Howard Hughes: The Secret Life: The Secret Life

by Charles Higham

Overview

Adapted to a major motion picture by director Martin Scorsese, The Aviator stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes!

His wealth was legendary. His passions were bizarre. Charles Higham's biography tells the truth about the money, the madness, and the man behind the enigma.

Howard Hughes is one of the best known and least understood men of our times—famed for his wealth, his daring, and his descent into madness. Bestselling biographer Higham goes beyond the enigma to reveal the incredible private life of Howard Hughes:

* his romances with the great stars of Hollywood—Katharine Hepburn, Bette Davis, Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, and numerous others

* his forays into sadomasochism

* his involvement with Richard Nixon and Watergate

* his bizarre final years

This is a compelling portrait of a unique American figure—in a story as revealing as it is unforgettable.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312329976
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	11/10/2004
Edition description:	Media Tie-in
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Charles Higham is the author of such bestsellers as The Duchess of Windsor; Kate: The Life of Katharine Hepburn; and Bette: The Life of Bette Davis. With coauthor Ray Moseley, he has written Elizabeth and Philip: The Untold Story of the Queen of England and Her Prince, and biographies of Cary Grant and Merle Oberon. A former New York Times feature writer, Mr. Higham lives in Los Angeles.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"The outrageous and often sordid details of Howard Hughes's life...novel twists concerning the famous eccentric's libidinous moments and his own particular mode of slow death."

- Library Journal

"A hypnotic portrait of a great American monster."

- Kirkus Reviews

Editorial Reviews

The outrageous and often sordid details of Howard Hughes's life...novel twists concerning the famous eccentric's libidinous moments and his own particular mode of slow death.” —Library Journal

“A hypnotic portrait of a great American monster.” —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Charles Higham's biography of eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes (1905-75) is a feast of scandal. Obviously, old Hollywood hand Higham has been hoarding revelations. Secrets tumble out in quick succession: Not only does he "out" the reclusive tycoon; he links him to several male movie stars, including Cary Grant and Tyrone Power. But Hughes's bisexual beddings are not even the book's main attraction. Higham's research has unearthed tawdry Hughes financial deals with politicians, including presidential rivals Richard Nixon and Hubert Humphrey.

An outing of the billionaire closet bisexual by Higham, whose bios include lives of Cary Grant, Brando, Orson Welles, the Duchess of Windsor, and L.B. Mayer, among others. Higham does his research an injustice by insisting on printing much sexual hearsay as fact (and hinting that Hughes died of an AIDS-like disease), especially since he has done as much homework on Hughes's business and monetary activities as he did on Wallis Windsor and Mayer. The first half of Hughes's life fascinates with his immense network of seductions as he forms one movie company to assuage his voyeuristic needs and buys another to continue them—while also running Hughes Tool, TWA, and other businesses—and meanwhile breaking an around-the-world aircraft speed record and building the gigantic Spruce Goose military transport (a white elephant of no use whatsoever). This is all before his psychic collapse into fear of large-scale germ warfare via Kleenex, a mental illness that Higham suggests Hughes picked up from his mother, a monumental cleanliness nut. As for the bisexual hearsay, Higham says he got it from Lawrence Quirk, nephew of Photoplay publisher James Quirk, who got it straight from Hughes's bisexual uncle Rupert Hughes, who got it from Hughes himself during a confessional outpouring. Higham says that Hughes's "sexual partners were not so much lovers as hostages, prisoners or victims of his will; he had to dominate in everything." The author tells of Hughes's descent into Hollywood S&M, and as for his news about Hughes paying off Hubert Humphrey and Richard Nixon: It may not be new, but it comes strongly documented. The recluse's last years are...ripe—he even takes to storing his urinein Mason jars. Undeniably a hypnotic portrait of a great American monster.

Kirkus Reviews