From the Archives 15: Howard Hughes Press Conference

In 1971, Clifford Irving wrote a sensational biography of the eccentric and reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, which Irving claimed was both authorized and co-authored by Hughes himself. In fact, it was a hoax, and Irving manufactured the book from whole cloth. But Hughes did not immediately deny co-authoring the book, leading many to believe it was genuine, including McGraw-Hill, which paid Irving a $765,000 advance for the right to publish it.On January 7, 1972, Hughes held a "telephonic press conference" from his penthouse suite at the Xanadu Princess Resort on Grand Bahama Island, in which he denounced Irving's book and denied any involvement in its creation. Mark 56 released this LP of the press conference, which was produced by George Garabedian, with Wayne Thomis, the aviation editor for the Chicago Tribune, narrating and standing in for the journalists who questioned Hughes.Irving was eventually convicted of fraud and spent 17 months in prison. In 1977, he published The Hoax, telling his version of the story. In 2006, Richard Gere starred in the movie The Hoax, which was also based on these events. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.