In a penthouse bedroom in Las Vegas, a solitary man sits in a darkened room. He is eating chicken soup. It has taken him hours to consume half of the bowl as he is glued in front of his private screen watching his collection of old westerns. His aides come and reheat the bowl until there is no more. Once they exit, he covers the entire room with toilet paper in case germs have contaminated the room. Billionaire and business tycoon Howard Hughes has dined for the day. People always say it is good to be rich, however in Howard Hughes’s case it was a blessing and a curse. He lived his early life as a king and died a slave (Nicholas 48). Everything he touched turned into gold, whether it was movies, planes or people (Nicholas 48). Howard Hughes was one of the most successful aviators of his time. His investment in film and Hollywood starlets was legendary as well as his eccentric habits which ultimately led to his demise.
Howard Robert Hughes was born in Huston, Texas in 1905(Moore 92). His father, Robert Hughes, became well known for building oil drilling tools for major corporations such as Standard oil (Nicholas 48). His mother Jane was a frail woman who had a serious case of obsessive compulsive disorder towards hygiene and lived and made her son live in fear of germs for his whole life (Simikin 10). At the age of 52, Robert Hughes died of stomach cancer and left his company to his son Howard (Nicholas 48). Having no interest in the oil machinery business, Howard left the company to his cousins and left Texas.
At the age of 23, Howard Hughes came to Los Angeles, California to pursue his own dream in producing films. He started RKO pictures and produced award winning movies such as Scarface, a movie which was bas on the life of ...
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...close to the man sob because they have just realized that once again ladies and gentlemen, Howard Hughes has left the Building.
Work cited:
Drosnin, Michael. Citizen Hughes.1st ed.1st volume. New York,
NY: Bantam Books, PP6-539
King, Smith. “Aircrafts and Airfacts: Spruce Goose.” Evergreen Aviation.
Michael King Smith, 23/7/2004.Web. 21 Apr 2010. Http://www.sprucegoose.org/aircraft_airfacts/exhibits.html#
Moore, John.”Howard Hughes: a chronology.” Channel 4: History.
Channel 4, 29/3/2007.Web. 21 Apr 2010.Http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/e-h/hughes.html.
Nicholas, Margaret. The world’s wealthiest losers.1st edition. Volume 1.
New York, NY: Bounty Books (15 May 1997), 1997.169pp.
Siskin, John.”Howard Hughes: Biography.”Spartacus Educational. John Siskin,
12/6/2002.Web. 20 Apr 2010. Http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/author.htm.
Jones relates that the “Death of Luxury” not only affected wealthy Americans and advertisers, but also entangled Hollywood and Washington, D.C. with debt remorse. Julian Niccoli, managing partner of New York's Four Seasons restaurant declared that “It's very difficult to go downward... once
The quests for gold at the end of the rainbow, the hopes of thousands to one day live the fabled American Dream. Worldwide, everyone who is capable looks for their chance to strike it rich. Some of the most successful people today, such as Apple’s Steve Jobs and OK! Magazine’s Richard Desmond, have risen from tough backgrounds (Serafina). Growing up in abject poverty, these individuals found ways to push past the glass ceiling in their respective fields. Interestingly, many of them share similar obstacles on their way to the top.
The rags-to-riches story is always a classical and inspirational tale that tries to touch our hearts. These stories seeks to arouse the warm, intrinsic emotions that all humans get when they proudly achieve a long-term goal. Andrew Carnegie’s life is the exception. Andrew Carnegie was an industrialist who guided the expansion of the American steel industry in the 1800s. During this period, the United States was a demanding country for steel to use in the rail roads. Andrew Carnegie was not a hero but a heartless capitalist because he sabotaged his competitors in the steel industry, applied his belief that “(competition) insures the survival of the fittest in every department” into social standards, and, maintained his employees in unfair working
In ?A & P? John Updike gives a story of a man faced with two choices for his life in a seemingly unimportant circumstance. He can stand up for himself and for his rules, as his manager encourages him to do so. But as the story goes, he remains oblivious to the forces at work, and decides to bend his will to three girls in bathing suits, or more generally, to those who have the power and nobility of wealth behind them. Sam makes the wrong choice, and subsequently, makes the rest of his life more difficult, as he admits that he must life his life under another class of people, the wealthy, as though he is less than them. By admitting that he is less than them, Sam has started to live his life not for the happiness he can obtain, but for the wealth he can obtain.
Brian purchased the finest penthouse that his money could buy. After all, “I deserve it”, he would boast to friends. Expensive white Italian silk suits, alligator shoes, and a red Lamborghini sports car with license plates that read “MONEY” were his trademark. His penthouse apartment held a sweeping vista of the city along with elegantly appointed rooms, marble entry, a swimming pool and a sauna. Art work from the masters and rare collections were an impressive site to visitors. Brian had all the latest toys and electronics gadgets a young man could desire. A staff of servants cooked, cleaned and pampered him where ever he desired.
1920’s Harlem was a time of contrast and contradiction, on one hand it was a hotbed of crime and vice and on the other it was a time of creativity and rebirth of literature and at this movement’s head was Langston Hughes. Hughes was a torchbearer for the Harlem Renaissance, a literary and musical movement that began in Harlem during the Roaring 20’s that promoted not only African-American culture in the mainstream, but gave African-Americans a sense of identity and pride.
A penny saved may be a penny earned, just as a penny spent may begin to better the world. Andrew Carnegie, a man known for his wealth, certainly knew the value of a dollar. His successful business ventures in the railroad industry, steel business, and in communications earned him his multimillion-dollar fortune. Much the opposite of greedy, Carnegie made sure he had what he needed to live a comfortable life, and put what remained of his fortune toward assistance for the general public and the betterment of their communities. He stressed the idea that generosity is superior to arrogance. Carnegie believes that for the wealthy to be generous to their community, rather than live an ostentatious lifestyle proves that they are truly rich in wealth and in heart. He also emphasized that money is most powerful in the hands of the earner, and not anyone else. In his retirement, Carnegie not only spent a great deal of time enriching his life by giving back; but also often wrote about business, money, and his stance on the importance of world peace. His essay “Wealth” presents what he believes are three common ways in which the wealthy typically distribute their money throughout their life and after death. Throughout his essay “Wealth”, Andrew Carnegie appeals to logos as he defines “rich” as having a great deal of wealth not only in materialistic terms, but also in leading an active philanthropic lifestyle. He solidifies this definition in his appeals to ethos and pathos with an emphasis on the rewards of philanthropy to the mind and body.
Justin Kaplan is an American novelist and editor whom is known for his vast selection of biographies. He even received a Pulitzer Prize For his biography concerning Mark Twain. When the Astor’s Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age, is only one example of Kaplan’s many biographical novels. In summary, the novel takes a glance into the Astor family’s rise and fall and their way of making regular people feel luxurious. Overall, Kaplan really focuses on the inconsequentialness of the rich and their appetite to be more superior than anyone. Hence, Their desire to compete to have larger homes, fancier furniture, more expensive yachts, and better hotels. However, the Astor’s even competed within their own family.
“James Mercer Langston Hughes, known as Langston Hughes was born February 2, 1902 in Missouri, to Carrie Hughes and James Hughes.” Years later his parents separated. Langston’s father moved to Mexico and became very successful, as his for mother, she moved frequently to find better jobs. As a child growing up Langston spent most of his childhood living with his grandmother named Mary Langston in Lawrence, Kansas. Mary Langston was a learned women and a participant in the civil rights Movement. When Langston Hughes was 12 years old his grandmother passed away. Langston then moved in with his mother and stepfather Homer Clark. A few months later, Langston’s mother sent him to live with her mother’s friend “Auntie” and Mr. Reed. In 1915 Langston rejoined his mother, stepfather, and stepbrother in Illinois. In 1916 the family moved again to Cleveland, Ohio.
We all start someplace and for Robert Edward Turner III it started in Cincinnati, Ohio at the McCallie School. He was a National Forensics League member. (NFL) It was at this school he won the Tennessee debate championship. Robert Edward Turner was also call and what he is known as today as Ted Turner. His dad, Robert Turner II also known as Ed Turner, bought a billboard company he changed the name to Turner Advertising. Ted learned every aspect of the outdoor advertising business at his father’s insistence. He learned from maintenance to finance, but not all he did was work sailed his dinghy that his father gave him. “At age nine, he began sailing and soon developed a passion for sailboat racing. By age 11, he was competing in the junior regatta of the Savannah Yacht Club.” (Achievement). Ted’s father wanted him to attend Harvard, but his grades weren’t high enough for him to get in so Ted attended Brown University. After school, he returned home to his father’s business where his father gave him the assistant manager of Turner Advertising’s Atlanta branch position. Ted inherited the business at 24 when his father took his own life after the business took a turn for the worse and went into debt. By the end of the decade Ted had turned the business around into the largest billboard company in the southeast. (Achievement).
James Langston Hughes was born February 1, 1902, in Joplin , Missouri . His parents divorced when he was a small child, and his father moved to Mexico . He was raised by his grandmother until he was thirteen, when he moved to Lincoln , Illinois , to live with his mother and her husband, before the family eventually settled in Cleveland , Ohio . It was in Lincoln , Illinois , that Hughes began writing poetry. Following graduation, he spent a year in Mexico and a year at Columbia University . During these years, he held odd jobs as an assistant cook, launderer, and a busboy, and travelled to Africa and Europe working as a seaman. In November 1924, he moved to Washington , D.C. Hughes's first book of poetry, The Weary Blues, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in 1926. He finished his college education at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania three years later. In 1930 his first novel, Not Without Laughter, won the Harmon gold medal for literature.
Langston Hughes was probably the most well-known literary force during the Harlem Renaissance. He was one of the first known black artists to stress a need for his contemporaries to embrace the black jazz culture of the 1920s, as well as the cultural roots in Africa and not-so-distant memory of enslavement in the United States. In formal aspects, Hughes was innovative in that other writers of the Harlem Renaissance stuck with existing literary conventions, while Hughes wrote several poems and stories inspired by the improvised, oral traditions of black culture (Baym, 2221). Proud of his cultural identity, but saddened and angry about racial injustice, the content of much of Hughes’ work is filled with conflict between simply doing as one is told as a black member of society and standing up for injustice and being proud of one’s identity. This relates to a common theme in many of Hughes’ poems that dignity is something that has to be fought for by those who are held back by segregation, poverty, and racial bigotry. The poems “Visitors to the Black Belt”, “Note on Commercial Theatre”, “Democracy”, and “Theme for English B” by Hughes all illustrate the theme of staying true to one’s cultural identity and refusing to compromise it despite the constant daily struggle it meant to be black in an Anglo centric society.
Have you ever heard the expression money isn’t everything? Well it’s true and in Langston Hughes short story, “Why, You reckon,” Hughes reveals his theme of how people aren’t always as happy as they seem when they have lots of money.
Upon reading more closely, the story is revealed to present a tragic journey of a man who has lost his sanity but seeks solace in the materialistic comforts of his old life. The story succeeds in making a number of statements about human nature: that wealth is the most powerful measure of social status and anyone without it will face ostracization; that denial of one 's mistakes and unfortunate circumstances only leads to more pain; that even the most optimistic people can hold dark secrets and emotional turmoil inside them. All of these themes compel the reader to ponder their real-life implications long after the story is
Director Martin Scorsese brilliantly portrays the life of billionaire Howard Hughes. Hughes was considered the richest man in the country and possibly the world (Katherine Ramsland). He had inherited his wealth first through his father’s business and then film making and aviation. Martin Scorsese accurately depicted Hughes’ image, health problems, airplanes, and the Brewster Senate Hearings with few inaccuracies.