Cult figure not only of Hollywood but of all America was the enigmatic Howard Hughes. An official American legend and a man who embodied the American dream. This man became the world’s first billionaire and made it into the Guinness Book of Records, invented flight attendants and built a wooden airplane, ordered by Richard Nixon, was involved in the assassination of Kennedy and Watergate, launched the first television satellite, set a world speed record for piston aircraft. He was simultaneously a “gray cardinal,” a super-businessman, and an eccentric, something resembling Salvador Dalí — this man who bought Las Vegas and planned to buy the entire country. His name was forbidden to be mentioned in official U.S. government reports. He was nearly forgotten for thirty years, after which Hollywood decided to tell his story. Several films are dedicated to him, including The Aviator. The film is certainly interesting, but some facts of Hughes’ life were distorted, which is why the film did not receive an Oscar… It seems that even after his death, people treat him and his life with some strange bias. Howard was born on December 24, 1905 (Capricorn, born in the Year of the Cat), and ancient Indian annals about those born at this time say: indecisive, changeable, and unreliable, unable to remain within generally accepted behavioral frameworks. They constantly experiment and find special pleasure in living on the edge of the permissible. They do not need serious or stable relationships, yet they can enter into a long union — provided the partner does not demand submission to norms and rules. This is very much like Howard, who at 17 fell in love with 23-year-old actress — Eleanor Boardman — and suffered a fiasco, then at 19 married wealthy Houston heiress Ella Rice. Instead of traditional pre-wedding gatherings with the groom’s friends, Hughes wrote a will in which he tried to protect his future wife from his capital; four years later the young couple divorced, and Howard, leaving Ella to weep and mourn her failed life, went to Hollywood to conquer the cinematic world. Having become an orphan early, he inherited a huge fortune, which he invested in film production. His first film was so bad it never reached the screen, but the second brought some profit, and the third gained wild popularity. Hughes was also the producer of the films Scarface and The Outlaw, which played a significant role in cinema history. The fact is that all of Hughes’ films were on the edge of the permissible — the allowed level of violence, the allowed level of sexual openness. All of them were the subject of fierce disputes and even court cases between the censorship commission and Hughes. All were box-office successes and gained scandalous fame. Thus, by the time he was not yet 25, Hughes had already become a well-known and significant figure in Hollywood. The film about World War I pilots Hughes titled “Hell’s Angels,” produced and directed by himself. During filming, he learned to fly and spent two to three hours in the sky every day — there he felt absolutely happy (in his cosmogram, three planets and the South Node were in the air sign Aquarius).
He was overcome by sensual pleasures and the search for an ideal. His women were the most beautiful Hollywood actresses: Katharine Hepburn, Ava Gardner (former wife of Frank Sinatra), Bette Davis, Marilyn Monroe, Jane Russell, the owner of a legendary bust for which Hughes designed a special bra, and Jean Peters, who became his last. The degrees of the cosmogram are very telling: Sun in the 3rd degree of Capricorn — excellent prestige, intelligence, caution, the degree of calculation, planning, abilities in sciences. Mercury retrograde in the 16th degree of Sagittarius — scatterbrained, mistakes, futile loss of energy. Mars in the 28th degree of Aquarius — a person allows everything to themselves, complete depravity, danger of suicide. Pluto in the 22nd degree of Gemini is in opposition to Sun and Moon, Mercury and Venus in Sagittarius, falling Capella — makes a person ambitious yet strange, responsible for speed, records, and long flights; Hughes loved speed, personally flew across the ocean multiple times, meaning his life was connected with the concept of speed, freedom, and flight. Lilith in the 8th degree of Taurus — (degree of solitude) forms trines — positive aspects to Sun and Neptune; he had a persistent illusion that he was better off alone. Neptune in the 10th degree of Cancer — success in enterprises, secret societies, the degree of occultism, use of secret means. Saturn in the 29th degree of Aquarius — fortune, passion for travel, ability for tragic arts. Jupiter in the 28th degree of Taurus — great appetites in life, excessive ambition, ambition to crush everyone beneath him, and he failed because of it. The second part of his life — he was avenged upon. South Node in the 23rd degree of Aquarius — activity, several unpleasant changes in life. North Node in Leo (23rd degree) — “Germany” — a great Janus, a person who attracts others, shines, and dominates people but does not reveal themselves. Uranus in the 5th degree of Capricorn — danger of downfall (he survived four plane crashes), recklessness.
Having established himself in Hollywood, Howard began buying up Texas and Nevada — and everything he bought brought him new money. Hughes purchased fifteen hotels and most of Las Vegas casinos, an airfield, abandoned gold and silver mines, golf courses, a television station, a huge Krupp ranch, auto repair enterprises, the governor of the state of Lassalta, and the local prosecutor of Nevada. The half-billion Hughes brought to Las Vegas soon increased sixfold. But this was only the beginning — Hughes seriously intended to buy the United States. There was no need to acquire the entire country — the president could have been bought much cheaper, and he did buy him…
Howard Hughes did not read stock reports or follow the market, yet the ideas that brought him to the western part of the country worked perfectly; his genius business intuition never failed — on the outskirts of the U.S., something new was emerging. Hughes had an unusual sense for everything new: he was the first to realize that the future lay in fine electronics, rockets, satellites, and equipment for nuclear reactors. He guessed that production was better moved to remote areas, far from the attention of big business, where taxes were lower, authorities were more accommodating, and labor was cheaper. This bore fruit: within just a few years, Howard Hughes became one of the most influential people in the country. American politicians stood in awe of him. To Richard Nixon (a paranoid), Hughes seemed dangerous, yet the temptation was strong — Nixon, as before, took money from the all-powerful billionaire and wondered what Hughes would demand in return and what he would do to his debtor if he could not please him.
Despite his financial genius, Howard always revealed his complexes in relationships with women; he feared getting close enough for a woman to manipulate him, so instead of marrying, the millionaire paid prostitutes who were interested in nothing but money. One of these “call girls” in the early 1930s “rewarded” Hughes with syphilis, which smoldered in a latent form for twenty years. Neglected syphilis, combined with ever-increasing doses of codeine, destructively affected the psyche of the billionaire, already unstable. From the 1950s, Hughes’ mental state deteriorated rapidly. He suspected that some ill-wishers were gathering information about his mental incompetence to have him declared incapacitated through the courts and strip him of control over his fortune. So he decided to marry demonstratively to dispel all rumors.
Actress Jean Peters, who married Hughes in 1956, became his second and last wife. After the wedding, Howard almost every evening took Jean to the cinema, buying out the entire hall so that no one would disturb their viewing. Upon learning that the same hall screened a series for Black people in the morning, the millionaire threw a tantrum and never went there again. Negroes, like germs, terrified Hughes to the point of trembling.
Gradually, the millionaire’s delusions intensified. Upon hearing that an actress he had dated several years earlier had contracted trichomoniasis, Hughes disinfected himself with alcohol and forced servants to burn all his clothes—from ties to underwear—as well as the rugs she might have stepped on. When a friend of Jean’s suffered from liver colic, Hughes quarantined his wife for two weeks. His close associates and subordinates fulfilled every whim of the billionaire, thereby further reinforcing Howard in his madness. Jean Peters recalled that when she headed to a café, guards sent by Howard had to wipe the table and all dishes with disposable “Kleenex” napkins. The billionaire himself nearly wiped his face and hands with such napkins every few minutes. Howard fled from imaginary enemies several times—first to the Bahamas, when “Mormons carried him out of the hotel at night” wrapped in a blanket; then to Nicaragua, then to Mexico… The fact was that his retrograde Mercury (consciousness) was conjunct two conflicting stars: Lesath, which brings paranoia, the danger of insanity, escape from reality, antisocial tendencies, and solitude (one can be lonely even in marriage), as well as dangers in the mountains. Incidentally, when Hughes flew across the ocean to Russia, it was in Russia that he nearly collided with a mountain peak and miraculously survived. Another star, Rasalhague, brought purpose and a sense of order, which is why it prevented Howard from fully degrading and losing his mind.
In his final years, Hughes lived in a second-rate hotel and practically stopped going outside. He communicated only with seven Mormons personally selected by him for their cleanliness and chastity, who were ordered to enter his room in rubber gloves and touch him only through several layers of disposable napkins. When Hughes “fell ill,” he was transfused with “pure” Mormon blood, and he “recovered.” His temperature was measured hourly, and he received injections. His room contained nothing that could accumulate dust—only a film projector, a chair, a bed, and a notepad with a pen. A circle was drawn in chalk at the door of his room; visitors had to stand inside it. Even Hughes’ doctor was forced to diagnose him without stepping out of the circle. Hughes never touched documents, doorknobs, forks, or knives with his bare hands. He ate only chicken broth and vanilla ice cream, and by the end of his life, he almost stopped eating altogether, as even distilled water seemed “too dirty” to him.
Howard Robard Hughes died on April 5, 1976, during a flight from Acapulco to Houston, when the transiting Moon in Gemini conjoined his Pluto—the planet that largely governed his actions, monumental fame, and power. The transiting Moon opposed his natal Moon, his April Sun was conjunct Lilith in square to his Sun (spirit), destructive Mars afflicted his Sun (heart), and transiting Neptune conjoined his natal Mars in Aquarius. His death occurred in the element of air—the element he loved so much…
Valentina Vittrok
