| OCR Text |
Show The Thunderbird X Stewart part of a legend Ox' TO OSOOOSXj Wednesday, January 4, 1984 y 'WvSS-- Page 7 MV v I 1 SUSC custodian was once Howard Hughes barber by Fletcher Matson Ive never met anybody like Howard Hughes. He was a real nut. Such are the words of one Mell Stewart, an open, talkative, Utahn currently working at SUSC as a custodian, who for an erratic 15 years clipped and styled the straggling hairs of one of the richest men the world has the late Howard Robard ever known Hughes. Hughes is well known as the aviation Airlines whiz kid who built Trans-Worlvirtually from scratch and sold it decades later for over $700 million. He also was a daredevil pilot who broke the transcontinental flying time record in 1936, and the world record two years later. He was a moviemaker who had been linked with such scandalous beauties as Jean Harlow, Ginger Rogers and Jane Russell. industries Through his weapon-makin- g he garnered enough government contracts to become the eighth largest government manufacturer in the nation during World War II. He was the millionaire who left an estate reputedly worth over $2.6 billion. Howard Hughes, the recluse, the eccentric, the drug addict who died of kidney failure, starved and dehydrated in level-heade- d d Hughes aides prepared him as if far surgery , including a surgical scrub , plastic gloves... Mell Stewart gladly recounts a multitude of stories relating to Howard Hughes. least he could see that I dared to do things on my own, he said. Stewart removed the gloves at Hughes command and, using fine, German steel instruments that were discarded after one use, began the trade that would keep him involved in the Hughes menagerie until his employers death 15 years later. Along with Gordon Margulis, Hughes cockney bodyguard and food preparer, Stewart is the chief source of Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years by James Phelan. He spoke volumes about the life of y eccentricities and hermit and is still Nevadas willing to relate some of the more memorable incidents to listeners. Stewart was also a prime witness in the controversy over the Mormon Will, that mysterious document that appeared on the desk of a Church of Saints public Jesus Christ of Latter-darelations officer three weeks after Hughes death. The three-paghandwritten letter is purported to be Hughes last genuine will. The beneficiaries include the Mormon the Hughes church, both his Medical Foundation and my aids (sic) at the time of my death. Melvin Dummar, the young man who claims he drove Hughes to Las Vegas after finding him sprawled beside a desert road in southern Nevada, is also named. The will is still being investigared, but Stewart mentions that Dummar has been indicted for forgery. Stewart said he had never even heard Hughes refer to Dummar before his death. While his bosss personal pecadillos like eating nothing but Campbells s chicken soup and banana nut ice cream for months on end sometimes confounded and often best-know- n the midst of millions, was the man Stewart worked for. I first met Howard in 1961, recounts Stewart. He was working at the Beverly Hills Hotel when Hughes representatives first contacted him for the possible position of Hughes barber. The Hughes screening process included a complete character reference that delved into his past relationships and health records and a forced hours-lon- g wait while Hughes tested his patience. When Stewart was finally admitted to the inner sanctum, Hughes aides prepared him as if for surgery, including a surgical scrub, plastic gloves and white doctors clothes. After the final preparation, he was issued a warning never to speak to The Man under any circumstances, and was led to a small, dim bedroom with d furniture. There sat Howard Hughes, skinny, naked, unkempt and very hairy. Stewart prepared to chop away at beard and dirty Hughes hair, but not before Hughes noticed the surgical gloves and asked Stewart why he wore them. Stewart decided to break the silence rule right then and there. At sheet-drape- waist-lengt- h y e, Easkin-Robbin- amused Stewart, Hughes drug addiction did not. He recalls cleaning out his employers room one night after The Man decided to change residences. I opened up the door and my gosh! there must have been hundreds of (codeine) bottles just stacked in there. According to Stewart, Hughes had been hooked on valium and codeine for almost 30 years, receding further into seclusion until the Mormon Mafia, his group of predominantlv LDS advisers led by Frank William Gay, virtually controlled his very existence. Once, after Hughes had fled the 1968 earthquake in Nicaragua for the Bayshore Inn on his time in a drugged stupor and developed pressure sores from lying in bed the remainder of his years. Although the actions of his Mafia may have been negligent at best, and possibly downright criminal, the courts main concern is straightening out Hughes estate: Who are his heirs and what was his residency. Although he was born in Texas and spent much of his time in Nevada, Hughes hopped from state to state, continent to continent so much that neither of the two states can make any solid claim to his estate. The issue is a crucial one; the winning state stands to net over Along with Gordon Margulis , Hughes cockney bodyguard and food preparer , Mell Stewart is the chief source of Howard Hughes: The Hidden Years, by James Phelan. Vancouver Bay, he had admired the $300,000 in inheritance taxes. For all the years that he spent in the company of this strange recluse, Stewart is really no closer to understanding his boss than many of Hughes biographers are. He was one of the best psychologists Ive ever known, he admits, and hes probably right. A man Hughes died en route to a Houston medical center from Acapulco in 1976 as who could build and control a vast a result of starvation, drug addiction, financial empire running into billions, dehydration and uremic poisoning. He yet screen his every move from the could have been saved, feels Stewart, if public and press would have to know his aides had acted sooner than they something about human beings and how did. Hughes in his last days was a pitiful to manipulate them even if that His weight had dropped to 90 knowledge wasnt enough to save him from fatal manipulation by the people he pounds, his muscles had atrophied to the point of uselessness, he spent most of trusted most. huge picture window in his security staffs room and indicated hed like the room for his own, but Gay and others objected strongly and rushed him off to a small, isolated cell. |
