft. This accommodates 14 people comfortably.

You much of a sports fan?

You have the choice of watching it on the flat screen,

or this is where the projector screen comes out.

And it just blows them away.

That motel, if it looked bad before the came,

it looks twice as bad after.

And they...all they do is dream about coming back the next year

and staying at Westgate.

-Let me ask you guys this - do you like the unit?

-Yes.

Could you see yourself going back to renting regular hotel rooms?

-And giving this up?

-BOTH: No.

-Absolutely not!

-HE LAUGHS

If it were affordable,

is it something you guys would consider owning today?

BOTH: Yes.

Let's go downstairs.

Let me show you what it looks like on paper.

Everyone wants to vacation like a Rockefeller.

We show people how they can. Everyone wants to be rich.

If they can't be rich, the next best thing is to feel rich.

And if they don't want to feel rich, then they're probably dead.

In my heyday of my shopping,

I probably spent over 1 million a year.

I have a 17,000 pair of Gucci crocodile boots.

I have ostrich feather Gucci pants that are probably 10,000.

I have a ton of purses.

I think purses are a good investment.

If you ever get into a bind, you can always sell them on eBay.

Course, I'm just the opposite.

I could care less about clothes or material things.

Mr David is real disciplined man. He's my idol.

He exactly knows what's going on in this house.

Every corner of this house.

He monitors our bills for water and electric.

Even if he earns a billion some dollars.

He knows exactly what, where his money goes.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Hi.

-Hey, Ricky.

-Hi, Ricky.

Hi.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Hi.

-Hi, Ricky.

-Hi, Ricky.

Hi.

These kids, they're the king and queen of the house.

I have eight children. Seven by birth and one that I inherited.

Having my children fulfilled me.

When I was going through my modelling career,

I didn't want children.

First, I thought it would destroy my body.

Then I couldn't stop having them. It was like an addiction.

SHE LAUGHS

Or maybe it's because I finally found a husband

-that would make love to me.

-SHE LAUGHS

I changed a lot of people's lives.

Uh, a lot of people are better off for knowing me.

I certainly changed my three wives' lives.

I brought wonderful children into the world.

You know, I have seven under 12. I have six grown children.

I think everybody is better off for being

either my child or my employee.

Rise and shine, Drew. We are leaving in 15 minutes.

Rise and shine. Come on, rise and shine, Drew.

Drew likes to stay in my room.

Maybe he feels comfortable and safe in a small room.

It's like my teddy bear at night.

I hug him and he gives me...like I'm a mom,

-even though I'm not the real mom.

-SHE LAUGHS

I'm not the biological mother, but I feel like I'm a mom.

Are you done, Drew?

Flush the toilet. Come on.

-You're at ISO 320?

-Yeah.

My name's Victoria Siegel, but I like to be called Ricky

and I'm 12 years old.

I'm the oldest out of seven kids, plus my cousin Jonquil. She's 16.

Jonquil is actually my niece. My brother's daughter.

She was estranged from him for many years and her mother passed away.

Jonquil grew up in kind of a broken environment.

When we got Jonquil down here, she had no clothes, she came down

with one little suitcase filled up with these filthy,

dirty stuffed animals that had never been washed, and dirty underwear.

I said, "Tell me what your room's like, so I can, kind of,

"you know, decorate your room."

And she says, "Well, my room's, uh..."

You know how she talks, like, "..the dirt room."

I said, "What do you mean, the dirt room?"

"Well, it's in the basement and it's got a dirt floor."

I remember one time she told me

she got kicked out of her house or something.

She had to like sleep on the streets,

one time with her mom, in a playground or something.

Now that I've had a taste of it,

like I've had a taste of dirt poor and a taste of filthy rich,

yeah, I like it.

I mean, who wouldn't, getting everything you want,

but at the same time I still want to be the old me, in a way.

I don't want to be like totally changed. I don't want to be spoiled.

We used to be kind of snobby,

like, at my birthday parties, I would get like a tiger in.

I would like brag to my friends like we had a pet tiger and stuff.

And then I used to be like a brat to my mom, but then like Jonquil

came here and like, I don't know, like she changed a bunch of us.

So like, now we're just like, I don't know, normal, I guess.

Nothing's really normal about this life.

You know, getting everything you want, having a huge house

and another one in construction. Having drivers.

You know, it's like you don't really have to worry about money,

but at the same time, you do.

Hey, how are you?

-I need to look like, uh, Miss Universe today.

-OK.

Do you think purple looks good in my hair?

-I mean, I'm in a big rush, so...

-OK.

We...we got a Miss America party tonight, so...

if you could make them look pretty for...

we have all 50 contestants coming, and Miss America at our house.

So they need to look like pre, pre, like Miss Teen Americas.

Getting like 50 pieces of chicken nuggets. What do you guys want?

-A couple Big Macs.

-And a Diet Coke. And a Diet Coke for her.

OK, just, just get, just get like 50 chicken nuggets,

and we'll share it with everyone in the salon.

-No, I want my chicken nuggets.

-With all the sauces.

Wow, this is so beautiful.

CROWD CHATTER

We're proud to present a cheque for 25,000

to the Miss America Foundation.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Hey, uh, did my stairs get shorter or are the girls...?

-We only had 38 of them here last year.

-Oh.

-All of them are here this year.

-Wow.

I love beautiful women.

I grew during the Miss America days

when Miss America was the most famous woman in the world.

I used to actually get tears in my eyes when I watched,

"Here she comes, Miss America."

And I'm trying to do what I can to bring it back to where it was.

Are you ready, David? Here we go. Jacqueline, here we go.

Big smiles.

I got to talk with Mrs Siegel, and she was telling me a little bit

about her background.

It's kind of similar how my background parallels to hers,

cos we kind of came from not very much.

But something that I'm very proud of,

I'm very proud of my background growing up on a dairy farm

in a small town in Indiana and now I'm Miss America.

It just goes to show you that anything is possible, but not

without hard work and dedication and a passion for what you do.

She wants to get married and have babies.

That's what she wants.

And does Miss America allow for that?

Does it create opportunities for that?

Well, if she accepts my proposal, but she hasn't accepted me yet.

SHE LAUGHS

-He is a hoot!

-SHE LAUGHS AGAIN

There's a downside to everything. Of course there is.

My husband told me, when I turned 40,

he's going to trade me in for two 20-year-olds.

Oh, what's wrong with being rich?

Now, what would you rather have a rich guy or a good-looking guy?

Have you ever wondered what it was like to be like a fish?

-Me?

-Yeah.

-Um, not really.

I think we just lost Drew.

Good morning, Westgate!

CHEERING

Why are we here?

ALL: To save lives!

To save lives.

And you thought you were just selling time-sharing, didn't you?

We sell vacations. Vacations are healthy for you.

Do you believe that?

ALL: Yes!

I can show you the articles. And the studies.

Those who take the fewest amount of vacations

are most likely to have a heart attack.

You're just like a doctor, a nurse, firemen, a policeman,

a lifeguard, they all save lives, and you all do it too.

Our number one person in Orlando owns several weeks of time-share.

You know, you should own at least week yourselves.

And if you don't, lie and say you do!

THEY ALL LAUGH

Don't let these people leave here without buying something!

Something!

Whether it's big or small, make sure they buy something.

Today, make a sale, save a life, let's have it right there!

This is David A Siegel day in Las Vegas.

Because he built the new icon on the Las Vegas strip.

This is the most expensive, the biggest and the nicest

that's ever been built on the planet.

I did not grow up with a silver spoon in my mouth. I grew up very meagre.

I lived in a 1,200 sq ft, two bedroom, one bath house,

in Indianapolis, Indiana.

My father wasn't that involved with me as I was growing up, because

he was in business and had to make a living, you know, for the family.

My grandparents were never wealthy,

and the reason is is that they lost their money in Las Vegas.

You know, the casinos in Vegas aren't built with the owners' money,

but with all the losers' money.

My grandparents were Mr and Mrs Vegas.

When they walked into the casino, they were like,

"We've got your favourite suite all lined up for you!"

"We have those show tickets that you wanted."

"You wanted to see that new guy, Elvis Presley,

"we got your tickets for him."

"Frank Sinatra? We got you in the front row!"

So, basically, here's a nobody, but when he's in Vegas, he's a somebody.

Please welcome to the stage, ladies and gentlemen, Mr David Siegel!

APPLAUSE

This building, I'm going to dedicate it to my mother and father.

My dad, he's looking down on it. He would be so proud.

I've set up all of my sales departments to copy

what Vegas did for my grandparents years ago.

You walk in, you're like, "Wow, this place is exciting."

100% of the people that we're talking to are...

it's not a nice word, but we call them mooches.

They're coming in for a sales presentation on their vacation,

for a free gift.

So we train our sales people on how to take someone greedy like that

and get them to buy today.

We do 100% of our sales on the first day.

We don't really take many vacations, cos it's really, really expensive,

but if we had something that would make it cheaper...

They will not buy today if they don't get a great deal,

if they don't believe they're getting a great deal.

The total down payment on this is 2,090.

It's a whole lot better than 25,000.

Yeah.

We sell them as low as 8,900 for three nights in a studio

every other year, all the way up to 149,900,

which is a four-bedroom, New Year's week every year.

Forever. Their entire lives, they pass it on to their kids,

their kids pass it on to their kids.

Time-sharing, typically, you sell every unit 52 times,

because you sell it by the week.

May I say welcome to Westgate?

I can't believe we did it.

You're changing your life.

We were in line to do 1 billion in sales for the year.

Everything was great, we were on top of the world,

all we were thinking about was adding more resorts

and employing more people and growing the company larger,

and it came to a screeching halt.

We got a big problem.

'At one point, the market fell over 700 points.'

'The day that left Wall Street reeling.'

'Alan Greenspan called it a once- in-a-century financial crisis.'

'September of 2008, when the financial system ground to a halt

'with the bankruptcy of Lehman and all the banks about to go under.'

'Wall Street is tumbling, Main street is stumbling.'

'A lot of their customers are freaked out,

'waiting to see how low the Dow will go.'

Banks lend hundreds of billions of dollars

to home buyers who can't pay them back.

Wall Street took the risky debt, dressed it up as fancy securities

and sold them around the world as safe investments.

My business depends heavily on easy access to cheap money.

We sell our product for 10% down and we take back a 90% mortgage.

What we used to do was take those mortgages to the banks,

and they would give us an advance.

Well, unless we can turn that mortgage into cash,

I can't very well pay my employees with mortgages each week.

But the banks are frozen as far as my business is concerned.

And it's a struggle trying to find money to finance our sales.

I don't think I would rank myself as a billionaire today.

I would say it's touch and go right now.

So this used to be the employees store?

Yep. That used to be the employee store.

No more store.

No more store.

The reason they shut down the telemarketing is

because there's no financing for the sales people.

Banks don't want to lend the money.

People don't generally pay cash. It's like buying a car.

This whole side was day shift, and then the night shift,

that would be filled up, so it was very lively in here.

It was two days prior to Thanksgiving, um, very sad,

so, you know, spirits were high in here, and then, you know,

half the people were called up to the front

and those were the people who were going to be let go,

and then there was like 20-25 of us that were left.

I mean, I'd never been in a situation or an environment

where that many people have lost their jobs at one time.

You know, I mean, the crying,

you can imagine what it was like in here,

it was almost like a funeral procession.

No, it's rough out there.

When I looked in that room and to see all those empty cubicles,

to think of how full of life that was at one time and all those

people that had families, and, like, overnight, all those jobs were gone.

When you have 7,000 people less, you have a lot of empty space.

They all had some place to go to work.

So those same people that used to motivate me are now out of work

and struggling, and I feel bad.

I feel bad. I feel bad for every one of them.

I've affected a lot of lives by what's going on.

Everything's for sale.

Our planes, we have an auction company listing everything.

We're not selling everything, but everything's available for a price.

So, hopefully, we can figure it out.

Got 100 million just burning a hole in your wallet right now?

Then you can buy the palace that time-share mogul David Siegel

already wants to sell, even though it's not even complete.

The largest single family home under one roof in America.

It's bigger than the White House and it could be an entire land

at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.

My dream house that I was building. It's about 50% complete.

I finally had to list it and put it on the market,

to satisfy my banks.

It's the jewel of the United States.

There's never been anything like this.

This is a true visionary, modern-day palace, and we all know that

you can't go to France and purchase Versailles,

because it's used as a museum,

so it's your own Versailles in your version as you see it.

Well, we're listing the house finished for 100 million,

unfinished for 75 million.

We've got over 50 million into it, plus the land and all that,

and the bankers want us to unload it for under 15 million.

I hope they left the door open for us.

I can jump through a window, Mom, don't worry.

So who likes the beautiful window?

Yeah, that was over 250,000.

Mommy, is that lake?

That's the lake, yes.

Look all those spiders! Wow!

So, Marissa, just think of the bright side.

You might not have to clean this house.

..good! how are you? Very good.

Well, this is just incredible.

I'll tell you, it gives me goose bumps every time I walk through here.

You know, for me, personally, it's kind of an emotional day.

Of course it is.

This is our dream home,

but you can't cry over things that you cannot change.

Do you think that somebody's going to buy it?

I don't know.

I don't know if they'll buy it or not.

Not that many people can afford that kind of house.

In that 75 million range, there's not too many people.

Even the ones that have money,

Orlando would have to be the place they want to be.

Tiger lives here still, Shaq,

and there's a lot of real estate people,

Orange juice families, and...

Here it's like feast and famine.

Some of the people have so much money

they don't know what to do with it, they're spending it like crazy,

and the other ones can just barely afford to keep what they got.

Since I was young,

I've been dreaming how I wish I could go to America.

Every Filipino, it's our dream to have our own house.

Those Filipinos that was here, they have their families

in the Philippines, and they have big houses.

I bought a piece of land, so if, God permit, I can go home,

maybe I will build a house for that piece of land that I bought.

I need some money to go home.

If you go without money, it's not easy.

So I need to save some money.

Come on, let's go.

But, Virginia, I have, like, I still have like five more tardies left.

It doesn't matter.

It's already 11 years.

The children are really attached to me.

I really love them like my own.

Since I don't not have my family here.

It's just that.

The last time I see my kids, my youngest one,

he's only 7 years old, and now he's 26.

The Siegel kids, they always say, "Nanny, I love you."

One thing that I never heard from my children. So, I'm happy for that.

I miss them.

It's OK, I still have kids.

The Siegel kids.

Hey, you need to go faster if you're going to burn calories.

You want French fries?

No, I'll wait.

Hey, what's going on with this building? It looks kind of vacant.

It's all in foreclosure.

It's a shame. This is a nice area, they built a nice thing here.

It's a pretty building.

I heard there's like 65 foreclosures where I live.

It's kind of sad, you know?

Yeah.

It's changed a lot in the last three years.

A lot of people don't like to be seen in limos any more.

They think it sends the wrong signal, when times are tough.

Are you ready for our cheeseburger in paradise?

I met Jackie and David at a Little League baseball game.

Our boys play Little League together.

She was volunteering behind the concession stand.

A lot of people are afraid to talk to them.

You know, cos they're very powerful people,

but they're just like everybody else.

They're down to earth.

Hey, Drew, do you know which field it's on?

Ha!

You'd have to show me that. I don't, I don't follow you.

But they're not funding me enough for Vegas.

I will... Look, I'm at my son's baseball game,

and when it's over, I'll call you back.

Hey, hey.

Hey.

Come on, Drew, one more strike!

Come on, Drew!

Is that cute or what?

I want to see our house finished so bad.

What do you think of the dome?

It's like from the Vatican.

With the sun shining through, it'll look like jewels up there.

You know, I paid cash for the house and then I put a mortgage on it

and put the money in the company.

Just like with the house that I'm in now.

Why have an asset that doesn't have a mortgage on it

when you're using money to make money?

I got you a lottery ticket the other day.

That's a waste of money.

Not if you win.

Ugh...

C'mon, Drew. How was it flying commercial?

The first time I took the boys on a commercial plane,

they said "Mommy, what are all these people doing on our plane?"

OK, now we got to get a car or something, right?

Yeah.

Florida? What brings you here?

I'm coming here to visit some friends and family

that I haven't seen in, like, over ten years, some of 'em maybe 15.

You're from here?

Binghamton, actually, but it was cheaper to fly here,

and I'm on a budget now.

What's my driver's name?

I'm sorry?

What's my driver's name?

Oh, it doesn't come with a driver? Included?

There's no driver, no.

Sorry.

Oh, here's Beth.

I got my kids, I can't wait to go swimming and stuff.

Oh, I miss you. Thank you, again.

Yeah, oh, yeah. It's good seeing you.

Jackie and my granddaughter Beth became very good friends.

It think everything that happened to her is unusual.

I don't know anybody that married such a wealthy man.

Jackie worked at a diner and did very, very well in school.

But engineering, back then, was kind of unusual for a girl to do,

but I figured, well, she was smart, so that's what she wanted to do.

Come on, kids. Come on, come see where Mommy grew up.

Daniel!

Come on! I want to show you where I grew up.

Oh, my God, look at how big those trees got.

There she is.

Well, the American Dream is raising well up above what you started with

and achieving something way beyond what anybody would dream that

you would achieve, and that is exactly what she has done.

Typical middle-class America just wasn't going to make her happy.

She wanted to do something really exciting and really big.

Hi, kids, come on in!

I miss Jackie a lot.

Everywhere she was, I was, and everywhere I was, she was.

Everyone would ask, "Where's your other half?"

And that's how it was all through high school.

It was supposed to be that way after,

but then we made different choices in our life.

She decided to go to college,

and I decided to marry my high school sweetheart.

Tina, no, I am so impressed, it's a beautiful home.

I'm so happy for you.

Thank you!

No... It's like a dream come true.

I would be lying if I didn't say I envy her life to some extent.

I mean, there's a lot of things in the world

that I'd like to see, that I'd like to do.

I've never owned a new car in my life.

If I didn't have cash to buy a car, I didn't have a car.

I never had a car payment. I don't own a credit card.

How do you guys think you could do in a house this size?

I like it.

You like it?!

I would love to have more money,

but I don't know that I would want that much,

because my dreams don't even go that big.

What about the For Sale sign on the front of the building?

Have you had a lot of inquiries about that?

-From the team members, you mean?

-Yes.

After they got past the auction...

-That was a little bit scary.

-The For Sale sign is...

So when we put up the foreclosure sign, that's going to probably...

David Siegel is spending all of his time looking for money still.

Every day, all day long, weekends included,

he is looking for money to keep the Vegas project going.

He's been to Donald Trump's office a couple times trying to get help.

He's gone to Dubai and Switzerland.

We're looking for about 400 million.

So any of you that want to write a check,

we'll pay you back in a few years!

Basically, we spent 660 million to build it and right now we owe

about 240 million, so we have over 400 million into it, you know.

We don't want to walk away from that money, obviously.

He will tell you that the lenders are pushers.

They got us addicted to cheap money

and once we were addicted, they took away our money.

And now we're addicts.

We have to have that money

in order to maintain the company that we built.

When this first started, we were taking anybody that was breathing.

If they had the down payment, we would write 'em.

Our lenders basically said, "You're selling sub-prime

"to people that really can't afford your product."

I was actually calling in reference to your uh,

looks like you were set up at the Westgate Town Center.

Your account, obviously, it's on the default list.

I don't know if you were having a hardship or what happened, but...

..see what we can do and be able to help you out with this...

dilemma that you're going through.

One morning, everybody, we walked in, and they gave us the bad news,

they had to let people go.

All together, with the nannies, there were 19 people,

and now its just, with the nannies and myself,

it's just four people and it's very difficult.

The nannies are working more now. They're working around the clock.

OK, here's the school.

We've cut back everywhere we could.

Hi, my children.

The kids were in private school, they're now in public school.

Debbie, get in the back.

-Have a nice day.

-Bye.

You already served a detention on a weekday, remember?

For two consecutive weeks.

What is the explanation why you get Saturday detention

for three hours, why?

I don't know.

I told them that they might have to go to college now.

They might actually have to make their own money.

And that's kind of, like, I mean, they're realising that now.

That there might not be money there for 'em, you know?

So I said, start thinking about what you want to be when you grow up.

Have you fed the lizard here?

No, because nobody takes me to the pet store.

He hasn't eaten at all? Ugh, I feel so bad he hasn't eaten.

Well, I feel so bad nobody takes me to the pet store. I always...

Look, he's starving. Look, he doesn't even have water.

But that's because they never take me to the pet store.

All right.

I always ask Marissa and Richard, and they say they're too busy.

All right. I'm going to go get a piece of turkey.

I can't believe you guys don't feed the lizards.

It's not moving.

He's not moving?

I don't know if he's dead.

Did you kill him?

You got to give him water too.

Oh, you guys killed him!

What?

You killed him!

I know, I apologise for being such a horrible person.

Oh, Debbie!

It's not my pet.

David. Look.

He's dead.

I didn't even know we had a lizard.

Nobody would take me to the pet store. Ever.

Well, he didn't even have water.

It's not like that would have made a difference.

Maybe he died of dehydration.

Oh. I apologise that I'm a horrible person.

I didn't say you're a horrible person.

Well, you're making me feel like one.

My father's first wife is my mother.

They were married in 1961 and they divorced in 1968.

Now my father was paying my mother child support

but even when he had millions, we were poor.

I mean, I even remember getting swamp cabbage for us to eat for dinner.

However, we were the best-dressed kids at school,

because every year, my father would give us money to go clothes shopping.

So we always had great clothes, but we had no money.

Finally my father called us one day and he said,

"Would you like to come live with me?"

That was in 1980. And I said yes, I didn't even think twice, yes.

That first year in Orlando was one of the best years of my life.

We had a housekeeper and they had a cook and they got a chauffeur,

they bought a limousine.

That summer, before I went into my junior year,

my stepmother said,

"I've already raised my kids, I'm not going to worry about

"your father's kids, so you all need to move out."

I never held a grudge against my father because, even though

I only lived with him for a year, he still paid for me

to go to boarding school, paid for my college, he gave me a car.

My father and I aren't close on a personal level

because it's always been a business relationship.

When we talk it's all about business.

We're father and son, employer, employee,

but we're not close.

Work is my life. I'm 24/7.

and I don't know any other way to do it.

I'm a victim of my own success.

Or failures.

The company and myself was the same thing.

So whenever the company was signing on the dotted line,

they wanted my personal guarantee, my signature, fine.

Everything I had was in the company

cos I'd never taken anything out of the company.

Wendy, you're the only one working out of, like, 25 people.

OK, I guess I'm the chef now.

OK, now what Wendy, now what's our next step?

Um, corn. Almost done. Is done?

Hey, how was the baseball game?

I never would have had so many children if I couldn't have a nanny.

When I grew up, I didn't know there was a such thing as a nanny.

So I figured I'd probably have one kid, and then maybe two.

But then when I found out I could have nannies,

I just kept having the kids, I mean, they're just bundles of joy.

Come on.

Wendy, let's do it like a proper dinner.

Can we just sit together like a nice family?

-OK.

-OK.

-All right, fine.

Right, over there. They're crying.

Just, tell them it's a princess party.

Drew, come here.

We're trying to get Daddy's dinner ready.

We're going to do a surprise for Daddy's birthday!

We need everyone. It's Daddy's birthday.

OK, now, could you go get some plates and, like, put them around?

Hey, Pamela? Found another one?

Oh, is he home?

Oh, the TV's on.

You just noticed?

-Yeah.

-Hurry up, Dad.

Hey honey. How long till you're ready?

-Ready for what?

-Ready to come out.

I'm not coming out, I've got work to do.

What do you mean, come out? Turn the bathroom light out.

Daddy's going to be in a better mood in a couple of minutes.

Let me go wash my dirty, filthy hands,

and so I can sit on that dirty, filthy seat.

Yuck!

Why is this night different than any other night?

Cos we eat at the table.

Nobody is crazy enough to build a building that size

and that expensive unless they have a guaranteed market.

They just think they're doing us a favour by letting us be there.

They don't seem to understand.

# Happy birthday to you... #

By not taking any money off the table,

I'm at the mercy of the bankers.

They say jump and I say how high?

I think he's humbled. My husband's humbled.

Which I kind of like it, actually.

What would you wish for?

The last 25 years of your life.

Besides me, of course.

If I have to live to 150, that's what I'll do, you know,

if that's what it's going to take to get back on top again.

Wow. Those aren't edible candles.

Right now, I just need to sell it.

And, you know, there's not too many buyers for 90,000 sq ft houses.

At that price.

Oh, my God.

Ah.

I just want one picture, can you take a picture with my cell phone?

This was going to be in our spa in our big house.

David's barber chair.

It's a beautiful chair, isn't it?

I picked out so much stuff over the years,

it's, like, been ten years in progress.

The majority of it is probably French

to go with the theme of Versailles.

These things over here?

All from the genie bottle from the Aladdin hotel. Right here.

What do you call it? The eggs from Russia?

Faberge eggs.

But look, I got the giant ones.

If we do sell the house, then we probably would auction it off,

but we're going to wait and see what happens.

You know, I'm fine with it.

I married David for richer or poorer, and if we...

I want to use some of the antiques now,

so I'm kind of picking some smaller pieces

that could fit into our current home.

I know there's like a superior source

or something that's guiding us in the right way.

I've been up and down my entire life.

I mean, I've been married before and I didn't have to worry

about anything, I was making tons of money modelling.

And then I was poor again.

I've been a cocktail waitress, I mean, I even, in the nursing home

I used to clean dead people and prepare them for the morgue.

For 3.35 an hour.

This building used to be an old Home Depot type of store.

My husband bought it years ago.

So I thought this would be a perfect opportunity.

I could raise money that I could give back to the community.

I bought some of the inventory from hotels and stuff like

the old microwaves and things like that and we get donations.

All this, and this over here, is my personal stuff from the house.

It's the stuff that I've donated.

With the bankers just not funding the companies any more,

we were forced to lay off 6,000 people.

And the bankers made us do it,

so, they're probably going to get mad at me for saying that,

but that's what I heard, that's what I understand.

Most of the people here are Westgate employees.

I just felt that it was a way that I could really do something to

help people in a desperate situation that don't deserve to be there.

30 brand new.

We got them from the same vendor that Macy's gets them from.

79.99 at Macy's.

I have evolved from being someone who just went out to charity lunches

all the time and went shopping

to wear something to the charity lunches,

to actually doing something more in my life to make a difference.

Hey, Tina.

Hi, how are you?

Good. I haven't talked to you in a little bit.

I know. It's been a while.

But, um, hey, that money I sent you. Was it able to save your house?

No, no, it was not.

It didn't save your house?

No. I talked to the mortgage company and, you know, I was all excited

saying, OK, I got the money that you told me that I needed to pay you.

They run it through their system or whatever and he says nope,

sorry, they won't take that.

Oh, my God.

And I only owed them 1,700 to begin with.

Unbelievable. So you actually lost the house?

Well, it's in foreclosure.

They're not going to let me stop the foreclosure.

Jackie's a friend. They help me with a lot of things.

You know, occasionally I have a wedding that somebody wants

a Rolls-Royce and I will borrow that so the bride can go

to and from the church in a Rolls Royce.

My wife's working double shifts and I'm doing as much driving as I can.

We didn't even put our tree up yet.

I got into the limousine business

when I saw that real estate wasn't doing that well.

And that's the only thing that kept us afloat.

I had a good job in New York.

I worked for a commercial real estate company.

We moved down here for a better life for the kids

and you try to keep going and make more money and buy more houses

and all together we had about 19 houses.

My net worth? Probably about 3.5 million.

Now, zero.

Everything changes.

Within a month after the bankruptcy court was finalised,

the lawyer told me we had to be out of the house,

and we moved in here.

My friend's rental.

It happens pretty fast. But, you know, you survive.

Hey, Tom. Did you get a doughnut?

'It's hard going back to renting.'

No?

You can see, there's nothing on the walls,

so doesn't really feel like it's your house.

It humbles you a lot.

Our family, and house and the kids are the most important thing.

And friends, you know, you can get by without owning a house,

you can't get by without friends and family.

You know, that's the most important things.

This is my palace.

This used to be the twins' playhouse.

But they don't use it, so I used it.

Yeah. And it's good to have this.

Like, when it's too noisy in there, just run here, quiet.

I ask Jackie, if I can use it. And then she said, "Are you serious?"

Yes, I am. This is the bed. I'm using this.

But then I folded it because when you get in it's all over here,

you cannot get in through.

I love this place and I'm so glad Jackie gave it to me.

I promised him before I left that I'm going to have money

and then we can do that, we can build our own house.

Before that happened, he passed away.

I'm supporting not just my children, my brothers, my sisters.

All the money that I had, I'm sending it to them.

So, maybe that's still good for him.

David Siegel said, "Do not touch anything in that room.

"I don't want a chair, a table, a copier, a computer,

"I don't want anything taken out, cos we will be re-opening."

And here we are seven months later, everything has stayed the same.

Well, this was my office.

I wish I could turn on the lights but they shut them off

to save money, I guess.

The lenders kept trying to get us to stop sales in the building

which we wouldn't do and finally they were so mad

that he kept doing it when they said not to

that they laid the law down and we had to stop sales of this building.

This is where we sold at least 100 million a year

and we could do up to 200 million a year and now it's just empty.

The reason that they wanted us

to stop sales is that they wanted us not to pay them so that they could

go and foreclose on the building which they have already done.

I almost feel like the bankers are like vultures,

circling around waiting for the animal to die

instead of helping out the situation.

No-one knows that this building is being foreclosed upon.

If our owners found out, we would have a mass exodus in our hands.

They would be stopping payments.

All of our people in our company are paid by those monthly payments.

So we live and die by those monthly payments.

I really don't understand the financial community.

Especially when they get all that money from the government.

I thought that rescue money two years ago in September of 2008

was supposed to go, be passed on to the common people or, you know, us.

She knows we need to cut back but it's difficult for her.

She's still compulsive.

Where she slows down one activity,

she accelerates another one.

'My husband, all the time, tells me not to spend money.

'He says if I keep spending

'then he's going to shut my credit cards off.

'Or just not pay them.

'And he says he might not have the money to pay them anyways,

'so it might not be either of our choices.'

Wait, wait, wait. I got Daniel.

Daniel needs a ramp, not that one. He doesn't need this.

No, I need all the perfume and stuff for the stocking stuffers.

The boys like this. For the stockings.

For Bear.

You know how Bear likes to walk around with something in his mouth.

You're taking everything out.

-It's too much.

-I know.

My wife collects everything.

She can't have one bird, she's got to have a dozen.

Can't have one dog, she's got to have a dozen.

Can't have one child she's got to have seven.

So what can I tell you?

Oh, my Lord.

Excuse me, get down.

Oh, shit.

Yeah, that's for Drew.

That's too small.

Oh, gosh.

I can't believe we don't have a bartender.

I just cleaned my cup.

Who's coming over to serve the food or...?

-Is there any bartender?

-No.

How do you do? Seneel.

-Teneel.

-Teneel, OK.

I'm going to get organised here.

Honey, we've got people coming and you're not even ready.

And they're arriving and...

-Give me five minutes.

-Hurry up.

I don't want David to buy me any Christmas presents.

I don't need it.

All I want is just for us to be happy together, get along

and I want to see our family and our friends with smiles on their faces.

Nothing makes me happy these days.

I'll be happy when I find a solution to this.

I can't separate business from personal.

And here's the hostess with the two mostest. It's Grandma.

-Bring presents for Jackie.

-Grandma.

-Reema!

Give Grandma hugs and kisses.

If I could have anything that I want for Christmas,

I would say 300 million to take care of what we have in Vegas

and I will be just fine after that.

Marissa, you need to put the Rudolph costume on.

-Here, I'll come help you. Come one.

-OK.

We've got to hurry. Everyone's arriving.

I don't know why they didn't set up a bar.

No, no, no, no.

Should I send my mom in here to help?

Cos I've got to go get some Christmas presents.

-No, I have to just... I don't need help.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

All right cos I've got too much to do and I don't have enough help.

This is a pain in the ass.

I really miss having a manager that does all this stuff for me.

Let me just...

Let me just open it.

# Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose. #

Oh, Rudolph is here!

Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer.

Hey, you got the key to my Rolls?

-No.

-Did you drive it?

Yeah, I brought it in and personally handed it to Jackie.

I don't know, I don't...

They came back in and they said the lights were on and they...

-I went back out I turned them out.

-I never saw the key again.

Did you use it?

Yeah. Yeah, we did a quick wedding.

-Did I get paid?

-Absolutely.

Who'd you give the money to?

Jackie.

-I never saw the money.

-It must be where the key is.

I never saw the money.

No, it always drips off now at this time of year and stuff

but it'll pick up and stuff.

We'll sell David's house and everything will be fabulous.

Tricky couple of years.

Now the loan comes due.

"I'll pay you the interest like I'm doing now."

And they said, "No." So now, I send a third party

to go see how much they'll sell that loan for.

They wrote it down, 11. They sold the loan to the third party.

they didn't know I was involved. 3.2 million.

-Oh, yeah?

-Yeah, I'm getting it back.

What a bunch of idiots.

So I'm going from owing 18 million for 3.2 million.

I mean, that's why banks are in trouble.

Who the hell's making those...? I mean, I'm glad they did

but who's making those decisions?

-Love you.

-I love you too.

-Merry Christmas.

-I'll see you tomorrow.

-OK.

-Honey, let's go. Everybody out.

-All right.

It's almost... It's getting late.

I love to be with you.

Merry Christmas.

Our life is definitely more challenging today

than when we first got married.

I tried to put blinders on and do my thing but it's there.

OK, Merry Christmas and we'll see you in the morning.

The stress has actually made us closer, stronger.

And I think, you know what they say,

when you're down is when you find out who your true friends are.

Where's all the kids clamouring for their toys?

Where should I put these?

Next to Daddy. Wait, I lost BB's puppies.

I need to find it because the python will eat them.

Eat the puppies. Oh, my God.

Are her puppies lost?

Yeah.

Puppies!

Jonquil,

since it's your snake going around the house,

can you help me find the puppies?

All right, I'll look for them.

-INTERVIEWER:

-Do you get strength from your marriage?

No.

Not really.

It's kind of like...

..having another child.

Oh, I found it. Look.

Oh, my God. They're like trapped in the corner here.

I don't know where to pile my presents.

I'm putting mine over here.

Maybe you could put yours in the centre.

I got the crystal growing thing.

When I lived in New York and I would see rich people on TV,

I'd be like, "Wow, you know, their lifestyle must be nice."

Like, if I had that lifestyle,

I would just wake up everyday with a smile on my face

but now that I do, it's like I wake up now

and it's just I'm used to it.

And then it's like you want more and more.

I got another Yahtzee.

Good morning, Victoria, merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you too.

I got Monopoly. What am I going to do with Monopoly?

Well, actually I gave you these gifts like five years ago

but the kids were too young for you to play with so I'm re-gifting.

-Cos you never opened it.

-Risk. What's Risk?

That's a great game. That's when you take over the world.

'We're not the typical family, that's for sure.'

And I don't want you to get the impression that we're penniless.

But we're going through a very difficult time.

'Our lenders, I mean, they have cut my pay cheque, my CFO said,'

"Well, that's not enough for him to make his mortgage payments on,"

so one of them lenders said, "Well, then let him move into an apartment."

Look what I got. It's a present to myself.

Oh, I just can't wait to eat my caviar.

How much is this? Like 2,000? I don't even know.

Ah, it tastes so good.

Whoever got you that's going to get fired, I'll tell you that.

If the company fails they may have to go to work

and not be able to go to college or get a college loan or...

I haven't put anything aside.

This is for my mother who isn't here today.

When your grandmother was on her honeymoon

she was on a train going to Chicago and she asked my father

if he would buy her a Hershey bar and he said, "I don't have a nickel."

And so ever since, every birthday, I got her a Hershey bar.

She said if she's not here to eat it, I should eat it for her.

So, I'm going to...I'm going to eat it for her. Thank you, Mom.

On my wedding day, my father gave a speech

and he looked at my wife and he said,

"You will never have anything to worry about in your life."

We worry every day.

Everyone in this company has had not one pay cut, two pay cuts,

three pay cuts. We've all taken big hits.

I went to him last week about money.

"You have to give me some money. I need money."

And he said, "I would give it to you if I had it.

"I can't give you anything."

So right now I'm applying for a home equity loan

and I just upped all the limits on all my credit cards.

Vegas is what's causing our big problem

and the bank's answer to a solution is,

"Just hand us the keys

"and give up the 390 million that you put into it."

and my answer is, "Over my dead body."

I mean, he told me, "I'm not giving it up.

"If I have to bankrupt it, I'll bankrupt it.

That's what David said to me too and I said, "David, I'd take it."

And then Michael said, "Your dad's going to go down with the ship."

-The ship's not going down.

-He bankrupts that, they stop funding

-the rest of the company and the company goes down.

-No, they won't.

-They have too much to lose.

-That is correct.

This building is much more important

than building the largest house in America.

He has built the largest time-share company in the world

and this is the pinnacle of it.

I'd be a real shame, though, to actually lose it.

If they use every method they can to try to get the building back

and at the 11th hour I bankrupt it and buy time.

Time is...what I need.

If he throws this building into bankruptcy then he risks the rest of

the company because our lenders are financing the rest of the company.

They have made it very clear to my father that

if he turns over the keys to the building, that his company

would become a cash cow, they would continue to finance it, he wouldn't

have to worry about anything and he would go back to life as normal.

He would go back to building his house, flying in his plane,

buying other resorts.

He'll have more money than he knows what to do with

if he turns over this building.

Everyone is against him trying to keep this building.

I've had arguments with my own brother

who screamed and yelled at me,

"What are you doing to this family? What are you doing to this company?

"How can you support him?"

All of his people, his attorney, his closest friends,

his executives, all turning against him.

He's the one that made a lot of people a lot of money.

If he says he's going to continue to try

and keep this project then I'm going to continue to support him

and right now him and I are the only ones standing alone.

It's amazing, I think, when you first started filming this,

we were on top of the world, building the largest home in America,

everything was wonderful, no worries in the world.

If I remember, you said why am I building a large home?

And I think I said, "Because I can."

A lot of things have changed in the last two years.

So this is kind of like a reverse of a rags to riches story.

This is almost like a riches to rags story.

OK, no more texting.

Hello?

I'm good. I'm at the doctor's.

Tell them you'll call them back.

Let me give you my... Well, OK, I'll call you.

Raise the brows again and then relax them. OK.

So we're just going to go a little injection. Good, there we go.

It's kind of embarrassing for people to see me looking like this.

I was just going to go and hide in the bedroom for a few days.

I'm having a hot flush right now. My face is burning.

You got a winner.

-It's a buck.

-Well, a dollar is better than nothing.

I'm teaching my kids how to gamble. That's terrible.

-At such a young age.

-It's not gambling.

-This is gambling.

-It's scratching off the tickets.

-Huh?

-It's scratching off the tickets.

It's gambling that you're going to win. And usually you lose.

So what do you think?

Maybe I should go with the zebra instead of cheetah.

-What do you think, honey?

-I love it.

BB. BB!

You know, if it ain't broken, don't fix it is my motto.

-But it was broken.

-It wasn't broken. I don't want to kiss you.

-You told me...

-I don't want to kiss some old hag.

You told me when I turned 40 you'd trade me in for two 20-year-olds.

And because I had the Fraxel...

I'm waiting for you to be 60 so I can get three 20s.

I've got some good prospects for getting some money.

It would probably be my greatest achievement,

besides having all these beautiful children,

would be finding...finding the money.

I'm on a quest.

I want to spend all that money...

..that I'm going to make in Vegas.

I'm going to buy my yacht and my plane.

You can't never get back the two years that

I've lost looking... I feel like, almost like a guy

who's in jail for a couple years, you know, you never get that back.

The big house. You know, I really don't want to sell it

so I don't care if I haven't had any bites. I want to really finish it.

If I don't sell it, I'll keep it. Finish it. Right, BB?