“I dont know. I am just asking.
“I see you have nobody from the radio stations. I am not criticizing. Only asking.”
It went on like that for days, the guest list ballooning to embrace everybody as qualified as those already included, until Maheu finally suggested two separate parties to accommodate all the proposed guests, a pre-opening preview to be followed by the big opening gala.
Hughes, however, had not yet actually approved any invitations. And now he started to move in reverse, questioning every name on the list, eliminating entire categories.
“I have reviewed carefully the new integrated complete lists,” he advised Maheu. “I suggest you make new lists as follows:
“Why dont you eliminate all out-of-towners plus as many locals as you feel would not be harmful.
“Studio Execs—all out of town, so understand will be eliminated.
“Union Officials—urge you review with objective of shortening slightly and eliminating any questionables.
“Local Business Men—I urge that you, Bob, personally go thru this list. I would like to see it slightly shorter if it can be done without hurting too many feelings.
“Airline and Aircraft Industries—I feel all of these can be eliminated.
“Hotel Industry—this seems an awful long list, Bob.”
For the third time in three days, Maheu revised the guest list for the still unscheduled party. Hughes was not satisfied. He demanded the same absolute consistency in excluding guests as he had in including them, dropping all who were equally unqualified, and the once swollen list was now shrinking at an alarming rate.
“These will be my final comments on the invitation lists,” Hughes assured his harried underling, as he started to prune the undesirables, slashing away with wild abandon.
“Do you really think so many hotel executives should be included?” he asked dubiously. “If I am going to eliminate all of my friends in the movie business and in the aircraft business, such as my friends at Lockheed, then I just wonder about such names as those I have noted.”
Having decided not to invite his old friends for fear they would insist on seeing him, having eliminated all out-of-towners to cover their exclusion, Hughes now questioned every name still on the list. Why invite a bunch of strangers, if not his friends?
“Please give me your views,” he encouraged Maheu, not at all close-minded, “but bear in mind that I am not inviting about 500 highly qualified candidates of mine in Los Angeles, New York, Washington, and Houston.
“You may say: ‘Go ahead and invite them.’
“But we have discussed that and agreed that there are many disadvantages.
“I just feel that if all of my out-of-town friends are going to be excluded, it will be easier for me to explain if the list is confined to the people who would normally be included under almost any kind of analysis.
“This surely includes Laxalt, Baring, Bible, etc.,” he continued, citing the governor, Nevada’s only congressman, and one of its two senators.
“Whether it includes a man, because he is the biggest meat packer in town, or not—I just really dont know, Bob, and that is why I solicit your advice.
“Please feel free to resubmit to me a reccomendation for reinstatement of any of the names,” Hughes concluded generously, “together with an explanation of what specific qualifications you desire to use as the controlling guidelines in reinstating them.”
Maheu had reached his limit. He had been filing an endless series of reports, justifying his proposed lists, explaining the qualifications of each proposed guest, quickly agreeing to drop those Hughes challenged, to add those he suggested, to drop the names added as the billionaire suddenly questioned invitations he had just insisted upon, submitting revised lists and revising the revisions.
It was all futile.
Every name added and every name deleted called into question all the other names, causing Hughes to re-analyze the entire list. Over and over again.
“I am certain that one submission back to me of the revised and shortened lists I have proposed will be sufficient,” he once more assured Maheu. “I am hoping to give you a green lite within an hour after you re-submit the lists.
“Re the opening date, etc., I urge you count the number after the revisions. It looks to me as tho the number, in total, after the revisions I have requested, will be small enough to permit one event only, which I strongly recommend .”
Hughes’s demand for yet another revised guest list came just after midnight, three days before the still tentative date of the grand Landmark party. He had lopped so many names off the list that the big gala could now fit comfortably in the hotel’s constantly malfunctioning elevator. He had not yet approved a single invitation. And he had stubbornly kept the opening date open.
Maheu finally lost control.
“Howard,” he exploded, “we don’t have a revised guest list because, as of right now, we don’t know whether we’re going to have one group or two groups—or any group. If we don’t have any invitees at all, then it becomes moot to furnish a guest list.
“I have given you the schedule of events about ten times now,” he raved at Hughes, who all along had been peppering him with questions about details of the still unscheduled party, especially about food for the still uninvited guests, which he refused to allow Maheu to order.
“Unfortunately, I have been so busy with this and many other of your problems, that I have no idea about the menu, except that, as I indicated to you in a previous memorandum, it will cost us about $10 per head to feed the beasts.
“At this point,” Maheu concluded, “I couldn’t care less whether we have an affair on the 30th, on the 1st, or whether we ever open up the damned joint. My recommendation to you, Howard, seriously, is that we put this whole caper aside, not take advantage of the fact that we can make the International look foolish, let them make us look foolish instead, and wait until you are satisfied that you have capable people around you to have your opening, at which time I wish you the greatest success.”
Hughes absorbed the diatribe with uncharacteristic calm. Having waited so patiently for Maheu to bite, he did not want to try to hook him too soon. Also, Hughes was himself hooked on the guest list. He was not willing to be diverted. Not quite yet.
“Bob, I dont think I have been unreasonable about this invitation list,” he wrote, replying with elaborate patience to his aide’s intemperate outburst.
“I honestly feel, Bob, that if I can bear to devote the time to go through this list, you should be willing likewise to do so.
“I am sure there will be another occasion like this some time, and if this list can be refined and analyzed to the end of the line, all this work will be done and not necessary to be repeated.”
With that, Hughes was off again, refining and analyzing with undiminished zeal, urging Maheu to go the last mile, not for the sake of this party alone, but for the Eternal List.
“Please consider the remaining names,” he continued. “I would appreciate the facts supporting invitations of these people, and I would also appreciate the names and qualifications of any other people you think should be added in the event these names are returned to the list.
“In other words, if these real estate men and contractors are restored, aren’t there other people in the same line of work whom, in all propriety, should be included?
“Re Morrie Friedman, please tell me the story on him.
“Also, Bob, I am awaiting a list of other auto dealers who perhaps should be included, in view of the fact that I have returned Ackerman to the list.”
Ackerman. The first name on Maheu’s first list. The one that had stopped Hughes right off. Ackerman had finally made it back onto the list. But the larger issue raised by his inclusion—what to do about the rest of the automobile dealers—still preoccupied the would-be host.