Hughesworld
The Strange Life and Death of an American Legend
by
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He loved to barter, to wear down opponents with ceaseless dickering. "He was an extraordinary dealmaker," said Del Webb. "Go up against him and you will lose." He gloried in his wealth. The label of billionaire gave him pleasure. Whether by luck, accident or design, he turned an inheritance of perhaps $300,000 after buying out his relatives into about $2 billion, exclusive of Hughes Aircraft. He did it his way. That was to be different. He flight-tested his experimental airplanes, an act perhaps foolhardy, brave, or possessive, but certainly not the practice of a typical aerospace executive, even in the movies. He risked a $145 million default judgment by refusing to appear in court. He bought a major movie studio (RKO) but never set foot on the lot. He spent five years, millions of dollars, and put "the sweat of my life" into a seaplane that he flew for a scant minute. Then he spent millions more to maintain it for three decades. These are patterns of a unique man, driven, obsessed, foolish, and perhaps monomaniacal, but at his best vibrant with animal spirits.
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About the Book
Hughesworld is an authentic account written by a press spokesman for Howard Hughes that traces the highlights of his varied life in motion pictures and aviation but concentrates on the management struggle that followed his death in 1976.
Hughes died intestate, or without a valid will, opening up a circus of phony will documents. In addition hundreds of far-distant relatives staked claims. A first cousin, Texas lawyer William Lummis, assumed control after a long and bitter struggle with executives and lawyers who had previously managed Hughes’ businesses.
Hughes is shown as a brilliant aviation pioneer and aircraft designer, as well as a motion picture producer and an able if unorthodox industrialist. At one time he owed a major airline, TWA, a leading oil well drilling bit company, Hughes Tool, and a missile and electonics concern, Hughes Aircraft. In the final phase of his business life, he owned six Las Vegas hotel-casinos.
He ended as a tragic character, living secluded in pain from injuries sustained in plane crashes, rendered helpless by drugs.
About the Author
Arelo C. Sederberg was a public relations counselor for Howard Hughes and his business interests for eight years. He was sole press spokesman for the reclusive industrialist at the time of his death in April of 1976. Sederberg, a former newspaper editor and reporter (Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Herald-Examiner), also was the managing editor and a commentator for the Financial News Network (now C-NBC). He is a graduate of California State University at Los Angeles and has written eighteen books, all of them currently available on IUniverse.