Page 61 - All About History - Issue 54-17

Hero or Villain?
HOWARD HUGHES

Howard courted
controversy with many of
his movies and gained a lot
of publicity as a result

Howard broke the
round-the-world speed
record in 1938

height of 21 metres before placing it in a specially away from the world, he continued to orchestrate elaborate game for him? Although he had inherited
built hanger where it stayed until the day he died. his business empire, often buying the very hotel he his wealth, the way in which he used his fortune
But it was Howard’s decline during the 1950s was staying in. Even from self-imposed isolation to expand his interests shows a superb business
into an eccentric recluse that was to turn his he sought to influence events, allegedly involved brain with undeniable drive and determination to
life and legacy into the enigma that was in loans and bribes to politicians and even succeed, employing thousands of people along the
to become perhaps more famous trying to use his wealth and influence way. Howard was definitely hands-on, not satisfied
than his achievements. Howard to halt testing of the atom bomb to to finance a project and observe from the sidelines.
had acquired an obsessive protect his burgeoning Nevada As such, his skills and ability made him a pioneer,
cleanliness from a mother Defining property empire. innovator, record-breaker and visionary.
preoccupied with moment From his early years, In the end, a life lived to the full took its toll. The
protecting her son from Life-threatening crash Howard had believed that stories of self-imposed exile as an eccentric, long-
disease and infection. As a test pilot for one of his own planes, nothing was impossible. haired, unwashed hermit with germaphobia have
As a man, with the an engine failure caused Howard to crash into On the surface, he captured the public imagination above his many
injuries he had acquired houses in Beverly Hills, California. He suffered was the flamboyant other achievements. But at the centre of Howard’s
life-threatening injuries, including a displaced
and the constant heart and severe burns, and was given a 50 billionaire playboy who life was an acute awareness of the influence that
pain he endured, his per cent chance of survival. The accident could buy the whole his wealth had on people, good or bad, be it the
behaviour became more left him in permanent pain, leading to sweet shop to get his murky world of political influence or the creation of
and more obsessive as a codeine addiction and a gradual own way. Controversial, a world-class medical institute. It was the balancing
withdrawal from society as a
he shrank further from germaphobic recluse. stubborn and manipulating, act of a privileged, gifted, successful, complex,
the public gaze he’d once 7 July 1946 he displayed a lack of respect obsessive and deeply troubled man, and whatever
openly courted. On one for authority and an undying tips the scales will become his lasting legacy.
occasion, he locked himself away belief that money talked and
in a screening room for four months, everything, and everybody, had its Was Howard a hero or a villain? Let us know
watching movies naked because clothes price. His obsessive need for control in all that what you think
caused him pain, not cutting his hair or nails and he did, his openly racist beliefs and his staunch
never bathing. Such behaviour was to become the political views cast a more sinister shadow over Facebook Twitter © Alamy
norm. Living out of Las Vegas hotel suites, locked his character – but was life more than just an /AllAboutHistory @AboutHistoryMag
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