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SOLD ON BEHALF OF THE OREGON MOZART PLAYERS, HOWAR
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SOLD ON BEHALF OF THE OREGON MOZART PLAYERS, HOWARD HUGHES' "LUCKY FEDORA," A VINTAGE HAT MADE BY JOHN E. STETSON. Howard Hughes born, Houston, December 24, 1905, died April 5, 1976. Famously reclusive billionaire aviator, movie producer and businessman. He is most famous for the last years of his life, when his mind faded and he lived the life of a wealthy, paranoid recluse. But earlier he had been a dashing and innovative businessman. Inheriting the Hughes Tool Company at age 19, Hughes became by turns a Hollywood movie producer, aircraft inventor, mining mogul, casino owner and ladies' man. (He dated Ava Gardner and Katharine Hepburn among many other starlets.) An avid and daring pilot, Hughes set a handful of aviation world records, including one for a 1938 flight around the world in just over 91 hours. In the 1960s his business dealings paid off handsomely, and his wealth reached one billion dollars, a staggering amount for the era. In the 1950s certain personality quirks began to dominate, and Hughes grew increasingly unbalanced. He dropped from public view and became famous for his wealth and his mysterious hidden ways, surfacing via telephone in 1972 to say that a biography written by Clifford Irving was a hoax. The gossip and confusion about his whereabouts and lifestyle continued after his 1976 death, when various parties contested his will amid much publicized legal wrangling. He often wore the famous hat offered here and was photographed numerous times wearing this hat in front of and in the cockpit of his planes. Provenance: For 35 years I was a practicing Medical Specialist in the Los Angeles area. During that time my wife and I became very friendly with John Sleeter, a general practitioner in a neighboring community, and he and I developed a professional relationship as well. One evening while my wife and I were the Sleeters' dinner guests, John told us that while he was training at Los Angeles County Hospital, he came to care for HOWARD HUGHES, who was a patient there. Hughes had been taken to that hospital following a plane crash of his on July 7, 1946. John, for a period of time, became Hughes' physician. That evening, knowing that I was a private pilot, thinking I would appreciate it, John offered me a hat that Hughes had given him. Was this the only such hat that Hughes had, since a famous photo of him showing him in the pilot seat of the Spruce Goose shows him wearing this hat? I kept it ever since and even considered donating it to the Smithsonian Museum Aviation Section at one time. It now seems an appropriate time to make it available to a person or entity seriously interested in possessing what I consider to be a valuable and real bit of memorabilia. Now that I have done a bit more digging, I have found that Sleeter was a Lt. and had indeed treated Hughes after the crash, and hitched a ride with him on his first flight after the ordeal. I have also found reference to the hat being recovered and taken to a police station, then rushed to Hughes at the hospital. It kind of gave me chills, reading about the crash and his connection to Sleeter, and having the hat sitting here in front of me. Accompanying this lot will be a letter from Dr. Sleeter's wife attesting to the authenticity of the hat. To quote the letter: To Whom it may concern, Approximately 15 years ago my husband, Dr. John W. H. Sleeter, while guests at our home at 1200 S. Orange Groove Blvd., Pasadena, gave to Dr. Charles Tannenbaum the hat that Howard Hughes gave him while he was under John's care after he was discharged from Good Samaritan Hospital after his plane crash. I witnessed this gift being given my self, Patricia G. Sleeter. There is also a certificate verifying his service at the hospital that makes direct reference to Hughes case.
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SOLD ON BEHALF OF THE OREGON MOZART PLAYERS, HOWAR
Estimate $20,000 - $30,000
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