MISTRESS FAITH DOMERGUE by PETER HARRY BROWN and PAT H. BROESKE

"She was the most beautiful of a pack of Warner Brothers starlets invited to decorate an industry cruise on the "Southern Cross."  Hughes singled her out, instantly curious about this graceful teenager with raven hair, hypnotic dark eyes, and a shyness that matched Hughes own... As the party broke up, Hughes insisted upon driving her home in a battered Buick, in which Faith immediately fell asleep."

page 150 of
HOWARD HUGES THE UNTOLD STORY
by PETER HARRY BROWN and PAT H.BROESKE

After permission from her parents...

"... He then swept her off to a sprawling ranch in the desert, initiating a dazzling courtship and mutual obsession that would stretch five turbulent years in which Hughes would exert iron-fisted control of both Faith Domergue's personal and professional existence... Their first days together were giddy with romance.  They flew to the Salton Sea, where they floated in the primeval brine and feasted on cold chicken and champagne.  They cruised the commercial "millionaires row" in Palm Springs, where she left the boutiques with towering boxes of clothes. ... "By the end of October, all strain of shyness were gone and we were falling in love, "Domergue later recalled.  "It seemed as if danger or unhappiness couldn't get close to me when I was with this man."

Then, because she wanted to know everything there was to know about Howard, Faith, bored with homework and magazines, discovered a treasure chest of Howard's mementos from past (and present?) romances.  These were postcards, cancelled checks, jewelry, letters involving Billie Dove, Katherine Hepburn, Ginger Rogers, and many others.

She put everything away just so but "Howard cornered her in the upstairs bedroom and accused her of investigating him "like a Pinkerton detective."  Then he claimed he would show her anything if she just asked first.

By now the columnist Louella Parsons knew about their romance and put out an article asking if they had a "secret marriage." 

In 1941 Hughes was "still operating under a set of mutually agreeable ground rules" with her parents.  But he had also started employing her relatives.

"Every morning, a Hughes limousine collected Domergue and delivered her to a series of teachers and tutors at Romaine Street (a property he rented that mostly served as one of his head quarters).  She would finish high school and begin drama lessons in a sterile, lonely building in the city's industrial neighborhood.  She was furnished with a chauffeur, provided with golf lessons at the Wilshire Country Club, and sent to fashion consultants at Bullocks and Robinsons's department stores, where she was outfitted with a chic, understated wardrobe.

page 151-152
HOWARD HUGHES THE UNTOLD STORY
by PETER HARRY BROWN and PAT H. BROESKE