Howard Hughes: Encyclopedia II - Howard Hughes - Fictional media inspirations

Howard Hughes - Fictional media inspirations

The following fictional characters appear to have been, at least in part, patterned after Hughes:

• "Charles Foster Kane" of the Orson Welles film Citizen Kane. This character was based on a composite of Howard Hughes and William Randolph Hearst.
• "Willard Whyte" of the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever
• Tony Stark, a wealthy inventor and industrialist who becomes Marvel Comics's Iron Man.
• The Simpsons episode "$pringfield" in which Montgomery Burns exhibits Hughes's OCD, including wearing tissue boxes on his feet, moving into a hotel penthouse, allowing his hair and nails to grow untrimmed, and creating an aircraft called the "Spruce Moose."
• In The Disney Afternoon's TaleSpin, the characters join a group of businessmen for a dinner on the main deck of the moosehead-shaped seaplane, the "Spruce Moose", built by a reclusive hippopotamus with Hughes's characteristic mannerisms.
• "S.R. Hadden" of the Carl Sagan novel Contact, and the 1997 Robert Zemeckis film of the same name.
• "Jonas Cord" in Harold Robbins' novel The Carpetbaggers
• "Howard Lockwood" in the Lupin III film Mystery of Mamo
• Hughes makes an appearance in The Rocketeer, substituting for the "mystery inventor" (Doc Savage) in the original comic book version.
• Hughes appears in an episode of the TV Series Dark Skies
• Saturday Night Live presented a comedy sketch portraying Hughes and his eccentric activities.
• Hughes appears in James Ellroy's political crime novel American Tabloid, and sequel The Cold Six Thousand.
• Steven Carter's novel I was Howard Hughes is a "picture of a Hughes who might have been."
• Dean Stockwell plays Hughes in the Francis Ford Coppola's biopic of automaker Preston Tucker, Tucker: The Man and His Dream. The film introduces Hughes as a potential investor of Tucker's automobile line, although such claims are unsubstantiated.
• Melvin and Howard was spoofed on the sketch comedy series SCTV.
• The Sam Shepard play Seduced features a character named Harry Hackamore, modeled after Hughes. Incidentally, a 1982 production of this play in London landed actor Ian McDiarmid the role of Palpatine in the Star Wars films, as it showed that the then 37-year old actor could convincingly play much older characters.
• In William Gibson's seminal science fiction novel Count Zero the key villain, industrialist Josef Virek, is identified with Hughes with respect to his wealth and reclusive nature. One character (Andrea) likens Hughes to 'a proto-Virek'.
• The character of Horace Derwent in Stephen King's The Shining is partially based on Hughes. The fictional Derwent was a millionaire aviator and producer during the 1930's and 40's, and even takes credit for the design of a strapless bra worn in one of his movies.
• Portrayed by Terry O'Quinn in Disney's "The Rocketeer" (1991).

Howard Hughes - Music

• The British punk rock band The Tights wrote a song "Howard Hughes" which was the title track of their "Howard Hughes" single.
• The cello trio Rasputina wrote a song "Howard Hughes" which was included in their CD Thanks For The Ether; lead singer Melora Creager has an ongoing preoccupation with Hughes (see [3]).
• Leadbelly composed a folksong, "Howard Hughes", which accompanies the final credits of the film The Aviator.
• The Boomtown Rats released the song "Me And Howard Hughes" on their record Tonic For The Troops in 1978.
• The band Kansas did a song about Howard Hughes, which they named "Closet Chronicles". It was originally on their album Point of Know Return.
• The British progressive rock band Genesis mentioned "Howard Hughes in blue suede shoes" in their song "Broadway Melody of 1974", part of the album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.
• The British shoegazer band Ride mentioned Howard Hughes in their song "Castle on the Hill"[4] In addition, they have a song titled "Howard Hughes" on their 1992 CD single Twisterella.
• The song "Reward" by British band The Teardrop Explodes includes the line "Live in solitude like Howard Hughes".
• Jerry Cantrell, on the album Degradation Trip, wrote a song titled "Bargain Basement Howard Hughes". However, the song is actually about his former Alice in Chains bandmate Layne Staley. The final verse mentioned, "Often heard, seldom seen, Bargain Basement Howard Hughes, Hermit phase, a woodshed rage, these days headlines are few." Cantrell also made another Hughes/Staley reference on the Degradation Trip song "Pig Charmer" particuarly with the line: "Come on in, get high / Don't mind piss-filled bottles."
• John Hartford's 1972 album Morning Bugle includes the song "Howard Hughes Blues" which describes his solitary life of "poor old Howard Hughes and all of his blues".
• 10cc namecheck Hughes in the hit song "Wall Street Shuffle", with the line "Oh, Howard Hughes, did your money make you better?"
• Sole, a notoriously anti-capitalist rapper, had a song titled "MC Howard Hughes" on his album Bottle of Humans.
• 1970s Christian rocker Larry Norman's song "Without Love" contains a reference to Howard Hughes.
• Jim Croce's song "Workin' at the Carwash Blues" contains a Howard Hughes reference. Jim claims he is an undiscovered Howard Hughes.
• Stan Ridgway's 1991 song "I Wanna Be a Boss" contains a reference to Howard Hughes as a role model for those who aspire to be eccentric, reclusive billionaires.

• Rick Nelson's 1972 hit, "Garden Party," mentions Hughes: "Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise." This has been interpreted as accusing Dylan of selling out, or referring to Dylan's own reclusive tendencies. However, some believe that "Mr. Hughes" is not a reference to Hughes, but rather Beatle George Harrison, who used "Mr. Hughes" as an alias while traveling.
• Industrial outfit 70 Gwen Party released a 1994 single called "Howard Hughes" on Snape records (cat no SR011). An alternative recording was made for the John Peel show and released in 1995 on their "John Peel Sessions" album.
• Gary Numan said the suited visage he used for the "Dance" and "I,Assassin" albums were patterned in part after Howard Hughes, whom he identified as one of his heroes.
• "My shoes, they once were worn by Howard Hughes" from My Place a song by Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics on his album Sly-Fi.
• "Aint No Fun (Waiting Round To Be A Millionare)" by AC/DC contains lyrics at the end "hey Howard, get your(expletive)jumbo jet off my airport!"

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Fictional media inspirations", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki