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ARI

Ari spoke 7 languages. Nicholas Gage remembered in 1976, "I first met Aristotle Onassis in 1969 when he was trying to negotiate a contract to build a $7 million refinery and industrial complex in Greece. I was then working for 'The Wall Street Journal' and Onassis agreed to grant me an interview in Athens...My fascination with the mystery of Onassis finally led me to write a novel about Greek shipowners. My research took me through England, France, Greece and the Greek islands, talking to many Greek shipowners and their wives, children and mistresses." 

Following the Greco-Turkish war of 1920-22, Constantine Gratsos told Nicholas, "Onassis came from a family that was very well off, and suddenly he found himself poor – a refugee. He wanted to recapture what he had lost, and he did it beyond his wildest dreams." Willi Frischaner added, "Onassis pioneered a finance formula which helped to overcome the traditional reluctance of American banks to lend money on ships, particularly on Greek ships." The "formula" of financing ships with other people's money was revealed (according to Andreas Lemos) to be: "He would obtain a long-term charter from an oil company for a not-yet-built supertanker and then use the charter as collateral to finance the building of the tanker. He also pioneered the idea of registering his ships under flags of convenience to avoid taxes and government regulations." 

As Philip Dopoulos reported in 1975, "Most of Onassis' many tankers and other ships, whether directly or indirectly controlled by him, are owned by Panamanian corporations. Of the 60 ships Onassis directly controlled through his Springfield Shipping Co., 59 fly the Panamanian flag with only one under Greek registry...Registry in Panama, Monaco and other tax shelters for Onassis' ships and the corporations controlling his other interests allowed him to escape taxation in the capitals from which he operated." Being around Ari, Nicholas Papanicolaou remembered, "The sensation that you have is like being in a room with a loose lion. He could reverse arguments that were made to him by his opponents in business and put them into a corner like no man I've never seen before." 

Jacqueline Kennedy walked into the White House in 1960 as the 3rd youngest First Lady in America. Washington D.C. was the official capital of the world's most powerful democracy. Like Diana, Jackie "is a woman for whom a first name is enough." Although it was noted, after 1968, Jackie "still uses Onassis as her surname." Between 1962 and 1967, Jackie topped Gallup Poll's list of women in the world the American people admired most. She became the symbol of many women's dreams and desires. Her lady-like manners and aristocratic upbringing made Jackie the ideal choice for the role of Camelot. As the queen of Camelot, Jackie remained a symbol of a time and place that would never be again. 

Women were said always drawn to Ari because he "could be anything to any woman, and that gift outweighs wealth, looks or sexual prowess." One Greek woman recalled, "He had such a strong presence and he could talk brilliantly on any subject. He could convince you of anything." The wedding of Jackie Kennedy and Ari Onassis was the most talked-about event of 1968, and one said, rivaled that of King Edward VIII to Mrs Wallis Simpson. On the Sunday night of their wedding, Associated Press reported, "Rains poured all through the simple Greek Orthodox ceremony that united Jackie to Aristotle 'in the eyes of God'. Unlike the Catholic wedding ceremony, there was no 'I do' nor any pledge to love, honor or obey...The Roman Catholic Church normally would recognize the wedding of a Catholic in the Orthodox Church. But a Catholic theologian said the Roman Catholic Church could not accept the wedding of a divorced man, unless his wife died."  Jackie was a Roman Catholic widow. Ari was a Greek Orthodox divorcĂ©e.

At the time, the spokesman for the Archbishop of Athens told the world Jackie did not have to convert to the Orthodox faith, "Onassis can marry Mrs Kennedy on condition that she signs a promise to have future children baptized in the Orthodox faith." It was noted Jackie had been received in audiences by Pope John XXIII and Pope Paul VI. One bedeviled person wrote to Abigail Van Buren at the time. "Dear Abby: I am a Catholic woman who would like some kind of explanation to the following: how can Cardinal Cushing 'excuse' Jackie Kennedy for marrying a divorced man whose wife is still living? I was a good Catholic, and also a widow, and I did the same thing, and for this I was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Why is Jackie Kennedy any better than me or a thousand other good Catholic women who married a divorced man whose wife is still alive?"

Maria Callas met Ari in 1959. Associated Press reported in March 1966, Maria went to the American Embassy in Paris and renounced her American citizenship in the hope she could put an end to her legal battle with Giovanni Battista Meneghini. Although separated, Maria and Giovanni never divorced. It was explained because "her birth in New York gave her American citizenship, but because both her parents were Greek she also has Greek nationality." Maria was said "told the Embassy that as an American citizen she is still married to Meneghini under U.S. law but as a Greek national her marriage is not recognized in Greece because she was not married in the Greek Orthodox Church."

In 1988, Jane Seymour played both Maria Callas and Wallis Simpson. Of Wallis, "I tried to play her in various shades of grey. I play her the way I believe she was thinking at the time. She was manipulating things. She had a great plan and it didn't work. I purposely don't play her sympathetically...With Maria Callas, it wasn't her story. It was Onassis' story, and I was given certain scenes to play, the high and low moments of her life with Onassis. So I don't really feel I played Maria Callas...What I try to do is get inside a person's way of emoting and reacting and dealing with the situation she's in…So on television it can become very glib, and that, to me, is very frustrating. You do a lot of work on these things. You know so much more about the character that you wish you could have scenes to show the world all the stuff you know."

Nicholas concluded, "Like his hero Ulysses, Onassis had had quite a journey – a trip which had included the greatest success, power and drama the world can give. But he also had been guilty of the overreaching pride – the hubris – that has always been the downfall of man. No doubt Onassis realized near the end that he had climbed too far toward the peaks of Olympus."

After offering 5 stories, Susan Sheehan of the New York Times sighed in 1970, "One of the most agreeable aspects of writing about Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis is that when you set out on a morning to interview her acquaintances, you never know which Jackie is going to be described. Sometimes it's the sassy, devil-may-care (cheerful and reckless) enfant terrible of Story 1, sometimes the willful European traveler of Story 2, sometimes the fey (unworldly and vague) creature of Story 3. Other days it's Story 4's Jackie, who at some time or another has mimicked and made scornful remarks about every friend and relative she has ever had, or the sensitive Jackie of Story 5. When I was told the 5 stories, only one – Story 5 – surprised me; it was somehow at odds with what I thought I already knew about Jackie. Since it seemed a little late to be startled by anything one heard about the world's most written-about woman, I tried to analyze my surprise." 

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