Howard Hughes: the Las Vegas Years: The Women, the Mormons, the Mafia
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About this ebook
Many people know about Howard Hughes, Americas first billionaire. He was an aviation engineer, an Oscar-winning motion picture producer and director, and a hotel and casino owner in Las Vegas and Reno, with seven establishments. He built the biggest airplane in the world at the timeknown as the Spruce Gooseand the Glormar Explorer supership for the CIA. He owned RKO Motion Picture Studios in Hollywood, as well as tens of thousands of acres in California, Nevada, and Texas.
Fewer people, however, know the Howard Hughes of the neon world of Las Vegas in the 1970s. Reclusive and eccentric, Hughes spent his later years surrounded by Mormon aides who insulated him from outsiders. This collection of biographical anecdotes includes stories of the power players of the timecelebrities, famous actresses, and the Las Vegas Mafiaas well as tales of Hughess bevy of less-well-known ladies.
Told by an insider who knew Hughes in that era, these stories reveal new aspects of an American icon, set against the background of Sin City, the town he loved so much.
John has captured a fascinating era here; I know I was there.
Alvin Zuckert, Emmy-award winning television director
Johns book caused me to relive an exciting and wonderful time in my life. There were sides of Hughes you never knew existed until now!
Ted West, engineer for Hughes Television, KLAS-TV and FOX-TV, Las Vegas, Nevada
No crapshoot here; Johns got an absolute winner.
Gary Marlow, technical director for Hughes Television, KLAS-TV, Las Vegas, Nevada
John Harris Sheridan
John Harris Sheridan was born into a show business and sports family in Pittsburgh. He skated with Ice Capades after high school, performing in the United States and Canada. After two years on the road, he returned to school at Phoenix College and Arizona State University. In 1968, Sheridan went to work for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, where he met Howard Hughes. Now retired, he lives in Texas.
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Howard Hughes - John Harris Sheridan
© 2011 John Harris Sheridan. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
First published by AuthorHouse 8/31/2011
ISBN: 978-1-4634-0695-0 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4634-0694-3 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-4634-0693-6 (e)
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011908553
Printed in the United States of America
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,
and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Dedicated to:
Thomas J. Sheridan, brother
John Patrick Sheridan, son
Kevin Kelly Sheridan, son
Thomas Brendan Sheridan, son
Acknowledgements
Gary Sotir: A talented and sensitive television executive, and a true and honest friend, without whose many contributions this book would never have made it out of the typewriter.
Nacho Garcia: An award winning artist from The El Paso Times newspaper. His renderings of people who have passed into history have brought them back to life. I’m honored to have worked with Nacho Garcia.
Bill Seffel: Las Vegas, Nevada; for his countless hours of driving to Tonopah, Goldfield, and Lida Nevada taking pictures of the Cottontail Ranch, the air strip, and securing copies of the Hughes marriage certificate. Bill grew up in Las Vegas and was a card dealer in one of the mob owned hotels. He spent the majority of his life around the people in this book. I’m very grateful to Bill Seffel.
Oralia Ortega: Television anchor, who never let me think of anything else but the book. I’m almost grateful!
Sergio Rodriguez, El Paso, Texas: For his much needed help and computer expertise, redoing the manuscript time and time again.
Ryan Hall: Las Cruces, New Mexico: For his photographic talent on the back of this book About the Author
taking an old subject and making it look presentable.
Bianca Olivas, El Paso, Texas: For her wonderful artwork.
Contents
Arriving inLAS VEGAS
The Rumble in THE DESERT
The Showman & MOE
The Huge Hughes SHOPPING SPREE
Paul Laxalt for PRESIDENT
Somewhere Over THE RAINBOW at the Riviera
Hughes Tries to Buy THE STARDUST
It Could Have Been His FINAL DRINK
Hughes Was Buying Up LAS VEGAS
Who Was Running the HUGHES HOTELS?
Sinatra at THE SANDS
Sammy and the X-RATED VIDEO
Hughes Couldn’t SAY NO TO a Pretty Face
Hughes Did ABSOLUTLY Nothing for Her
Howard’s Tryst in THE DESERT
At the Cottontail RANCH
Howard Was Becoming A LAS VEGAN
It Was a Movie with A…BULLET
GTT, or Grand THEFT TAXIE
Elvis at the ALADDIN
Danny Mahony COULD HAVE Been Sheriff
The Wolfman Comes TO SIN CITY
Move over Leonard Goldenson, HERE COMES Howard Hughes
KLAS-TV in LAS VEGAS
Sonny Liston and Moe AT THE DESERT Inn Coffee Shop
Johnny, Sam AND MARILYN
The Benefits of Mafia EMPLOYMENT
A Little Competition FOR HUGHES
Howard and JIM CROW
Hughes and PAUL HARVEY
Hughes Out AND ABOUT
Bye-Bye, LAS VEGAS
Hughes Leaves LAS VEGAS for Good
Oooooooh CAN…A…DA…
Clifford and HIS PAL HOWARD, Who He Never Met
Hughes Wants TO FLY AGAIN
Hughes Returns TO ACAPULCO
Hughes Gives His Aides a New Contract AND RETURNS TO Texas—Dead
Hughes Died OF A DISEASE Called Neglect
Melvin Dummar: Still Fighting for What HE FEELS HUGHES Left Him
Who Was HOWARD ROBARD HUGHES?
Arriving in
LAS VEGAS
IT WAS A COLD NOVEMBER NIGHT night in Nevada in 1966, a train was stopped a couple of miles outside of the city of Las Vegas. Why the train stopped there, very few people knew. However, three black limousines and a Ford Econoline van were waiting right next to the train. The door of the private Pullman car opened, and six men carried out a stretcher that appeared to have a person on it. The person was wrapped from head to toe in blankets and was carried to the Ford van. At one time in the 1930s, that person had received a ticker tape parade down Broadway. He set flying records around the world, comparable to Charles Lindberg’s.
Two men dressed in expensive suits got out of one of the limousines and started giving orders. One man was a former member of the FBI and CIA. The other was one of the biggest mobsters in the country. He represented the Fratellanza, also known as the Mafia or the Chicago Syndicate. He represented Los Angeles and Las Vegas, as well as the five New York families that ran the Mafia. It was a rather strange combination of men.
The man on the stretcher was a reclusive billionaire, who owned one of the biggest airlines in the world, TWA Air Lines, and a major motion picture studio, RKO Pictures. He slept with some of the most glamorous actresses in the world. He was a big part of Hollywood’s Golden Era, an enigmatic movie producer and director who was seen in the best night clubs in Los Angeles. The man now wrapped in blankets had at one time walked into the Copacabana, Ciro’s, and the Coconut Grove in Hollywood dressed in an expensive black tuxedo and white sneakers, with Katharine Hepburn or Ava Gardner on his arm. Of course, Ava was the source of his legendary feud with Frank Sinatra. However, many people believed that he and Jane Russell were lovers since their first movie, The Outlaw. But according to Jane and her brother Jamie, Howard and Jane remained friends for more than thirty-five years, and their relationship never went any further than that.
The man they called the Wiseguy
ran Las Vegas. He owned that town. Known for his good looks and expensive Italian suits, he was allegedly involved in the assassination of a president and a movie star and the attempted assassination of a dictator. That didn’t stop Handsome Johnny
from working with the CIA or the man on the stretcher; it just didn’t matter. His friends said he never lied, except to cops and judges. Anywhere else in the United States this would have been breaking news, but in Las Vegas, it was an everyday event. Nobody cared; nobody batted an eye—nobody even dared.
The former federal agent was known as Mr. Fix-it..
He got things done for the man on the stretcher, and that’s why he was paid a fortune. He went from Washington, DC to Las Vegas, to the top of the world, making $10,000.00 a week (in 1966 dollars), with an endless expense account. But he never saw the man on the stretcher face to face, the man who paid him more than half a million dollars a year—the man who gave him two Cadillac cars, a mansion on the Desert Inn Golf Course that the locals called Little Caesar’s Palace,
and a large yacht in Newport Beach, California.
By now I’m sure you guessed it. The man on the stretcher was none other than the reclusive billionaire and aviator Howard Robard Hughes Jr. He had always loved Las Vegas, and this time he intended to stay for good. He spent a lot of time there in the 40s and 50s. He brought his girlfriends there, many of whom were movie stars or contract players. He gambled in Las Vegas, purchased property, and bought homes he never lived in. This time, it was all going to be different. This time, he had plans for Las Vegas, to the point of moving Hughes Aircraft there; he even bought property to do just that.
Hughes intended to live in Las Vegas forever. He planned to build the world’s largest super hotel