Page 6 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Jan-Feb 2018, Vol 27, No 1

6 The Mysterious Howard Hughes

7 Things You May Not

Know About Howard

Hughes

Continued from Page 5

The Glomar Explorer finally arrived at the
wreckage site in the summer of 1974 but was
unable to retrieve the whole sub because a
portion broke off as it was being raised. A
second recovery effort was planned; however,
in the meantime there was a burglary at the Los
Angeles headquarters of Hughes’ Summa
Corporation, and among the stolen items was
thought to be a secret document linking Howard
Hughes to the CIA and the Glomar Explorer.
The news media learned about the burglary and
the story of the Glomar Explorer’s real purpose
became public in 1975. As a result, the mission
to recover the rest of the sub was scrapped.
made up and he’d never met Irving. The press - Was a major stock holder in an airline that later
6. When a Vegas hotel tried to kick conference generated headlines across the became TWA
him out, he bought the place. country, and weeks later Irving, who’d received
Faced with a huge tax bill in California, he a $750,000 advance, admitted the manuscript - He once had an air purifier installed into a car
decided to move to Las Vegas in late 1966, was a fabrication. He served 17 months in with sealed windows. The purifier cost more
arriving by private train car and taking up prison for his elaborate scheme, which was the than the car, and took up most of the trunk.
residence on the top floor of the Desert Inn. basis for the 2006 movie “The Hoax,” starring
When the hotel’s owner tried to evict Hughes Richard Gere as Irving. [] - In his later years, he insisted that his personal
and his staff, who didn’t gamble, in order to free assistants be Mormons (members of the Church
up rooms for high-roller guests, Hughes decided DID YOU KNOW... of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints).
to buy the place (technically, he purchased a Reportedly, this was because Hughes did not
long-term lease), for $13 million. Afterward, he About Howard Hughes want any of his personal assistants drunk on the

went on a Vegas buying spree, snapping up job, and Mormons are forbidden to drink
other hotel-casinos, an airport and airline and - Ice Station Zebra (1968) is reported to have alcohol.
various tracts of undeveloped land. Also, been his favorite movie.
because Hughes, by then a recluse who never - Attended the prestigious Rice University in the
left his Desert Inn penthouse, wanted to watch - Before his death, he lived as a recluse, and 1920s, before dropping out and moving to
his favorite old movies on late-night TV—and Albert R. Broccoli (the producer of the James Hollywood.
the city had no all-night stations–he acquired a Bond franchise) used his reclusiveness from the
local TV station of his own. public as a model for the character Willard - In public he would often speak with his hand
After four years in Vegas, during which time he Whyte in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). covering his mouth, for fear of being lip-read.
became one of Nevada’s biggest employers and Hughes was a fan of the James Bond films, and
private landholders, he left abruptly in 1970. He he kept a 16mm print of the film as a part of his - After Hughes died, former starlet Terry Moore
spent the final six years of his life living in private collection. Broccoli also gave him claimed they had secretly married on a yacht in
hotels in the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Vancouver, 16mm print films of all the earlier Bond-films. international waters off Mexico in 1949 and
London and Acapulco. never divorced. In 1984, Hughes's estate paid
Moore an undisclosed settlement.
- The Las Vegas casinos he once owned were
7. A planned Hughes autobiography Castaways, Desert Inn, Frontier, Landmark,
turned out to be a hoax. Sands and Silver Slipper. As of November 2001, - Authorized to be awarded a Congressional
Gold Medal, 7 August 1939 (53 Stat. 1525).
In December 1971, McGraw-Hill, a New York all but the Frontier have been demolished.
Award was "... in recognition of the
City publishing company, announced it would achievements of Howard Hughes in advancing
publish Hughes’ autobiography, with excerpts - He bought Las Vegas television station KLAS the science of aviation and thus bringing great
slated to appear in Life magazine. Shortly after (Channel 8), so that he could watch movies into credit to his country throughout the world(.)"
the announcement, officials at the Hughes Tool the night. If he fell asleep during a film, he
Company denounced the planned book as a would call up the station and order that the
fake. However, McGraw-Hill and Life denied scene he missed be replayed. - He became obsessed with the "Communist
threat" in the early 1950s, having written a series
this charge and expressed confidence in the
of paranoid articles on the subject that he sent
authenticity of the manuscript, which Hughes - While he was staying in Las Vegas' Desert Inn
supposedly collaborated on with Clifford Hotel-Casino resort, he bought the out to newspapers from seclusion.t.
Irving, who’d previously published works of establishment in order to avoid being evicted.
- He had affairs with several of the most famous
fiction and non-fiction. McGraw-Hill had actresses in Hollywood, among them Jean
handwritten letters said to be from Hughes - His father was the inventor of the "Hughes Harlow, Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Olivia
along with other project-related items with his Rock Eater," a self-sharpening drill bit used for de Havilland, Ginger Rogers, and Ava Gardner.
signature; these were submitted to a respected drilling oil wells that is still in use today.
handwriting analysis firm, which determined Hughes inherited several million dollars but As time went on, he went out of his way to
they’d been written by Hughes. In January earned the vast majority of his wealth from his "discover" attractive young starlets (most of
whom never hit it big), just so he could sleep
1972, the reclusive mogul, then residing at a own business ventures. Hughes Aircraft and
hotel in the Bahamas, held a press conference Hughes Helicopters alone were worth $5.5 with them. He continued this until he stopped
producing films in the late 1950s.
by phone with a group of journalists he’d once billion when they were finally sold in the early
known. Hughes, who hadn’t spoken with the 1980s.
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media in years, said the autobiography was