I'm more than a wee bit interested in the soon-to-be-released Richard Gere movie, The Hoax, which is the story of Clifford Irving and his infamous bogus Howard Hughes autobiography. Just before he went to prison for the crime, Irving wrote a book which purported to be the true account of his crime. Since his crime was passing off a fake book as legit, a lot of people were skeptical that the "true account" was true. If you read it, it sure felt honest…self-serving in many ways perhaps, but honest. Other sources suggested Irving's confession wasn't much more accurate than his phony book. As an outside observer weighing it all, I tended to think Irving was probably closer to candid than his detractors wanted to admit…which isn't to say he didn't spin at every possible opportunity to minimize his less admirable actions.
I read almost everything I could find about Irving and Hughes, individually and collectively, and for a time tried to convince a couple of motion picture producers to option the Irving confession book and pay me to adapt it into a screenplay. Before the film Melvin and Howard came out, all I heard was "Hughes is dead…no one's interested in him." After that movie came out and did rather well, what I heard was, "Melvin and Howard exhausted the market for a film about Hughes." As we all know, once someone puts out a successful film, no one in Hollywood would ever think of making something in the same vein.
Advance reports on the Gere movie (like this one) make it sound like great liberties have been taken with the truth. If that's so, I'm curious as to why…because the true story — or at least the version Irving told in his tell-all — struck me as eminently filmable without embellishment or alteration. Just looking at the plot points that are beyond dispute, you have a pretty fascinating tale that's all the more compelling because you sit there realizing, "This actually happened! And this and this!" Over on Irving's website, he's posted this statement which basically says he hasn't seen the film but already doubts its accuracy. People may suspect this dispute is all a way to gin up interest in the film but I doubt it. For one thing, I think this is the kind of story that's only of interest if you believe it hasn't been exaggerated or faked in any way. It would be like knowing a TV magic show contained camera trickery.
This might be a good spot to stop and embed the trailer for the movie. It's three minutes…
You can find out a little more about it at the website for the film. Also, elsewhere on Clifford Irving's site, you can download and read for free, a few chapters from the bogus Autobiography of Howard Hughes. You can also download on the honor system (on your honor to send him money) a copy of the whole book.
Irving notes that the hardcover edition of The Autobiography of Howard Hughes, which came out in 1999, is now rare and sells through some dealers for $160. I bought it when it first came out for about a tenth of that and frankly didn't find it as interesting as his account of how he and co-conspirator Richard Suskind flim-flammed the publisher with it. I also found myself wondering how so many people had believed it was real…but then again, I knew it was a fraud before I read it. I'd like to think I wouldn't have been fooled but of course, that's easy to say.
The "confession" book was originally called What Really Happened and was later reissued (with a few deletions) as The Hoax. It's now out again in a new paperback edition with a photo cover of Richard Gere from the movie. You can order it from Amazon here. I don't guarantee its veracity but it's a pretty easy, engrossing read. I hope the movie's that enjoyable.