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.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
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8 comments:
Geoff,,
Seems your strategy of kissing up to the Mormons and "I am zee great one" has resulted in virtually NO ONE being interested in reading your blog.
I just come by every month or so for a good laugh!
Even the ludicrous Mr. Winn can't get up a comment, or has he sucumbed to cancer like so many of those who might have told the truth???
Come by and see me in CA, while you're here if you want. I have all kinds of room!
HRH the III.
A cut and paste from another commentator on Howard's situation!
* Bill Gay was head of the Mormon Mafia that surrounded Howard during the last 20 years of his life.All these aides rose into positions of power and owed alligiance to Bill. According to Jack Real, among all the aides, only George A.Francom had genuine concern for Howard.
Makes you wonder about all of Paul's protestations of concern for howard, don't it???? lol
The tea party movement is just the latest strategy of the Neo Cons to try to stem their slide into irrelevancy.
I just read a book about the oldest living survivor of the German concentration camps (he was in three of the worst). As he describes the reasoning and arguments of the Nazi SS officers, chills go up and down my spine because it is almost word for word the same things the neo cons say!
I reread the Phelan book on Hughes, seems Margulis was a large part of the background for that and he certainally didn't think the Mormon Mafia that Paul loves so much was worth squat!
On your article about Rory,
His idea about rewarding teachers for student achievement has a fatal flaw as have all such plans for the last 100 years. The flaw is that MOST classes are so close together statistically that the outliers are the real difference (good and bad).
This fact was brought home by my child who graduated from 4th grade to college at 10 years old. She was (as far as I know) the first person under 16 to get federal financial aid.(We had to fight the national board of ed for it.) She got her first college degree at 14. (No we weren't professors whose class she had set in since birth or any such fakers that you hear about).
Anyway, the point was, in grades 1-4 her school was highly touted for their scores and were rewarded very well financially. Then she went from 4th grad to college and guess what? The school went immediately into penalties and basement scores!!! So the question is, was the teachers responsible, of course not! Her extraordinary scores so bent the curve that it just looked like that. After she left, it returned to their true median score. Negative outliers can have the same massive effect in the opposite direction unless they are put into "special needs" schools. Just an example how PC speak is so misleading.
Back to the subject:
Guess Mr. Schumacher has even quit reading his own blog. That makes it a good place for this post.
To Harry Reid: On the Savant problem. That problem being that people with these extroidinary talents are starting to get access to massive reams of information and because of their special insights,makeing leaps of composition and technology. If he doubts that, interview the CIA.
Case in point: the 16 year old boy in the mid 60's who drew up the orginal design idea for the stealth fighter and another item called the "modular probe on gravity" that the spooks still haven't figured out.
They acquired the designs from old man "Burp" (that's was his nickname among his students) when the old man stole the drawings.
More to the point: that same savant has designed thousands of things afterwards and has mostly kept the secrets inside his head. For instance the new "fur" covered hollow wall design for the sucessor to the space shuttle is his design. Surely you don't want that posted on the internet and lose 30 years of lead???
But that is small stuff. He's got more to trade. He is interested in getting all files about Howard Hughes declassified. His reasons are his own. You can do it or not, but remember he is also free to give his inventions to whomever he wants or even to the public in general. A foreign drug company has already negotiated for one of his dicoveries and didn't blink at $3 million up front.
He's already got a trucking company running a little device that will make their engines last at least 10 times as long. Sounds like a little thing, but the repair savings on thousands of trucks will make that company able to dominate trucking for the forseeable future.
Fishing boats are also operating the device and having great sucess as well as some people with large semi Campers. Think about it Harry, you could be the hero who brings the US screaming out of this depression, but not if everybody gets access to these advances. You can't sell an invention to someone who already has the design and is making it before you!!!! Think about it!
Just an example of how this can go. CLGO451870950140795546013563
Mr Obama know the problem and now he knows how to solve it. They wouldn't have maintained it this far without taking without premission. IMHO
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304159304575184362846131730.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLETopStories
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