Howard Hughes: the troubled tycoon

Every venture the American business magnate undertook was big from his blockbuster movies to the planes he constructed. But how did Hughes go from rubbing shoulders with the stars to living a life of seclusion?

- JONNY WILKES

With the death of his father in 1924 and just two years after his mother’s passing, Howard Robard Hughes Jr took over a million-dollar business at barely 18 years old. He was studying engineering and not overly enthused to run a company manufacturing drill bits for the oil industry. But he was keen to make the most of his fortune and freedom. Buying out his relatives’ shares and putting savvy businessman Noah Dietrich in charge of day-to-day dealings, the young Hughes set off to pursue his passions: movies and planes.

In 1925, he moved with his new wife Ella Botts Rice from his home state of Texas to be a filmmaker in Hollywood. Since money was no object, he immediately delivered a string of hits as a producer, including the Oscar-winning comedy Two Arabian Knights, before starting work on Hell’s Angels, a World War I epic featuring a huge fleet of aircraft in stunning dogfighting sequences.

AN AERIAL OBSESSION

It would be his magnum opus, albeit a troubled one. A compulsive need for perfection over every miniscule detail cost him over $3m and three years on production, while the dangerous aerial stunts cost several lives. When finally released in 1930, the movie had been re-shot from a silent to a talking picture; the leading lady replaced; and two directors had given up, with Hughes himself taking the reins. Still, it was a blockbuster smash.