Howard Robard Hughes Jr. (12.24.1905 - 04/05/1976) is an American pilot, businessman and producer who became famous for his aversion to publicity, and the way he used his wealth.
short biography
Howard Hughes was born in Houston, Texas, into the family of mining engineer Howard Robard Hughes Sr. and Allen Gano. The boy was three years old when his father developed a chisel that revolutionized oil drilling and brought great profits to his company. While his parents were sociable, secular people, Howard grew quiet and introspective, showing little interest in school, except for a penchant for mathematics and the ability to create crafts from wires and metal scraps. Strongly attached to his mother, he reverence for his father. Everyone who met him years later claimed that Howard Hughes (photo posted later in the article) never considered himself equal to them.
At the age of fourteen, he was enrolled in the Fessenden School in West Newton, Massachusetts. At home during the holidays, his mother did not allow him to ride a motorcycle, believing that it was unsafe. Then he turned his bike into a moped, using parts from a car starter and a battery. Another time, when his father promised him that he would give what he wanted, Hughes chose a ride on a flying boat. So he discovered the charm of aviation, which soon became an obsession.
Young millionaire
Hughes drill bit had a great influence on the development of the American oil industry. Spending more and more time in California, in September 1921, Howard's parents sent him to Thatcher School in Ohai, about 112 km northwest of Los Angeles. His uncle Rupert Hughes was a leading screenwriter in Hollywood, and through him the family began to get acquainted with the upper classes of local society. In the spring of 1922, Howard's mother died after surgery. Father and son returned to Houston, where in 1924, Hughes Sr. died of a heart attack during a sales meeting.
Howard Hughes, whose biography was overshadowed by the loss of parents in the prime of their lives, at the age of eighteen began to suffer from hypochondria, fear of death and germs. Then he decided to quit his studies at the Rice Institute in Houston and do business. Having inherited 75% of the shares of his father’s enterprise, he bought back the remaining 25%, which were distributed among relatives. This had to be achieved for a long time and hard, the procedure provoked a lot of scandals, which, however, very little worried Howard. Hughes said that in order to take command, one must be tough with people. From this position, he never retreated.
Howard Hughes and his women
The young businessman did not like the administrative side of his business, and he hired people who knew what to do almost without his participation. His decision was successful and the company flourished, which allowed Hughes to have more free time. Soon he became interested in a resident of Houston, Ella Rice, whom he married in 1925. They settled in Los Angeles, where Howard decided to become a film producer.
Hughes was a man to whom it was useless to give advice. He did everything he wanted. His first film, Swell Hogan, was so bad that it was never released, but the second, Everybody's Acting (Everyone Play, 1926), turned out to be more successful, as did Two Arabian Knights (Two Arab Knights, 1927). d.) directed by Lewis Milestone with William Boyd in the title role. The last tape brought Milestone an Oscar for best comedy directing. Hughes' next films, The Mating Call and The Racket (both 1928), were successful enough to inspire him to shoot the epic about Hell Angels World War I aviation, which took two and a half years to shoot. Howard generously looted money by buying airplanes and hiring pilots, practically operating with his own small air forces in the San Fernando Valley. The budget of the picture reached $ 4 million - an unprecedented amount at that time, and Hughes took 300 times more than was necessary. Released in the summer of 1930 during the national depression, the film was well received, but it took a long time to cover the costs.
The expenses included the marriage of Howard. Hughes broke up with Ella Rice - she returned to Houston, claiming that it was impossible to marry a man who was obsessed with his work and rarely was at home. After that, the producer fell in love with actress Billy Dove, who starred in two of his next films, The Age of Love ("Age of Love") and Cock of the Air. They came out in 1931, but were not successful, like the affair with Dove, who became the first in a long series of his affairs with actresses. Howard Hughes and Ava Gardner, aka Rita Hayworth, Ginger Rogers, Lana Turner, Aida Lupino, Bett Davis, Sid Charris - they were all lovers in their time.
Airline Foundation
Hughes Howard showed the planes of the First World War once again in the film “Heavenly Devils” (1931), in which Spencer Tracy played the main role, but the film failed to repeat the collections of “Angels of Hell”. Things were much better with Front Page (1931) and Scarface (1932), which are considered mini-classics.
Hughes said his next tape would be about airships, but the managers of his Hughes Tool company opposed spending money on another saga. He heeded their advice even more than they expected. Howard Hughes not only did not shoot the film, he completely abandoned the film business. In 1933, he founded Hughes Aircraft in Glendale, California. Nine years later, he relocated her to Culver City, where she grew into one of the most profitable aircraft manufacturing companies in the world.
Air ace
In 1934, Howard Hughes, an aviator, received a prize at the All-American Air Competition in Miami, piloting a Boeing, acquired by him from the US Army and converted into a racing aircraft. In September 1935, he set a new speed record for a car that he himself had developed, and in January of the following year set a new transcontinental speed record by flying from Los Angeles to Newark, New Jersey, in 9 hours 12 minutes. His air adventures made him a popular figure in the press and on the airways, especially in 1938, when on a converted twin-engine Lockheed-14 with a crew of four, he circled the world in 3 days 12 hours 28 minutes. In May 1939, the company, which later became known as Trans World Airlines, became the property of Howard. Hughes with her help entered the commercial aviation market, and in the fall of that year she began to design new types of military aircraft in case the United States participated in the war.
Murder charge
On June 11, 1936, Hughes drove along Wilshire Boulevard and knocked to death a pedestrian named Gabriel Meyer. He was arrested and charged with murder. Despite breaking the law with his irresponsible driving, Hughes was released without charge. In his book Howard Hughes: The Secret Life (2004), Charles Hiam states that district attorneys could have been bought and sold in those days, and that having enough money could pay off almost everything.
"Outlaw"
In 1940, Hughes founded another film company. He announced that he would make a film about Billy Kid with unknown actors in the role of Billy and his girlfriend. In the latter case, he chose nineteen-year-old Jane Russell, apparently because of her well-developed bust. For this reason, the painting The Outlaw (Outlaw, 1943) was censored, which was widely reported in the media. Hughes was personally involved in directing. After the initial ban on showing the painting, he finally got permission to rent, but decided to wait two years so that public curiosity grew even more. Rightly called a ridiculously bad movie, The Outlaw still made millions for Howard.
Hughes during the years of shooting the picture managed to do a lot. In 1943, he joined forces with shipbuilder Henry Kaiser and won a government contract for the construction of three huge flying boats. But only one was built - this is the famous Hercules plane of Howard Hughes. The order for flying boats was canceled when it became clear that they could not be completed on time for use in the war. Other aircraft contracts were also canceled.
Plane crash
Always unusual in his habits and behavior, the tycoon became even more eccentric. However, Howard Hughes, whose biography is full of accidents, had an amazing ability to stay alive. On July 7, 1946, the engines failed on his XF-11 during a test flight. The plane crashed, exploded and burned. The pilot was pulled out from under the wreckage with a bulging chest, broken ribs and a failed lung. Doctors doubted that he would live. Nevertheless, within a month, the tycoon recovered and soon began to fly again. Few people knew that Howard Hughes “cured” his disease with codeine.
Cinema and airplanes
Despite the pain and problems with the work of the aviation corporation, Hughes again turned to the film industry, perhaps due to the profit and fame that the film The Outlaw gave. He signed contracts with two famous Hollywood figures, Harold Lloyd and Preston Starges, to shoot the comedy Mad Wednesday (Crazy Wednesday, 1947), but she was expected to fail. Then Hughes directed his sweetheart - 22-year-old Faith Domerg - in the lead role in the costume drama Vendetta (Vendetta, 1948). This film, unfortunately, had to be put on the shelf by Howard Hughes, since even he saw how bad the picture was.
In parallel with the filming, he had other matters, one of which was his desire to restore the XF-11 and prove its flight suitability, which he did on April 5, 1947. Four months later, he testified to the Senate Military Investigative Committee about his work as defense contractor. Hughes made many enemies during the war, in addition, he was not as successful as he hoped. Hughes Aircraft did not become a giant as he planned - it will happen later in the space age. The massive Hercules was literally accused of being unsuitable for flying, which Hughes denied by flying for several minutes over the waters of Long Beach harbor on November 2, 1947.
Where did 40 million go?
In 1945, journalist Westbrook Pegler stated that he had seen an FBI dossier stating that Hughes had used his wealth to illegally obtain government contracts. The following year, Owen Brewster, chairman of the Senate Military Investigative Committee, said he was very concerned that the government had given Howard $ 40 million to design and manufacture two aircraft that had never been made. He also noted that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, contrary to the opinion of his military experts, gave Hughes contracts for the production of F-11 and NK-1 (also known as "Hercules").
Brewster said that Hughes was organizing parties for government officials with the goal of influencing their future decision. Howard paid starlets $ 200 each to participate in. Their duties included swimming naked in the Hughes pool. Julius Krag, head of the council of war production, was one of those who frequented these parties. One congressman, who was also a frequent guest at Howard’s house, said: “If it’s true that they were paid $ 200, they were greatly underpaid.”
Hughes, accused of corruption, leaked information to reporters Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson that Owen Brewster received money from Pan American Airways (Pan Am) to compromise him. According to Howard, Pan Am tried to convince the United States government to create an official world monopoly under its control. Part of this plan was to force all existing U.S. carriers operating abroad to close or merge with Pan Am. As the owner of Trans World Airlines, Hughes poses a serious threat to this plan. According to Howard, Brewster approached him with a proposal to combine Trans World with Pan Am. When he refused, the committee chairman launched a slanderous campaign against him.
Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson believed Hughes and began their own campaign against Owen Brewster. They reported that Pan Am provided the chairman of the committee with free flights to Hobe Sound, Florida, where he had fun at Pan Am Vice President Sam Pryor's Recreation Center. These charges were reiterated by Hughes when he appeared before the Senate Military Investigative Committee. He also accused Brewster of trying to blackmail him with the aim of merging with Trans World Pan Am. The committee chairman rejected the allegations, but it helped divert attention from the issue of embezzlement of $ 40 million in government money.
The Senate Military Investigation Committee has never completed its report on the non-delivery of F-11 and HK-1. The committee discontinued and was eventually dissolved.
Buying and selling RKO studio
Obsessive-compulsive disorder - something that Howard Hughes was ill with - did not allow him to admit his defeat. In 1948, he bought RKO's Hollywood studio. Hughes owned and managed it for five years, while remaining in his office at Goldwyn Studios, only once visiting the territory of RKO. The few films made over the years have become financially profitable, and all the producers, directors and scriptwriters of RKO complained that they could not meet with Hughes to discuss their problems. In the end, the latter stated that he needed RKO just like the plague, and sold the studio for $ 25 million, of which, after paying off debts to shareholders and lawyers, he had $ 6 million left.
Foundation of the Medical Institute
Howard's interests in other enterprises, especially aviation, have only increased over the years of RKO's ownership, and his wealth was in the millions. It was at this time that he founded the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Florida, which was an expression of his concern about germs and diseases. He promised to bequeath to the institute most of his wealth, so that he would do something good on his behalf. Always a loner, he became even more unsociable and, in the end, stopped communicating with everyone except the management of his business. In 1957, he married actress Gene Peters, but the marriage was unconventional, as partners rarely lived together. They divorced in 1971.
Howard Hughes: a biography. Illness and the last years of life
Whatever the failures in marriage or filmmaking, Hughes' successes in building jet and military aircraft grew. But the stress of all these undertakings negatively affected his health, and in 1958 Howard suffered a nervous breakdown.
In 1965, the Atomic Energy Commission announced that it was about to begin nuclear testing at Pahute Mesa, just 150 miles from Howard Hughes’s home. He contacted Richard Nixon, but he refused to oppose these trials. During the 1968 presidential campaign, Hughes assistant Robert Mayo met with Hubert Humphrey in Denver. Mayo told Humphrey that Hughes would be willing to pay him $ 100,000 if he did something with these nuclear tests. Humphrey promised that if he was elected, he would appoint a commission of scientists to study the effect of radiation.
According to the author of the book Howard Hughes: The Secret Life, Hughes was delighted and promised the committee $ 300,000. But Hughes was afraid that Bobby Kennedy would defeat Humphrey, who lacked glamor, charisma and the name of his rival. June 4, 1968 Robert Kennedy was killed. Hughes was worried that Edward Kennedy would replace his brother, and so he decided to bribe Larry O'Brien, Kennedy's campaign leader. Robert Mayo met O'Brien in Las Vegas on July 4, 1968. As a result of the meeting, it was agreed that Hughes would pay O'Brien $ 15,000 per month.
Hughes had ongoing conflicts with the government over taxes, in the end he left California and settled in Nevada. In 1967, he bought the Desert Inn in Las Vegas to make it his home and corporate headquarters in Nevada. In 1966, he sold TWA for $ 566 million. Four years later, Hughes acquired Air West.
To avoid paying taxes, in November 1970, Hughes moved to the Britannia Beach Hotel, located on the Bahamian island of Paradise. He never returned to the United States. The last six years of his life were he moving from one luxury hotel to another.
Death in flight
Hughes became a hermit living behind closed curtains. He moved to Managua (Nicaragua), from there - to Vancouver, London, Freeport in the Bahamas and, finally, to Acapulco (Mexico). In 1972, he sold the Hughes Tool company for $ 150 million. The assets of his Summa corporation, which was responsible for managing his entire business, were valued at $ 2 billion. Despite his wealth, the billionaire had the appearance of a man living in extreme poverty. In recent years, Howard Hughes did not cure his disease and did not eat properly. He was exhausted: at the time of death, his weight was only 42 kg. Hughes did not allow his assistants to take care of themselves until he finally fell into unconsciousness. They tried to transport him to Houston, but by the time the plane landed, he was already dead. Howard Hughes died in flight, which was good for him, for only in the air did he feel at home. A childless billionaire left the world his possessions and a name that has become a legend.
The Howard Hughes film "The Aviator" received the highest awards at the Golden Globe Awards in Hollywood. In addition, the film was awarded five Oscars, the Screen Actors Guild Award, and four awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Howard Hughes (di Caprio) is shown during his life from the end of 1920 to the end of 1940.