Fire destroys Hughes' Warm Springs Ranch

Howard Hughes once owned the Warm Springs Ranch about 50 miles northeast of Las Vegas. He never visited the ranch, located in the Moapa Valley, but it was purchased in 1968, when he was living in Las Vegas. The ranch operated as part of the Hughes empire until the heirs sold it to the Mormon Church in 1978.

A fire this week has destroyed the ranch. For details on the fire and the damage it caused, go here.

New policy on commenting

The few people who read this blog may have noticed that in recent days some comments have been deleted. In addition, new comments must be approved by the administrator of the blog before they are posted.

This is not unusual in the blogosphere, but it is unfortunate. It is the direct result of a couple of characters who think this should be a forum to make personal and potentially libelous attacks on other individuals. The administrator of this blog is not going to be party to scurrilous nonsense.

For the record: To suggest that pre-approval of comments is a form of censorship is to misunderstand the meaning of the term. Censorship is when the government blocks the publication or distribution of information. This is a personal blog operated by a private individual, and this individual gets to decide what does and doesn't get posted on the site. Again, there is nothing unusual about this, and it is not censorship.

Carry on.

Christie's ignores potential watch fraud

It appears that the Christie's auction of a watch purportedly once owned by Howard Hughes is set to proceed tomorrow. The blog you can find here by watch industry blogger Kyle Stults represents his impassioned plea to the auction house to reconsider, apparently to no avail.

If you link back to Mr. Stults' original post on this issue, you will find a little comment war between Paul Winn, a retired Hughes executive, and the son of Donald Woolbright, who allegedly received the watch from Hughes as a token of his appreciation. As you will see, Mr. Winn presents compelling arguments to suggest that the elder Woolbright's story doesn't hold up.

Watch's link to Hughes questionable

Luxury watch blogger Kyle Stults has alerted us to a questionable item up for auction this week at Christie's. It's a Patek Philippe Ref. 1463 watch, which the auction house estimates to be worth $150,000 to $200,000. It allegedly was once owned by Howard Hughes.

But based on the information provided by Christie's, this may not be the real deal. According to the auction house's description, the watch is owned by a man named Donald R. Woolbright, who allegedly performed freelance surveillance assignments for Hughes in the 1960s. According to Woolbright, Hughes gave him the watch as a token of appreciation for his work.

Not mentioned in the Christie's report is that Woolbright is best known to Hughes watchers as one of two men who purportedly came into possession of secret documents stolen during the famed 1974 burglary of the Hughes offices at 7000 Romaine St. in Hollywood, Calif. Woolbright was a petty thief and street hustler from St. Louis who, along with actor Leo Gordon, tried to sell the documents. After early attempts to unload the documents failed, Gordon turned on Woolbright and worked with authorities to set up his former partner in crime. Woolbright ultimately was tried for possessing the secret documents but never convicted.

This fairly crucial part of Woolbright's story is ignored in the Christie's report or perhaps unknown to the auction house staff. Perhaps more importantly, what is the evidence that Woolbright performed surveillance work for Hughes in the preceding decade? Quite a bit of information about Woolbright can be found in two books: "Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes" and "Citizen Hughes." Neither mentions him having worked for the billionaire.

Long story short, I wouldn't advise anybody to buy this watch on the basis of its alleged connection to Howard Hughes.

Stults' coverage of this issue can be found here.

The Howard Hughes connection to ‘Iron Man'

I posted this piece on my Las Vegas Review-Journal blog, so please go here to check it out.

Fund-raising campaign to save Hollywood sign succeeds

A who's who of Southern California show business and society has come through with the money to preserve 138 acres near the famed Hollywood sign. The property on Cahuenga Peak had been slated for luxury home development.

Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner concluded the fund-raising effort this week by pledging $900,000 toward the $12.5 million negotiated price for the land. He joined Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Aileen Getty and many others who chipped in. The Trust for Public Land will take ownership of the acreage from Fox River Financial Resources of Chicago. The land, which offers a 360-degree view of the Los Angeles Basin and San Fernando Valley, will be added to Griffith Park.

We care about this news item at The Howard Hughes Blog because the land once was owned by Howard Hughes. Hughes bought it around 1940 and wanted to build a house there for girlfriend Ginger Rogers. That tempestuous relationship — weren't most of them tempestuous? — didn't work out and the house was never built. Fox River Financial Resources bought the land from the Hughes estate in 2002 for a meager $1.7 million.

If you are interested in all the details on this, click here.

General Growth Properties and the Hughes heirs

One thing you learn quickly about the Hughes heirs: Don't dare mess with their money.

General Growth Properties owns the Summerlin master-planned community in Las Vegas. The land beneath Summerlin was purchased by Howard Hughes in the early 1950s. The planned community was started by Summa Corporation after his death in the 1980s. The project has changed hands a couple of times since then but the Hughes heirs always were entitled to receive payments from the sales of the undeveloped land.

General Growth's bankruptcy reorganization plan, which includes a plan to spin off the Summerlin project into a separate company, is set to be approved (or not) on April 29. But the plan is not being seen favorably by the Hughes heirs, who think they could be shortchanged.

The Hughes heirs are particularly unhappy because of the real estate collapse in Las Vegas. The undeveloped property that once was valued in excess of $1 billion is now appraised below $500 million.

That's about as much as I understand of the financial goings-on in this bankruptcy. If you want to know more, check out these articles:

- Business Week article

- Reuters article

- Las Vegas Sun article

Kathryn Grayson, movie musical star and onetime Hughes fiancee, has died

Kathryn Grayson, the soprano who starred in popular MGM movie musicals such as "Kiss Me Kate" and "Show Boat," has died in Los Angeles. She was 88.

In 1954, Grayson was seriously involved with Howard Hughes. In fact, Hughes asked her to marry him and she accepted, though it didn't work out, in part because at the time Hughes really was in love with Jean Peters, whom he eventually married.

Richard Hack, a Hughes biographer, goes into some detail about the Hughes-Grayson affair in his 2001 book, "Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters."

According to Hack:

- "As she (Grayson) tells the story, Hughes appeared one night on her front lawn [of her parents' house in Pacific Palisades] and refused to leave, at which point her father Charles grabbed a shotgun and went to vanquish the intruder. When she next saw her father, the sun had risen, she was heading to work, and the two new best friends were talking aviation."

- "Initially, Kathryn was not attracted to this man who had literally roamed into her home like a stray cat that lingers near the back door, hoping to be tossed a scrap of food or be offered a warm leg against which to rub. Her love built slowly, glimpses stacked upon gestures which when taken alone were meaningless, yet when assembled became like the complex jigsaw puzzle that one feels obliged to show off to neighbors and friends for its difficulty and brilliance."

Peters married Stuart Cramer on May 29, 1954, despite continuing to have feelings for Hughes and vice versa. But Hughes had not taken the next step with Peters and Cramer moved quickly. Soon thereafter, Hughes asked Grayson to marry him and she accepted.

Hughes planned to follow through on a Las Vegas wedding, but, Hack writes, a premonition of disaster involving a child kept Grayson from going along.

"Hughes was already at his plane preparing to fly the couple to Las Vegas when he received the news, and despite his efforts to change her mind, Kathryn was unwavering. Hughes flew to Las Vegas alone and received word after he had returned to the Green House: Kathryn's young nephew Timothy had drowned in her brother's swimming pool at exactly the time their wedding was to take place."

About a month after her marriage to Cramer, Peters moved out and started divorce proceedings. Hughes, of course, helped her to speed up the divorce. He also hired a private consultant named Robert Maheu to investigate Cramer.

A couple of years later, Hughes, mentally unstable at the time, approached Grayson again about getting married, but this time she refused. This angered Hughes, who "slapped her hard across the face," according to Grayson and related by Hack. She told him she never wanted to see him ever again. That's when Hughes turned his attentions again to Peters, whom he soon married.

For more info on Grayson, go here.

New details released on Project Azorian

The CIA has just released an internal document kept secret for 25 years describing Project Azorian in considerable detail, though not entirely. This was the U.S operation to retrieve a sunken Soviet submarine from the Pacific Ocean. Howard Hughes' lent his name to the effort to give the United States cover. Thus the common reference to the "Hughes Glomar Explorer."

Find the full story here. At the end of this Associated Press article, there are links to the 50-page CIA document.

Hughes had role in creation of modern sand wedge

Mary Ann Sarazen, daughter of the late golfing legend Gene Sarazen, tells the story of how her father got the idea for the modern sand wedge. Naturally, there's a Howard Hughes connection. Check out the story here.