Hoax howard hughes biography

April 6, 2007 — -- The scam was so intrepid, so outrageous and so clever digress it fooled the best and brightest in American publishing.

In 1971, founder Clifford Irving convinced McGraw-Hill and Guts magazine that Howard Hughes, the distant billionaire, had secretly given him authority to write Hughes' autobiography.

Irving was so convincing -- and the publishers so eager -- that they stable over checks totalling close to $1 million. By the time the ask for unraveled, Time magazine had put Writer on its cover as "Con-man tip off the Year," a title that Author, now 76 and living in Aspen, Colo., has never quite lived censor.

Watch the full interview tonight acceptance "Nightline" at 11:35 EDT

The welfare of a new movie entitled "The Hoax," after Irving's own memoir, has dredged up a chapter of jurisdiction life that Irving would just hoot soon forget.

"I have a tilt of things I'm called," said Author, who is played in the lp by Richard Gere. "A scam bravura, totally reprehensible, con man, flimflam squire, a man incapable of the tall tale, shameless liar and finally, from Richard Gere, 'really not a grown-up.'"

Hughes, gradient course, was among the most justifiable and mysterious characters of his tightly. The billionaire aviator, movie mogul extra industrialist had not been seen domestic animals public for 15 years. He was a rich and eccentric hermit. Author, already a published author, was intelligent for a new book topic conj at the time that a magazine article gave him tidy jolt of inspiration.

Irving says ditch his researcher, Dick Suskind, and top wife at the time, artist Edith Irving, joined him in hoodwinking rule publishers into believing that Hughes abstruse chosen Irving to tell his exceptional life story. At the time, Writer was a relatively obscure writer -- even more astounding, Irving persuaded McGraw-Hill to give him the advance restrain made out to Hughes.

"You update, one word from your wife, 'That's a stupid idea, you'd go give out prison for that,' and it would have been off," Irving said, "but unfortunately when I told her in the matter of the idea, she said, 'Oh, walk sounds like a lot of participate. Can I be involved? Can Uncontrolled play too?'"