Aristotle Onassis

Aristotelis Socrates Onassis
Born	January 15, 1906(1906-01-15) Smyrna - Turkey
Died	March 15, 1975 (aged 69) Neuilly-sur-Seine
Occupation	Shipping
Spouse(s)	Athina Livanos (1946–1960) Jacqueline Kennedy (1968–1975)
Children	Alexandros and Christina

Aristotle Sokratis "Ari"/"Aristo" Onassis (Greek: Αριστοτέλης Ωνάσης, Aristotēlēs Ōnasēs) (January 15 1906 – March 15 1975) was one of the prominent shipping magnates of the 20th century.^[1][2][3] Some sources say he was born in 1900 and later changed his age to be 16 so as to avoid deportation from Turkey.^[4]

Contents 1 Life 1.1 First big step 1.2 Huge money and Greek consulship 1.3 Success in business 1.4 Marriage and family 1.4.1 Athina Livanos 1.4.2 Maria Callas 1.4.3 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis 1.5 Sexuality 1.6 Death and legacy 2 See also 3 Notes 4 References 5 External links

Life

Onassis was born in Karatass, a suburb of Smyrna, Ottoman Empire (now İzmir, Turkey) to Socrates and Penelope Onassis. At the time of his birth, Smyrna had a very significant and prosperous Greek population. After being briefly occupied by Greece (1919–1922) in the aftermath of the allied victory in World War I, the city was re-captured by Turkey; the Onassis family holdings were lost, causing them to move to Greece as refugees. During this period Ari lost three uncles and one aunt with her husband Chrysostomos Konialidis and their daughter, who burned to death when the Turks set fire to a church in Thyatira where 500 Christians were seeking shelter. In 1923, Aristotle Onassis left his country to go to Buenos Aires, Argentina^[5] with allegedly only $63. He once said: "It is hard to maintain vitality when you are always hungry". He finally got his first job in the British United River Plate Telephone Company.

First big step

After hearing a call from an Argentine film distributor and a senior executive at Paramount in New York about the film star Rudolph Valentino that was saying that everything from Orient was in evidence at that moment, Onassis had the idea of importing tobacco from Turkey with help from his father Socrates. The tobacco was softer than the Cuban variety, and he was sure it would appeal to women more. After the failure of a contract with Juan Gaona, the director of a huge Argentine company, he turned to making his own cigarettes. After some time managing this business and his job in British United River, he made a considerable amount of money.

His power and influence were rapidly increasing; he used to be present in important social events, and in 1925 he received Argentine and Greek citizenships.

According to Peter Evans (his official biographer) and Christian Cafarakis (a former employee)^[6] a considerable part of the tobacco was smuggled,^[7] which would explain the speed with which he made his first million dollars. In 1928, Onassis traded with Greece US$2,800,000 just four years after his arrival in Argentina. This was due to other illegitimate activities he undertook, like sabotaging his competitor and using the same name of a famous cigarette company: Bis. This last was profitable but ended once the real Bis company sued him.^[8]

Huge money and Greek consulship

In 1929 the Greek government announced a 1000% increase in tax of imported products from countries with no trade agreement with that country; this could have ruined Onassis' South America business, as Argentina didn't have such commercial relationships with Greece. With the help of Costa Gratsos, a former student of the London School of Economics and descendant of rich family - the Dracoulis - he wrote a letter to the prime minister of Greece Eleutherios Venizelos. The text was a warning about the damage that the increase in tax could cause to Greek merchant navy, once 80% of it was used in transport between Europe and Argentina.^[9]

The letter made a good impression on the prime minister and he sent Onassis to speak with the foreign minister Andreas Michalakopoulos. The meeting, however, did not go well. Andreas, who purportedly brushed his nails throughout the meeting, simply rejoindered:^[9]

"Mr. Onassis, I'm listening to what you say, but this type of thing needs time. I will strongly consider what you have said. You can count on that."^[9]

During the next few weeks, Ari and Andreas met several times more, and Ari's hospitality, which usually included good bribes, finally won Michalakopoulos' support. Ari Onassis once said never to trust a person who did not accept a bribe.^[9]

Due to this new friendship Aristotles returned to Argentina with a new passport and the encouragement to move his business forward. The Greek government had promised not to apply heavy taxes to Argentine trades.^[9]

In 1931 again with Michalakopoulos's help, Onassis had his connections in Argentina recognized and he was granted with the freight ships of the Vice Consul.^[9]

This title took Onassis's business to sky high levels, once he got the status he was hungry for, and most importantly, access to an incredible amount of money that he exchanged in the black market, in spite of Gratsos's disapproval.^[9]

Success in business

In 1954, the FBI investigated Onassis for fraud against the U.S. government. He was charged with violating the citizenship provision of the shipping laws which require that all ships displaying the U.S. flag be owned by U.S. citizens. Onassis entered a guilty plea and paid $7 million. He founded Olympic Airways (today Olympic Airlines), the Greek national carrier, in 1957.

To finance his ships he used a method that he, in his own words, described as utilizing the formula OPM (other people's money). And, much in the same way, he closed contracts to transport ore in ships he didn't yet have, and closed several contracts to transport oil on tankers that hadn't been built yet.

While the big petroleum companies like Mobil, Socony, and Texaco were signing contracts with long terms and fixed prices, and with Onassis then having trouble in managing their own fleet with high cost due to USA flags, Aristotle made huge amounts of money.

Onassis's fleet had Panama flags and sailed with no tax and low costs. With all this Aristotle could profit in every business, despite of having one of the lowest prices in the merchant navy market, and his tankers "paid themeselves" with a simple six month contract. The other 20 years of these ships lifecycle were only profits.

Marriage and family

Athina Livanos

Onassis married Athina Livanos, daughter of shipping magnate Stavros Livanos, on December 28 1946; their son, Alexander (April 30 1948 – January 23 1973), and daughter Christina (December 11 1950 – November 19 1988), were both born in New York City.^[10].

To Onassis this marriage was more than just a dream come true. It was a punch in the stomach for his father-in-law and the rest of the traditional Greeks who held Onassis in very low esteem due to his commercial tactics, like sailing with a Panama flag.

During the wedding Costa Gratsos said:
- “Now you’re avenged”
- “It’s not enough, Costa.” Said Ari. - “I want to smash these son **” – Talking about the richest Greeks of the world that were present in the party^[11]. This type of behavior and competitiveness, were very typical for him, seen throughout his entire life.

After their divorce, Athina married John Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford. She later married Stavros Niarchos, her late sister's widower and Onassis's arch shipping rival.

Maria Callas

Despite the fact they were both married, Onassis and opera diva Maria Callas embarked on a notorious affair.^[12] They met each other in 1957 during a party in Venice promoted by Elsa Maxwell. After this first encounter, Ari said to Spyros Skouras: "There [was] just a natural curiosity; after all, we were the most famous Greeks alive in the world". According to Greek Fire: The Story of Maria Callas and Aristotle Onassis by Nicholas Gage, Callas gave birth to their child, a boy, who died hours later on March 30 1960.

That Callas was really the love of his life is suggested by the short lived happiness he experienced with Kennedy (he tried to end the marriage early but was unable to without committing an egregious offense, according to Greek law at the time), and by the many times he tried to see Callas while married to Kennedy. He flew to Paris to see Callas after the death of his son Alexander in an airplane crash. Callas responded, "If only our son had lived," referring to the child they are believed to have had together in 1960.^[13] Onassis never recovered from the death of his son.

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

Onassis ended his relationship with Callas to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, widow of U.S. President John F. Kennedy, on October 20 1968. It was said that Kennedy insisted on marriage rather than an affair so as to avoid upsetting her children.

According to Peter Evans, Jacqueline received US$3 million for her and $1m for each son. Using a tax of 8% a year it would be equivalent to $65m and $22m respectively in 2008 value. After Onassis death she would receive $150,000 ($3.25m using the same calculus) each year until the end of her life. All the marital contract was discussed with Teddy Kennedy and later reviewed by André Meyer Jacqueline's financial consultant.

Ari used to broadcast his sexual life with Jacqueline, as seen by this statement made to a close friend in Athens right after their marriage:

- "Five times in one night... She's superior to every woman that I've already met" ^[14]

Sexuality

In a 2007 interview, director Franco Zeffirelli described Onassis as bisexual, recounting him making a pass at Zeffirelli.^[15] This information could be true because Peter Evans describes a similar occurrence during Aristo's early life in Turkey, where he got sexually involved with a male lieutenant from the Turkish army. ^[16]

Death and legacy

Onassis died at age 69, on March 15 1975 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, of bronchial pneumonia, a complication of the myasthenia gravis that he had been suffering from during the last years of his life.^[17] According to his will, his daughter Christina was to inherit 55% of the Onassis fortune while the other 45% were used as funds for the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation set up to honor his son Alexander Onassis.^[18] This 45% was the share that his son Alexander would have inherited, had he not died in 1973. Jackie Kennedy also received her share of the estate settling for a reported $10,000,000 ($26 million according to other sources) which was negotiated by her former brother-in-law Teddy Kennedy (this amount would later grow to several hundred million under the financial stewardship of her companion Maurice Tempelsman). Christina's share has since passed to her only child Athina, making her one of the wealthiest women in the world.

During his lifetime Onassis was one of the richest men in the world and certainly one of the most famous. Just like Rockefeller his name has become synonymous with "a rich person". He is referenced in the Tintin album Flight 714 where billionaire Lazlo Carreidas is bidding up against Onassis at an art auction. He does this by telephone. In the Simpsons episode Homer Defined Mr. Burns introduces Homer to his Greek billionaire friend Aristotle "Ari" Amadopoulos, another reference to Onassis.

See also

• Greek shipping
• Skorpios Onassis' private island
• Christina O Onassis' famous yacht
• John Paul Papanicolaou He purchased his yacht Christina O.
• Stavros Niarchos One of Onassis' greatest rivals, and husband of his sister-in-law; a big shipping magnate

Notes

References

• Evans, Peter (1986). Ari: The Life and Times of Aristotles Onassis. Summit Books. ISBN 0671465082. 
• Le Fabuleux Onassis, by Christian Cafarakis, 1971.
• "Onassis: Pioneer in Shipping", by George M. Foustanos, 2006.

External links

• The Life of Aristotle Onassis
• The Onassis Foundation