#HOWARD HUGHES

[facts-i-just-made-up]

i need a list of your shortest facts to read off to friends in udder dead pan. most of the recent facts are too long to read off.

My shortest few factoids-

I've never written any short factoids.

I never tried to do one.

Short facts are hard.

Billionaire Howard Hughes once attempted to make a film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the production would become one of Hollywood’s greatest disasters, taking the lives of over 90 actors and crew, costing nearly half a billion dollars, destroying an entire island, and almost causing a 3rd world war. A party was held to mark the start of production at one of Hughes’ seaside homes and was sadly marred when a drunken Hughes began shooting into the air with his crossbow and killed an albatross, which fell into the punch bowl, offending several actors, who departed the production. This caused a massive production delay during which Hughes bought up over 50 warehouses (including the world’s largest building at the time) to hold the sets and specially built water tanks until casting was replenished. Two of these warehouses burned down (including the world’s largest building fire at the time), destroying the sets which then had to be rebuilt. By the time Hughes decided to cast unknown actors in the lead roles, ten more major set pieces had rotted away delaying the production further. Finally in October of 1948 the new sets and all actors were in place on the luxurious island of Bikini Atoll. The crew was to arrive at the shooting location on October 26th but was delayed by weather. This turned out to be a good thing as the United States conducted an unannounced nuclear test on October 27th, annihilating the island and the sets completely. The island is still toxic, and Howard Hughes, who owned the island, was compensated only $212 for his losses by the government. Undeterred, Hughes began again with fresh sets, and new actors as the previous group had long since departed by 1950. This time, production finally began and footage was shot. It was never developed however because despite the expenditure of $800,000 on pyrotechnics for the first scenes shot, nobody had thought to temperature-protect the film canisters, which were opened at the lab and found to have melted completely into what amounted to large plastic pucks. Hughes filmed the scene again, at the same cost, and then a third time when he was not satisfied with a background extra’s hair. This new footage too was lost when it was captured by rebellious 1950s teenagers who held it for ransom. They asked only $50 but Hughes refused to pay on principle. The actors and crew were even more upset than Hughes that their work had been for nothing and so began the “Leagues Riots” of 1951. What sets remained were once more burned down, this time in protest. Then the real problems began. By then, the Disney production was under way and Hughes spent millions more to spy on and sabotage the rival production. Several Disney employees fell victims to car bombs, others to arsenic poisoning, and one to auto-erotic asphyxiation, but Hughes was not considered responsible for that particular event. Walt Disney, of course, declared war. The “War Between The Sets” began in 1953 as Hughes forces were driven off by Disney’s hired guns, the Mouseketeers which in those days were a fully armed paramilitary force. This skirmish took seven lives, but it was only the beginning. Hughes used his government contracts to secure two bombers and arms weighing in excess of 500 tons, all of which were dropped on Disney owned installations. Disney’s retaliation was severe. Hughes hotels burned days after, there were so many fires that Vegas and LA were both lit as bright as daylight even at midnight from the blazes. Hughes responded with bombings and drone strikes, with “drone strikes” in 1953 referring to dropping bees on ones enemy. The conflict at one point threatened to spill over into Russia’s Southern American interests, leading the president to demand Hughes back down before turning the cold war into a nuclear conflict. By the time a truce was called, Disney’s film was in theaters and Hughes was ready to call it a loss.

Mice can't fart.

[oldguydoesstuff]

Howard Hughes in the cockpit of the 300,000 pound, wooden hull "Spruce Goose". It was the largest plane ever built, had a 320 ft wingspan. It was a huge boondoggle and it flew only once, with Hughes stubbornly piloting it to prove it was airworthy.

More here

[pedroam-bang]

The Rocketeer (1991)

[odditydichotomy]

Letters of Howard Hughes and Katherine Hepburn

(A collection of letters from 1937 to 1938)

[gatutor]

Jean Harlow-Ben Lyon "Los ángeles del infierno" (Hell´s angels) 1930, de Howard Hughes.

[bitter69uk]

“Legend has it that Howard Hughes stashed Faith Domergue in a Hollywood hideaway and almost forgot where he’d left her. True or not, he did keep her waiting around for years while he fashioned the ideal launching pad for her talents. But unlike Hughes’ greatest hype The Outlaw (1948) with Jane Russell, Faith’s premier effort Vendetta (1950) was the victim of its own massive publicity campaign. She ended up in Planet of the Prehistoric Women (1965) and worse. If Faith is remembered at all, it will be as another of Hughes’ Follies, his celluloid Spruce Goose.”

Author Penny Stallings’ casual dismissal of gorgeous starlet Faith Domergue’s Hollywood career in her 1978 book Flesh and Fantasy is pithy but also overly dismissive. If the destiny of Howard Hughes’ protégée (they met when she was 16) lay in in science fiction and horror b-movies (like It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), The Atomic Man (1955) and Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet (1965)) rather than the A-list, it certainly wasn’t from lack of talent or beauty on her part. Domergue is absolutely spellbinding in the wonderful 1950 film noir Where Danger Lives opposite Robert Mitchum. And I’ve always yearned to see the Cult of the Cobra (1955), which isn’t streaming anywhere in the UK, damn it! I just recently watched Domergue’s second-last film So Evil, My Sister (1974) (aka Psycho Sisters. Tagline: “Death runs in the family”. She did one more after this: The House of Seven Corpses (1974)). Anyway, So Evil is a gloriously threadbare trashy no-budget exploitation flick in which Domergue (sporting impressive jet-black lacquered bouffant helmet hair) and Susan Strasberg play twisted sisters who constantly gaslight and double-cross each other. It’s a blast and it’s on YouTube! Coincidentally, Domergue (16 June 1924 – 4 April 1999) was born on this day 100 years ago.

[citizenscreen]

Today in 1938, Howard Hughes set a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Howard Hughes, in top hat facing camera, and his crew of four men are greeted by a crowd as they arrive at Floyd Bennett Field, July 14, 1938. They set a new record of 3 days, 19 hours and 17 minutes on Hughes's around-the-world flight in a special Lockheed 14.

Photo: Associated Press

[dronescapesvideos]

Lockheed L-1049 Super Constellation N6909C. ➤➤ Constellation VIDEO: https://youtu.be/ZpLhtrRIIDA ➤➤HD IMAGE: https://dronescapes.video/LC

[sempredomingo]

[jeanharlowshair]

Modern Screen Magazine, September 1949.

[thursdaymurderbub]

Excerpt from a 1972 interview with Joan Blondell done on the set of Banyon (1972-1973). Taken from Conversations with Classic Film Stars: interviews from Hollywood's golden era (2016) by James Bawden and Ron Miller.

[pedroam-bang]

The Rocketeer (1991)

[odditydichotomy]

H-4 Hercules plane

October 29th, 1980, the Hercules plane made by Howard Hughes and the Hughes Aircraft Company emerged from Long Beach, California. First tested on November 2, 1947, it was designed to be an airlift flying boat.

[wheelsgoroundincircles]

Hughes H-4 Hercules

The Hughes H-4 Hercules (commonly known as the Spruce Goose; registration NX37602) is a prototype strategic airlift flying boat designed and built by the Hughes Aircraft Company. Intended as a transatlantic flight transport for use during World War II, it was not completed in time to be used in the war. The aircraft made only one brief flight, on November 2, 1947, and the project never advanced beyond the single example produced.

[livesunique]

Ms Luigia "Gina" Lollobrigida OMRI (4 July 1927 – 16 January 2023)

Destined to be called "The Most Beautiful Woman in the World", Ms Lollobrigida was the daughter of a furniture manufacturer, and grew up in the pictorial mountain village. She studied sculpture at Rome’s Academy of Fine Arts, and started her career with minor Italian film roles before coming third in 1947’s Miss Italia pageant. 

After refusing a contract with Howard Hughes to make three pictures in the United States in 1950, Ms Lollobrigida gained for starring turns in 1952’s “Fanfan la Tulipe” and 1953’s “Bread, Love and Dreams,” the latter of which netted her a BAFTA nomination for Best Foreign Actress.

Ms Lollobrigida’s first American film was “Beat the Devil,” a 1953 adventure comedy directed by John Huston that cast her opposite Humphrey Bogart. Over the course of the ’50s and ’60s, she starred in numerous French, Italian and European-shot American productions, with highlights including “Trapeze” with Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” as Esmerelda, “Solomon and Sheba” with Yul Brynner, “Never So Flew” with Frank Sinatra and Steve McQueen, “Come September” with Rock Hudson, and “Woman of Straw” with Sean Connery, and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” with Shelley Winters.

Her roles made her a major sex symbol of Italian cinema; in 1953, she won Italy’s David di Donatello award for Best Actress for her performance in the opera star Lina Cavalieri’s biopic “Beautiful But Dangerous,” known in Italian as “The World’s Most Beautiful Woman.” 

She later won two more David di Donatello Award for “Imperial Venus” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell,” a Golden Medal of the City of Rome in 1986, a 40th Anniversary David in 1996 and a 50th Anniversary David in 2006. In 1961, she won the Golden Globes’ Henrietta Award for “World Fan Favorite,” and received nominations for “Falcon Crest” and “Buona Sera, Mrs. Campbell.”

After the ’60s, Lollobrigida’s career began to slow down, but she continued to act intermittently, including in the 1995 Agnes Varda film “Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma,” and in ’80s TV shows such as CBS’ “Falcon Crest” and ABC’s “The Love Boat.” 

Ms Lollobrigida also developed a successful second career in photojournalism during the ’80s. She obtained an exclusive interview with Cuban leader Fidel Castro and also photographed many famous film stars, as well as publishing a number of books of her photographs.

In 2011 she made her final film appearance, playing herself in a cameo for the Italian parody film “Box Office 3D: The Filmest of Films.”

The screen legend sale of some of her 23 jewels from her Bulgari  collection at Sotheby’s in 2013 to help fund an international hospital for stem-cell research. 

On 16 October 1999, Lollobrigida was nominated as a Goodwill Ambassador of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization

Ms  Lollobrigida won the Berlinale Camera at the Berlin Film Festival in 1986, Karlovy Vary Film Festival special prize in 1995, and the Rome Festival’s career prize in 2008. In 2018, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Ciao, Gina, Riposa in Pace

(Armando Pietrangeli, “Light and Shadow,” Gina Lollobrigida,1960, Trapeze 1956, Woman Of Rome,1954, Salomon & Sheba,1959, Come September, 1961,Un Bellissimo Novembre,1968, The Hunchback of Notre Dame,1956, In London to publicise her book of photographs titled Italia Mia,1974, Fidel Castro shot by Ms Lollobrigida,1974, Gina Lollobrigida pictured on July 11, 2022 in Rome).