Citizen Hughes - Michael Drosnin [77]
But while Morgan was conditioning the FCC, ABC moved on a new front. A week after the takeover bid had been announced, on July 9, the network filed suit in New York, seeking a federal-court injunction to block Hughes.
Ever since the TWA crisis, lawsuits had terrorized the recluse. He had surrendered control of his beloved airline rather than appear in court, and now he feared that the nightmare—“I was like a rat in a trap”—was about to engulf him again.
At four the next morning, a shaken Hughes roused his thousand-dollar-a-week Hollywood attorney, Greg Bautzer, to have a Mormon aide read him a memo over the telephone.
“I hate to awaken you,” Hughes had written, “but I dont like the way this thing is turning out at all. Up to now there has been no real issue about my being personally called at all. But at the hearing today or tomorrow, ABC will demand my appearance. This will bring into sharp focus all the old rumors of my death, disability, etc., etc. And thereafter if, for any reason, the deal fails to materialize, people will say that the reason was my unwillingness to appear.
“Now, Greg, the minute this slant is put on things I am very likely to be sued for the losses that will no doubt be incurred by those individuals who bought stock when it was at its peak (in loyal support of their confidence in me) and then will be forced to take a loss if the deal fails to go thru.
“You see, normally, it would be held that any such losses would be simply the risk of the speculator. But here we have a man who, in the public’s concept, could win this fight if he would just try, but he is too content to lean back on his billion dollar ass and enjoy life (at least most people think I do).”
As the sleepy lawyer listened long-distance, the aide continued to recite to him the miseries of the frightened financier:
“If I suffer a massive loss of face after two years of improving publicity. If I wind up sued by individuals who invested with me in my gamble. If my reputation as a successful businessman-financier-industrialist is shot to hell … if this is the result of my ABC attempt, you may be sure that it will have been one of the saddest mistakes I have ever made, and I have made quite a few.”
Hughes was so terrified by the lawsuit that he was ready to abandon his network ambitions, if only ABC would promise to drop the litigation.
“Now, Greg, needless to say, this would be an awful disappointment to me. However, I did not muddle my way through 10 years of the TWA lawsuit only to wind up in another one that could easily last another 10 years.
“I dont like litigation, and there is no prize worth incurring more litigation for it.”
Only an impassioned plea by Maheu, later that morning, persuaded Hughes to stay in the fight until at least the case was actually presented. “You have the image of being the only person to take on a Congressional Committee,” he wrote, recalling Hughes’s 1947 “Spruce Goose” hearing triumph, “of a rugged individualist, who is fearless and does not walk away from any battles.”
That afternoon in court, it was a case of courage rewarded. The judge refused to grant ABC an injunction, two days later declined to order Hughes to testify, and then, in an unusual Saturday hearing just two days before the tender offer was due to expire, issued a final order backing the recluse’s right to buy the network.
But there was no joy in the penthouse. For while the court battle proceeded, a new and unexpected adversary arose to bedevil the rugged individualist. And, once more, he cringed from battle.
From Washington came word that the Justice Department was concerned about the possible antitrust implications of the Hughes-ABC deal. His empire already included substantial cable television holdings, sold a wide range of electronics equipment, manufactured communications satellites, and, of course, there was also