"And now you know--[beat]--the rest of the story!"

Two articles today look at what was left out of Martin Scorsese's The Aviator. Harold Evans examines the brilliant career of Pan Am's Juan Trippe:

Everyone who sees the Oscar runaway nominee "The Aviator" will come away with a dark impression of the man Howard Hughes sees as his enemy--a plump Alec Baldwin playing Juan Trippe as the suavely conspiratorial head of Pan Am. The film deserves its acclaim because it captures the romantic and visionary spirit of risk-takers like Hughes who propelled America to new heights--but the image of Trippe as the bad guy has to be retrieved before it congeals in the popular imagination.

If you are one of the 3.6 billion who have flown on a 747, it's Trippe, not Hughes, who merits the raising of a turbulence-free glass. Mass international jet travel was Trippe's achievement. He deserves a movie of his own. Of course, the film is right that Trippe worked the Washington lobby to try and retain his prewar monopoly of international air services. Hughes, having acquired Trans World Airlines in May 1939, won that one, gaining permission to operate overseas in December 1945. But even before he went mad, Hughes never had the early vision that Trippe did. Even when LaGuardia was an amusement park, Trippe was more prescient than anyone, including his new best friend, Charles Lindbergh. Trippe was indeed a political operator, but was also the greatest creative force through four adventurous decades.

Meanwhile, John Meroney looks at "Howard Hughes' Last Hurrah"--battling communism in Hollywood:

"Do you think if they asked a man if he was a Democrat or a Republican that he would refuse to answer on the grounds that his answer might incriminate him?" said Hughes. "The very fact that this man pleaded his constitutional privilege — that is his admission that he is not talking about politics. If you believe that the Communist party is in the same category as the Democrat party or Republican party, then I think I can answer you in this way: We are not fighting Democrats or Republicans in Korea."

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As a businessman, Hughes didn't want to jeopardize box-office receipts. He believed that having party members employed at studios was a financial risk. By the time of the Jarrico case, however, he was beginning to find the idea of having someone supportive of the Soviet regime working for him disturbing on a more fundamental level that had nothing to do with money. "The public has begun to dislike — I should say, detest — not only Communism but Communists. It is beginning to recognize that they are traitors to our country, and to feel that they should be discouraged in every way," said Hughes during the trial. "The public is beginning to ask all who assist the Communists, in any way, why they are doing so, and to transfer some of its resentment to [those who help]."

Making Trippe a heavy was probably necessary to cast Hughes in the best light. But it's not at all surprising that modern Hollywood chooses to forget Hughes' efforts in helping to fight the war after World War II.