Twenty-two telegrams that Howard Hughes sent to Katharine Hepburn during their brief romance in the late 1930s are going on the auction block.

Dallas-based Heritage-Slater Americana is holding the auction of items associated with the reclusive billionaire, whose life of designing and flying planes and producing movies was dramatized in 2004's "The Aviator," directed by Martin Scorsese and starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Hughes.

The auction was to begin Wednesday evening and end Thursday. Included is a telegram that Hughes sent to Hepburn on Jan. 19, 1937 - the day he set a new air record, flying from Burbank, Calif., to Newark, N.J., in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds.

The flight was over, and Hughes apparently was running behind schedule to meet Hepburn at Chicago's Ambassador Hotel before she performed in a play. "Supposed to arrive six something in the afternoon," the Western Union telegram reads. "Probably not in time to see you before the theater so will try to contain myself until eleven thirty, love Dan."

Dan was short for Dynamite, one of several nicknames the two shared, said Michael Riley of Heritage-Slater Americana, a subsidiary of Heritage Galleries. Riley said the owner of the documents, which include two 1939 handwritten draft telegrams by Hepburn, isn't being identified.

Posted by Lawren at June 23, 2005 07:40 AM

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