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Ce the past. und that it could result in more international hot water for Onassis than any he might have landed in with his surplus ship deal. 7. Finally. he could give us all the McCoy concerning lis beginnings. Depending on who's telling the story—Ari or his critics—he began his meteoric career in Buenos Aires, starting with virtually nothing and becoming a tycoon as the result of sheer pluck and fuck; or, to take some of the Alger-type overtones off the tale, he started at the bottom all right, but owes 4 lot of his success to having met up with the right peopic, a couple of whom are alleged to have been Alberto Dodero, the late South American shipping magnate. and Fritz Mandl, the munitions king. Those wha know Aristotle Socrates Onassis—including his avowed enemies—admit that none of these malicious charges bothers hime a bit. Had he made one big killing, they say. and then retired from the field. vou might call him a hacky fool But. as his wide-eved critics agree. a guy who starts with virtually nothing and makes coup after fiarancial coup. until he is today one of the richest men in the world, nist have something on the ball. There is plenty of eviderice that Onassis has it, even though no one knows precisely what it is. Looking at hin, you'd never pick Ari as the personifica- tion of dabuleus wealth. Ne fac paunch, fatty jowls. and So cipars for him: rather does he Jook—with his stocky, chuaks build, his dark. grayv-tinged hair. and his deepset, cavy-lidded brown eves—like a middicaged. successful res- aurant owner who got inte that dodge after a long carcer sa professional wrestler. “That you can tell a money-bags he minute vou see him hardly is borne out in Ali’s case. IL someone didn’t tell vou, wher you walk into Oniussis’ New York offices, pust which one was the bess, you'd never pick diam out diom the average well-developed clerk or book keeper, As ao mitten of feet. a aneneber of Ari’s New York staff tells the take of haying accompanied him to a party ac which neither was known to the other guests, wll of whom immediately serded on the staff inember—in his natty brow. suit, white shire and silk tie—as Onassis. Art him- scHf ing his traditional vestless, rumpled flannels, noted the con- fuston at ouce, and signaled to his associite to play along with it. He passed the rest of the eve- ning in happy and barely no- ticed anonymin. with most of the people probably pegeing him as the local bookie. Such incidents appeal to the Onassis sense of the dramatic, Asa mulumillionaire who never has been known to wear a top- coat or overcoat, regardless of the weather, he knows he can * 1 stroll along Madison Avenue during his rare visits to New York (he spends less than two months a year in the United States) and never be taken for anvthing but just amother — Greck who's our casing a good buy in cruliers for the diner he probably owns out on the North Shore of Long Islancl. | Similarly, his New York office. sttuated on the fth floor of a new. but average-looking, midtown skyscraper. i> equally ordinary. Housing the clerical force of the Central American Steamship Agency, one of Ari's many companies. the offices share the floor with four other tanker companics @with none of which Ari clanns to have anv connection). In the reception room. there again is uo ostentation. Es- cept for a green simiulated-leather sofa. box-shaped end: tables, a couple of straight. ferocious-looking chairs. and a cage tor the receptionis-telephone operator, the room is barrenly austere. This is hardly the front for a dyvnami- cally successful shipping magnate. Instead it looks like the front office of a two-man-and-a-girl insurance agency. Onassis Hikes things that way, since he feels an office is supposed co be a place in which to work. and not a show- place for one’s ego. Consequently, when he manages to spend a few days in his New York headquarters. he is more than likely to be found wandering around the hauls in his shirt sleeves, his collar open and his tic loose, rather thin ensconced behind an executive-tvpe desk. Furthermore, le rarcly is seen in the Manhattan bright spots for the simple reason that he tries to cram as much paper work into his fiving visits as possible. Frequently. when he is in town, he can be found behind his desk Late iuto che night. long after the rest of the staff have gone home. “Phat’s whee he gets his real work done,” an official of Central American put it. “He does more work in one cve- ning than the rest of us can dotina week.” “What kind of a geucis he to work for?" the spokesman ras asked. Inunediately, a uraisfixed stare came inte the guy's eves. and a glow as if from on high fel] on his hace. “Wonderful!” he purred. in a cultured but pronounced accent. “There isn't a thing he wouldn't do for the people whe work for hom. Why Pve known him to pull out a roll of bills tnd give any amount of money to a typist or clerk whose nother was sick or who needed help in any way, They love he guy here, no mistake about it. anc there isn't "The Man Who Bought the Bank at Monte Carlo" TRUE, THE MAN'S MAGAZINE, Dece 1954, Pge 19