Many people know about Howard Hughes, Americas first billionaire. He was an aviation engineer, an Oscar-winning motion picture producer and director, and a hotel and casino owner in Las Vegas and Reno, with seven establishments. He built the biggest airplane in the world at the timeknown as the Spruce Gooseand the Glormar Explorer supership for the CIA. He owned RKO Motion Picture Studios in Hollywood, as well as tens of thousands of acres in California, Nevada, and Texas. Fewer people, however, know the Howard Hughes of the neon world of Las Vegas in the 1970s. Reclusive and eccentric, Hughes spent his later years surrounded by Mormon aides who insulated him from outsiders. This collection of biographical anecdotes includes stories of the power players of the timecelebrities, famous actresses, and the Las Vegas Mafiaas well as tales of Hughess bevy of less-well-known ladies. Told by an insider who knew Hughes in that era, these stories reveal new aspects of an American icon, set against the background of Sin City, the town he loved so much. John has captured a fascinating era here; I know I was there. Alvin Zuckert, Emmy-award winning television director Johns book caused me to relive an exciting and wonderful time in my life. There were sides of Hughes you never knew existed until now! Ted West, engineer for Hughes Television, KLAS-TV and FOX-TV, Las Vegas, Nevada No crapshoot here; Johns got an absolute winner. Gary Marlow, technical director for Hughes Television, KLAS-TV, Las Vegas, Nevada

Money can buy everything. Robert A Maheu was the best former FBI counter intelligence spy that money could buy. And Howard Hughes bought him. Maheu climbed up the power ladder in the Hughes organization, until he became Hughes' alter ego and finally Maheu was running the whole Hughes Nevada Empire.Then Maheu became involved in an ugly corporate struggle within the empire. He was instantly fired from his $520,000 a year post by Hughes aides. But the forces of Howard Hughes didn't reckon on one man telling all - one man who knew all. Maheu fought back - he sued Hughes for $50 Million. MAHEU:Reveals why he was fired.Discloses how his attorney, Morton Galane, forced the Hughes empire to reveal the names of the five mystery men (better known as "The Palace Guard") who constantly surrounded the billionaire and kept him hidden from the outside world.Describes the pressure brought on his family and him. Explains the operations of International Intelligence âAgencyâ - in the sole employment of Hughes. Brings to light how he discovered there was a price on his head.Discloses why Hughes was a security risk to the United States. Unfolds Hughes' mad craving for power - his belief that he was more powerful than the President - his desire to control history. Tells the functions of the Hughes Tool Company, among other Hughes ventures. Reveals that Howard Hughes was not living in the Bahamas and tells us where . . . and shows us.

Howard Hughes was America's first billionaire. He was an Aviator (As seen in the movie about him 'The Aviator') He was an Oscar winning Motion Picture Producer, He owned TWA and Hughes Air West, Six hotels in Las Vegas and one in Reno, Hughes Tool Co. in Houston, TX and The RKO Motion Picture Studios, in Hollywood. Hughes spent his later years surrounded by Mormon aides who insulated him from outsiders. It's the true story of Howard Hughes' last years.

Howard Hughes was one of the most amazing, intriguing, and controversial figures of the twentieth century. He was the billionaire head of a giant corporation, a genius inventor, an ace pilot, a matinee-idol-handsome playboy, a major movie maker who bedded a long list of Hollywood glamour queens, a sexual sultan with a harem of teenage consorts, a political insider with intimate ties to Watergate, a Las Vegas kingpin, and ultimately a bizarre recluse whose final years and shocking death were cloaked in macabre mystery. Now he is the subject of Martin Scorsese's biopic The Aviator. Few people have been able to penetrate the wall of secrecy that enshrouded this complex man. In this fascinating, revelation-packed biography, the full story of one of the most daring, enigmatic, and reclusive power brokers America has ever known is finally told.

The life that inspired the major motion picture The Aviator, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese. Howard Hughes has always fascinated the public with his mixture of secrecy, dashing lifestyle, and reclusiveness. This is the book that breaks through the image to get at the man. Originally published under the title Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes.

"In December of 1967, two men came together in the loneliness of the Nevada desert. One was a billionaire - the richest man in America at the time - the other was a regular guy, a working stiff. The billionaire was found lying face-down on a dirt road. He had long hair and blood caked on the side of his head and he was dressed like a bum." "As the car's heater warmed, the half-frozen man came alive. The revived vagrant seemed to want to impress his rescuer. He announced that he was Howard Hughes. Melvin Dummar smiled at the man's improbable pronouncement. How could this unkept bum be Howard Hughes? Dummar drove on feeling sympathy for the hobo beside him." "When Hughes died, there was the startling discovery: the Bashful Billionaire had written Melvin Dummar, the Mormon Church, and several other unlikely characters into his will before his death. According to the handwritten will, Dummar was an heir to one sixteenth of the vast Hughes fortune." "A trial to decide the authenticity of the will turned into a media circus - the likes of which this country had never seen before. By the time the judicial fog had lifted, Melvin Dummar, the Good Samaritan in this story, was left broke, his reputation tarnished." "Thirty-eight years later, a 26-year veteran of the FBI revisits the cold case. He takes readers along on an exciting, real-life investigation where new evidence is unearthed and new witnesses uncovered." "Gary Magnesen proves Dummar told the truth, and that he was robbed of $150 million dollars in a probate trial that was wrought with perjury, witness intimidation, jury tampering, and other wrongdoing."--BOOK JACKET.

In this lively and probing book, award-winning author Pete Earley traces the extraordinary evolution of Las Vegas -- from the gaudy Mecca of the Rat Pack era to one of the country's top family vacation spots. He revisits the city's checkered history of moguls, mobsters, and entertainers, reveals the real stories of well-known power brokers like Steve Wynn and legends like Howard Hughes and Bugsy Siegel, and offers a fascinating portrait of the life, death, and fantastic rebirth of the Las Vegas Strip. Earley also documents the gripping tale of the entrepreneurs behind the rise and fall and rise again of one of the largest gaming corporations in the nation, Circus Circus -- to which he was given unique access. In his trademark you-are-there style, he takes us behind the scenes to meet the blackjack dealers and hookers, the heavy hitters and bit players, the security officers, cabbies, and showgirls who are caught up in the mercurial pace that pulses at the heart of this astounding city.

Nobody was closer to the source of Howard Hughes's vast influence than Robert Maheu, and nobody witnessed his catastrophic descent more closely. Maheu made all Hughes's business deals and represented him and his holdings to the outside world for 13 years. Now he tells the shocking true story behind the life and death of this powerful man. Photographs.