I witnessed the Hughes crash, and the movie solved a family mystery

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2005)

On July 7, 1946, I was at home with my parents at 618 N. Linden Drive, Beverly Hills. I can't recall the exact time of day but it seems to have been late morning in my memory. I was eleven years old. My father and I were having a game of badminton in the back yard. Suddenly, from the East, what we thought was a Lockheed P 38 at a very low altitude passed nearly directly over our house. Moments later, there was the sound of a crash and explosion, followed by a visible pall of smoke rising into the air from Whittier Drive. The editorial comment about this event said that Hughes had crashed into 805 Linden while attempting to reach the Wilshire Country Club. There is no Wilshire Country Club....the golf course he was attempting to reach was the Los Angeles Country Club, at the time the most exclusive and expensive private golf course in Southern California. In Beverly Hills, homes on the East side of the Streets have even numbers. Those on the West Side have odd numbers. Linden Drive splits off from Whittier at the 800 block. Hughes crashed at 820 Whittier, not 805 Linden. Because there are no homes on the West side of Whittier he could not have crashed into an odd number address. My father ran to the scene and witnessed the Marine just after he had pulled Hughes from the flaming wreckage.
My father mentioned to me sometime in the 1940's that his receptionist at his office one day buzzed him and said, "there is a Mr. Howard Hughes here who wants to see you". My dad was amazed that Hughes, who he had absolutely no previous contact with, would suddenly appear, alone, informally to see him. He said he was having problems in his campaign for The Outlaw, and wondered if my dad could help him. My dad had a long history in promoting Gilmore gas for Earl Gilmore, and had done a lot of successful promotions featuring lion mascots. In The Aviator, at the very end of the premiere for Hell's Angels, the narrator refers to a leather jacketed man, named Roscoe Turner holding a lion cub named Gilmore. When I saw that I realized the answer to why Howard Hughes had sought out my father for promotional assistance. Roscoe Turner was a top of the line competitive air racer in the 1930's, and his sponsor was Gilmore. That was the link that led Hughes to my dad, and I didn't know it until I saw The Aviator.
I found the movie interesting and somewhat difficult to become totally engrossed in. The way it was shot and edited made me constantly aware I was watching a movie production, as opposed to real cinema where you get totally captured and focused on the experience. They had to be selective with a very complex and varied individual and the outcome was a compromise, albeit to me a very entertaining one. Hepburn and Brewster were fantastic. Hughes became more believable as he aged, with the final 10 minutes a masterpiece.
All in all, a 9 for sure.