> was it a coincidence that he decided upon a different flavor just as the supply of banana nut was running out?
Naah, even worse. He had been eating Baskin-Robbins banana nut ice cream for dessert for quite some time. No problem -- his aides just kept a couple of gallons around, and when the supply got low one would go to the Las Vegas store to pick up some more. Until one day, when an aide went on the usual errand, he was told Baskin-Robbins had discontinued that flavor. Then the aides conferred, in crisis mode. Buy a different brand of banana nut? No, Hughes would taste the difference. Tell him that Baskin-Robbins didn't do that flavor anymore? Completely unacceptable. You don't get a job as a personal assistant to a psychotic billionaire by being the best or the cleverest, you get it by being willing to carry out the chief's orders no matter what it takes. Hughes wanted Baskin-Robbins banana nut ice cream, and nothing else would do -- period. So they called B-R's corporate headquarters and asked, what would it take to make a special batch of a flavor that had been discontinued? The answer -- it could be done, but the minimum size would be 350 gallons and the aides would have to drive to California and pick it up. Fine, the aides said. They rented a refrigerated truck, drove to California to retrieve the order, then schlepped it all into the Desert Inn's freezers -- 350 gallons, well over a ton -- telling the culinary staff, "Nothing to be concerned with. A special project Mister Hughes is doing."
Now, Howard Hughes was a two scoop a day man. With one scoop being four ounces, there was enough ice cream to last him for over a decade -- past the end of his life, as it turned out. The aides reasoned that this was one problem they wouldn't have to worry about again for a while. Or so they thought. But that night -- that very night -- when they gave Hughes his ice cream he ate it, smiled, and said, "Fellas, this is fine ice cream, but I don't think a man should get too stuck in his habits. From now on, let's make it French vanilla."
He had to have known. I think he was just being an asshole.
They say there are a lot of inconvenient problems buried in the desert outside Las Vegas. I believe it. And I think that in one of those holes lies 350 gallons of Baskin-Robbins banana nut ice cream.
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jonathan_k80 (6436)
3 years ago
"I think he was just being an asshole."
Yep. Typical CEO attitude and behavior. He probably took great pleasure in watching his minions fawn over him.
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