Howard Hughes: The Secret Life [Paperback]

Charles Higham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2004

His wealth was legendary. His passions were bizarre. Now, 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 Charles 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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though the author claims he aims to show his subject's "crucial role not only in aviation and movie-making but in major political affairs," this gossipy book mainly concerns the bisexual lusts and personal quirks of Howard Hughes (1905-1976). In sometimes overwrought style, Higham, biographer of Katherine Hepburn and Errol Flynn, describes how the eccentric tycoon, who backed such films as The Outlaw , indulged his sexual tastes on screen, how his favors for the CIA (e.g., leasing a Bahamian island as a base for dirty tricks in Cuba) aided his companies, Hughes Tool and Hughes Aircraft, and how he bought large chunks of Las Vegas in 1967. Hughes apparently spent six-hour stretches on the toilet, made humiliating demands of his bodyguards and stashed underage starlets in isolated, elegant houses in Bel Air and Beverly Hills. While some of Higham's contentions are buttressed by witnesses, some of the most incendiary--such as his claim that Hughes's sexuality was malformed as a teenager, when his uncle seduced him; that Hughes may have died of AIDS; and that Hughes played a key role in the Watergate break-in--are speculative. Photos not seen by PW. First serial to National Enquirer.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

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 urine in Mason jars. Undeniably a hypnotic portrait of a great American monster. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin (October 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312329970
• ISBN-13: 978-0312329976
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,337,885 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( H ) > Hughes, Howard

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh, how cute I am, I know dirty words, December 28, 2004

By 

Karl May (Golden, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Howard Hughes: The Secret Life (Paperback)

This is one book about Howard Hughes that should be returned to the book seller if bought without reading it first. The author, an Englishman, apparently tries to be "popular" in America by being clinically dirty. His "shocking" revelations have no references, and he seems to be a grand master of the "he undoubtedly said..." school of research. The book certainly does not belong in a family library, and as far as university libraries go, it has no scholarly value.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Howard Hughes' "Secret" Life, February 28, 2005

By 

Matthew C. Hoffman (Chicago, IL. USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Howard Hughes: The Secret Life (Paperback)

Of all the Howard Hughes biographies that are currently available to tie in with the recent film, this is easily the worst. The book is filled with hearsay and speculation on the author's part and attempts to bring his subject down and make him less than human. Higham attempts to get into Hughes' head in order to put a 'dirty' spin on just about everything. Some of the claims the author makes concerning Hughes' sexuality are incorrect-- the FBI report on Hughes never found evidence of homosexuality-- and some of the 'stories,' such as his relationship with Cary Grant, are truly ridiculous in how they are described and are insulting to both Hughes and Grant. This is a revisionist biography that does more harm than good; its sole purpose is to titilate rather than inform us with the facts.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars How does this stuff get published?, March 8, 2006

By 

M. Guernon "Kallimachos" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Howard Hughes: The Secret Life (Paperback)

Like many new readers to the Hughes tale, I picked up Howard Hughes: The Secret Life (the bookstore was out of Citizen Hughes). Given the preface and afterword of the book, associating itself to the Martin Scosese film,The Aviator, I was misled to think it would be a correspondingly detailed and insightful account of Hughes successes and personal demons (with words instead of pictures). Instead it was the worst sort of puerile incoherence; the caliber of literature which is often hailed in bathroom stalls and tea parties. In fact, I was a bit surprised not to see "Hughes Eats It!", or "For a good time call HH" somewhere in the book.

The events are not approached with any linear semblance and dates and events bounce back and forth. There is very little structure to the varied liasons attributed to Hughes, and none of them offer a scintilla of insight as to why Hughes was engaged in them, and how it affected his business, reputation, etc. The author has, a particularly, hard time working, a comma, into a sentence, with any literary aptitude. Some of his conjectures are simple falisity and are in direct opposition to verified accounts, in numerous text (see his insinuation of what when on at San Simeon....in short that type of open behavior was forbidden at the Hearst Castle and violators were sent packing (literally)-not to say that it didn't happen, but not at the level Mr. Higman suggests. Additionally he fails to properly index the book, leading references off the index altogether. Stylistically, formatting and content wise this book falls harder then Hughes on Bell Air Drive.

It almost seems that Mr. Higham had something personal against Mr. Hughes (and certainly had a lot of choices to pick from). But an academic interest of Hughes is not served in this book. What might be served is an author's personalized attempt to denigrate a sick man, using conjecture, pubescent embellishments, and sexually charged schedenfreude. He's happy to take care of that on his own.

The APA might concider how this books simply demonizes the effects of OCD, as opposed to helping society understand it. An easy misunderstanding of this book, and one would think all OCD people are bisexual bigamists, who are facinated with their own urine, and have an unatural fetish with Kleenex.

This work might have been amusing article to read in the grocery check-out line, and put down without buying it. (Given it's an easy read, you might finish the whole book before your eggs are secured under your gallon of milk) Having made the mistake of buying it, please consider some advice that a better account of Hughes is out there...somewhere. Don't do what I did. Instead, go to another bookstore and look for a more credible biography. Or if salacious gossip, blissfully free from fact is really what your after...don't buy this book either. By something by Bob Woodward, or heck, just buy the Enquiror
or.....maybe Mad Magazine....I hear the Star is good too.