American Legends: The Life of Howard Hughes

“My father told me, never have partners." – Howard Hughes

“I'm not a paranoid deranged millionaire.” – Howard Hughes

Howard Hughes lived a life that was quintessentially American, and his personal history was so varied, improbable and extraordinary that he practically resembled a living folk hero. Hughes was barely in his 20s during America’s Roaring Twenties, but he already began to command the nation’s headlines as a multi-talented millionaire, and the varied pastimes that his talents and wealth afforded him made him nearly impossible to ignore. In the ‘20s and ‘30s, the most famous people in the country were generally gangsters, jazz musicians, inventors, baseball players, Hollywood stars or flying aces, and by the end of the ‘30s, the 35 year old Hughes was at least three and arguably four of those; perhaps learning to play jazz or hit home runs seemed greedy at that point.

After receiving a handsome inheritance in his teens, Howard made himself into one of the world’s first billionaires by the time he was in middle age, so he clearly wasted no time. Already a tycoon at the age of 20, Hughes took no pleasure in rest or success, and his accomplishments were just as unique as the man himself. He made Oscar-nominated films while simultaneously becoming the fastest man on the planet by setting airspeed records in a plane of his own invention, but even as he became a national celebrity, he displayed little interest in other people. A consummate loner, he rarely interacted with the elite social circles to which he had access unless business necessitated it, instead surrounding himself with employees to carry out the practical matters of his empire, make his designs into reality, cobble together his film productions, and organize the disparate parts of his life according to his precise specifications. He was known to millions and managed a diverse empire but was a friend to no one. Perhaps not surprisingly, a heavy majority of Hughes’ social interactions involved romance. Hughes was one of the most notorious womanizers in Hollywood, romancing scores of forgettable starlets and silver screen icons alike, but most of his affairs also remained impersonal, to the extent that he remained an enigma even to his paramours.

Despite the sharp intellect, vigor and dynamism that made his astonishing accomplishments possible, Hughes ultimately descended into madness, ravaged by physical and psychological maladies that left him a caricature of what he had been at the zenith of his feats. Fittingly, the catalyst for his final decline was literally a fall, when one of his heralded airplanes tumbled out of the sky and brought him back down to Earth in a nearly fatal crash. The maverick billionaire was a famous figure in America for no less than half a century, but his true influence over the nation’s fate wasn’t known until long after his death. Despite the acrimonious way his unfulfilled airplane contracts were resolved at the end of World War II, while the Cold War raged, Howard continued to make a small fortune off government contracts by secretly supplying the Central Intelligence Agency with untold troves of spy gear. He also played a significant role in the most infamous political scandal of the century (Watergate), but even as the scandal transfixed the country, much like his own post-war Senate hearings a quarter century earlier, Hughes was never mentioned in the extensive investigation.

American Legends: The Life of Howard Hughes chronicles the incredible life of one of America’s most eccentric geniuses. Along with pictures of important people, places, and events, you will learn about Howard Hughes like never before.