Above I’ve posted actual footage of the premiere of Howard Hughe’s 1930 World War 1 aviation epic ‘Hells Angels’. And below I’ve posted a recreation of the event in Martin Scorsese’s brilliant Hughes biopic ‘The Aviator’ (2004–ish). The real event is shockingly huge in scope—just the lit-up sign advertising the film’s title seems to take up a city block–and the motorcade POV shot driving past the crowds on Hollywood Blvd. in the newsreel seems to have been recreated (or perhaps restored?) for the Scorsese version. Although Hughes does not appear with Jean Harlow at the mic as he does in the movie, I sense that he might be the man hovering just out of view behind her. In ‘The Aviator’, DiCaprio rather charmingly gives us a version of a tongue-tied Huges which, alas, doesn’t seem to be replicated from the newsreel. All in all, a fitting way to wrap up a four-year film project…to say nothing of a four-day blog project.