Howard Hughes biography -
Eccentric, aviator, billionaire
Howard Hughes biography. The legend of Howard Hughes is larger than life. The story of Howard Hughes is a story of mystery and
suspense worthy of lengthy novel. Mystery even surrounds his birth. Official records has his birth registered as December 24, Houston, Texas,
but the story goes that he was actually born in Humble, Texas on September 24. He only got registered, as Howard Robard Hughes
Junior, three months later as on the night of his birth a severe thunderstorm cut off the route to Houston.
His mother was heiress, Allene Gano, and his father, Robard Howard Hughes Senior, was the man that patented an innovative new drill
bit that allowed drilling in previously undrillable structures. The Hughes Tool Company was formed to produce the bit and made Howard Hughes
Senior a very rich man. When he died suddenly in 1924, Howard Junior inherited the company and would form a solid basis for his fortune.
Howard moved to Hollywood, California and through the influence of his uncle Rupert Hughes sought to start producing movies. At first
people thought it were a joke, but his third film; Two Arabian Nights (1927) won an academy award. Other famous films that he produced
include Hell's Angels (1930), Scarface (1932) and The Outlaw (1943).
He also fervently participated in flying experimental aircraft and as a result held numerous aircraft speed records. Perhaps his most
famous plane was the Spruce Goose - a flying boat he was contracted to build during World War II, but only finished it after the fact.
In 1938, John Frye, one of the contacts he had made through flying, asked Howard to help him finance a Boeing 307 and start
Transcontinental & West Airlines (later renamed to Transworld Airlines, TWA). Through this financing, Hughes became the primary stockholder
in TWA. This turned out to be his greatest investment after it yielded over $540 million when he was forced to sell it in 1966.
His one act of philanthropy was to form the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Delaware. He later used this structure to put his stock
of Howard Hughes Aircraft Company in there to prevent the taxman from getting to it. When changes to the law were about to be introduced,
Howard hired a political lobbyist. His lobbyist, Larry O'Brien, succeeded in creating a loophole in the law that allowed medical
research companies to be excluded.
The name Howard Hughes is also connected with numerous conspiracies. These conspiracies range from 'loaning' money to Richard Nixon's
brother and Watergate, to the assassination of Fidel Castro. Each even more unbelievable than the previous, though all linked to him
through his private spook, ex-FBI and CIA man, Robert Maheu.
In his later years, after spending so much time in a casino hotel in Las Vegas that he was about to be kicked out, he bought several
Las Vegas casinos including the Desert Inn (where he was staying), Castaways, Frontier, Landmark, Sands and Silver Slipper. It was here
that his reclusive and eccentric ways truly came to the fore and he virtually disappeared off the face of the earth. Not even President
Nixon could reach the man.
He was away so much from the public view, that when he died on April 5, 1976, fingerprints had to be lifted from his body so that
it could be verified that it was indeed him. Many stories surround the man Howard Hughes and he was indeed a man that lived life fully, if
only the end could have been less sad. Numerous wills surfaced after his death, but the courts finally awarded his estate to
22 of his cousins.
The Howard Hughes biography almost reads like a fictional tale, but the man lived it large and by his own rules.
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