Howard Hughes: America’s Notorious Bisexual Billionaire
Howard Hughes: the angel from hell
America’s Notorious Bisexual Billionaire
By Darwin Porter
Blood Moon Productions, April 2005, hardcover, $ 26.95
814 pages, ISBN # 0-9748118-1-5, with 175 old photos
When Howard Hughes (now known to movie fans as “The Aviator”) was 18 years old, his father, the mega-wealthy owner of the Hughes Tool Company, discovered that his son had homosexual tendencies. Repulsed by the discovery and irritated by behavior he considered disloyal, Howard Senior replaced his existing will with one that would have left his rich but without the autocratic power that he himself had enjoyed. But just moments before he could execute the new document, Howard Senior suffered a fatal heart attack in his Houston office.
Had he signed it before his death, the history of American aviation and the history of Hollywood cinema could have been very different.
Before his father was on the ground, Howard (never used “Junior” again) tore the New Testament to pieces and determinedly went after the other beneficiaries of his father’s estate, his grandparents, and his uncle. “I don’t want to own 75 percent of Toolco,” he told his father’s attorney. “I want to be one hundred percent owner so I don’t have to inform anyone.”
With persuasion, intimidation, and something akin to blackmail, he was finally able to acquire the balance of the outstanding shares, thus gaining full control. The rest is history. Relying on no one, with virtually unlimited funds at his disposal, Howard Hughes and his infinite ego set out to create an empire. Actually, three empires: Toolco grew without much input from Hughes to become a billion dollar company; Hughes Aviation propelled Howard to the forefront of 20th century flight; and Caddo Productions, which later became RKO Pictures, established him as a major filmmaker.
Hollywood biographer Darwin Porter has outdone himself with Hell’s Angel. His two previous intimate portraits, of Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn, set a new standard for detailed and insightful biographies. Now, at 814 pages on “America’s Notorious Bisexual Billionaire,” Porter is once again raising the literary bar. Beginning with his own scouting as a child on the set of Slattery’s Hurricane, where his mother worked as an assistant to Linda Darnell and Veronica Lake, Porter continued through decades of interviews with literally hundreds of Hughes associates, intimate and casual. His own research was bolstered by the extensive unpublished memoirs of his former writing partner, the late Stanley Mills Haggart, a former roommate of Cary Grant and Randolph Scott. (The 15-page index is a veritable encyclopedia of the movie industry – from Aherne, Brian to Zanuck, Darryl.)
Due to the very personal nature of this oral history, most of this detail has never been seen in print before. The press of the 1940s and 1950s, even the nosy Hollywood gossip columnists, were unable to publish the revelations that Porter spreads on these pages. Be careful, he doesn’t expunge these tales. Sometimes it gets very intimate; He really didn’t need to know about the Clark Gable smegma problem, for example.
The dictionary has two definitions for the word “libertine”. Howard Hughes personified them both: “completely indulged in debauchery” and “wildly outlandish.” Extravagant, like when he threw a bunch of diamonds, rubies, and precious stones onto young Elizabeth Taylor’s lap as she lounged by a hotel pool. (She was not impressed).
And, as with so many rich and powerful men, sex was a constant. Porter documents Hughes’ relationships, all famous, including Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn, and Gloria Vanderbilt on the spinning wheel side and Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, Robert Taylor, and Errol Flynn on the other.
Many of Hughes’s conquests remain unnamed. As a heavyweight Hollywood producer, he put dozens of aspiring actresses, usually adorable teenagers, who come to California hoping to break into the movies, under contract. Then he would audition them on his casting couch.
If you’ve seen the movie, now find out the rest of the Howard Hughes story.