Next up on the essays shelf:
The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks)
In 1930, James Thurber wrote the following “Talk of the Town” piece about Howard Hughes, and his aviation extravaganza Hell’s Angels. Howard Hughes and that film were not just the “talk of the town”, but the talk of the entire country at that time. Hughes was a millionaire many times over, and had decided to make a movie. It was in production for years. He “discovered” Jean Harlow. Hughes was an interloper in the Hollywood world, but money talks.
Even then, he was a fascinating and mysterious creature. This Talk of the Town piece pre-dates his relationship with Katharine Hepburn, which really put him into the paparazzi limelight. Dating “starlets”, you know you’re in the “in” crowd. But Hepburn was no regular starlet, and the two made a dashing pair, climbing in and out of airplanes, both wearing trousers and googles. Were they the coolest couple who ever lived or what?
She always maintained a fondness for Howard Hughes, and looked back fondly on their relationship.
Howard Hughes was only 26 years old when Hell’s Angels was finally foisted upon the public. Everyone was curious about him. Hughes was in New York City for the premiere of Hell’s Angels, and that was the occasion of the “Talk of the Town” piece.
I absolutely love the snapshot given here of Hughes, and it’s a great example of why James Thurber became King of Talk of the Town. Look at the artful use of “we”, and look at the interjection where the “we” shows up. Classic New Yorker voice at that time.
Here is an excerpt.
The Fun of It: Stories from The Talk of the Town (Modern Library Paperbacks)
You’ve read about how he leased counties, rounded up authentic wartime planes in Europe, hired and organized a staff of approximately two hundred fliers, built on the lot a dirigible half the size of the Los Angeles. It took a year and cost a million to make the Zeppelin shots alone. No miniatures were used; tricks were employed to get only a comparatively few effects, such as the clouds into which the Zeppelin rides. Bewildered by the task of commanding nearly a hundred airplanes in maneuvers as dangerous as those of actual warfare, the director Hughes had hied gave up. Hughes took over the job himself. He piloted his own plane to direct the scenes in the air. It took eighteen months to complete them. Hughes has been a licensed pilot since he was twenty-one.
Three men – perhaps we should say only three men – were killed during the making of the picture. They say that if you look close enough during the shots of the thrilling “dogfight” between fifty or more planes, you can see one of them, a small trailing thread of smoke in the background, plunging ten thousand feet. Another man was killed in a collision between two planes. He was equipped with a parachute, as were all the fliers, but didn’t get loose in time to jump. The man in the other plane made it. The third fatality was due to the failure of one of the German Fokkers attacking the big bomber.
The picture was started in pre-talkie days and the on-the-ground part of it, including a plot which doesn’t amount to much, had to be retaken. The air scenes, however, were made later, with sound, and didn’t have to be redone.
Hughes next plans to do some all-color pictures. He has bought the rights to “The Front Page” and to “Queer People”, a novel satirizing Hollywood life. Nobody reads or buys stories for him. He does it himself. He rarely writes letters, using the long-distance telephone instead. He has put in as many as twenty calls to Los Angeles during his stay here.
