The Public Humiliation of Ralph Owen Brewster
The senator from Maine was stunned when aviation tycoon Howard Hughes turned the tables on his congressional investigation.
By Edgar Allen Beem
When Time magazine asked actor Alan Alda in December 2004 to describe the character he plays in The Aviator, a film about billionaire Howard Hughes' aviation career, Alda answered with a single word, "Ruthless." No, Alda does not play the eccentric Howard Hughes; that role went to baby-faced heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. Alan Alda portrays U.S. senator from Maine Ralph Owen Brewster, the powerful chairman of the Senate War Investigating Committee and Hughes' real-life and on-screen nemesis.Ralph Owen Brewster (1888-1961) was a political contemporary and one-time protégé of Governor Percival P.
