By: Wanda

Wanda — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:58:32 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing this information with our readers, Ryan. Even though I am quite conversant with Howard Hughes life, I found you comment to be an interesting read. I hope one day to get to see the museum. We didn’t end up getting there on my trip because it all became logistically challenging. It’s a pity the plane has been put in such an out of the way place. My enquiries revealed that it was well over an hour to get there from the airport and none of the local hotels run a shuttle service. Such a shame because I think they could capitalize on promoting this wonderful attraction.

By: Ryan Ranger

Ryan Ranger — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 17:36:50 +0000

I’m with you. And it just so happens that I live in Portland Oregon. ONE HOUR away from Hughes Flying Boat. What’s funny is that I already knew most of what I read, everything but the fact that it’s been sitting but an hours drive from me since I was seven!
The problem is I can’t find anyone who gives a flying lumber yard about aviation. My first question was “can I go inside?”. YOU CAN! HOWEVER, it costs an extra 25 dollars (!) to enter the cockpit. Seeing that I currently have no source of income aside from random labor, I’m going to have to save up and just bite the bullet. Because while the majority of the tourists who go there are either there for the water park linked next to it (no joke. “wings and waves”. literally an aviation water park!) or simply to be “a REALLY big plane”. For me it’s all about sitting in the same seat that Howard Hughes flew it’s first and only flight. I would have thought I’d have to go to southern california. But my god, a mere hour away. I just need someone who’s interested enough to go with me. I don’t think any of my friends no much about Howard Hughes, other than a tortured by ocd (and I believe minor tourettes) guy who flew planes and locked himself in a screening room peeing in jars.
It will be hard to bite my tongue as EVERYONE calls it “the spruce goose” (a slanderous term from the mouth of a senator who had a personal vendetta against hughes for not selling TWA to PAN AM for his personal agenda).
It’s true that Hughes was severely mentally ill. He had MANY film marathons that took place in closed off hotel rooms which he wouldn’t step foot out of for months. Not just the one the public found out about. All the while he conducted elaborate meetings and business transactions by phone, which allowed him to keep his company and his empire.
Like it is for many of us out there, his illness started from his mother. She bathed him compulsively instilling a severe fear of contamination. Even teaching him to spell out words like q u a r a n t i n e. It’s been said that despite Hughes intense dread of germs for lack of a better word, he contracted syphilis at one point. Which caused sores at the ends of his fingers. Which he would scrub viciously. Penicillin was still experimental at the time. But was administered to him after the crash in southern California which left him burned and disfigured. The penicillin would have killed the syphilis. If he truly had it in the first place that is. Doctors throw out the wrong diagnoses all the time as we all know.
Hughes was a collector of beautiful women, mostly actresses, a list as long as his achievements. It’s said he would send all his women to his personal physician to be checked out first to make sure they were not sick in any way. Most find it rather ironic that while he was terrified of contamination, he would sit in his own filth for months at a time. I think he saw it as being quarantined. Nevertheless. He would go for long periods of time without bathing, shaving or changing clothes… In the end it was the drugs that killed him. He was up to 150 mg (!!!) of Valium along with extremely high doses of pain killers. Which while he needed there is no debate that he self-medicated, in his defense he really was in severe pain.
Howard Hughes died at 70, living longer and any intense pain patient known to this day. I personally think the drive to create despite his crippling condition helped his life-span. Somehow he got tied up with Mormons in the end who would blackmail him with his drugs to gain his assets. Basically it was as simple as “sign this or you wont get your drugs”. As an addict myself who needs controlled substances to suppress and dampen my own symptoms (not too far from the ones displayed by Hughes which only became increasingly worse) I can tell you that there is no price on sickness. When you are that deep into it for that amount of time with a GENUINE condition, MULTIPLE conditions one becomes willing to sell their soul not to experience a withdrawal that can be so severe it probably would have killed him faster than the drugs.
Well, I think I’ve shared most the information I know about Howard Hughes. I figured if you looked for two hours to find the info this fine fellow posted then you might not mind reading what seems to have turned into a biography more or less. And I could tell you more. About how he bugged and monitored every woman he was involved with. Having them spied on with 24 hour surveillance. I throw that in lastly because it should be know that Howard Hughes needed complete control over everything in his reality. Maybe partially because he lacked control over his mind and needed ways to feel like he was in control. The idea of being lost at sea with no control over anything in this universe can be a terrifying thought when you think about it.
Well, that about wraps it up. Many facts and many of my own personal speculations. I hope that if anyone reads this they got something out of it to better understand the very complex Mr. Howard Hughes. My personal inspiration that despite having disadvantages amazing feats can still be accomplished. Something we should all remember….

By: Darryl Krikwen

Darryl Krikwen — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:34:30 +0000

I would like to begin by saying, thank you for supplying me with the information I’ve been looking for. I have been searching the net for two hours looking for it and would have given my right arm if I would have found your website sooner. Not only did I locate what I was looking for, but also found answers to questions I never even thought to ask myself. Thank you for such a wonderful web-site!

Comments on: Everything You Need to Know About the Spruce Goose

By: Wanda

By: Ryan Ranger

By: Darryl Krikwen