Cary Grant met Howard Hughes in 1932. Grant said about Hughes:<\/p>\n
Howard was the most restful man I’ve ever been with. Sometimes we’d sit for two hours and never say a word. He owned only two suits. He never owned a tuxedo. If he needed one, he’d borrow one of mine. I’d show up at the airport with matching luggage. Howard would drive up in an old car and a brown paper bag with a change of underwear. He was a little deaf, but for some reason he could hear better in an airplane. I would forget and yell so he could hear me, and he’d say, “Why are you shouting?” He was a brilliant man. Way ahead of his time. I would listen to him for hours, not always understanding at the time exactly what he meant. But as time went by, his thoughts would be proven correct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Grant also said:<\/p>\n
I think Howard Hughes and I were friends because he didn’t want anything from me and I didn’t want anything from him.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
After Howard Hughes’ horrific plane crash in 1946, he recuperated in the privacy of Cary Grant’s home.<\/p>\n
Howard Hughes was Cary Grant’s best man, when Grant married Betsy Drake.<\/p>\n
There is also a story (perhaps apocryphal) of the two of them flying over the Warner Brothers studio in Howard’s plane, and dropping bags of flour out of the window, and watching them explode on the roof. A symbolic revenge on the Hollywood system. They got into big trouble for that one, because people inside Warner Brothers thought another Pearl Harbor had commenced.<\/p>\n
Hughes and Grant were two perpetual outsiders. Their good looks helped them to navigate the Hollywood terrain easily, helped them to fit in. Beauty opened many doors. The similarities went further. Two grown men who had twisted painful unresolved relationships with their mothers. Two fiercely independent souls. One who was part of the Hollywood elite, and one who was DYING to be part of the Hollywood elite – but both of them only would be part of that elite if they could play by their own rules. For the most part, they both succeeded in this. Very rare.<\/p>\n
Similar temperaments. Similar natures – and completely forgiving of one another’s eccentricities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Cary Grant met Howard Hughes in 1932. Grant said about Hughes: Howard was the most restful man I’ve ever been with. Sometimes we’d sit for two hours and never say a word. He owned only two suits. He never owned … Continue reading