logotipo

In 1946, Onassis married Tina Livanos, younger daughter of Stavros Livanos, the patriarch of the Greek shipping world. He already had made his fortune in Argentina by importing tobacco, and by the time of his marriage he owned that largest tanker fleet afloat. Whereas traditional Greek ad Norwegian shipowners would purchase a ship by paying cash for it, Onassis had the brilliant idea of buying ships on the strength of the contract he had with oil companies to transport their products.

For the past 40 years this has been standard, but Onassis was among the first to do it. He and his brother-in-law and archrival, Stavros Niarchos, soon became two of the richest men in the world. Ari and Tina had two children, and in 1953, looking for a base of operations with a "promising fiscal climate," Onassis acquired a majority stake in SBM, the company that controlled the Monte Carlo casinos and hotels.

This put him on the map, and he was dubbed by the world's press as The Man Who Bought the Bank at Monte Carlo. Ari, in his wrap-around black glasses and double-breasted blue suits, next to his pretty blonde wife, became a staple for the world's press. The publicity helped Ari draw ever bigger names to his boat: Greta Garbo, Sir Winston Churchill…and then the greatest diva of them all, his fellow Greek Maria Kalogeropoulos, a k a Callas.

In July 1959, Callas and her much-older husband, Battista Meneghini, boarded the Christina for the fateful cruise, Sir Winston and Lady Churchill ad a few other swells were also there. Somewhere between the Riviera and the Turkish coast it became obvious to Callas that Ari not only admired her but was also eager to help her manage her finances. Callas was famously anxious where money was concerned, always worried that once her voice went she would end up a pauper. By the end of the cruise both marriages were on the rocks-pun intended-with Meneghini suffering a nervous breakdown and Tina admitting she was in love with Reinaldo Herrera.

The rest, as they say, is history. Ari and Maria plied the seven seas in a Flying Dutchman mode, photographed everywhere and with everyone that was anyone. Sitting with them and a large party in Monte Carlo one night, I noticed a desperation about them. Onassis was clearly bored. Maria was clearly neurotic. Then came John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, and Ari went after bigger fish.

But after his wedding to Jackie in 1968, his luck suddenly changed. The Jackie Jinx went to work with a vengeance. Within four years he lost his son and ex-wife, and seven years later he, too, was dead. Callas followed him in two years.