The Hoax

Rating:
Summary: A Man Before His Time...
Review: All I ever knew about Howard Hughes was his reclusiveness. This book gives the reason for his fetishes in later life and his obsessions with power. I'd heard about his propensity to have the young starlets at his disposal, and I'd thought he must be quite a virile man.

I see now how Clifford Irving was able to write the autobiography which proved to be a hoax. And why Hughes denounced it via the phone to the media instead of a personal appearance. He was a demented person by that time, from all reports. But he had led "the big life" frequenting the Coconut Grove and hobnobbing with Hollywood people. Coming from Houston, TX, and choosing his suits from Penney's, Woolworth's, and Sears (wearing tennis shoes as a standard), it had to be heady stuff. He had no social graces.

This was a decadent age (1927) and, thank Goodness, he wasn't another Bugsy Berkley with his sexual orgies and apparitions. Howard had a love affair with the airplane, not women. He made a few movies using a sky-full of vintage airplanes called 'Hell's Angels,' then a controversial western, 'Outlaw,' in which a beautiful sunset was seen along with an overexposed Jane Russell. It was denied the seal of approval by a ten-man censorship board. He made a grand presentation of other stars' cleavage in earlier films, but was denied motion picture approval. It was released anyway.

As a Texas industrialist, he turned out to be an innovator by removing the top wing so planes could fly above the weather. He bought TWA airlines from Jack Frye. He declared himself just an aviator, but he was a man before his time with his sheer determination to conquer the skies. Had he been in his prime during the Space Age, he should have had a chance at piloting the Space Shuttle.

There were scandals with the women, though he appeared to enjoy touching planes more than women. He "interviewed" many young starlets under contract to him. He was clear at the end that aviation was the great love of his life. He was dubbed as capricious and eccentric, but mainly he was afraid of people -- paranoid, thinking there were spies in his midst to learn his secrets.

The senator accused him of producing a dirty movie and making airplanes which don't fly. At the hearing, it was promoted that the whole world will see what he has become. When he successfully got that plane out of the water, it proved his ability to overcome his tarnished reputation. All his life he'd wanted to fly the fastest planes and be the richest man in the world. For a man who never smoked or drank (only milk), he made his mark for posterity.

Clifford Irving became something of a celebrity before and after the telephone interview Hughes gave to refute the book. It is a masterpiece but should perhaps been labeled 'fiction' and been just an ordinary thing no one would want to read. As it was, it became a sensation.

Rating:
Summary: Truth is more Complex than Falsity
Review: This book has the ring of truth to it, and that is unmistakeable. It's the story of a writer who hoodwinked the world by writing the hoax autobiography of billionaire Howard Hughes, and paid the price by going to prison. It reads like a novel, in the sense that it's thrilling, and you understand Clifford Irving to the bone. It's well-paced, filled with memorable characters and incidents, and if there were ever a book to nail down the sin of greed in both individuals and corporations, this is it. I loved it.

Rating:
Summary: At Least This One was (Maybe) Honest
Review: This is a good read, a good read about a master forger and a man who refuses to repent. A sociopath in action. Mr Irving claims this book is honest, the truth, but since he is writing about a giant lie, it's hard to believe this is as honest as he would have us believe. If you are are interested in the mind of a sick man, then this book is for you.