The Aviator

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    Hi


    I have just been reading about The Aviator which is about to come out over here.


    The times gives a pen picture of Howard Hughes life and contains the following.


    Quote

    His choice of films also became more eccentric. There is a perverse humour in casting John Wayne as the young Gengis Khan in the Conqueror (1956) and having him brag with a straight face about the tp of his lance. But what was Hughes thinking when he had the production shoot in Utah only 100 miles down wind from a nuclear test site, then have 60 tons of radioactive sand in Los Angeles to match the set for close ups. Memos suggest that hughes was well aware that cast and crew were at risk. Almost eighty per cent of those who worked on the film including Wayne, Susan hayward and the director Dick Powell were to die of cancer



    I don't know what the picture is like our papers are giving it a very good reception.


    Regards


    Arthur

    Walk Tall - Talk Low

    Arthur; Howard Hughes was a very different man than Duke! I had chance to be part of a documentary done for "Hearst Entertainment" back in the early 1980s on Hughes and because I am a Pilot of some 55 years,and the fact that Howard Hughes was a Aviation Genius and pilot I was very glad to work on this project. Bill Hearst jr. told me that they flew all over the World in Howard's private four engined Airliner that he had fitted out to fly all the important and movie people around in and he told me many storys about Howard Hughes. And yes many of the people that knew him say that it is a good film.


    I have also heard that story about the Radioactive dirt that they say that Howard took to Hollywood. If these people would only remember that in the 1940s and early 1950 we did not know much about the danger of these kind of things. I carried one of those "Bad Things" around in a B-29 for over two years and watched them set off two of them at "Jackass Flats" in Nevada just so we would know the Damage they would do and I am still here.


    My wife Martha was never near any of this kind of these thing and she died of the Big C at the age of 68! So did she die because of all these Atomic Blasts that they did just a little more than 100 miles, and we are down wind also?


    If all those people and Duke did or did not die because of these Atomic weapons we will never know. Remember this took place about 50 years ago!!! Chilibill :cowboy:

    Hi Bill


    Yes you are right, facts are now only just emerging about our atomic test all of them years ago. As you say hindsight is a wonderful thing.


    Ref Hughes as a professional what was your opinion of the Spruce goose?


    Regards


    Arthur

    Walk Tall - Talk Low

    Arthur; The Spruce Goose was one of the greatest aircraft of the time. It was the largest Aircraft of the time with 8 of the largest Engines of this time and the fact that it was made completely of Wood was amazing. He invented a new type of Plywood for the skin of the Aircraft that was water-proof. We are still using this type of Plywood today.


    It did fly once about one mile and just a few feet above the water and that was it. He got into a fight with the U.S. Government and He told them to Hell with it and put into Storage and it never flew again.


    As you said Howard Hughes could never let any alone after it was completed all ways trying to make it better. Remember he was the First American Billionaire and he did what he wanted to do when he wanted to do it, just like all the Films that he did also!


    I saw the Aircraft one time when it was on display in I think Long Beach California years ago and it was a great thrill for me. It was HUGE, at least as large as the 747s of today. We are still using some of the things that he invented over 50 years ago in todays Aircraft.


    After he Crashed one of his new Aircraft that he was testing in Beverly Hills he got hooked on Pain Killers in the Hospital and he started to go to Hell in a Handbasket, but he did invent the first electric Hospital Bed that would go up and down with the push of a button for himself while he was there in the Hospital. He was a GENIUS but when the Pain Killers got him that was it, what a waste!!! Bill :cowboy:

    Didn't he invent the modern-day brassiere as well? Or am I confusing him with someone else?


    So much ink goes to his eccentricities and his hundreds of women, but it's clear that his was a creative and influential mind.

    Quote

    Originally posted by William T Brooks@Dec 28 2004, 09:08 AM
    Jen; Yes he invented the first Uplift Brassiere for Jane Russell for the Film "The Outlaw"!!! Bill :cowboy:

    [snapback]13356[/snapback]



    Heck with a museum in Branson . . . if anyone ever deserved a monument, it would be this guy - maybe a double monument . . . :jump::jump: . . . :rolleyes: .


    Chester :newyear::headbonk:

    Hi


    In Howard Hughes - The Untold Story by Peter Harry Brown and Pat H. Broeske


    The following story is given:-

    Quote

    During one night on the town with Jean Peters and John Wayne, who was then making pictures for RKO, Hughes balked at going in to the Desert Inn. "Everybody will be looking at me," he complained. Wayne brought him down to earth. "You a*****e!" said the Duke. "You are with the most beautiful woman in the world. And John Wayne! And they're gonna look at you?" Hughes was so upset by that retort that for months afterwards he wouldn't talk to Wayne.


    I bought the book in 1996 and still haven't read it right through. With William and his knowledge on the board it may be time to revisit it.


    The only thing that I am aware of with regard to Hughes. In England we have an expression that if for instance a soccer manager keeps changing his players around we call him the "tinkerman". With Howard Hughes method of making pictures he must have been the original 'Tinkerman'.



    Regards



    Arthur

    Walk Tall - Talk Low

    Chester You dirty old man! I know this is not about the Duke But you guys brought it up.


    In the early 1980s we were doing Chilibill's Kitchen Cooking show at Jane Russell's Restaurant in Sedona, Arizona and I was also involved in a Air Taxi Service there also. I had been flying Jane and her Third Husband John Peoples back and forth to Santa Barbara where they had their other home.


    When Howard Hughes died he had left Three Million Dollars Tax paid to Jane, and She was looking for someplace to invest the money. I was going to fly her Husband John to look at a T.V. Station over in Prescott, Arizona and when I got to their house the house Keeper said that John was getting dressed but Jane was out at the Pool. Their pool deck looked down on Sedona and was at the foot of Coffee Pot Rock where Duke had done "The Angel and Badman in the 1940s.


    Jane was next to the pool in a Flowered Bikini Swim Suit. JANE was in her 60s but everything was still where it should be!!! I will never forget this GORGEOUS Woman who was in Her 60s!!! Chilibill :cowboy:

    Heheheee, Arthur - I love the tale you tell. Looks to me like Hughes deserved to be taken down a peg or two and who better to do it than a star of JW's caliber.


    As far as Jane Russell goes, I can think of few women who would have better assets to outfit. Hughes bestowed his creative talents on a worthy object (or two).


    Chester, you surprise me! After all, you're the one who wrote out "b**bs" one time. :headbonk:


    ;)