Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [58]
“Because of the developments of the last few days and a concerted effort to make multiple licensing a political football, the Governor respectfully requests that you refrain from any additional acquisition at this time,” Maheu wrote Hughes. “He thinks that if we wait a few months until the atmosphere has changed that the situation would be entirely different. He is preparing a long confidential memorandum for your consumption. Anyway, Howard, he pointed out his great devotion to you and begs of you to hold still until at least you have had a chance to absorb his comments.”
Hughes could not hold still. He was upset by Laxalt’s wavering support, and he was angry.
“Do you think maybe it is just barely possible that the Gov. is cooling just a little bit toward me?” he wondered, feeling unappreciated. “Maybe now that I have contributed the 100 million to the sagging Vegas economy and stopped the run on the bank (so to speak) is it just possible he has decided I am more of a liability than an assett?”
The more Hughes brooded on Laxalt’s ingratitude, the angrier he got. Hold still? Hell, he would take his money where it was appreciated.
“I can only call the shots as I see them, Bob,” he fumed. “I think this multiple ownership howl is a lot of shit.
“I will lay you ten to one that if I tell the Gov. that I will be willing—unhappy but willing—to divert our investments elsewhere if that is really what he wants, but I wish to be very sure he realizes the situation. I have at least another hundred and fifty million to invest. Since moving here, I have turned down three very attractive investments simply because they were not in Nevada.
“Now, if the Gov. looks at this fairly I dont think he will want to see me put 40,000,000 in a hotel-casino in Venezuela where I have an unbelieveable offer. I think he may prefer not to have multiple licensing up to a point. But when it reaches the spot where he has to stand by and see us plant 40,000,000 down in Venezuela, I dont think he will go for it. Not when he need only pick up the phone to keep the 40 right here.”
But why wait for Laxalt to pick up the phone? Hughes had a bold idea: he would call Laxalt! That should buck him up. Yes, he would do it. It had been a long time, but Howard Hughes was now ready to reach out and touch someone.
To soothe the nervous governor, the phantom placed a phone call to the statehouse. It was the first time he had talked to anyone outside his inner circle since coming to Nevada, and the conversation was banner headline news throughout the state: “GOVERNOR TALKS TO HUGHES.” Something like the Second Coming.
“It was one of the most interesting conversations of my life,” Laxalt proclaimed, seemingly dazzled by the billionaire’s grasp of state affairs and his big plans for Nevada. The governor, however, failed to mention what Hughes himself considered most important.
It was not the Stardust, it was not the Slipper, it was not the threat of a legislative probe or the growing resistance to his casino-buying spree. It was not even his plans to make Laxalt president. It was something far more important than all that. It was the water. Hughes was in an absolute frenzy about the water.
“When I spoke to Gov. Laxalt,” he complained a few days later, “I told him I was truly and urgently alarmed at the way the authorities were rushing ahead into the so-called ‘Southern Nevada Water Project.’ I told him I felt the entire plan simply was not palatable. That the water might be treated with sufficient chlorine so that it would meet the minimum test requirements and be technically drinkable—just as they boast that you can drink the effluent of the Los Angeles sewage disposal plant.
“But that is not the point. This is a resort, and we have to make the air and the water etc. not just non-poisonous but attractive, tasty, palatable. We are in competition with other resorts and if it becomes known that our new water system is nothing but a closed-circuit loop, leading in and out of a cesspool, our competitive resorts will find this