Ball of Fire by Stefan Kanfer

Author:Stefan Kanfer [Kanfer, Stefan]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780307424914
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2007-12-17T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

“Why can’t I be happy?”

MORE THAN one industrialist has acquired a movie studio in the hopes of diversifying his holdings and maybe meeting a few starlets along the way. Almost all have unloaded the investment within a few years, victimized by circumstance, bad timing, and the Hollywood operators who always manage to fleece “civilians”—their pejorative term for those outside of show business.

Howard Hughes was just such a civilian, entering major motion picture production with the purchase of RKO in 1948. At first he enjoyed the glamour; columnists coupled his name with actresses including Linda Darnell, Yvonne De Carlo, Elizabeth Taylor, Ava Gardner, and Terry Moore (who later claimed to have been secretly married to him). His reputation for eccentricity took another leap when he paid particular attention to Jane Russell’s poitrine during filming of The Outlaw. Noticing that the leading lady’s lavish bust rose and sagged unpredictably, he asked for a drawing board and a pencil. “This is really just a very simple engineering problem,” he told a designer. He sketched a brassiere that would stabilize the focal points of the picture and saw to it that it was manufactured and worn. Extensively hyped, the Western made Russell a star, and established the name of Hughes in Hollywood. Unfortunately for him, the rest of RKO’s movies could not be treated as engineering problems; what followed The Outlaw was a string of undistinguished failures.

By 1955 Hughes wanted out. He sold the studio to the General Tire & Rubber Company; that company had no more luck than he did, and two years later it put RKO on the block. General Tire’s intention was to take a loss, offsetting capital gains for the past fiscal year. For $6.5 million a buyer would get all assets of properties in Los Angeles and Culver City, including sets and office equipment. “Everything,” said the company representative when he waved the offer before Desi, “except unproduced scripts and stories and unfinished films.”

The sum was more than Desilu had, and perhaps more than it could borrow. Before Desi dismissed the idea out of hand, however, he called the Great Eccentric himself and told him about the prospective sale of his old studio’s properties.

“What do they want for them?” barked Howard Hughes.

Desi gave him the details.

“Grab it! Even if you tear them down and make them into parking lots, you’ve gotta make money.”

Hughes’s argument not only convinced Desi, it persuaded a lender; the Bank of America advanced $2 million after he negotiated the selling price down to $6.15 million. One key individual had been deliberately shut out of the bargaining—Lucy. Leery of her reaction, Desi asked his chief financial officer, Edwin E. Holly, to break the news. According to Holly, Desi “wasn’t going to go out and tell Lucy she was going to have to mortgage the house, the kids, and everything else. This was, in effect, putting everything they and the company had on the line.” Holly approached the I Love Lucy set with trepidation, keeping out of the star’s way while she filmed a scene with Vivian Vance.

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