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Summary: The best book on Howard Hughes
Review: "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes" is indeed an empire within itself. This book manages to expose the life of a very seceretive and private man of power who lived in his own unique way in the world. An incredible book about an incredible man...
Rating:
Summary: The best book on Howard Hughes
Review: "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes" is indeed an empire within itself. This book manages to expose the life of a very seceretive and private man of power who lived in his own unique way in the world. An incredible book about an incredible man...
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Summary: Excellent Insight into the Life and Empire of Howard Hughes
Review: After reading other books on Howard Hughes, I thought this book would be a waste of my time since I'd "read everything else" but little did I know that this book went into such detail of his life, exposing in great detail specifics that other books briefly mentioned.
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Summary: The Demise of an Empire
Review: Donald Bartlett and James Steel's book, "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes" is an excellent example of journalistic reporting converted into book form. The book is simply fascinating. The authors accomplish the gargantuan task of separating fact from fiction in the very complex life of Howard Hughes. "Empire" is impeccably researched and documented; It is a bona fide biography that reads more like fiction than real life-such was the world of Howard Hughes."Empire" traces the rise and tragic fall of Howard Hughes; a man who wore many hats, he was an aviator, Hollywood movie producer, Las Vegas hotel/casino owner ... and a recluse. For one brief shining moment, Hughes was considered one of America's premier aviators, breaking flying records, but then falling out of grace with government and the aviation industry for breaking contract deadlines. In the long run, Howard Hughes would become a grand failure in the world of big business. Bartlett and Steel show the reader a man who had everything to live for, good looks, fame, fortune, power and prestige, but he was unable to triumph over his social and physical phobias that led to psychological, emotional, and physical illnesses and to his final descent into the dwellings of the insane. Hughes' deep mistrust of all people-even family, worked against him and led to his demise and the lose of his billion dollar empire by the very people whose job it was to safeguard him and his empire.
By the time I finished reading "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes", I was much more accepting of my status as a non wealthy individual. Although Howard Hughes had everything a man could possibly wish for, he was underprivileged in peace of mind.... The authors do a superb job in separating fact from myth in the life of Howard Hughes. The book is worth reading.
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Summary: Who calls the kettle black?
Review: I think all the negative points should not be the only thing that is remembered. Half of the people writing these reviews weren't probably alive when it happened and even then listen to the media about what was happening. I think we should remember the ingenious of this man. After all, he only started what he was commissioned to do. Just because he had the guts to finish what he started should not be the basis for such a slam. I hope those who like to smear the dead feel better after they finished. One day someone may be writing a biography about you!
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Summary: Howard Hughes, Naked
Review: The story of Howard Hughes, told superbly in this classic bio, is simply magnetic. How else could you describe a tale that begins with young Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. being born into one of Texas's wealthiest oil families (his father's company, Hughes Tool Company, held a virtual monopoly on drill-bits for many years), moving to Califoria to become a movie mogul, pioneering aviation, heading TWA, and then slipping into degenerative obsessive madness that rendered him completely in the hands of his manipulative underlings. Thus in this book we confront both the young, energetic Hughes (romantically linked to both Jane Russell and Katharine Hepburn) and the old, sick hughes - a nudist who left his hair and fingernails uncut for years, chronicly addicted to codeine, flitting between vacuum-sealed hotel rooms in diffent countries (Bahamas, Nicaragua, Toronto, London, etc.), yet whose name continued to command terror and respect among presidents and governors. As I read this book, there were many Hughes habits that I found deeply endearing, even as the weird details mounted. How can you not like a guy who, in the pre-VCR era, decided to buy the local Nevada TV station, just so they'd play the movies he wanted? Who - upon installing his home entertainment system - had an obsessive-compulsive need to watch the epic 1968 thriller "Ice Station Zebra" over and over again? (It's a good movie, after all.) Who bought up half of the real estate of Nevada in a doomed expectation of a world gold shortage? Or who lent his name to the ocean-dredging vessel, Glomar Explorer, to aid the CIA's covert attempts to refloat a Soviet sub? And there was something genuinely visionary about the way he built his aircraft and electronics empires. Indeed, despite the piles of carefully-compiled evidence of financial disasters at TWA, RKO, Air West and Summa Corporation, somehow I want to believe that Hughes was not the bungling sicko that emerges from these pages, but so what if he was, the story remains magnificent. As a postscript, every time you see a DirectTV advertisement, remember that it used to be a Hughes company.
Rating:
Summary: Howard Hughes, Naked
Review: The story of Howard Hughes, told superbly in this classic bio, is simply magnetic. How else could you describe a tale that begins with young Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. being born into one of Texas's wealthiest oil families (his father's company, Hughes Tool Company, held a virtual monopoly on drill-bits for many years), moving to Califoria to become a movie mogul, pioneering aviation, heading TWA, and then slipping into degenerative obsessive madness that rendered him completely in the hands of his manipulative underlings. Thus in this book we confront both the young, energetic Hughes (romantically linked to both Jane Russell and Katharine Hepburn) and the old, sick hughes - a nudist who left his hair and fingernails uncut for years, chronicly addicted to codeine, flitting between vacuum-sealed hotel rooms in diffent countries (Bahamas, Nicaragua, Toronto, London, etc.), yet whose name continued to command terror and respect among presidents and governors. As I read this book, there were many Hughes habits that I found deeply endearing, even as the weird details mounted. How can you not like a guy who, in the pre-VCR era, decided to buy the local Nevada TV station, just so they'd play the movies he wanted? Who - upon installing his home entertainment system - had an obsessive-compulsive need to watch the epic 1968 thriller "Ice Station Zebra" over and over again? (It's a good movie, after all.) Who bought up half of the real estate of Nevada in a doomed expectation of a world gold shortage? Or who lent his name to the ocean-dredging vessel, Glomar Explorer, to aid the CIA's covert attempts to refloat a Soviet sub? And there was something genuinely visionary about the way he built his aircraft and electronics empires. Indeed, despite the piles of carefully-compiled evidence of financial disasters at TWA, RKO, Air West and Summa Corporation, somehow I want to believe that Hughes was not the bungling sicko that emerges from these pages, but so what if he was, the story remains magnificent. As a postscript, every time you see a DirectTV advertisement, remember that it used to be a Hughes company.
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Summary: looking for comprehensive Hughes? look no further ..
Review: This is a fantastic account of the life of Howard Hughes. The book moves deftly through Hughe's life from beginning to end, from a man that refuses to give consideration to other people's suggestions and advice to a withered shell that is practically canabalized by the many companies he created. With his mind and body failing, Hughe's "assistants" become more and more empowered. The book is often punctuated with Hughe's truely bizarre memos and notes to his assistants. They cast Hughes in what would now be considered an obsessive compulsive personality. This book is well written, from his days as a youth to his germ phobic self imposed exile.
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Summary: This is what should be called real "biography". Well-done!
Review: This is a fantastic book, if you need to read a real and thorough biography about Howard Hughes. I mean, it is so thorough, that you can find anything you possibly want to know (if you study HH as a scholarly subject or just curious)... you can find anything, but the speculations about his private life. This book is not about speculations, it is a REAL RESEARCH. It is done chronologically and it has many appendices, that discuss everything, from significant dates in HH's life to the financial statements of his company and his finances throughout his life. I, personally, don't have any warm feelings towards the character of HH as a historical figure (quite to the contrary...as a matter of fact I dislike him), but the authors of this book deserve all the praise, they can possibly get.
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Summary: Hughes Mania
Review: This is the first book I had read about Mr. Hughes. A wonderful book. At times slightly more detailed than I would like.. Buts lots of great information about truly one of the most interesting characters of the 20th century.
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