All Souls, including Howard Hughes

 

November 2, All Souls Day, is commemorated in our church calendar as All Faithful Departed, but so downplayed that does not even have its own Collect for the Day or other Propers, which seems like a snub. I'm not close, but if I were close to a bank of votive candles, I'd light a candle for dead loved ones whom I hold in my heart, but I'll do that tomorrow morning as we arrive for the eight o'clock service. 

Tradition and devotions for the day may include visits to graves of loved ones, and prayers, and maybe lovingly decorating graves with flowers. In the Roman Catholic Church, prayers for souls in purgatory, a place of purging sins until one is purified for entry into heaven. IDK, is there consciousness in purgatory? We don't "have" purgatory in the Episcopal Church, but one fact is that nobody knows what happens to us at and after death, and another fact is that no amount of doctrine, dogma, or believing makes anything True anyway, and no amout of doubt makes anything False; so, remembering Margo's response (when I said of one of her Indian Native American tribal myths, "Margo, that's impossible, surely you don't believe that?" she said, "Yes, Father Tom, we know that, but it's true for us, and besides, you Christians also believe holy stories that are impossible"), I'm good with whatever a particular faith's faithful honor and observe. 

Have you ever read the Gospel of Peter, with the talking cross? Or the calming of the storm at sea, or the Easter story? Don't disparage other folks' Heilsgeschichte, eh?

On entering church, my devotional is to light two candles, one candle for closest loved ones, naming them as I light the candle, another candle for dead loved ones, naming them as I light their candle.

What of prayer, including my prayers and yours?

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Else that I may have had in mind went out the window upon opening email and seeing the history item about Howard Hughes and his Spruce Goose.  Couple of pieces below (scroll down) about Mr Hughes. He was reported in his decline to be totally isolated from the world and seen by absolutely nobody except a small staff of security folks who catered to his every desire. Including,

one story was that he liked having a dish of ice cream for dessert after dinner, and - - his staff made sure he had what they knew he wanted. That they served him a variety of ice cream flavors over the years. That one evening he was served peppermint ice cream and commented about how good it was and that he really liked it. So from then on they served him nothing but peppermint ice cream because they knew he loved it so much. 

The story goes on that, one day they ran out of peppermint ice cream. The man who did Mr Hughes' grocery shopping went into the ice cream shop and they were out of peppermint, and in fact had discontinued it because of low demand. Mr. Hughes' man went berserk with panic, explained that Mr Hughes had to have peppermint ice cream, and insisted that peppermint ice cream be made for him. The company said it would take several days to change the production run and would cost $60,000 to make the changeover. Mr Hughes' man said cost is no problem, do it, Mr Hughes will cover the cost. 

The rest of the story is, after supper that evening they served vanilla ice cream to Mr Hughes, with profuse apologies. Mr Hughes' said, "Oh, thank God! I was sick of that peppermint ice cream."

IDK, that's the story.

Here are those two Howard Hughes essays

This Day In History

NOVEMBER 2, 1947

Howard Hughes’s “Spruce Goose” flies

The Hughes Flying Boat—at one time the largest aircraft ever built—is piloted by designer Howard Hughes on its first and only flight. Built with laminated birch and spruce (hence the nickname the Spruce Goose) the massive wooden aircraft had a wingspan longer than a football field and was designed to carry more than 700 men to battle.

Howard Hughes was a successful Hollywood movie producer when he founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932. He personally tested cutting-edge aircraft of his own design and in 1937 broke the transcontinental flight-time record. In 1938, he flew around the world in a record three days, 19 hours, and 14 minutes.

Following the U.S. entrance into World War II in 1941, the U.S. government commissioned the Hughes Aircraft Company to build a large flying boat capable of carrying men and materials over long distances. The concept for what would become the “Spruce Goose” was originally conceived by the industrialist Henry Kaiser, but Kaiser dropped out of the project early, leaving Hughes and his small team to make the H-4 a reality.

Because of wartime restrictions on steel, Hughes decided to build his aircraft out of wood laminated with plastic and covered with fabric. Although it was constructed mainly of birch, the use of spruce (along with its white-gray color) would later earn the aircraft the nickname Spruce Goose. It had a wingspan of 320 feet and was powered by eight giant propeller engines.

Development of the Spruce Goose cost a phenomenal $23 million and took so long that the war had ended by the time of its completion in 1946. The aircraft had many detractors, and Congress demanded that Hughes prove the plane airworthy. On November 2, 1947, Hughes obliged, taking the H-4 prototype out into Long Beach Harbor, CA for an unannounced flight test. Thousands of onlookers had come to watch the aircraft taxi on the water and were surprised when Hughes lifted his wooden behemoth 70 feet above the water and flew for a mile before landing.

Despite its successful maiden flight, the Spruce Goose never went into production, primarily because critics alleged that its wooden framework was insufficient to support its weight during long flights. Nevertheless, Howard Hughes, who became increasingly eccentric and withdrawn after 1950, refused to neglect what he saw as his greatest achievement in the aviation field. From 1947 until his death in 1976, he kept the Spruce Goose prototype ready for flight in an enormous, climate-controlled hangar at a cost of $1 million per year. Today, the Spruce Goose is housed at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon.

This one is from https://www.hugheshistoric.com/howard-hughes/

Filmmaker, Aviator, Innovator, And Eccentric Billionaire

HOWARD HUGHES

Howard Robard Hughes Jr. was born in Houston, Texas on December 24, 1905. Hughes was the only child of Howard Robard Hughes Sr. and Alene Gano Hughes. Hughes’ father amassed a fortune after inventing special machinery that was used in oil and gas drilling. Hughes was an inventive child and took to mathematics and engineering. When his mother denied him a motorcycle, he motorized his bicycle with a car starter and batteries. When his father said he could have any present, Hughes chose a ride on a Curtiss Seaplane, which sparked his love of aviation that would continue for the rest of his life.

When his father said he could have any present, Hughes chose a ride on a Curtiss Seaplane, which sparked his love of aviation that would continue for the rest of his life.

Hughes’ parents enrolled him in the Thatcher School, an elite boarding school in Ojai, California in 1921. Just a year later, his mother passed away and he returned to Houston with his father. In Houston Hughes started taking classes at the Rice Institute, but ultimately dropped out. In 1924, Howard Hughes Sr. died from a fatal heart attack. At the young age of 18, Howard Hughes Jr. inherited both his father’s fortune and his Texas-based, namesake tool company.

 

Hughes married his first wife Ella Rice in 1925. The couple settled in Los Angeles, where Hughes received his first introduction to the motion picture industry through his uncle, who had become an established producer. Within a few years the fiercely determined Hughes became a successful Hollywood producer himself. His first film, Swell Hogan, was unsuccessful, but his second, Everybody’s Acting, was released to critical acclaim. He decided to devote his time to producing and moved into an office in the Taft Building at Hollywood and Vine. His next film, Two Arabian Knights, a comedy directed by Lewis Milestone, was a box office success and received an Oscar for Best Picture in 1928.

 

Hughes’ inventive nature, inherited from his father, led him to try his hand at directing with his next film, Hell’s Angels, after two previous directors quit. The movie, a story about the British Royal Air Force during World War I, fed Hughes’ passion for aviation and flying. The film took years to complete and established his reputation as highly creative, inventive, and obsessive. Wanting to make the film as realistic as possible, he insisted on using actual World War I fighter planes and set up risky shots for the outdoor aviation scenes. Three pilots were killed during filming. Against the advice of those around him, Hughes himself insisted on flying during shooting, crashed his plane, and sustained serious injuries. The accident pushed the film months behind schedule.

 

Parade procession for Howard Hughes after his record-setting, around-the-world flight, New York City, July 15, 1938 – Source: The Welcome Home, Howard Digital Collection, UNLV University Libraries Special Collections.

Hell’s Angels was originally shot as a silent picture, but by 1929 sound had become standard for films. Hughes dubbed as much as he could, re-shot several scenes and added new footage. He hired 18-year-old, then-unknown actress Jean Harlow for the talking sequences. The following year, the film opened at Graumann’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood with fanfare—airplanes buzzed overhead and stunt men parachuted onto Hollywood Boulevard. The film, on which Hughes had spent nearly $4 million, a record for the time, was expected to fail, but the public loved it. Though it did not recover its enormous production costs, the film catapulted Hughes’ Hollywood career and gave birth to the legend and mystery surrounding him during his lifetime. He produced several other films over the course of the next decades, including the controversial Scarface and The Outlaw. He successfully fought the Hollywood censors, producing some of the raciest footage of the time, and launched the careers of sex symbols, such as Jane Russell.

 

During his Hollywood years and throughout the rest of his life, Hughes was known for his playboy lifestyle. Hughes and Ella Rice divorced in 1929. In 1957, he married actress Jean Peters and they remained together until ultimately divorcing in 1971. However, the billionaire celebrity was better known for his relationships with the leading actresses of the day, such as Katherine Hepburn, Ava Gardner, Bettie Davis, and Ginger Rogers.

 

Hughes’ interests and inventions were not limited to the movie industry. He founded the Hughes Aircraft Company in 1932 as a division of Hughes Tool Company. He also became an accomplished airline pilot and set numerous speed records. Hughes’ aviation exploits made him a popular figure and he made international news in 1938 when he flew himself and a crew of four around the world in three days, nineteen hours, and twenty-eight minutes, setting the world record.

Hughes’ aviation exploits made him a popular figure and he made international news in 1938 when he flew himself and a crew of four around the world in three days, nineteen hours, and twenty-eight minutes, setting the world record.

 

Howard Hughes in 1956, just a few years before he would retreat from public life – Source: The Welcome Home, Howard Digital Collection, UNLV University Libraries Special Collections.

His personal aviation accomplishments and influential wealth allowed Hughes and his company to win government contracts for the research and development of aircrafts for military use. Perhaps the most famous of these planes was the H-4 Hercules, more commonly known as the “Spruce Goose.” Hughes had attracted a number of leading scientists from nearby Cal Tech to lead his research and development team, but relations between the obsessive and controlling Hughes and his management team began to fray. In 1953, most of his top managers walked out, causing chaos in the company and jeopardizing their many critical government contracts. The Secretary of the Air Force gave Hughes an ultimatum that he remove himself from the company or all of their Air Force contracts would be canceled. As a result, Hughes turned over this section of Hughes Aircraft to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 1954. Without its eccentric founder, Hughes Aircraft continued to grow and diversify in subsequent decades.

 

In 1958, he suffered a nervous breakdown. Though his business ventures flourished, he was constantly at odds with the government over his taxes and eventually left California for Nevada. In 1967, he bought the Desert Inn in Las Vegas, allegedly because he was asked to vacate his room for another guest on New Year’s Eve of 1966 and did not wish to leave. Hughes went on to buy the Castaways, Frontier, Sands, Silver Slipper, and Landmark hotels making him Nevada’s largest employer. He left Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Day 1970, having never talked to anyone outside of his inner circle and very rarely leaving his penthouse at the Desert Inn.

Hughes died, ironically, on an airplane in 1976 during an emergency medical flight from Acapulco, Mexico to his childhood home of Houston.

Howard Hughes spent the last six years of his life in hotel rooms all over the world including the Bahamas, Nicaragua, Canada, England, and Mexico. He became emaciated and deranged from the effects of a poor diet and drugs he used to ease the pain of his 1946 airplane crash. Hughes died, ironically, on an airplane in 1976 during an emergency medical flight from Acapulco, Mexico to his childhood home of Houston.

 

Numerous biographies of Howard Hughes have been published since his death and he has also been the subject of several films. Check our “Theme Sources” list for the biographies used in the development of this website. You can also find additional facts and details on Hughes’ life and career in our Timeline.