I'm reading this book about the Onasis women, Aristo's sisters, wives, lovers, daughter..it's freaky. All that money and they were all weird and unhappy. Well, most of them anyhow. Anyway, the place where he lived mostly was on his yacht, The Christina. The book said it was 350 foot long, but, it kept talking about the state rooms, staircases, dining rooms, many, many, many bedrooms, game room, libraries, bars, kitchens, etc. etc...and I thought 350 foot has to be a typo. I looked it up and I still don't know how big the thing is, but, it's huge. It's could take on 34 overnight guests in comfort...and that was besides the staff of more then 40 who stayed on it permanently. Pretty impressive. The swimming pool bottom comes up to convert to a dance floor. His staff of personal chefs was impressive, like any fine restaurant...several kitchens. Many movie stars stayed on the yacht, including Greta Garbo, Bettie Davis , Liz Taylor and Richard Burton. I did find out what happened to the boat. It has been refurbished and is now a charter yacht. You can spend time sailing on Ari's boat for 45,000 pounds a day. Yeah...I'll get right on that. Still, it's nice to look at the pictures. HERE is a virtual tour. I really didn't know private yachts looked like this or were this big. Kinna like a freekin' personal Titanic. Only The Christina never sank..but, it's inhabitants were very strange, larger than life and I'll bet it's haunted as hell.*
The book was mostly kiss ass, but, one good story was that Jackie O was not allowed to change The Christina. She changed everything else, including all the freekin' rocks on the island of Scorpios. Aristo indulged her every whim..except on his boat. She desperately wanted new leather on the bar stools because they were made of whale penis leather and it sounded like she thought it was vulgar. Aristo said "What? You do not like sitting on a giant penis? Are you uncomfortable?" Jackie, replied, "No, it is quite comfortable, maybe too comfortable." Aristo made this joke about Jackie implying she was comfortable on a giant penis. I thought they were both extremely weird after reading this book. She was actually attracted to him. Fine. Rich powerful men are sometimes attractive even when they aren't, but, this whale penis skin and jokes made me gag. So did spending millions to change all the rocks on an island.
The book was mostly kiss ass, but, one good story was that Jackie O was not allowed to change The Christina. She changed everything else, including all the freekin' rocks on the island of Scorpios. Aristo indulged her every whim..except on his boat. She desperately wanted new leather on the bar stools because they were made of whale penis leather and it sounded like she thought it was vulgar. Aristo said "What? You do not like sitting on a giant penis? Are you uncomfortable?" Jackie, replied, "No, it is quite comfortable, maybe too comfortable." Aristo made this joke about Jackie implying she was comfortable on a giant penis. I thought they were both extremely weird after reading this book. She was actually attracted to him. Fine. Rich powerful men are sometimes attractive even when they aren't, but, this whale penis skin and jokes made me gag. So did spending millions to change all the rocks on an island.
34 comments:
I know his daughter died under strange circumstances but the grand daughter was raised by her dad, quite normally from what I've heard. She married an argentinian I think and lives in that country... do you know any other details about the girl, if she's weird also, or if she turned out normal since the Onassis clan didn't raise her?
350 foot yacht? Pathetic peasant.
350 feet is 10 feet shy of the length of a football field.
I'm not jealous of super rich people at all. It seems like a lot of bother. How petty to spend your time fretting about rocks and reupholstering furniture.
Did they have any interests, passions? Or did they just spend their time concerned about their money and vacations?
I just watched the documentary "Born Rich" (on youtube). Pretty good.
Thanks, Theresa. It is pretty long, when you put it that way.
The Onasis women..I didn't find any of them that interesting. Christina was depressing. They were all intelligent, their hobbies were spending money. Jackie was the best at that.
Thanks Schmedelle...I am watching that now. The Onasis men seemed more interesting to me than the women. Aristo and his son gave constantly to the poor. His son flew sick children to hospitals in his private plane. They never did it for publicity, most of their charity was unknown. The son died in a plane crash. The whole family is tragic. Aristo seemed like he could be a real bastard, but, he wasn't cheap and he liked kids.
I know it's not PC, but I'm really tired of filthy rich people who are always so very, very unhappy. Yeah, cry me a river, thn wipe your tears away with your thousand-dollar bills...blah.
I dont even want to be super rich. It seems boring. Not having to worry about if your lights will get shut off every month, will we have groceries this week. Can we pay the rent? Do we have gas money to go to the Dr? I would just like to regular rich, no worries. If thats possible. Their worries are just more expensive than mine I guess. Variations of the same things. *sigh*...money makes you happy till it's gone.
rox
You know Jackie colored her hair dark to keep it it's natural color. So do I. They say the cancer that killed her can be linked to dark hair dye. I ALWAYS think of that when I see a picture of her. She was a heavy smoker too, so who knows? I dont smoke, but I could get the same thing! Something else for us to worry about!!
rox
is that the book by his secretary???? i read that, that's a good book!!
Yeah, his secretary and paid friend to the Onasis women. She was a kiss ass and I don't really like the book because of that. She should stop sugar coating their bullshit..they're all dead now.
i did like that book though....she was a kiss ass...i think when it was written at least one of onassis' sister's was still alive....
My niece worked on a yacht for 2 years, making great money, living with the captain (boyfriend) in his 'room'. Big as a closet for the two of them. She was up before the guests and had to stay up till all the guests went to bed, which sometimes was well into the morning. Traveled all over the east coast, rarely got off the boat.
Some HBO documentaries are on youtube.
I watched over the weekend.
"American Hollow" about a family living in Appalachia.
"My Flesh and Blood" I've seen this before, but I still sobbed. A women adopts 13 disabled kids.
"Chernobyl Heart"
"Boy Interrupted" 15 yr old with bi- polar kills himself. His parents are film makers, and they documented and video recorded tons from his life, and even his funeral.
I could do filth rich.
Well since I can't type, it would help to be FILTHY rich.
My computer is so old that I think there's a mattress of dog hair under the keys so some aren't typing every time I hit them. I had to take the "c" key off once--wouldn't type a bit. I almost fell off the couch as I cleaned the dog hair out. I'm afraid to take the whole keyboard off the laptop. Well, how did I get off on this tangent.
Pat, could you explain about the rocks? what was that about?
thanks!
Liz
DD what is the title and author of the book.
It sounds interesting. They say that Ari was the
" last of the big time spenders" money was no
object for him. He certainly could not be on your
post on cheapskates :) lol.
yes the bar stools were covered in Whale penis skin the joke being that they were siting on MOBY's DICK get it? for reals you can't make this up. and I agree with who said thye are tired of rich people being un happy (Rolls eyeballs ) Rich people $pend their money I would you would too. I read where the First generation makes its fortune the Second generation continues it and the 3rd generation loses it all. It seems to be true. I dont think Jackie O got cancer from hair dye she had stomach cancer maybe she didnt eat or vomited too much to remain skinny. But Cancer strikes everyone , it seems at one time or another.
I hate kiss-ass writing. I read a lot of magazines but I some of them have gotten so ass-kissy, I just look at the fashions and skip the articles about celebrities (I'm looking at you here, "InStyle" magazine). Reading about how someone is soooo pretty and soooo rich and soooo fashionable makes me want to barf. Sounds like this book is a lot like that. Too bad because the subject matter is interesting (rearranging rocks on an island? Yikes, what a control freak). But if it's full of hot air about how super-wonderful everybody was, then I'll pass.
The QE2 is 963 feet long so Ari's boat is a little more than 1/3 the size of the QE2. Not bad for a private boat. The largest two boats in the Staten Island Ferry fleet are only 310 feet (but they each carry 6,000 passengers).
The Onasis Women by Kiki Feroudi Moutsatsos, Phyllis Karas.
Alison, she didn't rearrange the rocks. She replaced them with more organic looking rocks. Cost millions. I think it was because Maria Callus walked on them.
I think that once you enter the realm of hundred's of millions net worth, unless you have a balanced life that fulfills you; a detached sense of self and a need to feed your ego is born.
In Tolstoy's "Death of Ivan Ilych" he makes the case for Ivan feeding his ego at work, and nurturing his soul at home.--balance
Plutarch's "Life of Solon" King Croesus asks of Solon if he considers King Croesus the wealthiest man in the world due to his vast treasure. Solon answered;
"Often the wicked prosper while the righteous starve, yet I would not exchange my state for theirs. My virtue remains, while their gold changes hands every day".
Croesus lost his kingdom and gold to King Cyrus, and as he was about to be burned alive he called out to Solon as a prophet. Cyrus heard the story and spared Croesus.
Solon argued that the wealthiest person is the one remembered lovingly by his family and friends--he lives on.
Jarhead
"They say the cancer that killed her can be linked to dark hair dye."
Thats what I said anon 11:19. I didnt say thats what killed her. But it is a study that was made. And she was very skinny. She was bulimic? Now THATS a story!!! Diana was too, for a time. Now about the rocks. Thats ridic!!
rox
I dated more than one self-made millionaire when I lived in Newport, RI, and they had their own problems, but the trust-fund babies were pure psychotic. For one, they never carried any money but were always asking you out to lunch or dinner, expecting you to pay as evidence that you liked them for themselves and not their fortunes. I could understand not wanting to be taken advantage of, but if you do the inviting, go dutch or ante up! Also, when I learned to play polo and would visit the Vanderbilt barns to check on my pony (and I was great friends with the stable hands and would muck my own stall and do most of the other chores, too, because I enjoyed taking care of Canadian Chrome, a beautiful gray I called "Chrone" for short), the trust-fund babies felt it was perfectly acceptable to drop trow and relieve themselves in the stables and in public. Not a one of us "lower classes" would have ever considered doing something so classless! They were all sick, sick, sick.
As far as the size of yachts, you have to take into consideration the width and that there are 3-4 levels above water (maybe more) and 1.5 times that many below the water line. I stayed (too many times) on a 100 foot "tender" yacht when wealthy men would pay to race my boyfriend's hand-made award winning sailboat (which is how he made is millions) and it was as luxurious as The Christina (minus the whale penis covered bar stools!). Huge arrangements of fresh flowers were brought in every day, there was a grand piano, the dining room sat a party of 12, a gourmet chef was included along with a permanent crew of 8, and the interior was beyond "House Beautiful." Most of the multi-millionaires were asses and their wives (with whom I had the honor to spend my days -- yeach!) were worse, but occasionally there would be a couple so normal you wouldn't be able to pick them out of a crowd -- and they would invariably turn out to be self-made.
It was rather a relief to break up with B. and give Crone back to him -- especially since her monthly stable fee was 3 times what I paid in rent! Since B. never even learned to ride properly, he quickly sold her and life moved on. I enjoyed playing polo, watching the Argentinians play polo, the champion jumping events held on the polo grounds and other events I attended through my association and contact with them, but I don't miss those filthy rich people at all.
Trash with money.
Faerie, Anon,
You are painting with a broad brush. Not all filthy rich people are trash, i.e. Bill Gates, Henry Ford, Eli Lily to name just a few.
Faire cat
your observations about trust fund babies never carrying cash on them
yet expecting you to pay for everything ( when you are broke , no less ! ) is true
Thanks for the info, DD. I think replacing the rocks might be even more neurotic than rearranging them! What an odd thing to do and what a huge waste of $$$ to boot.
If you want to read something good about Jackie O odd ball family. Read or watch Gray Gardens. Its really good...
My rich uncle, not even a millionaire but he was like FaeirieKat said, he would take you out to lunch and then he would tell you he doesnt have anything smaller than a $100 and for you to just pay it, like it's no big deal. Not to him!!! It was for me! Esp because he would bring someone else along. Trust me that only happened a couple of times. People with money must just assume we all have money?
rox
I love Grey Gardens. I like the real films on the Beals.
I think they're just cheap, Rox.
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