Howard Hughes checking the instrument panel of the HK-1 Hughes Flying Boat (400,000 pound, 24,000 horsepower airplane) with his crew before the taxi tests, at Terminal Island in the Los Angeles Harbor.
Oral history interview with Coleen York Wilson conducted by Claytee D. White on June 4, 1996 for the African Americans in Las Vegas: a Collaborative Oral History Project. In this interview, Wilson talks about growing up in Fordyce, Arkansas before moving to Las Vegas, Nevada in 1953 at the age of eighteen. She mentions that her parents had moved to Nevada in 1940 to work at Basic Magnesium, Incorporated (BMI), living in a trailer before returning to Fordyce two years later. She then discusses moving to Las Vegas to join an older sister and relates that she did not remember any discrimination in seating or eating meals during her bus trip. After this, Wilson lists the jobs she held in Las Vegas before her retirement in 1984, including work at the Las Vegas Cleaners, serving as a school crossing guard, and working as a housekeeping supervisor at the Stardust Resort Hotel, the Hacienda Resort Hotel, and Circus Circus Hotel and Casino before taking a job at the Nevada Test Site. She also talks about her family, her church activities, and her regret at not attending college.
Description given with photo: "Howard Hughes Leaves In Own Plane For Investigation, Los Angeles, California - Howard Hughes is pictured as he was about to step abroad his private B-23 Transport plane just before his take-off for Washington, D.C., where he will appear before the Senate War Investigation Committee to testify about wartime plane contracts. The millionaire flier took with him an armload of records and other data he will use in testifying. His only companions on the flight were several mechanics. Photo by Al Brett. 8-6-47."
Howard Hughes (left) and Albert Lodwick (right). Text printed on an accompanying strip of paper: "After Hughes' record breaking flight. Howard Hughes, sportsman pilot who flew from Los Angeles to Newark Airport, New Jersey, January 19, in 7 hours, 28 minutes, 27 seconds, knocking over 2 hours from his previous record, is shown at left as he discussed the flight with A. L. Lodwick at the latter's home in New York, January 19th. Credit Line (ACME) 1/19/37 NY LA."
Photograph of Howard Hughes standing next to a table with an unidentified man. The two are looking over a sheet of paper Hughes is holding. They are possibly on a film set.