Howard Hughes: Hell's Angel

by Darwin Porter

From his reckless pursuit of love as a rich teenager to his final days as a demented fossil, Howard Hughes changed the worlds of aviation and entertainment forever. This biography reveals inside details about his destructive and usually scandalous associations with other Hollywood players. Set amid descriptions of the unimaginable changes that affected America between 1905 and 1976, this critically acclaimed biography gives an insider's perspective about what money can buy―and what it can't. This award-winning book has received the following Winner, Best biography 2010, at the New England Book Festival Runner-up (Honorable Mention) for Best biography, 2010, at the Los Angeles Book Festival.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

814 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2005

About the author

Darwin Porter (1937-) is an American travel writer, producing numerous titles, mostly for the Frommer guidebook series, over a 50-year career span.

Reviews

[GoldGato · Rating 2 out of 5]

Knowing little to nothing about Howard Hughes, I picked up this book which had been sitting on the counter of the tiny bookshop I had been visiting. In my innocence, I thought it would be a biography about Mr. Hughes since it is an 800+ page tome. Silly, silly me.

What this huge book is really about is the sex life of Howard Hughes and his various partners. It claims he was intimate with both men and women and starts with a detailed account of his mother, a bowl, and...well, you really don't want to know. There is very little factual information, almost all of it being interviews with dying, bitter, showbiz has-beens who denigrate everything and everyone. In many cases, it is a memory told by a friend of a friend of an aunt of a one-hit wonder. Most amazingly, Hughes apparently never worked. He simply flew airplanes and had lots of sex. Somehow, I very much doubt this.

"See any filly you'd like to brand?"
(Howard Hughes Sr. to little Howard Hughes Jr.)

"But you're a bit long in the tooth for Chaplin. Usually he doesn't like his meat aged."
(Billy Haines to Howard Hughes)

Yeah, that is pretty much the whole book. Homo-erotic fantasies written as fact but reading like fiction. There are misspellings all over the place, paragraphs that don't end (literally), long spaces between words, incorrect grammar, missing punctuation, you name it. Pretty bad.

page 180 = 'contacted syphilis' instead of 'contracted'
page 200 = Joe Engel becomes Joe Angel in the same paragraph

So why do I even give this book two stars? Well, the author was obviously a fan of old silver screen players, so the reader gets to learn the names and histories of long-gone and long-forgotten actors, writers, directors, and producers. It's a tabloid version of desperate folks who reached for the Hollywood dream and fell hard. I ended up going to Wikipedia to see if these people had been real and then learning how drugs and hubris pretty much destroyed all of them. So, I learned something, even if it wasn't about Howard Hughes.

Book Season = Winter (you can always throw it into the fireplace)

[Charmaine Ladd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as well written as should have been, as if the author had been in a big rush to get it on the shelves. I can understand that! More of an "National Enquirer" recap with all the quirky tendencies of Howard Hughes (especially sexualky). But perhaps that's part of the intrigue of the book... who did he NOT go to bed with in Hollywood? According to the author, very few, if not just ONE PERSON, and I won't spoil that for you (though you probably already know). I didn't really learn much not already known; some parts though were quite entertaining. Lots of great pictures and a trip down Old Hollywood's Memory Lane. And what a LANE!

[Shishir Jakati · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've never hate read a book before, but there's a first time for everything.

[Jeff Russo · Rating 3 out of 5]

So sordid, it makes Charles Higham read like Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Beyond the standard goal of adding another notch to my Hughes stable, I was inspired to grab this after reading Porter's Sinatra book for Blood Moon. It was in line with what I was expecting.

I hate to play the too-long card, but it is too long - at first I was not sure as this was my first ever Kindle book, but the dead tree version is in fact 800+ pages.

So for a really, really long and trashy read, you can grab this.

See all my Howard Hughes book reviews.

[Matt Payne]

Not exactly what I was looking to glean from a book about Howard Hughes! Not for the faint of heart or closed of mind, it is an incredibly salacious work that delves deeply into his sexual relationships with Hollywood's leading men and women. So abstract and scandalous, I had to search as to whether it was actually a biography and not fan fiction! It delivers very little insight into his business acumen and dealings. It is a LONG book. If you were looking to learn about Hughes the inventor and businessman - I would suggest something else. It would seem something like this is right up Porter's alley with other books that he has written to uncover the after dark stories of Hollywood greats.

[EvilSpace · Rating 1 out of 5]

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