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Ana Villalba
R. Marietta
English Composition I 06
12 November 2012
Howard Hughes, his Genius and his Madness
Howard Hughes once said . . . I want to be the most famous man in the world. And
I dont care by what means I become famous, as long as fame comes (par. 32). Perhaps he
was not the most famous, but certainly he was among them. Having made several movies,
defeating the U.S. government more than once, making important improvements in airplane
designs and being considered to be one of the most wealthy and popular men of his time,
the name of Howard Hughes is still well known in the twenty-first century.
However, along with his genius came his madness, which he developed out because
of the obsessive compulsive disorder that he had suffered from since his childhood. His
disorder became a part of his character and defined him as Howard Hughes: the eccentric
man that after having done all the things that he ever wanted to do, died of starvation,
alone, in a hotel in Mexico. And his legend continues on.
Being the only child of a wealthy family in Texas, Howard Hughes Jr. grew up in a
safe home environment under the eye of his mother. As Donald L. Barlett and James B.
Steele state in their book Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of Howard Hughes,
Allene Hughes overprotected her son; she was always worried about the physical and
emotional health of Sonny (Howard Hughess childhood name). Her anxiousness about
Howards well-being was beyond of just trying to prevent him to get sick; she was also
concerned about his physical development, as well as his inability to create effective

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relationships with boys of his age. One of the most important lessons Howard learned from
his mother was complaining about illness to attract attention or to escape unpleasant
situations (Barlett 45). At the first sign of any illness, Allene would focus her attention on
Howard, and he would be seen for doctors to diagnose him. This degenerated into
Howards habit of pretending he was sick whenever he wanted to evade responsibility.
Also, he developed the tendency of having always doctors available for him in case he
would need them
Above all, Howards mother instilled a main obsession he possessed until the end of
his days. According with Michael Sauter in an article for the Biography Magazine, this
obsession was his lifelong phobias of germ and bacteria (Sauter 67). Afraid her son
would get ill, she raised him with obsessive hygienic habits. Howard preserved and
strengthened these habits throughout his whole life. In his article Howard Hughes and his
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder Edilberto Gonzlez points out that experts believe that
Allene and Howard Hughes could have suffered of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
OCD; however, since neither she nor her son were diagnosed while they were alive, such
a statement can only be considered an assumption (Gonzlez ch. 5).
Howards childhood was marked by isolation from other boys of his age, the
overprotection of his mother, the constant absence of his father, and his phobia of germs.
Katherine Ramsland explains in her article Psychological Autopsy for Death Investigation:
The Mystery of Howard Hughes that he lived practically all his first years of life at home
with his parents, and when they died (first Allene during a surgery and then Howard (Sr.)
his father two years later victim a sudden heart attack), he got depressed (Ramsland
par. 6).

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At the age of eighteen, Howard Hughes became an orphan and owner of the
multimillion-dollar family company, the Hughes Tool Company. Yet Howard had to quit
college after his first semester to take over the family company, somehow he saw this
responsibility as an opportunity. There were more important things to him than running the
familiar business; he wanted to make his dreams a reality (Sauter 67), and with the fortune
inherited from his father (who owned the patent of a series of drill bits for the oil industry
(Barlett 36)), he could dedicate not only to build airplanes, produce movies and become a
golf player, but also to build the legend of his life.
The first thing that he did after become the Howard Hughes that the world knew in
the 1920s, was getting married at the age of twenty, and right after that he and his wife left
Texas and moved to Los Angeles, where he could start his dream of making movies and
leave his mark in the Hollywood industry. As part of the supposed OCD that experts say he
suffered, according with the book Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Richard P. Swinson ,
the perfectionism that is associated to the OCD personality pattern (Swinson 101) was one
of the characteristics that defined Howard the most. That is why, after four years of
marriage, he divorced his wife. Howard focused more in the perfection of his movies than
paying attention to his wife (Sauter 68).
Was at this point in Howards life when his career as Hollywood producer and
playboy started to soar, when he decided that he wanted to design and build airplanes,
which he himself took care of testing. He did not study Engineering in college, but as
Thomas Wildenberg states in his article for the Air Power History, Howard was a selftaught engineer with little if any formal training (Wildenberg 23) who can apply several
improvements in the design of airplanes. Wildenberg also explains that in only twelve

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years, Hughes could get the record of build the fastest landplane and the largest airplane in
the world. And he was the tester of these two planes, too (23).
As he once said, why should I pay someone else to have all the fun? (Sauter 68),
referring to the airplane testing, races and speed records. Since the accidents were the
constant in this daredevil activity, being two of these accidents nearly fatal (68), it seems
that for Howard it was part of the fun. After one of those serious accidents, the only thing
he wanted to do was to protect his reputation as a pilot (Barlett 142), this during the
critical hours and being still weak and drugged. As he used to say to the closest people who
worked for him, I want to be the best pilot in the world, the best movie producer in the
world, . . . and the worlds richest man . . . (par. 4). Howard wanted everything to be
perfect.
Other thing that Howard Hughes wanted to achieve was to own his own airline. It
was the Trans World Airlines TWA, and although it was not completely property of
Howard, it almost was. TWA, after being acquired almost in its majority for Hughes, was
involved in a trial against the government of the United States of America, in which
Howard could depose Pan Am as the only airline allowed to make intercontinental flights,
and so he could use his own airplanes in it.
However, the older Howard Hughes got, the more the presence of the OCD could be
seen in his behavior. After having created the Hughes Aircraft Company and the Hughes
Electronic, having taken control of the TWA, and having started the investigation for the
development of the first communications satellites and several electronic devices, besides
the improvements in the aeronautical field, it was easy to say that he was becoming crazy.

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His phobia of germs and bacteria grew stronger, additionally with the addiction to
pain-killing medicine and his difficulty to develop social relationships, were deteriorating
his physical and mental health. By the 1950s, Howard Hughes was already suffering of
kidneys issues because of the abuse of analgesics, his brain was in need of oxygen and
there was a tumor forming in his head, his bones were getting more and more fragile, and
got a severe case of pneumonia (Barlett 426). He started to isolate himself, and his
obsessive hygienic habits became even more constant in his daily routine. His OCD
degenerated into panic of being surrounded by germs. Eventually he locked himself in his
room, and with doors and windows sealed with masking tape (625), he would use
Kleenex to protect himself of the possible contamination of all the things that were around
him. According with the experts, this was a clear proof of his OCD (625).
As Bruce M. Haymand and Cherry Pedrick say in their book Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder, OCD is . . . a neurobehavioral disorder in which people have
obsessions and/or compulsions that . . . interfere with normal routines [and] relationships
with others . . . (Haymand 17). Also, in the books one of the types of the OCD is defined
as Washing and Cleaning (21), which is when the people who suffered of this disorder
keep washing and cleaning their hands and environment, afraid of getting contaminated by
of germs and dirt. That is their obsession. Just like Howard Hughes would do in the twilight
of his life.
By the 1960s, Howard was living alone, without cutting his hair nor shaving his
beard, and obsessed with the nuclear testing, wrapping the furniture to prevent an infection
because of bacteria and writing long memos about how to write a memo (Sauter 70).

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There was nothing left of the man who used to be an iconic person of the American society.
At this moment of his life, Howard was just a crazy old man.
Other of the erratic behaviors that Howard showed near the end of his life was
paranoia of being found. That is why, despite his fragile health, he kept travelling between
Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean, and finally he died of starvation and a renal
failure in a flight to Houston after being found dying in a hotel in Acapulco (Sauter 98;
Barlett 579).
Howard Hughess life ended on April 5th 1976, at the age of 70, but his legend
continues and remains. Actually, one of the most popular movie characters of the latest
years, Tony Stark from Ironman is based on his life, his genius and his eccentricity.
According to an article of the Huffington Post, Stan Lee, the creator of the character
in Marvel comics, said . . . that he modeled Tony Stark on Hughes when he created the
character in 1963 (Bradley par. 23). And it is easy to see the similarities between both
men: they were wealthy, popular, engineering and technical developers, playboys, genius
with technology and with some obsessions that made of them legends in Hollywood, in
America and all over the world.
Howard Hughes was one of the most important men in his time. Despite his
obsessions and madness we cannot help but see his legacy in the technology field, in
Hollywood, and for me he is a great inspiration. I am not interested in being as eccentric
and famous as he was, but in his determination of working hard to make his dreams a
reality, and never give up. He stated what his plans would be and focused all his strength
and sources on make them true.

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Certainly his death, and the circumstances in which that happened, was a great loss
not just for the United States, but for the entire world. It was a pity that he had to suffer of
this sickness that somehow contributed to his death, but as was stated before, all these little
details about his life, his genius and madness, his pursuit of perfection and acknowledge,
formed the legend of Howard Hughes, a visionary ahead of his time (Wildenberg 23).

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Works Cited
Barlett, Donald L., and James B. Steele. Empire: The Life, Legend, and Madness of
Howard Hughes. New York: W.W. Norton and Company Ltd., 1979. Print.
Bradley, William. Iron Man's Post-Modern Howard Hughes Is Back and Confused.
Huffington Post, 13 May 2010. Web. 28 Oct. 2012.
Howard Hughes Quotes. Quoteswise, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2012.
Hymand, Bruce M., and Cherry Pedrick. ObsessiveCompulsive Disorder. Minnesota: 21st
Century Books, 2003. Academic Search Elite. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.
Gonzlez Trejos, Edilberto. Howard Hughes y su Desorden Obsesivo Compulsivo
[Howard Hughes and his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder] Agona Espaol.
Agona.Net. 09 April 2006. Web. 28 Oct. 2012.
Ramsland, Katherine. Psychological Autopsy for Death Investigation: The Mystery of
Howard Hughes. Crime Library. Trutv. 2012. Web. 04 Nov. 2012.
Sauter, Michael. Howard Hughes, Billionaire, Daredevil, Playboy, Madman. Biography
Magazine 7.8 (2003): 66-70,98. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 24 Oct. 2012.
Swinson, Richard P., Antony Martin M., S. Rachman, and Margaret A. Richter. Obsessive
Compulsive Disorder: Theory, Research, and Treatment. New York: The Guilford
Press, 1998. Print.
Wildenberg, Thomas. "A Visionary Ahead Of His Time: Howard Hughes And The U.S. Air
Force--Part I: The Air Corps Design Competition." Air Power History 54.3 (2007):
30-39. Academic Search Elite. Web. 28 Oct. 2012.