WEBVTT - "Oh Howard, You Idiot!” 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:15.796 Pushkin. 0:00:20.396 --> 0:00:23.476 In the middle years of the twentieth century, Howard Hughes 0:00:23.556 --> 0:00:26.276 was one of the richest and most famous people in 0:00:26.356 --> 0:00:30.076 the world. He was tall, he was handsome. He took 0:00:30.076 --> 0:00:32.796 his father's drill bit business and turned it into a 0:00:32.796 --> 0:00:36.956 corporate colossus. He owned half of Las Vegas. He designed 0:00:36.996 --> 0:00:39.876 some of the most technologically advanced planes of his era, 0:00:40.396 --> 0:00:43.556 and once after he flew around the world in record time, 0:00:43.876 --> 0:00:46.236 he was given a ticker tape parade down Broadway. 0:00:46.916 --> 0:00:49.596 He drives letter through the man made canyons of Manhattan. 0:00:49.916 --> 0:00:52.516 Wild paper streams from off his windows of Loud Broadway. 0:00:53.276 --> 0:00:55.556 Thus New York pays honor to the pilot who has 0:00:55.596 --> 0:00:57.996 carried the name of its far round the world and hermagain. 0:01:04.876 --> 0:01:08.396 Hughes even owned a Hollywood studio, directed his own movies, 0:01:08.596 --> 0:01:11.596 and squire every famous actress of the day around town. 0:01:12.236 --> 0:01:17.276 Ava Gardner, Katherine Hepburn, Lana Turner. Today we have a 0:01:17.316 --> 0:01:21.916 category for the celebrity playboy, a category for the entrepreneurial genius, 0:01:22.316 --> 0:01:26.516 a category for the eccentric billionaire. In his day, Howard 0:01:26.556 --> 0:01:32.516 Hughes was all those things all in one. But over 0:01:32.516 --> 0:01:35.076 the last twenty years of his life Hughes became a 0:01:35.116 --> 0:01:39.756 reckless He vanished from sight, never seen, never heard, with 0:01:39.876 --> 0:01:42.236 the exception of an interview he gave in the early 0:01:42.316 --> 0:01:45.556 nineteen seventies where he was asked about his relationship with 0:01:45.596 --> 0:01:47.236 a man named Clifford Irving. 0:01:48.636 --> 0:01:54.676 Yeah. I actually knew his dad, Jay. He was a 0:01:54.716 --> 0:01:58.676 funny guy, a cartoonist. I thing met him in LA 0:01:59.036 --> 0:02:02.596 when he was out on a publicity trip. Do you 0:02:02.636 --> 0:02:05.276 remember when this was nineteen. 0:02:06.836 --> 0:02:08.796 Or maybe forty one. 0:02:09.236 --> 0:02:12.636 I was shooting The Outlaw with Jane Russell. Jay came 0:02:12.796 --> 0:02:14.196 on the set. 0:02:14.716 --> 0:02:15.756 We stayed in. 0:02:15.676 --> 0:02:16.676 Touch on and off. 0:02:17.756 --> 0:02:18.916 He had a little boy with. 0:02:18.956 --> 0:02:24.116 Him, eight nine Clifford. I always thought that was an 0:02:24.156 --> 0:02:29.476 old man's name. Strange to see a kid, Clifford. 0:02:30.916 --> 0:02:32.476 The kid Clifford grew up to be a writer. 0:02:33.236 --> 0:02:35.916 One day he sent me one of his books, Out 0:02:35.916 --> 0:02:41.996 of the Blue, biography of some painter. God knows how 0:02:41.996 --> 0:02:47.716 he found me. This must have been sixty eight sixty nine, 0:02:48.436 --> 0:02:52.356 a good thirty years later, and I thought, what the hell? 0:02:53.796 --> 0:02:56.236 Every other son of a bit just told my story. 0:02:57.556 --> 0:02:58.116 Why not me? 0:03:00.756 --> 0:03:05.276 Hughes wrote back, dear mister Irving, thank you for the 0:03:05.316 --> 0:03:08.916 gift of your book, which I thoroughly enjoyed reading. It 0:03:09.196 --> 0:03:11.356 seems to me that you've portrayed your man with great 0:03:11.436 --> 0:03:14.796 consideration and sympathy when it would have been tempting to 0:03:14.836 --> 0:03:19.676 do otherwise. For reasons you may readily understand, this has 0:03:19.716 --> 0:03:23.756 impressed me yours truly, Howard R. 0:03:24.036 --> 0:03:24.396 Hughes. 0:03:25.716 --> 0:03:30.436 The note was handwritten, undated on yellow legal paper. Hughes 0:03:30.516 --> 0:03:33.636 always wrote by hand on yellow legal pads. Clifford Irving 0:03:33.676 --> 0:03:37.956 recalled years later that Hughes's handwriting quote extended well over 0:03:37.956 --> 0:03:42.636 the ruled left hand margin, the way a schoolboy might write. 0:03:42.676 --> 0:03:46.036 Clifford Irving read that note and thought, oh, this isn't 0:03:46.036 --> 0:03:48.956 a thank you for a book. It's an invitation to 0:03:48.996 --> 0:03:51.796 write a book. Hughes wants me to help him tell 0:03:51.836 --> 0:03:56.636 his story, and so Clifford Irving did in an insane 0:03:56.796 --> 0:04:03.156 and wonderful work called The Autobiography of Howard Hughes. My 0:04:03.236 --> 0:04:06.476 name is Malcolm Gladwell. You're listening to Revisionist History, my 0:04:06.636 --> 0:04:11.636 podcast about things overlooked and misunderstood. This episode is a 0:04:11.636 --> 0:04:14.436 book report like the kind you did in middle school, 0:04:14.676 --> 0:04:18.436 only with a twist. Actually a lot of twists, so 0:04:18.516 --> 0:04:25.076 many twists. Like I said, the book is kind of insane, 0:04:25.596 --> 0:04:31.036 but also wonderful. From all of us here at Revisionist History, 0:04:31.476 --> 0:04:43.916 the autobiography of Howard Hughes gets two thumbs up. When 0:04:43.956 --> 0:04:47.516 Howard Hughes disappeared from sight in the last decades of 0:04:47.556 --> 0:04:50.916 his life, it set off a frenzy of tabloid speculation. 0:04:51.636 --> 0:04:53.636 He was the most famous man in the world, and 0:04:53.676 --> 0:04:56.756 all of a sudden he was just gone. There were 0:04:56.836 --> 0:04:59.956 rumors that had gone crazy, had hair down to his waist, 0:05:00.556 --> 0:05:03.636 was living in squalor in a Vegas hotel. He'd become 0:05:03.716 --> 0:05:09.356 the American Lockness Monster, a giant exotic creature submerged to 0:05:09.436 --> 0:05:13.396 the murky depths of his own celebrity. As you can imagine. Then, 0:05:13.716 --> 0:05:17.036 the publishers at McGraw hill were dumbfounded when Clifford Irving 0:05:17.076 --> 0:05:19.596 told them that he'd been in touch with Hughes and 0:05:19.636 --> 0:05:24.276 that Hughes wanted to collaborate on his memoirs. Irving was 0:05:24.316 --> 0:05:28.076 a minor novelist, why on earth would Hughes have picked him? 0:05:28.836 --> 0:05:32.116 But then Irving explained the family connection and reminded them 0:05:32.156 --> 0:05:36.436 of Hughes's known eccentricity, and McGraw hill realized they had 0:05:36.476 --> 0:05:42.476 been handed the publishing coup of the decade. They offered 0:05:42.476 --> 0:05:45.276 a seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars advance for the book. 0:05:45.796 --> 0:05:49.516 This was in nineteen seventy one. That was an extraordinary 0:05:49.596 --> 0:05:54.236 sum of money. Irving told Hughes the news. Hughes responded 0:05:54.356 --> 0:05:57.636 immediately told Irving to check into a hotel in Manhattan 0:05:57.956 --> 0:06:01.276 and wait for a call. At three o'clock the next morning, 0:06:01.636 --> 0:06:05.156 Hughes was on the line. He summoned Irving to Wahaka 0:06:05.436 --> 0:06:08.876 in southern Mexico. There, Irving waited in a hotel for 0:06:08.956 --> 0:06:12.236 two more days until a man named Pedro called him. 0:06:12.596 --> 0:06:15.716 Pedro said, please meet me in front of the hotel. 0:06:15.956 --> 0:06:19.756 At dawn. The two men drove to the top of 0:06:19.796 --> 0:06:23.916 a mountain, pulling up alongside another car, Irving got out, 0:06:24.356 --> 0:06:27.316 slid in on the passenger side, and there he was. 0:06:28.796 --> 0:06:31.356 Irving would later write this of his first encounter with 0:06:31.396 --> 0:06:35.756 the mysterious Hues. He wore a cheap, short sleeved shirt 0:06:36.036 --> 0:06:40.356 of nondescript color, a tan cardigan with a button missing, 0:06:40.836 --> 0:06:44.316 creaseless brown slacks, and a pair of loafers into which 0:06:44.316 --> 0:06:47.756 his socks somehow always managed to slip and vanish, so 0:06:47.796 --> 0:06:50.156 that when he crossed his legs. There was a gap 0:06:50.196 --> 0:06:53.636 of bony white chin between the sliding sock and the 0:06:53.676 --> 0:06:59.116 trouser cuff. The two men then began an extraordinary partnership. 0:06:59.756 --> 0:07:02.316 Over the next few months, they would meet for mammoth 0:07:02.356 --> 0:07:06.316 interview sessions in Paradise Island and the Bahamas, Palm Beach, 0:07:06.436 --> 0:07:11.396 Puerto Rico. Irving recorded hours and hours of Hughes's recollections. 0:07:11.996 --> 0:07:14.996 The result was a book told entirely in Hughes's voice 0:07:15.316 --> 0:07:18.396 that in manuscript form ran to more than a thousand pages. 0:07:19.636 --> 0:07:23.276 Anticipation for the autobiography ran so high that Irving was 0:07:23.276 --> 0:07:26.516 booked on sixty minutes for a sit down with Mike Wallace. 0:07:27.756 --> 0:07:29.316 Is he a good looking man still? 0:07:31.116 --> 0:07:34.196 He has the good looks of a man who once 0:07:34.356 --> 0:07:37.556 was extremely handsome and has dignity in his face. 0:07:37.836 --> 0:07:38.756 Does he wear a beard? 0:07:40.356 --> 0:07:44.636 Not a real one? Not a real one. What I 0:07:44.716 --> 0:07:48.236 mean is he has on occasion worn false beards and 0:07:48.316 --> 0:07:51.796 false mustaches and wigs. With you, Mike, I said, there's 0:07:51.796 --> 0:07:54.556 a James Bond set up here that's out of the 0:07:54.596 --> 0:07:58.676 worst possible detective novel you could ever read. 0:08:00.036 --> 0:08:02.836 Everyone was hungry to know about the mysterious Howard Hughes. 0:08:03.196 --> 0:08:07.356 Clifford Irving held press conferences. Life Magazine paid a fortune 0:08:07.356 --> 0:08:10.116 to run excerpts of the forthcoming out of biography. The 0:08:10.196 --> 0:08:13.596 bidding for paperback rights went through. The roof the world 0:08:13.636 --> 0:08:17.316 thought the Autobiography of Howard Hughes would sell millions upon 0:08:17.396 --> 0:08:26.436 millions of copies, except mcgrahill never published it. No one 0:08:26.436 --> 0:08:29.676 did until nineteen ninety nine, when a now defunct outfit 0:08:29.756 --> 0:08:33.956 called www dot Terrific Books dot Com out of Santa Fe, 0:08:33.956 --> 0:08:37.836 New Mexico, printed it up and put it for sale online. 0:08:37.916 --> 0:08:40.236 I found my copy in the Ugh's bookstore in England. 0:08:40.876 --> 0:08:48.396 The Autobiography of Howard Hughes all but disappeared. And why 0:08:49.556 --> 0:08:51.756 because just as the book was about to come out, 0:08:52.116 --> 0:08:57.596 Howard Hughes called a press conference. He was in his 0:08:57.676 --> 0:09:01.076 penthouse suite at the Britannia Beach Hotel on Paradise Island 0:09:01.116 --> 0:09:05.756 in Nassau, speaking to an assembled group of journalists by phone. Because, 0:09:05.756 --> 0:09:08.596 of course, Howard Hughes never showed his face in public. 0:09:09.236 --> 0:09:11.996 Hughes declared that he'd never met Clifford Irving. 0:09:12.916 --> 0:09:19.836 Ever, Well, this must go down in history. I only 0:09:19.876 --> 0:09:23.516 wish I was still in the movie business because I 0:09:23.556 --> 0:09:31.356 don't remember any scripts as wild or as uh stretching 0:09:31.436 --> 0:09:35.676 of the imagination is this yarn has turned out to be. 0:09:36.596 --> 0:09:38.756 I'm not talking about the biography s over, because I've 0:09:38.796 --> 0:09:39.356 never read it. 0:09:40.276 --> 0:09:45.436 Howard Hughes says he's never read or seen or participated in, 0:09:46.116 --> 0:09:48.916 or even heard of the book that's supposed to be 0:09:48.956 --> 0:09:50.196 his own autobiography. 0:09:51.036 --> 0:09:53.596 I don't know what's in it, but I mean, this 0:09:53.796 --> 0:10:00.996 episode is just so fantastic that it taxes your imagination 0:10:01.196 --> 0:10:03.556 to believe in a thing like this could happen. Norm 0:10:03.676 --> 0:10:05.836 I never saw him, I never even heard of him 0:10:05.876 --> 0:10:12.196 until days ago, when this thing first came to my attention. 0:10:17.316 --> 0:10:21.516 Can you believe it? Everything was made up? The autobiography 0:10:21.596 --> 0:10:24.356 was a work of fiction. Howard Hughes never wrote Clifford 0:10:24.356 --> 0:10:26.796 Irving a letter on a yellow legal pad. The two 0:10:26.836 --> 0:10:29.196 of them never met in Wahaka or Palm Beach or 0:10:29.236 --> 0:10:32.076 Puerto Rico. And as for the interview with Hughes about 0:10:32.076 --> 0:10:34.716 meeting Clifford Irving as a kid, I made that one 0:10:34.796 --> 0:10:39.676 up just to get in the spirit of things for 0:10:39.796 --> 0:10:42.516 a brief moment in the literary life of nineteen seventy 0:10:42.516 --> 0:10:46.516 two America. Clifford Irving was a major scandal. He wound 0:10:46.596 --> 0:10:49.676 up in prison, his marriage fell apart. He tried to 0:10:49.716 --> 0:10:53.276 capitalize on his hoax with a memoir called The Hoax. 0:10:53.916 --> 0:10:55.676 It was made into a movie with Witch of Gear, 0:10:56.036 --> 0:10:59.956 which Irving hated in yet another of Irving's many feats 0:10:59.956 --> 0:11:02.956 of hutzba because he thought it took too many liberties 0:11:02.996 --> 0:11:06.636 with the truth. But I'm not all that interested in 0:11:06.716 --> 0:11:10.716 Irving the hoaxer. I'm more interested in the hoax e 0:11:11.396 --> 0:11:15.716 Howard Hughes. This entire book report is really just a 0:11:15.796 --> 0:11:21.196 meditation on those two absolutely baffling sentences from the real 0:11:21.276 --> 0:11:24.836 Howard Hughes' phone call with the media. I never read it. 0:11:25.756 --> 0:11:30.316 I don't know what's in it. An accomplished writer writes 0:11:30.356 --> 0:11:33.276 a fake autobiography of you, and you set out to 0:11:33.316 --> 0:11:36.596 squash it. You make it disappear, turn it from what 0:11:36.636 --> 0:11:39.836 would have been an enormous bestseller into something you can 0:11:39.876 --> 0:11:43.796 only get years later from terrific books dot com. And 0:11:43.836 --> 0:11:48.596 you didn't even read it, Oh, Howard, you idiot? 0:11:55.156 --> 0:11:58.036 Well what if fact made you decide to pull this hoax? 0:11:58.996 --> 0:12:01.836 After he was discovered, Clifford Irvings sat down with one 0:12:01.916 --> 0:12:06.116 journalist after another trying to explain himself. This is an 0:12:06.156 --> 0:12:08.716 interview with the BBC, but all the interviews he did 0:12:08.716 --> 0:12:13.516 are the same. Basically, Irving can't explain himself well. 0:12:13.716 --> 0:12:17.476 Undoubtedly some streak of lunacy, a screw loose somewhere, spirit 0:12:17.516 --> 0:12:23.556 of adventure agreed. The literary challenge involved middle aged bored him, 0:12:23.556 --> 0:12:26.396 a whole combination of things. It's a lot easier after 0:12:27.116 --> 0:12:30.276 the event to analyze why you did what you did, 0:12:30.316 --> 0:12:32.956 but generally you're wrong. I don't really know deep down 0:12:32.996 --> 0:12:33.596 why I did it. 0:12:34.036 --> 0:12:37.716 Irving wasn't desperate or broke. He was a pretty successful writer. 0:12:38.196 --> 0:12:40.276 He had a four book deal with McGraw hill for 0:12:40.316 --> 0:12:42.956 one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, which would be close 0:12:42.996 --> 0:12:46.516 to a million today. Irving lived in a charming seventeenth 0:12:46.596 --> 0:12:50.196 century finca on the island of Ibiza. He was handsome 0:12:50.236 --> 0:12:53.356 and dashing. He had a beautiful wife and two small boys, 0:12:53.876 --> 0:12:57.676 plus a mistress, a blonde Danish aristocrat who was also 0:12:57.756 --> 0:13:01.716 a world famous calypso singer. Apparently, because in the nineteen 0:13:01.716 --> 0:13:05.316 seventies you could be a blonde Danish aristocrat and still 0:13:05.396 --> 0:13:10.356 plausibly call yourself a calypso singer. Why did Irving risk 0:13:10.436 --> 0:13:14.676 it all for a hoax? Irving died in twenty seventeen, 0:13:14.996 --> 0:13:19.156 but he planted some clues scattered throughout the various autobiographical 0:13:19.156 --> 0:13:22.916 accounts he left behind. For instance, there's his run in 0:13:23.556 --> 0:13:27.796 with Chief Red Fox. Chief Red Fox was a Sioux 0:13:27.836 --> 0:13:30.556 Indian actor and performer who was a kind of minor 0:13:30.676 --> 0:13:34.756 celebrity in the late nineteen sixties and seventies. He claimed 0:13:34.756 --> 0:13:37.916 to be the nephew of the famed Sioux Chief Crazy Horse, 0:13:38.476 --> 0:13:41.676 and he made no less than five appearances on The 0:13:41.756 --> 0:13:42.716 Johnny Carson Show. 0:13:43.436 --> 0:13:45.316 Huh Ma, asked when you were born, Chief, I was 0:13:45.316 --> 0:13:47.556 born June eleventh, eighteen seventies. 0:13:49.476 --> 0:13:52.516 This was nineteen sixty seven, which would have made Chief 0:13:52.516 --> 0:13:55.076 Red Fox ninety seven years old. 0:13:55.596 --> 0:13:56.396 Ah, yes, you. 0:13:56.516 --> 0:13:58.396 Want to know what kept me so young? 0:14:01.796 --> 0:14:02.636 The show biz? 0:14:04.036 --> 0:14:05.956 Yes, park me, but. 0:14:06.076 --> 0:14:09.396 Smoking eighteens good cigars each day. 0:14:10.316 --> 0:14:12.996 Eighteen Chief Fred Fox got a big book deal from 0:14:13.076 --> 0:14:16.356 McGraw hill for his memoirs, but when Irving met him 0:14:16.356 --> 0:14:19.276 at Red Fox's book party in Manhattan, he came away 0:14:19.316 --> 0:14:22.556 convinced the Chief was neither a chief nor close to 0:14:22.636 --> 0:14:25.436 one hundred years old, and in fact, and I'm quoting 0:14:25.516 --> 0:14:29.916 now he resembled nothing so much as an old retired 0:14:29.996 --> 0:14:33.956 shopkeeper sitting on the stoop of a Brooklyn tenement, rattling 0:14:33.996 --> 0:14:37.876 on about his youth. Just imagine what must have gone 0:14:37.916 --> 0:14:41.956 through Irving's mind. This guy can get a big publishing deal. 0:14:43.116 --> 0:14:46.836 Then there's the book Irving wrote just before his Hughes autobiography. 0:14:47.436 --> 0:14:50.756 That one was called and you can't make this up fake, 0:14:51.756 --> 0:14:55.676 It's nonfiction, the biography of one of Irving's friends from Ibiza, 0:14:55.956 --> 0:15:04.676 an accomplished art forger named Elmir Dehoy, whose real name, 0:15:04.756 --> 0:15:08.436 it turns out, was probably not Elmir Dhore but whatever, 0:15:11.876 --> 0:15:14.756 in one of the many byzantine twists to the Irving story. 0:15:14.956 --> 0:15:16.916 And as I warned you, there are a mountain of 0:15:16.956 --> 0:15:20.676 twists here. Orson Wells option fake and did a kind 0:15:20.676 --> 0:15:25.236 of postmodern documentary on Dhore. It's Wells's next to last 0:15:25.236 --> 0:15:28.476 film and maybe his least watchable. But there's a fantastic 0:15:28.556 --> 0:15:32.356 moment where Wells interviews Irving about Dehoy's technique. 0:15:33.436 --> 0:15:35.836 And I asked Elia to do three drawings for me, too, 0:15:35.876 --> 0:15:39.996 Matisse and a Modiliani, which he did before lunch, and 0:15:40.116 --> 0:15:41.876 put a little coffee stain on the edge of the 0:15:41.876 --> 0:15:45.596 MODORIANI to make it look really as if Modiliani had 0:15:45.596 --> 0:15:48.556 done it in some Paris cafe. I then took the 0:15:48.596 --> 0:15:51.556 three drawings to the Museum of Modern Art. The museum 0:15:51.996 --> 0:15:55.516 examined them for two hours and came back with the 0:15:55.636 --> 0:15:58.516 verdict that they were absolutely genuine, and in fact were 0:15:58.516 --> 0:16:00.476 horrified that I wanted to sell them. 0:16:00.996 --> 0:16:05.596 Two Matisis and a Medigliani painted before lunch by elmir 0:16:05.716 --> 0:16:11.796 Dehoy and verified by the Museum of Modern Art. The 0:16:11.836 --> 0:16:14.916 point is Clifford Irving did not have good role models. 0:16:15.436 --> 0:16:17.996 He was surrounded by people who got away with making 0:16:18.036 --> 0:16:22.156 things up. So one day he gets together with one 0:16:22.196 --> 0:16:25.396 of his best friends, a writer named Dick Suskind, and 0:16:25.476 --> 0:16:29.276 he says, hey, Dick, why don't we try this forgery 0:16:29.316 --> 0:16:34.116 thing for ourselves. Let's forge an autobiography of the most 0:16:34.116 --> 0:16:35.276 famous man in the world. 0:16:36.116 --> 0:16:37.516 Why in f how did you choose Hughes. 0:16:38.356 --> 0:16:40.476 He was there, like Mount Everest to be climbed. He 0:16:40.476 --> 0:16:43.236 was inaccessible, and no one had interviewed him in the 0:16:43.316 --> 0:16:47.436 last twenty years, and he could not step forward in public, 0:16:48.196 --> 0:16:52.276 in court or in person to the media or anybody 0:16:52.316 --> 0:16:52.916 to deny it. 0:16:53.516 --> 0:16:57.356 Irving's gamble was that Hughes wouldn't say anything. The man was, 0:16:57.396 --> 0:17:00.396 after all, a complete reckless and if he did write 0:17:00.436 --> 0:17:04.076 an angry denial, no one would believe him. Irving could 0:17:04.116 --> 0:17:07.916 simply say, that's not really Hughes, that's an impostor. And 0:17:07.956 --> 0:17:10.836 who would know. When I said that Hughes was like 0:17:10.916 --> 0:17:14.036 the loch Ness Monster, I meant it. There was a 0:17:14.036 --> 0:17:18.276 constant swirl of tabloid gossip and innuendo and speculation about him, 0:17:18.676 --> 0:17:20.836 and no one knew what was true or what was 0:17:20.876 --> 0:17:25.956 made up. Worst case scenario, Hughes does come forward and 0:17:26.036 --> 0:17:29.876 denounces the autobiography and convinces everyone that he is in 0:17:29.916 --> 0:17:33.116 fact Howard Hughes. But then Irving figures it's still okay. 0:17:33.676 --> 0:17:40.876 He can say I was duped. Irving tells his publisher 0:17:41.276 --> 0:17:44.636 that Hughes has strict conditions for co operating on the book. 0:17:45.476 --> 0:17:50.476 One condition is it only he Irving connectes gobtuim. Irving 0:17:50.716 --> 0:17:53.916 will handle the money. Then he tells mc graw hill 0:17:54.116 --> 0:17:56.636 to make out the seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars 0:17:56.636 --> 0:18:02.676 advance to h R. Hughes initials only crucial detail because 0:18:02.676 --> 0:18:05.436 once he has the check, Irving then takes one of 0:18:05.476 --> 0:18:09.516 his wife's old passports. She's Swiss, and he forged a 0:18:09.556 --> 0:18:14.236 new name in it, Helga Bernade Hughes and has her 0:18:14.356 --> 0:18:17.476 used that fake passport to open a Swiss bank account 0:18:17.596 --> 0:18:21.476 in the name of H. R. Hughes, and just like 0:18:21.516 --> 0:18:27.796 that they're rich. It's so brilliant he could easily have 0:18:27.836 --> 0:18:28.676 gotten away with it. 0:18:30.116 --> 0:18:32.996 How do you set about writing a book inventing the story? 0:18:33.396 --> 0:18:35.796 Well, my collaborator, Dik Sessket, and I did an awful 0:18:35.836 --> 0:18:38.556 lot of hard research. We traveled back and forth across 0:18:38.556 --> 0:18:42.516 the United States and wherever we could through libraries, newspaper 0:18:42.556 --> 0:18:46.356 files to get information on Hughes. We amassed a huge 0:18:46.356 --> 0:18:48.636 amount of data, and we had access to Time Life 0:18:48.756 --> 0:18:50.676 Secret files, which were excellent. 0:18:51.196 --> 0:18:54.636 What they're interested in most is Hughes's speech patterns, his 0:18:54.716 --> 0:18:58.716 expressions and inflections. The book was written as one long 0:18:58.756 --> 0:19:02.076 conversation between Irving and Hughes, so they wanted their fake 0:19:02.196 --> 0:19:05.356 Q and A with Hughes to feel real, particularly to 0:19:05.396 --> 0:19:08.476 those who had years ago met the real Hughes and 0:19:08.556 --> 0:19:11.476 knew how he talked. Irving would come up with a 0:19:11.516 --> 0:19:16.116 story about how Hughes had summoned him palm Springs the Bahamas. 0:19:16.596 --> 0:19:20.196 Then he and Dick Suskan would fly there, check into 0:19:20.236 --> 0:19:24.636 a hotel, generate receipts, go through all the motions in 0:19:24.716 --> 0:19:28.076 order to have the most perfect cover story, and then 0:19:28.396 --> 0:19:31.556 hang out in their hotel room and actually conduct the 0:19:31.676 --> 0:19:33.156 quote unquote interview. 0:19:33.676 --> 0:19:34.996 I mean, what do you do? Sit down and talk 0:19:35.036 --> 0:19:35.396 to each other. 0:19:35.556 --> 0:19:37.676 Just sat down, put a tape recorder going. I said, 0:19:37.716 --> 0:19:40.276 I've got to hang over today, Ub Howard, I'll be Clifford. 0:19:40.996 --> 0:19:44.236 And after a while, when that turnstile, we'd switch rolls. 0:19:44.356 --> 0:19:47.756 And then we edited the tapes, erased them because we 0:19:47.796 --> 0:19:49.836 didn't want them to fall in the hands of anybody else. 0:19:51.036 --> 0:19:54.956 And then after it was all typed and transcribed, we 0:19:55.116 --> 0:19:56.796 edited it to make it even more interesting. 0:19:57.596 --> 0:20:03.516 And the result fools everyone everyone. His publishers at mcgrahill 0:20:03.596 --> 0:20:06.676 read the manuscript, go over it with a fine toothcomb, 0:20:07.036 --> 0:20:10.476 give it to their lawyers, show it to Scout Irving 0:20:10.636 --> 0:20:13.836 Forge's letters that are supposed to be from Hughes. Mcgrohill 0:20:13.996 --> 0:20:19.476 asks handwriting experts to verify their authenticity. They do. People 0:20:19.516 --> 0:20:23.116 who read the manuscript who know Hughes come away saying, 0:20:23.356 --> 0:20:26.596 this is Howard. It could only be Howard. It's Howard's voice, 0:20:26.636 --> 0:20:29.836 his phrases, his way of thinking. Only a handful of 0:20:29.836 --> 0:20:33.676 people expressed any doubts, like Mike Wallace of sixty Minutes, 0:20:33.836 --> 0:20:38.756 famously the toughest, most skeptical, most unrelenting journalist in America. 0:20:39.356 --> 0:20:42.876 Were there any witnesses to your meetings with Howard Hughes 0:20:43.796 --> 0:20:45.236 any other human beings? 0:20:45.316 --> 0:20:45.516 Yes? 0:20:45.556 --> 0:20:45.836 There were? 0:20:45.956 --> 0:20:50.196 Who a researcher my name, A man named Richard Suskin. 0:20:50.756 --> 0:20:54.996 Irving says, Dick Suskan Mike collaborator, and then he adds 0:20:55.356 --> 0:20:57.596 a little perfect whimsical touch. 0:20:57.956 --> 0:21:00.596 And how accidentally happened to be sitting with me in 0:21:00.636 --> 0:21:05.356 a room when Hughes arrived too early. Suskand stood there. 0:21:05.516 --> 0:21:09.556 Hughes stood there, I stood there, and finally I said, well, 0:21:09.836 --> 0:21:13.476 this is Dick Suskin, who's doing some research for me 0:21:13.556 --> 0:21:17.876 on a project. And Hughes said, I suppose you know 0:21:17.916 --> 0:21:23.116 who I am? Suskan. Unfortunately, instead of taking that opportunity 0:21:23.116 --> 0:21:25.396 to slip out of the room, said yes I do, 0:21:25.556 --> 0:21:27.236 mister Hughes, how do you do? He started a stick 0:21:27.276 --> 0:21:29.636 out his hand and withdrew it instantly, because Hughes is 0:21:29.676 --> 0:21:35.916 not very keen on shaking hands, and then, after another 0:21:35.956 --> 0:21:40.836 moment of awkward silence, Hughes reached into his pocket and 0:21:41.436 --> 0:21:44.276 pulled out a bag. We still disagree. I say it 0:21:44.316 --> 0:21:47.076 was a cellophane bag. Suskan says it was a paper bag. 0:21:47.796 --> 0:21:51.436 And he said to Dick Suskin to have a prune. 0:21:52.716 --> 0:21:55.556 Hughes carries a bag of prunes in his pocket, of 0:21:55.556 --> 0:21:58.956 course he does. Irving tells the story to Mike Wallace 0:21:58.996 --> 0:22:01.836 as they sit in overstuffed armchairs in front of a fireplace. 0:22:02.716 --> 0:22:06.236 Wallace then turns to the audience and concludes. 0:22:06.676 --> 0:22:09.276 Is the autobiography genuine? 0:22:09.476 --> 0:22:09.596 Well? 0:22:09.636 --> 0:22:11.876 I can only say that it is laced with detail 0:22:11.956 --> 0:22:14.276 that one would think that only Howard Hughes could know. 0:22:15.156 --> 0:22:21.156 Mike Wallace can't shake Irving's story. Irving's that good. Now, 0:22:21.236 --> 0:22:23.436 if you detect a certain affection in my voice for 0:22:23.436 --> 0:22:26.796 Clifford Irving, you won't be wrong. I mean, the whole 0:22:26.796 --> 0:22:30.196 thing is just so audacious. He's pranking the whole literary world, 0:22:30.356 --> 0:22:33.076 plus one of the world's richest men. The stuffed shirts 0:22:33.076 --> 0:22:36.356 at sixty minutes, the Swiss banking system, on and on. 0:22:36.876 --> 0:22:40.556 This is the irresistible temptation with the Irving hoax to 0:22:40.596 --> 0:22:43.636 get caught up in the wild genius of Clifford Irving. 0:22:44.876 --> 0:22:48.716 But like I said, this episode isn't about Clifford Irving, 0:22:49.076 --> 0:23:02.036 It's about Howard Hughes. Howard Hughes was born outside of 0:23:02.076 --> 0:23:05.196 Houston in nineteen oh five. His father was in the 0:23:05.196 --> 0:23:08.076 oil business and made a fortune by inventing a new 0:23:08.156 --> 0:23:11.516 drill bit for oil ill wells. Hughes's mother died when 0:23:11.556 --> 0:23:14.476 he was sixteen and his father died when he was eighteen, 0:23:14.996 --> 0:23:20.676 turning Hughes into one of the wealthiest orphans in America. 0:23:19.396 --> 0:23:23.036 Making news then as now millionaire sportsman and industrialist. Howard 0:23:23.116 --> 0:23:26.396 Hughes unveiled his new mystery plane in Los Angeles, Racer, 0:23:26.476 --> 0:23:29.796 most of a thousand horse power motorold outstrip any plane 0:23:29.796 --> 0:23:33.356 ever built in America. 0:23:33.396 --> 0:23:37.316 Almost immediately, Howard Hughes moved to Los Angeles, and there 0:23:37.356 --> 0:23:41.876 he took up the three great passions of his life airplanes, movies, 0:23:42.276 --> 0:23:46.276 and women. He founded an aviation company, he bought a 0:23:46.316 --> 0:23:52.276 movie studio Rko Pictures, and he pursued beautiful actresses obsessively 0:23:52.636 --> 0:23:58.796 and compulsively. How much genuine charm and chrismon does he 0:23:58.916 --> 0:24:02.356 have and how much is it simply a transaction on 0:24:02.516 --> 0:24:04.836 both sides of the of the relationship. 0:24:05.036 --> 0:24:06.636 I think it depended on the woman. 0:24:07.156 --> 0:24:10.956 I'm talking with. Kareeina Longworth, author of the most fascinating 0:24:10.956 --> 0:24:13.796 of the Howard Hughes biographies, of which there are many. 0:24:14.236 --> 0:24:18.276 Hers is called Seduction, Sex, Lies, and Stardom in Howard 0:24:18.316 --> 0:24:19.676 Hughes's Hollywood. 0:24:19.756 --> 0:24:25.116 And certainly I think later there was very little true 0:24:25.196 --> 0:24:29.276 feeling in these relationships. But Billy Dove, the silent film actress, 0:24:29.316 --> 0:24:32.916 who was his first major girlfriend in Hollywood, she reported 0:24:32.956 --> 0:24:36.076 feeling like they were really in love. Katherine Hepburn and 0:24:36.116 --> 0:24:39.476 her memoirs paints a picture of them being really in love, 0:24:40.556 --> 0:24:45.276 which I've chosen to believe, even though there has been 0:24:45.316 --> 0:24:48.396 some skepticism about Katherine Hepburn in terms of her relationships 0:24:48.396 --> 0:24:49.516 with men, just. 0:24:49.476 --> 0:24:53.076 Seems to be just on reading your book. Deterioration and 0:24:53.116 --> 0:24:55.996 the quality of his relationships over time. 0:24:56.796 --> 0:24:59.556 Yeah, I mean, I do think he got the part 0:24:59.596 --> 0:25:02.836 of his personality that was more of a collector started 0:25:02.836 --> 0:25:06.596 to take over, and so it became less about being 0:25:06.636 --> 0:25:10.396 associated with one woman, one usual, one very famous woman, 0:25:10.956 --> 0:25:14.036 and more about making sure his bases were covered so 0:25:14.076 --> 0:25:16.236 that if he lost one, he'd have three more. 0:25:18.636 --> 0:25:22.236 Ostensibly, Hughes was looking for actresses to star in movies, 0:25:22.716 --> 0:25:25.956 but his studio really didn't make that many movies, and 0:25:26.036 --> 0:25:29.756 after he sold his studio, he still kept collecting young actresses. 0:25:30.396 --> 0:25:34.316 He would stash them around Los Angeles in houses and apartments, 0:25:34.356 --> 0:25:39.756 each with their own minder. Longwerre says that sometimes people 0:25:39.796 --> 0:25:43.516 compare Hughes to Harvey Weinstein, but to her, that's an 0:25:43.556 --> 0:25:50.316