“One thing is not a matter of risk or uncertainty, one thing is sure, it will sap a certain measure of your strength right at a time when you are the key man and the very fulcrum upon which my entire world depends.
“Bob, you are always asking me what happens to you if I die. Have you ever thought of what would be the outcome to me if something should happen to you?
“Bob, you are handling absolutely everything that is most important to me, and many of these matters, such as the $137,000,000 TWA judgement, are being handled by persons completely unknown to me and according to a strategy totally unknown to me.
“This is unavoidable, and I am not asking that it be any different. I only want you to know that, if anything should happen to you, I would not even know where to begin trying [to] pick up the pieces.
“So, please just bear that in mind when the time comes for you to leave for Florida.”
The space shots should have been moments of triumph and celebration. Hughes had played a key role in the historic quest. His empire had built the first spacecraft that landed on the moon, and the Hughes Surveyor sent back to earth the first close-ups of the moon’s surface via the Hughes Early Bird communications satellite, which would also broadcast the astronauts’ moon walks to the world. But it all brought no joy to the penthouse. Once more, as with the golf tournament, Hughes could not bear being confined to his bed, relegated to watching the big event on television, while Maheu was down at the launch, hobnobbing with the astronauts. After all, Hughes had once himself been hero of the skies. So space shots were always touchy.
Even on the day men walked on the moon. Especially then. Maheu did not try to escape Hughes’s orbit for the big one. Instead, he spent weeks personally producing a TV show celebrating Hughes as a space pioneer and planned to run it on the Las Vegas station Hughes owned right before the moon walk. But on the eve of the landing came word from Mission Control—abort! Suddenly, at the last possible moment, without explanation, Hughes canceled the show.
“You are the captain of the ship and I will follow your advice,” wrote the grounded Maheu, “but I cannot help but tell you that you are making the mistake of your life, which otherwise would have been the greatest thing that has happened since your arrival here. Cancelling the program at this late date will result in repercussions from which you will never recover.
“I might also add, Howard, that it is evident to me that I should be prepared to become just another zombie in your stable, and not have another original thought.”
Captain Hughes refused to be intimidated. “Bob, my reason for withdrawing from this is purely one of timing,” he explained. “I believe, with good cause, that I will be accused of attempting to cash in on somebody else’s bravery.
“Bob, lets put the shoe on the other foot—If I am to be the so-called Captain, what good is it if you ignore my deep conviction and raise so much hell that I have to do it your way or face the consequences of bad feeling from you and threatened reprisals or horrible ‘repercussions’ tomorrow?”
Maheu did not understand. He seemed to have the strange idea that Hughes had canceled the TV show for the pure pleasure of shooting him down. Just to provoke another fight. They argued bitterly all night and into the morning of the moon landing, and they were still at it when Neil Armstrong took “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
“Howard, please give this little boy from Maine an opportunity to prove to you whether he is right or wrong,” pleaded Maheu, still trying to save his show while the rest of the world watched the space spectacular.
“If you are the gambling man that I think you may be, I am prepared to make a little wager with you. If I fall on my face on this caper, I will continue working for you for the rest of my life at no cost to you, and if you are wrong you will double my salary as long as I work for you.”
Hughes had no interest in the wager.
“Your proposed bet is just absurd,” he wrote. “You would not be able to get along with me working for free.
“We can’t even get along when you get paid.”
It was true. By now their marriage had turned into a nonstop brawl, with both partners weary of the battle but continuing to slug it out, as if by habit. It didn’t take anything as sensitive as space shots or golf tournaments to get them going. Even routine business could become the flash point.
Maheu started the fireworks one Fourth of July with a simple request for decisions on several pending projects. There was nothing provocative about his memo, and he even apologized for intruding on the holiday weekend.
“If you feel that the above items should not have been mentioned on the 4th of July,” he wrote, “you might attribute it to the fact that I am under sedation as a result of a stupid accident I had yesterday. My leg is in a complete cast.”
Hughes was not sympathetic. He saw Maheu’s routine request as a vicious attack and responded with a blast at his crippled lieutenant.
“I work around the clock,” he began defensively. “There are only so many hours and the day is gone.
“Regarding your apology for disturbing me on the 4th of July weekend, this was not necessary. As you are aware, holidays mean very little to me, since I work just about all the time.
“There is only one thing that occurs to me, Bob. Whenever you call something like this to my attention, I get the impression that, instead of merely calling my attention to something you fear I may have forgotten, you are seeking to place me in a posture of guilt.
“It is almost as if we were playing some kind of game.
“I have no desire to pick a quarrel with you. I did get your message last nite. It did raise hell with my evening. I had not forgotten any of the items mentioned. I did not resent being reminded of them. I think it was just the ominous, warning tone of your reminder that disturbed me. The snide, sarcastic language.
“Bob, I dont think I merit this kind of insulting language from you, and, since you are always talking about maintaining the respect of your associates, how do you think this sounds to my staff?
“Someday, when you have time, just come out with it and tell me exactly and fully how stupid you really think your associate is.
“Anyway, I am sick of fighting with you when you are supposed to be on my side.”
The sedated, injured Maheu was stunned.
“I have cast my entire business life in your hands which, of course, also means the future of my family,” he replied. “How in the world can you deduce from perhaps a poorly worded message that I think you are stupid? Honest, Howard, if I didn’t have respect for you as a human being and for your intelligence, I can assure you that I would not be here thoroughly dependent on one man.
“Please knock this off because I become very emotionally disturbed when I feel that I am the cause of upsetting you.”
Hughes was not really all that upset. In fact, never in the entire tormented history of their stormy relationship was he happier than when Maheu injured himself. Finally, they were both bed-ridden. Now he had Maheu all to himself. And he was making the most of it.
“I am sorry about your knee, and I have no desire to add to your problems,” he wrote solicitously. “On the other hand, I have urgent problems which simply cannot be put aside.”
The list of problems was truly staggering.
“Please give me some word on Parvin, Franklin’s statement, Laxalt, Cannon, and Bible’s efforts on behalf of Lake Mead water, my request not to permit a high-rise on the Bonanza site, the threatened hotel on the Zoong property, the threatened hotel on Convention Center Drive, the three parcels of real estate, your efforts via the Justice Dept. to acquire Stardust, my communication via Rebozo to Pres. Nixon, my request to you for some revision of the allocation of Army helicopter business to Bell, that should not wait another five minutes, possible acquisition of the Riviera.