Since their meeting at Melvyn LeRoy's party, Howard Hughes had become obsessed with Janet. He persisted in unwanted attentions, following her to restaurants or clubs when she went on dates with other men, seating himself close by, and staring the entire time. The first manipulation Hughes tried to make in Janet's life was to offer Barry Nelson, through RKO, a part in a film in South America for a tremendous amount of money. He wanted Barry out of the way; however, Nelson had already committed to a play on Broadway. Hughes later tricked Janet into taking a brief plane ride (Hughes had a particular passion for airplanes), but she felt only anger and fright about the whole experience. She did not find his obsession amusing. Hughes' manipulative behavior manifested once again when he learned that Janet was dating the heir to the Loew's theatrical fortune, Arthur Loew, Jr., and tried to discredit him. As Janet recalled:
He called me in and said, "I just want you to see this." He hands me these papers, and I said, "What is this?" He says, "Well, I have ways of getting hold this kind of information. And I want you to know what kind of person you're going out with." I said, "Why can't you be like a human being and if you want to go out withme ask me out like a person, like a man?" And he said he didn't like to do that. I think he was afraid of rejection, and so he said, "All right, will you go out with me?" I said no. And then I said -- I thought. "Oh, this will fix it" -- I said, "OK, I'll go out with you with my mother and father.
Surprisingly, Hughes agreed. The following evening Janet, Fred and Helen had dinner with the magnate at the Sportsman's Lodge. "The three of them had a wonderful time," recalled Janet. "And I was bored to tears. I mean, it was fun because I saw Mom and Dad were having a good time."
- Michelangelo Capua, Janet Leigh, A Biography. (2013)
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