Howard Hughes On The Phone...

I remember having a conversation with a receptionist from my grandfather's office.

She said one time the phone rang and she answered the Phone "Garfield 1-4530"

She said a  man with a very masculine voice said "Jake Ehrlich, Please."  

She asked "May I tell Mr. Ehrlich who is calling?"  The voice on the phone responded "Tell him it is 'The Man.'"

She respond "Uh, who?"  The voice repeated "Tell him it is The Man!"  She asked, "Is Mr. Ehrlich expecting your call?"  He said yes.  "May I give Mr. Ehrlich your first name?"  

The voice said, "Just tell him it is The Man.  He will know who it is"

She put the stranger on hold and called my grandfather and told him she had a man on the phone who kept insisting that he wanted to speak with Jake and that his name was "The Man."

Jake said, "Oh, that is Howard Hughes.  Put him through."  So from that point forward whenever she answered the phone and the voice said it was "The Man" she would put him through.

Howard Hughes talking on the phone while shaving

Years later Jake was having a conversation with one of his proteges named Harry Waynright.  

Jake was complaining to Harry that he had not been sleeping well because his home phone would ring at 2 or 3 in the morning all the time and it would be Howard Hughes wanting to ask Jake for advice about one thing or another involving Howard Hughes' acquisition of Las Vegas casinos.

Harry said to Jake "I am always up late, why don't you give him my number?"  Jake did and Harry started taking the late night calls.  

After Jake told Harry about how Howard Hughes kept calling in the middle of the night, Harry asked Jake if he had sent Howard a bill?  Jake said no.  Harry said, "Why don't we send him a bill for $50,000 and see if he pays it?"  Jake agreed.

So they sent Howard Hughes a bill and he paid it.

Jake represented Howard Hughes for four decades.