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Summary: THE DEFINITIVE BIOGRAPHY
Review: ....I settled on this book because I thought it would be account of Howard Hughes's weird and wanton ways, like several of the other books on this very original American have been.
Much to my amazement, I discovered that this book, which the publisher has unembarrassingly labeled "the definitive biography of America's First Billionaire," was not exaggerating. The story that unfolds here is a real pageturner...one of a life that hit upon politics, Hollywood, aviation, science, and parental neglect of the most extreme variety. What makes this book work as well as it does is the ability of the writer, Richard Hack (of whom I know nothing but intend to read more), has built the plot as if writing a novel. His words are lush with emotion and frustration, as the reader is brought along as an innocent observer of an incredible life story. It took a special talent to make material that has been attempted to be told elsewhere new and exciting. "Hughes" is both well researched and beautifully written. I cannot recommend it highly enough to men, women and teenagers.
Rating:
Summary: A fine biography
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: A fine biography
Review: 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.
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Summary: Do not miss this one.
Review: Could anybody be more eccentric? Very well written
biography. I just couldn't believe it. Wow.
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Summary: The man that made it happen
Review: Enjoyed reading this because the man made such a name for himself around the world woman flocked to him very intriging in his modest Inventions and sadly he turns into a recluse over being hounded by the press no I think it was a drug Addiction but read it for yourself It is especially exciting reading if you believe in Re-incarnation reasons left un_said
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Summary: This guy is unbelievable!
Review: 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!
Rating: 
Summary: Good book, but not a full story of his life
Review: I bought this book and read it cover to cover in a matter of two weeks, it was highly fasinating, but most of the content centered on his depression, and maniacial ways - such as being a recluse in hotels around the world, and his constant desire to have nothing to do with his expanding empire.
If your looking for a book that goes deep into the mind and thoughts of Howard Hughes, this is the one, but if you are looking for a book that describes his business dealings, and growing empire, your better off looking somewhere else for this doesnt go into great detail.
Rating:
Summary: Very readable biography
Review: I have been waiting for a book on the life of Howard Hughes and this is it. It is very readable. It ties in aviation history if you are interested in that. I live in Southern California and again the history of the movie industry of Hughe's time and his impact is told along with his life story. This is an easy read with some great black and white photos included.
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Summary: A Great Read about a Strange Man
Review: I just finished reading Hughes the Private Diaries....What a trip. I could not put it down. What a strange man he was with a genius for business. I still do not think I know the man but I think noone ever will. He truly was an enigma wrapped in a riddle surrounded by a mystery. I only wish that Hollywood would do a film that would capture this incredible individual as much as this book does.
This book reads like a novel because Howard Hughes' story was in essence a "fiction".
It is truly amazing how he could be so lucid and eloquent at one moment and then so "crazy" the next. What was going on inside him that drove him to such contridictions?
I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys good writing and good biography. But, especially I recommend it to those who want to learn more about Howard Robards Hughes.
Rating:
Summary: Very readable biography
Review: Judging from the interest in this self-described "definitive biography," Howard Hughes, dead for more than 25 years, remains an object of American fascination. Hughes' downward spiral from wealthy, handsome playboy-pilot-film producer-media star to even wealthier barking-mad recluse has been told in numerous books and television programs. I was suspicious when leafing through the 12 pages of "exclusive" photographs in the book to see that only half featured photos of Hughes and none of those were new. The remainder were of some of the women in Hughes' life and look like standard Hollywood publicity shots.Richard Hack's biography begins well with an engrossing description of Hughes' childhood years. But as it continues to cover the millionaire's Glamourous Phase in the 1920s and 1930s, it seems like a rehash of the book by Noah Dietrich, Hughes' right-hand man in the period, published in 1972 but here there is a lot more emphasis on the subject's romantic life. More annoying than the author's failure to shed any light on the "why" of Hughes' life is his total technical ignorance of aviation, the field where Hughes was most accomplished. Richard Hack falls down almost completely here and it brings into question the accuracy of the rest of the book. For example, he does not mention that Hughes flew as an airline copilot under an assumed name to build up flying time. There is almost nothing on the solid technical achievement in building the H-1 racer, an airplane both ahead of its time and a monument to craftsmanship. He suggests that the decision to build the D-2 reconnaisance airplane out of Duramold was ridiculed by generals because wood was known "for cracking under stress and breaking under fire." There is nothing wrong with wood as an airplane material, as the British Mosquito bomber indicates. But Hack would not be aware of this as he refers to the Royal Air Force as the Royal Air Corps, its World War One designation. There are many other factual errors. Grover Loening is described in a footnote as "credited as the engineering genius behind the autogyro, forerunner of the helicopter." Loening was a brilliant engineer, noted for his work in seaplanes, but Spaniard Juan de la Cierva was the inventor, developer and promoter of the autogyro. And what is one to make of the passage on p. 187 where Hughes Aircraft receives a "contract to place its all-weather interceptors in Lockheed's F-94 fighters?" An interceptor is a type of airplane not a box of equipment. There is no mention of the glorious steam car disaster so well described by Noah Dietrich who was present but instead we are endlessly subjected to Hughes' efforts at proposing marriage. And Mr. Hack's knowledge of recent history is pretty shakey too. He describes a meeting in Miami between Robert Maheu and Sam Giancana shortly after the Kennedy inauguration to discuss killing Fidel Castro. Hack says "the operation became known as the Bay of Pigs..." This is just nonsense. A definitive biography? The jury remains out. But it is clear that Howard Hughes would have been better viewed by the posterity that was so important to him if he had died young in one of his airplane crashes. At least the Howard Hughes Medical Institute has $12 billion to do some good. After reading this book, one can only feel that it is a print equivalent of junk food. Ask yourself: is the life of a person as messed-up as Howard Hughes' worth wading through 400 pages of my time? Perhaps not. But at least we can always savour such literary gems of Richard Hack as "Love was as alien to him as a jelly donut to a Slovakian rebel."
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