Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #583850 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 444 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Was ever a life more incredible than that of Howard Hughes? Record-setting aviator, fabled lover, celebrated film director and producer, genius financier and industrialist, the nation's first billionaire. who at one time or another owned TWA, RKO Studios and most of Las Vegas, Hughes (1905-1976) also suffered from severe psychological afflictions that led him to spend his last years in isolation, naked in blacked-out rooms on several continents, devoting days at a time to screening grade-Z movies, dictating long memos to his staff about the proper procedures to keep his room and person free of germs, mostly through the liberal use of Kleenex as a prophylactic, even as he ingested titanic amounts of codeine, his hair and fingernails growing to grotesque length and his back running with untreated sores. Hughes's story has been told before, of course, but never with the overview, insight and, most important, extraordinarily diligent research applied by Hack in this riveting biography. The author of bios of Ron Perelman and Michael Jackson, Hack has his own second-degree connection with Hughes; he co-wrote the autobiography of Hughes's longtime lieutenant, Robert Maheu. To separate fact from rumor in detailing Hughes's life, Hack read more than 8,000 pages of Hughes's private papers, 2,500 pages of recently declassified FBI and CIA documents, over 100,000 pages of previously sealed legal briefs, corporate papers and inventories, and spoke with hundreds of players, key and minor, in Hughes's drama.What Hack has uncovered is an astonishing tale of rampant ambition, obsession and madness. While his prose doesn't match the poetic heights of, say, a Nick Tosches, he presents his chronicle with bold certitude, not only illumining the amazing events of Hughes's life in a captivating manner but penetrating deep into the billionaire's twisted psyche. Readers will be nailed to these pages as, in the most exciting bio of the year, Hack presents the American dream curdling into the American nightmare, personified in a legend who at last has an accounting worthy of him. Simultaneous New Millennium Audio. (On-sale: Sept. 11)Forecast: Publicity will roar for this book, which carries rave blurbs from Maheu, Larry King, Dominick Dunne and Sidney Sheldon. Among the schedulings are a one-hour show on Larry King Live; a two-part segment on Entertainment Tonight; an appearance on the Today Show; a 10-city author tour; a satellite TV and radio tour; and a massive print ad campaign. All that, plus the book is excellent, equals bestsellerdom.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
There have been previous biographies of Howard Hughes the most infamous being Clifford Irving's hoax in 1972 but this is likely to be the most thorough, written 25 years after the billionaire's death. Hack had access to Hughes's private papers and declassified FBI and CIA documents; he also interviewed people who worked in many of Hughes's enterprises. The author begins with Hughes's childhood, the only son of a wealthy Houston oilman. The lifelong income from Hughes Tool Co. allowed Hughes to set lofty goals and seek to fulfill them: to become a great golfer (one goal that went by the wayside), to be an aviator (his early triumph as a solo pilot led to the creation of Hughes Aircraft, the Spruce Goose, and TWA), and to make movies. Hughes wooed Hollywood starlets, though he married only twice. He became increasingly reclusive, with his behavior going from eccentric to bizarre. Narrator Dan Cashman reads clearly, but there are some obvious mispronunciations (Sukor instead of Cukor, for the Hollywood director, among others). A good choice for popular collections. Nann Blaine Hilyard, Lake Villa Dist. Lib., IL
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Richard Hack gives us a brilliant portrait of America's first billionaire, painting the life of the legendary man who was at once an aeronaut, film producer, playboy, and recluse. Despite the book's subtitle, this reading has very little in the way of diary, memo, or personal correspondences. What it does provide is a fascinating, perplexing, sometimes disturbing portrait of Howard Hughes. Dan Cashman's reading is welcoming and unobtrusive, although at times it comes across as weary. Cashman reads in a strict documentary style that sometimes belies the lifestyle of the dramatic and paradoxical Hughes as he passes between lucidity and madness--from sexual promiscuity to a phobic avoidance of people, daylight, and germs. A fascinating, captivating listen. S.E.S. © AudioFile 2001, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Customer Reviews

A fine biography
A very good biography of a fascinating individual. Aside from some really lame analogies (especially in the first half of the book), the author's writing is crisp and his grasp of his subject is impressive. Overall, I enjoyed reading this biography and highly recommend it to other.

Do not miss this one.
Could anybody be more eccentric? Very well written
biography. I just couldn't believe it. Wow.

This guy is unbelievable!
Howard Hughes was born in 1905; he died in 1977. His mother had died in 1922 , his father in 1924 - thus, Hughes became independent at age 17 - with a guardian (Aunt Annette) and his inheritance (Hughes Tool Company) - valued at $626,000. He ignored his Aunt's advice to attend Rice Institute. He'd already identified his three main goals in life: to become the world's greatest golfer, the world's greatest pilot, and the world's greatest movie-maker. He entrusted the management of Hughes Tool Company (eventually acclaimed for having revolutionized the oil producing industry) to the same people his father had hired; thus, he enjoyed security and independence, a comfortable income, plus time and money to pursue his goals.
At 19 Hughes decides that a serious, young entrepreneur like himself needs a wife; he chooses Ella Rice, a pretty, socially prominent young lady in Houston. Though already in love with another 'promising' young man, Ella was persuaded by her mother and Aunt Annette that Howard - handsome and already rich - was a better 'catch'. After a 3-month honeymoon in New York City the newlyweds headed for California - where Hughes could launch his movie-making career. Soon Hughes was so involved in his golf (he eventually lowered his handicap to a respectable 2-plus) and movie making, that he had little time or energy left for Ella, who left him after 6 months.
In Hollywood Hughes hires an 'executive assistant'. Together they produce in 1926 one flop and one 'so-so' movie, then in 1927 they produce and Hughes directs "Two Arabian Nights" (with actors William Boyd and Boris Karloff ) - a film that wins for Hughes an Oscar for 'Best Director of a Comedy'. In 1928 Hughes begins "Hell's Angels" - a movie that includes 'dogfights' in Sopwith Camels and German Fokkers (78 of them!). Though the movie must eventually be totally re-made (converted from silent to 'talkie' version) , Hughes in the process discovers actress Jean Harlow and the movie establishes box-office records everywhere. The film's premier at Grauman's Chinese Theater was the 'best night of his life' - according to Hughes. Hughes goes on to make many other famous and profitable films (Scarface, the Outlaw), discover other starlets (Jane Russell), and in 1948 he buys a major movie studio - RKO - which establishes him as a major film maker.
Meanwhile, Ella has divorced him , thus freeing Howard to 'play the field'. He's still only 23 - but now richer, more famous and even more handsome than ever - ergo, a very eligible bachelor. Plus, he now has his own little air force, a movie studio and a 170-foot yacht. He thus has little trouble meeting and squiring the world's most beautiful women -like Lana Turner, Ginger Rogers, Ava Gardner, Ida Lupino, Olivia de Havilland, Katherine Hepburn, Terry Moore, Yvonne DeCarlo, Kathryn Grayson, Bette Davis, Rita Hayworth, Linda Darnell, Billie Dove, and Faith Domerigue - to name a few. Not infrequently he'd be engaged to two, even 3, women at the same time. His love life was in a word - hectic. In 1957 an aging Hughes finally remarries - to actress Jean Peters, a former beauty-contest winner from Canton, Ohio.
In 1927, prompted by the exploits of Charles Lindbergh, and Amilia Earhart, Hughes turns again to his third yet unachieved goal - to become the world's best pilot. He seeks out J.B. Alexander - an experienced pilot-instructor, who is also a 'barnstormer' and stunt flyer. Alexander reports that Hughes was a natural flyer. Soon Hughes was flying his own planes and conjuring up new goals related to flying. In the early '30's, when the depression was hurting Hughes Tool Company profits and Hughes' movie-making pursuits , Hughes takes a 11 month 'sabbatical'. He works temporarily (incognito) as an airport baggage handler, then , elsewhere, as a stunt pilot - for $250.00 per month. Later, Hughes employs a pilot-mechanic and tasks him with 'souping up' Hughes' recently purchased 8-passenger Sikorski S-43. Together they would make flights around the country with Hughes' movie-star girlfriends - and sometimes with 'best friend' Cary Grant and Randolph Scott - two famous actors who later were reportedly bi-sexual - which fueled the rumor mill that Hughes, too, was probably bi-sexual.
In 1934 Hughes and his team set about designing and testing a plane (the H-1) that Hughes wanted to use to set flight records that would establish him as a great pilot. A year later, after Hughes had personally flight-tested the plane, he started flying it to establish new records - speed records, long distance records, altitude records, and, in 1938, a new record for an around-the-world flight. These achievements won for Hughes other awards and recognition for flying : a congressional medal, the Harmon Trophy, and the Collier Trophy. He was also honored with a ticker-tape parade down Broadway in New York City. Hughes, now convinced that air travel had a future, eventually acquired an airline (TWA) that promised fast, comfortable air travel for the general public.
During World War II Hughes' enterprises expanded to meet war demands. Hughes' empire eventually became one of the government's biggest suppliers of aircraft, helicopters, aircraft parts, weapons, missiles and munitions. In 1966 Hughes was declared a billionaire and the richest man in the world. His latest interests now included Las Vegas, where by 1971 he controlled 17% of the city's gambling revenues and employed some 8,000 people. By now Hughes has 'done it all' and he's become a recluse.
Howard Hughes was a giant of his times. He was shrewd, but also lucky: the fields of endeavor that he chose to enter were all just 'taking off': real estate investments in California and Las Vegas, gambling in Nevada, air travel, golf, the movie industry, and the oil industry (which boomed when the auto industry exploded.). Hughes also profited immensely because he was well positioned when World War II began. Hughes' life reads like a fairy tale. Just unbelievable! Believe me!