“Get the hell out of here or we’ll throw your butt out,” growled Kolod. New Year’s, one of Las Vegas’ busiest holidays, was looming, and the suites had been promised to high rollers. Moe Dalitz and Ruby Kolod, co-owners of the Desert Inn, were furious. Check-out time came and went, and Hughes didn’t move. In 1966, the Desert Inn rented Hughes its entire top floor of high-roller suites, and the floor below it, for 10 days only. I want people to pay attention when I talk.” “I’m sick and tired of being a small fish in the big pond of Southern California,” Hughes complained. But his king was unhappy, and still wanted to move to Nevada. In addition to a $520,000 yearly salary, Maheu had an unlimited expense account, access to Hughes’ jet and the social status of a Saxon lord. Maheu believes Hughes went into seclusion because he was going deaf, and was too proud to wear a hearing aid.īy 1961, Maheu had moved from Washington to Los Angeles to become Hughes’ surrogate. Communications were always by phone or memo. “He decided that he wanted me to become his alter ego so he would never have to make a public appearance.” Maheu, a former FBI special agent, was regularly taking assignments, thwarting blackmailers, spying on Hughes’ girlfriends, and increasingly, acting as personal emissary. However, his key executives and technicians at Hughes Aircraft had flatly refused to be exiled to the desert, and the “Husite” property remained vacant.īy 1957, Hughes was seriously drug-addicted and in total isolation. He had felt oppressed since California levied an income tax in 1935. In 1950, he announced Hughes Aircraft would move from Culver City, Calif., to a 25,000-acre tract west of Las Vegas. The crash broke nearly every bone in his body, and doctors administered morphine liberally to ease his intense pain, beginning a lifelong addiction to opiates.Įven so, he remained a regular visitor to Las Vegas casinos during the 1940s and ’50s, seen occasionally at the tables, more often escorting a gorgeous young woman into a restaurant or showroom. In 1946, while test-piloting the XF-11 photo reconnaissance plane, Hughes crashed the plane in Beverly Hills, Calif. After his round-the-world flight of 1938, he became a national hero on par with Charles Lindburgh. Meanwhile, Hughes cultivated his image as the playboy filmmaker who discovered Jean Harlow and Jane Russell the daredevil aviator who broke speed records in airplanes he designed. Except for a brief period in 1961, they lived apart. His second wife, actress Jean Peters, married Hughes in Tonopah in 1957, divorced him in 1970. He kept her isolated at home for weeks, and she returned to Houston and divorced him in 1929. In June, 1925, Hughes married Houston socialite Ella Rice and they moved to Hollywood. “He was delivering Howard profits of $50 (million) to $55 million a year. “There is no doubt about it,” affirms Maheu. Most historians agree that it was Dietrich who transformed Hughes from a wealthy man to a billionaire.
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In Los Angeles, Hughes met Noah Dietrich, a former race-car driver turned accountant, and hired him in 1925. By the time it was over, Hughes owned all stock in the company and had alienated his entire family. Not content to be the majority stockholder in a family business, he tried to buy his relatives’ stock. Instead, he dropped out and announced his plans to take over his father’s tool company. His uncle, Rupert Hughes, and the rest of his extensive family expected the orphaned 18-year-old to finish Rice University.
The first bit that could easily penetrate solid rock, it revolutionized oil drilling, and made Hughes and Sharp rich. The Hughes fortune is based on a drill bit patented in 1909 by Howard Hughes Sr. “I have had the heads of large corporate entities tell me they would never have thought of coming here before Hughes came.” Maheu, who spent 13 years working for Hughes. “He cleaned up the image of Las Vegas,” said Robert A. If one of the richest men in the world, one of the nation’s largest defense contractors and a genuine national hero, was willing to invest in Las Vegas, it must not be such a sordid, evil place after all. Just by showing up, Hughes changed Las Vegas forever. Mob activity declined during Hughes’ four years in Las Vegas, partly because he bought out many of the old-timers, but more because the federal government was turning up the heat. He would de-mob Las Vegas, make the city safe for legitimate business. The eccentric billionaire, it was speculated, was on a mission.
The good news came when billionaire Howard Hughes arrived quietly and began buying casinos and real estate. The bad news was that mobsters were skimming Las Vegas casinos. The year 1966 brought Las Vegas bad news, and good news.
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