A Billionaire you wouldn’t want to be
Spruce Goose, Hughes, and his eccentric life
The class that an American manufacturer, aviator, and motion-picture producer brought to the world and who lived his life like none-before.
Early Days
Howard Hughes was born to a rich family — no doubt on that! His father was a millionaire thanks to his involvements in oil well drilling. He amassed enormous wealth just doing that. Simply said, Howard was well-off.
Born in 1905, on the eve of Christmas in Houston, Texas, Howard succeeded in life in becoming a business magnate during his time. Howard set his eyes on Engineering — need not forget he had his wealth drilled off wells — Engineering! Probably it was in his blood. Nonetheless, he pursued his studies at California Institute of Technology and Rice Institute of Technology.
Disaster struck during this time when both his parents died resulting him to take over his father’s business quitting his studies. Maybe how he was raised as a kid, how he looked at things had a direct impact, but the massive loss of his parents directly impacted on how he wanted to do his businesses.
Eccentric Hollywood life
His early days took a toll on his family affairs with the death of his parents, but Howard went on to live a life full of luxuries.
Starting in style, he made his debut in Hollywood producing Hell’s Angels, that took a toll on the budget when he spent close to $4 million. The movie was inspired by World War-I, had its highlight focused on the aerial sequences. During the time, the aerial sequences were unparalleled to any other movie at the time. The movie made it to the box-office — still did not quite catch on the money spent.
Highly determined, he went on to produce a series of cinematics, Scarface in 1932, a movie based on the life of Al Capone and The Outlaw, a movie that ran into all sorts of trouble with the Censor board. Just the rumor and controversy involved with the movie made The Outlaw a success — much thanks to the provocative clothing styles and just the battle between Howard and the Hays Office — What a masterful plan, intended or not, to gain publicity during a time social media was not even heard of!
Sadly he did not direct another movie, but was involved in the industry as a Producer. His main involvements revolved around RKO Pictures Corporation where he bought and sold shares multiple times within a time of seven years. After serious rounds of trading, he finally sold all of the company shares in 1955. Yes he did just that!
Days in aviation
If you think his time in Hollywood was the most unpredictable, you were wrong.
The year was 1932, when Howard founded Hughes Aircraft Company in California. In 1935, Howard built an airplane that mimicked his own picture in mind, to set a record for the world’s landplane speed record of 352.46 miles per hour (567.23 km/h). He did more.
On the same aircraft he went on to average 332 miles per hour taking down the transcontinental flight record to 7 hours 28 minutes.
In 1938, he circled the earth in a record time of 91 hours and 14 minutes.
Just the following year, he bought shares of Trans World Atlantic (TWA) to amass 78% of shares some time later.
Years of World War-II sparked the most interest in the life of Howard Hughes, for readers, all his life was a spark to speak. Anyhow, Howard started to build an airplane no one has built before. His focus on military aircrafts made him get involved in building the one of the largest aircrafts of all-time, the H-4 Hercules. With controversy dangling behind, the number government aided project to build H-4 Hercules failed. The state filed lawsuits against the magnate, but eventually built the plane just to fly once, in 1946. The 750 passenger capacity, eight-engine wooden flight, Spruce Goose did not fly for more than a mile. The plane that was meant to be built for the war, did not quite live up to what was expected.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute and his later years
While he was still the man who has his presence felt in aviation, he established the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, in 1953. He used profits from his aircraft company to build the institute. This later went on to be one of the most recognized research institutes and one of world’s most powerful charities.
After selling his shares in TWA for $500 million, after not appearing before courts to answer anti-trust charges in 1966, he went on a buying spree in Las Vegas — he ended up buying casinos, undeveloped lands and more.
During his later years he is said to have lived in many cities including England, Nicaragua and Canada, and died in 1976.
But wait….
He lived quite the life! But why would people bother to call him mentally-ill — or was he truly mentally-ill in the first place?
Now, for the ones who knew Howard Hughes, they already knew he had some issues. But, here’s to you, for you did not know about the dark that shadowed Hughes even during the best days of his life.
This comes directly off bbc.com
“….throughout his life, though, Hughes had suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder, among other mental-health conditions.”
It is quite evident the OCD he had in him lead to many of his successes. From Hell’s Angels to his success in aviation, the levels of perfectionism he aimed at made him quite the star. The questions still remain,
What were the other mental-health conditions Hughes suffered from?
Hughes was Germophobic. During the latter days of him his, it was recorded Hughes lay bare throughout in his hotel room, in which he referred to be a germ-free zone. He would go on to the extend of wearing tissue boxes to walk across him room — Insane.
The condition was such, the phobia dragged him towards the use of the Codeine, an opioid medication commonly used for pain relief.
How the fear of germs came to his life….
It is popularly believed his childhood had the biggest impact towards the conditions Hughes suffered from. Out of fear, his mother would take extreme measures to keep him safe from Polio, a catastrophic condition at the time. His mother would take necessary steps to check for his health conditions everyday. The fear that affected him such, he was paralyzed for a few months, which deemed to have no physical basis, was merely a mental condition, according Raymond D. Fowler, PhD who conducted a psychological autopsy on Howard Hughes.
The levels of imagination that in his mind, related to the avid conditions made him think that did not make sense. Fowler says, “ He didn’t believe germs could come from him, just from the outside,” rather “He was convinced that he was going to be contaminated from the outside."
His OCD and the phobia made him a bizarre person as well. Throughout the times Fowler did the autopsy on Hughes, he got the following information from his employees and domestic helpers. According to ocduk.org, the servants were asked to,
- Have close to eight tissues to turn the knob on the bathroom door
- Then use six to eight new tissues to open the bathroom cabinet and remove an unused bar of soap
- Then wash hands
- Use at least fifteen tissues to open the door to the cabinet containing the hearing aid
- Remove the sealed envelope containing the hearing aid with two hands using another fifteen tissues in both hands.
Imagine the pain Hughes himself had to endure, the levels of inconveniences people around him had to face! Imagine a lifetime full of conditions you should have accustomed by investing more on health — it is paramount.