Screen beauties and Hughes

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32848, 23 February 1972, Page 17

Screen beauties and Hughes

(NZ.PA-Reuter —Cop# right; NEW YORK, Feb. 22. Howard Hughes, the eccentric multi-million-aire, was once knocked unconscious by the actress, Ava Gardner, and on another occasion reduced to tears by the movie star, Ginger Rogers, according to a book written by one of his aides.

Mr Hughes’s escapades with a succession of screen beauties are detailed in “Howard: The Amazing Mr Hughes”, by Noah Dietrich, who served as the industrialist’s close confidant from 1925 to 1957. It is due to be published as a paperback on March 16.

Mr Dietrich, now 83, wrote the book with the assistance of a reporter, James Phelan, and later with the help of another journalist, Bob Thomas.

Parts of the manuscript

were recently alleged to have been pirated by the author Clifford Irving, to help him compile a purported autobiography of Mr Howard Hughes which the 66-year-oid millionaire has called a fake.

Writing about the Texasborn tycoon’s penchant for beautiful women, Mr Dietrich wrote: “Howard had a peculiar predilection about glamour girls. He liked to court them just after they had left their husbands . . .

“It also happened when Ava Gardner left Mickey Rooney. Ava and Howard began a torrid romance, but he was unable to devote enough time to her ..." Mr Deitrich wrote.

“Ava felt neglected, and she took up with a Mexican bullfighter. Howard heard about it, and he stormed into her house and confronted her with the information.

“Ava’s temper is well known, and she told off Howard in no uncertain terms. He slapped her so hard that she fell down on the davenport, then he turned on his heel and started to stalk out of the house. She grabbed a piece of bronze

statuary and rushed after him, clouting him over the head. “He was knocked unconscious, and I think she would have done more damage if the maid hadn’t heard the commotion and pulled her off,” Mr Dietrich added.

Mr Hughes was married twice—from 1925 to 1929 to a Texas beauty, Ella Rice, and from 1957 to 1970 to an actress, Jean Peters. Both marriages ended in divorce. Mr Dietrich wrote: "During the 1930 s Howard had a succession of romances with famous actresses. The one who was most memorable for me was Ginger Rogers. That was because she provided the only occasion when I ever saw Howard Hughes cry.” Mr Dietrich described how he went to Mr Hughes’s Los Angeles house one evening, “and was astounded to find Howard crying. ‘What’s the matter, Howard?’ I asked.

“ ‘lt’s Ginger—she’s left me,’ he said. ‘She caught me cheating with another girl, and now she won’t even talk to me.’ ” Mr Dietrich added that Mr

Hughes’s grief was shortlived. “There were always other girls. He saw Ida Lupino in a Palm Springs restaurant and became enamoured of her for a time. Constance Bennett was an early flame. He tried to talk her out of marriage to Phil Plant —and failed. Nancy Carroll was a brief but sincere romance.

“One of his longest affairs was with Katharine Hepburn. It seems like a curious match, because she was not the kind of voluptuous beauty that he favoured. But she liked to fly and play golf, and there was a lot of give-and-take between them. “She was the only one of Howard’s dates vriio spoke up to him. They became almost like buddies, although it was something more than that.”

Mr Dietrich said that the actress, Elizabeth Taylor, was once “another candidate for Howard’s long list of beauties, but she eluded him.” She married Michael Wilding instead.

“Elizabeth Taylor was the one that got away,” Mr Dietrich said.