Aristotle Onassis: 50 years later, the myth of the tycoon who conquered the world

Aristotle Onassisdied on March 15, 1975, was one of the most famous and discussed men of the twentieth century. Always present at the events of the Jet Set, it appeared invariably in social newspapers and magazines. In Monte Carlo with Ranieri and Grace Kelly, aboard his luxurious Yacht Christina, or sighted in his very reserved private island, he had become the symbol of unlimited wealth and power. But beyond how much he wanted to transpire, in reality he has always known little about him. One of the legends that had been created around him was that he was born in a very poor family. In reality, Onassis’ father was one of the best known and appreciated merchants of Smyrne And, in his first years of life, Ari had lived in a beautiful house overlooking the sea. But everything changed on September 9, 1922, when General Turkish Mustafà Kemal, the future Ataturk, invaded Smyrne with his squadron of soldiers on horseback. For days, a violence was unleashed that nobody could predict: thousands of people were killed, given on whole flames, sacked houses, churches and shops.

Among those who had to abandon the city, there was also Aristotle Onassis who was not even eighteen then. From the moment he went up to the ship that brought him to Greece, the carefree boy who looked at the future with confidence disappeared forever. And it was from there that it all started: with tenacity and an extraordinary nose for business, Onassis made their fortune on the other side of the world until he became the greatest owner of his timebut never forgot his lost smyrine.

The name of Aristotle Onassis is linked to its oil tanker fleets that furrowed the ocean. But at the beginning, to transform the boy who had left without money for Buenos Aires into a very rich man, it was not the ships but the cigarettes. Since he was a child and visited the father’s warehouses, he had learned to know the quality of the Turkish tobacco. With his first earnings, he opened a small shop on Paseo Colòn and proposed his cigarettes to a female audience: light and fragrant, with the tip wrapped in the rose petals, were perfect for the delicate taste of the ladies. After a year after the arrival, Ari had already earned his first million dollars. And only then did he decided to become the owner.

He has always fabled on the loves of Onassis And on the ability, he who appeared ugly and wild, to fascinate some of the most desired women in the world. Everyone knows the tumultuous passion that tied him to Maria Callas and the second marriage with Jacqueline Kennedybut few know that, even before the wedding with Athina LivanosAristotle Onassis had a great love that lasted nine years. She was called Ingeborg Dedichenhe was the daughter of a Norwegian owner, he was beautiful, cultured, refined and helped him impractic on the uses of the great world. Ari met her on the ship that brought him to Europe from Buenos Aires and it was love at first sight. Shortly after meeting her, he asked her to marry him but she had not yet obtained divorce from her second husband. Ingeborg, with his knowledge, played an important role in the decision of Onassis to become the owner and when, at the outbreak of the Second World War, he abandoned Europe for the United States, he wanted to reach him in New York. They lived together in Ari’s splendid apartment in the thirty -seventh floor of Ritz Tower, but then Onassis met Athina Livanos …

Aristotle Onassis and Stavros Niarchos were the greatest shipowners of the twentieth century and a lot told the rivalry that divided them throughout his life. Few know, however, that itheir antagonism was not only linked to economic reasons, but was born for reasons of the heart. In fact, Niarchos had been the first to be struck by the delicate beauty of the very young Athina Livanos and ask her father’s hand, receiving a refusal: Tina was too young and, before her, she would have had to marry her older sister Eugenia. The same answer was also given to Onassis, when he also asked to marry Tina. But Arri had been more skilled than Stavros and, before asking for his hand, he had courted her for a long time, until she fell in love. Tina was only sixteen, yet she was already a determined woman and I would never get married if she could not become Mrs. Onassis. In the end, his father was forced to sell and, on a freezing day of December 1946, Ari and Tina became husband and wife. Niarchos married a year later with Eugenia, but the game was not yet closed: the marriage between Ari and Tina lasted fourteen years, then, after the divorce and the second wedding with the Duke of Marlborough, Tina married Niarchos, a widower of his sister Eugenia, who died in mysterious circumstances. He did not imagine that this marriage would not bring her luck.

Maria La Divina, Maria the greatest lyrical singer of all time. The beauty of his voice and the power of his interpretations entered the myth, as legendary he became the passion for Onassis: for him, he said, he gave up the triumphs in all the great theaters of the world. It was of the Greek magnate, therefore, the fault if Callas abandoned the stage. In reality, Onassis had fallen in love with her looking at her perform at Covent Garden in a memorable Medea. Proud to have managed to bewitched the Primadonna del Canto, he never asked her to leave the stage. Instead, it was Maria, worn out by the tour and eager to abandon himself to the intensity of a love never felt before, to decide to sip his apparitions. When Ari married Jacqueline, she tried to return to sing, but by now the magic of her voice had been lost forever.

Of the two sisters Bouvier, Jackie had always been the perfect daughter, Lee the inconstant and transgressive one. When he met Onassis, Lee was immediately fascinated and the heritage of the tycoon was certainly not irrelevant in his attraction: “I am a woman at ease only in luxury”, he candidly confessed. For Ari, it was only one adventure, but Lee had decided to become his wife. That for years Ari was linked to Callas and that she was Prince Stas Radziwill’s wife, a problem seemed to her. Resolute and enterprising, he did everything to achieve his goal, but made an unforgivable mistake.

In August 1963, Jackie had lost her newborn baby and had precipitated in depression: «Reach me on Christina. We will sail between the Greek islands and forget your sadness ». For once, the First Lady of the United States listened to her and Lee understood the consequences of her invitation too late: from the first moment in which Jackie rose on the yacht, Onassis had no eyes than for her, trying to spoil her in every way and filling her with precious gifts. In the three weeks of the cruise, Jacqueline felt light and carefree as it did not happen for years and would have wanted that holiday not to end, but on October 17th he had to return to the United States. Just over a month later, in Dallas, her life changed forever and it was her, five years later, to become the second lady Onassis.

*The author of this article, Anna Follihas just published the book Take everything
Me, Aristotle Onassis (Neri Pozza).