Late billionaire Howard Hughes once literally lost the shirt off his back — and it can now be yours.
A vintage cream-colored crepe top with coconut shell buttons, a “Made in Hawaii” label and “H.H.” embroidered on the front is expected to fetch thousands at a July 11 auction.
The famously eccentric aviation tycoon lost the shirt in a craps game during World War II to Col. Walter C. Fain, former commander of a military base in Phoenix, Ariz.
In a handwritten letter of authenticity that comes with the garment, Fain’s widow, Dorothy, writes that her husband got into the dice game with maverick Hughes, who was visiting the base.
“Howard Hughes lost and as was his habit apparently never carried money so my husband said he would take the shirt off his back in lieu of money,” Dorothy Fain wrote.
The shirt has changed hands multiple times over the years.
Fain’s widow auctioned off the shirt in 1976, according to the Beverly Hills-based Julien’s, who is hosting the upcoming sale.
Leonard Ericson, a movie memorabilia collector, won the Hughes top at a celebrity charity auction in Los Angeles for a mere $115.
Ericson’s widow, Anna, subsequently put the monogrammed Hawaiian shirt on eBay and sold it to a David Collins of Florida in June 2006 for $405.
Collins sold it for an unknown amount, according to letters of provenance.
The current consignor wishes to remain anonymous, Julien’s said.
“Howard Hughes was a pioneer in the tech business world, a true renaissance man and high flying billionaire who came before the Richard Bransons and Warren Buffetts of the world,” said Darren Julien, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Julien’s Auctions. “This shirt that he lost during a craps game –literally giving the shirt off his back to a colonel in World War II – adds to his lore and larger than life legend as a risk-taking maverick who lived on the edge and always in search of adventure.”
Hughes, who died in 1976 at the age of 70, owned 78% of Trans World Airlines’s stock — and was known as a loner who struggled with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
