And the Rest Is History

by Marlene Wagman-Geller

Callas retreated to Switzerland to await the birth while Onassis split his time between visiting her and his life in Greece. When she was in her eighth month, ill and swollen, and not wanting her lover to return to her while she was in that condition, she urged her doctor to deliver her baby by an early cesarean. The result was a premature son, Omeros, who survived for two hours. Maria, who had longed all her life for a child, was beside herself with grief. Onassis flew to the hospital to comfort her; Maria was to spend the rest of her days in the painful realm of “what could have been.”

  In 1963, Onassis purchased the island of Skorpios, where one could see Ithaca; Maria’s dream was to spend her life with her Aristo in their Aegean retreat. Perhaps had their son lived, that scenario would have come to pass.

  Nine years into their affair, Maria found herself caught in the horrific role of the pursuer rather than the pursued. With mounting alarm, Callas read of the romance of the Greek billionaire and the most famous widow in the world: Jacqueline Kennedy. Aristotle acted as if it were all rumors and continued his relationship with Maria even as huge bouquets of flowers bearing four letters—JILY (Jackie, I Love You)—arrived for Jackie. The Greek billionaire wed the former Mrs. Kennedy in a ceremony on Skorpios. The international press dubbed the new Mrs. Onassis “Jackie O”; Callas would have used a different epithet.

  Aboard the Christina, Aristotle celebrated the acquisition of his ultimate trophy wife while Jacqueline celebrated the acquisition of her trophy ring—with a price tag of $1.25 million. However, not all were pleased. Alexander, who viewed Jackie’s attention to his father as one of the purse rather than the heart, said of his new stepmother’s nuptials, “It’s a perfect match. My father loves names and Jackie loves money.”

  Another person who was not pleased was Maria, and the paparazzi awaited her volcanic meltdown. Callas prepared for the performance of her life. With her heart shattered, she dressed in diamonds and gown and attended the seventy-fifth-anniversary party for Maxim’s, the famous French eatery. Her dazzling presence eclipsed even that of fellow attendee Elizabeth Taylor. When the press questioned her about the wedding, she replied, “Mrs. Kennedy did well to give a grandfather to her children. Onassis is as beautiful as Croesus.” After the party she went into seclusion in her Parisian apartment. Reviewing her life, she stated, “First I lost weight, then I lost my voice, and then I lost Onassis.”

  A week after his wedding to Jackie, Aristotle was whistling outside Maria’s apartment, begging to be let in. When she relented, he told her she was the only woman he had ever loved, to which she replied that he had a very original way of showing it. He was grateful for her forgiveness, especially when Alexander was killed while piloting his plane. Maria took him into her arms, understanding all too well the bottomless grief of losing a son.

  Onassis was planning a divorce when he was taken ill and opted to enter a Paris hospital to be in the same city as the woman he loved. The only possession he took with him was his red Hermes blanket, Callas’s last gift. On her final visit to him, he told her, “I loved you, not always well, but as much and as best as I was capable of. I tried.” Before the Grim Reaper came for him, he clutched the red blanket.

  The gods, to punish Prometheus, attacked his liver, the price he had to pay for his theft. The gods, to punish Onassis, attacked his heart, the price he had to pay for his hubris.

  Postscript

  Aristotle Onassis passed away in France in 1975 and was interred in the same crypt as Alexander on the island of Skorpios.

  Maria Callas died in 1977; her ashes were interred in Pere-Lachaise Cemetery. After they were stolen and later recovered, they were scattered over the Aegean Sea.

  29

  Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu

  1959

  It is ironic that the King of Rock and Roll, who sang some of the most achingly romantic songs in the history of music, was doomed to lose the woman whom he wanted to love him true till the end of time. However, although they went their separate ways, in the words of the King, she remained always on his mind.

  Priscilla Beaulieu grew up on army bases throughout the United States; her father, Captain Paul Beaulieu, was an Air Force officer. Priscilla received a staggering emotional shock when she stumbled upon a family skeleton in a closet. Rummaging through a box, she found a photograph of a man who bore a striking resemblance to her. When she confronted her mother, Ann, she discovered that her biological father had been killed in a plane crash and her birth surname had been Wagner. Once the secret was out, Ann gave her daughter a gold locket her first husband had given her; Priscilla wore it for years, believing that her departed dad was her guardian angel.

  A second emotional storm erupted when Paul received a transfer from Texas to West Germany. Priscilla, who had just been crowned queen of her junior high, felt her world crashing down. Little could she have envisioned that an unimaginable meeting in Europe would lead her to a crown far greater, and far heavier, than the one bequeathed by her Austin classmates.

  Priscilla’s destiny, Elvis Aaron Presley, was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, in a two-room house built by his father, Vernon. The tragedy of his birth was that his twin was stillborn, an event that traumatized his mother, Gladys Love. When Elvis was three, Vernon was sent to jail for writing a bad check, and his now-homeless wife and son moved in with relatives. With her husband in prison, with no money, Gladys turned all her attention on her only son; it was a bond that would make him a poster boy for the Oedipal complex. The family later relocated to Memphis; at school he was teased by his classmates as the trashy mama’s boy who played hillbilly music.

  Upon graduation Presley became a truck driver and wore his hair in a pompadour, the current truck driver style, along with long sideburns. However, his greatest wish was to become a famous entertainer, and it was granted in 1956 when RCA recorded his song “Heartbreak Hotel,” which became a number one hit. With his devastating good looks of bedroom blue eyes, thick black hair, pouty mouth, and slim physique, coupled with his angelic voice and overtly sexual presence, female fans literally wanted to kiss his blue suede shoes. He took to performing in elaborate jumpsuits; he eschewed jeans because they were all he could afford in his hardscrabble youth.

  With his newfound wealth, he purchased a pink Cadillac for his mother and bought an eighteen-room Memphis mansion, Graceland, where he promptly installed Gladys and Vernon. Adoring fans lined the estate at all hours, desperate to catch a glimpse of their idol. With his film debut in the film Love Me Tender and his appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, where he was filmed only from the waist up because of his gyrating hips (hence his nickname “Elvis the Pelvis”), he was crowned the King of Rock and Roll.

  Throughout his life, only two groups adored Elvis unconditionally—his mother and his fans—and both became hysterical when Presley was drafted into the army in 1958. While Elvis was in training, Gladys passed away from a heart attack, an emotional blow that knocked Elvis’s world from its axis. A few months later he was stationed in Germany, where he was to meet the girl who would one day share his throne.

  In Germany Priscilla was once again, as a military brat, alienated and isolated. To compound the situation, she was living in a country where she did not speak the language, and because of the scarce and expensive housing, the Beaulieus were forced to rent an apartment in a brothel. She was thrilled when she discovered the Eagles Club, a place where Americans could socialize. She would go there after school, listen to the jukebox, and write depressed letters to friends back in Austin. In the club she made the acquaintance of Currie Grant, an American recruit, who told her he knew Elvis and could arrange an introduction. When she learned he really could make it happen, Germany, rather than being the far corner of the earth, became its center.

  The first time Priscilla met Elvis was on September 13, when the fourteen-year-old, clad in a blue-and-white sailor dress, walked into his living room at his off-base home in Bad Nauheim, Germany. Elvis was wearing a red sweater and tan slacks, and sitting in
an armchair, a cigar dangling from his lips. When Presley saw Priscilla, he jumped up as if he had been sitting on a hot plate. Her cameo face was a powerful draw to the old-fashioned Southern boy, much more so than the half-clad Bridgette Bardot picture displayed on one of the walls. Moreover, she struck a chord of resemblance to Gladys when she had been young. A few moments later he walked to his piano and played for Priscilla (whom he called “Cilla”) “Are You Lonesome Tonight?” Afterward they went to the kitchen where his grandmother, Minnie Mae Presley, made them some bacon sandwiches.

  Later Priscilla recalled that he was lonely; he missed Memphis and most of all he missed his mother. He later told her that from the night he met her, he knew she was his “twin soul,” his destiny. As her car sped home along the Autobahn, a feeling of unreality hung over the evening. A few days later she was summoned back; however, this evening ended in Elvis’s bedroom, as would all her subsequent visits during Elvis’s five remaining months in Germany. Considering she was only fourteen and the news spread of their relationship, it is surprising that he did not compose “Jailhouse Rock” from firsthand experience. However, he would not have full intercourse with Priscilla, though she wanted to, as he told her that special moment had to be reserved for their wedding night; virginity was something Gladys would have required of Elvis’s bride. When Elvis returned to the States, Priscilla was devastated; all she prayed for was becoming the beloved of Elvis. They found separation painful; he burned up the long-distance wires and she sent love letters in pink envelopes.

  Despite the headlines that Presley was having affairs with the most sought-after stars of the era, when Priscilla was sixteen he persuaded her parents to allow her to move with him to Graceland, promising them she would attend a Catholic girls’ school. He arranged for her auburn hair to be dyed to match his black pompadour, and her makeup was heavy on Cleopatra-style eyeliner.

  Over the years Priscilla and Elvis’s love ever deepened. However, though she was envied by Elvis fans worldwide, she once more felt the pain of being the army brat; with Elvis’s constant performances and movies, she was often alone and alienated once more. And when he was home, he was always surrounded by the “Memphis Mafia,” a group composed of his flunkies. To compound her situation, after she graduated from high school Elvis did not allow her to pursue a career. He claimed he always needed her to be around when he wanted her. Equally painful, he engaged in numerous affairs; Priscilla was far from pleased when she discovered a letter from a woman who signed herself “Lizard Tongue.” To add to Priscilla’s problems, Elvis’s behavior had become increasingly erratic with his escalating drug and food abuse. He also fired shots at his innumerable televisions when he did not like their programs. Priscilla was in dire need of her guardian angel.

  Nevertheless, in 1966, still madly in love, Priscilla accepted his proposal, which was accompanied by a 3.5-karat diamond ring, and they were married in the Aladdin Hotel in Las Vegas on May 6, 1967. They were flown to their Palm Springs honeymoon on Frank Sinatra’s Learjet, the Christina, and Elvis carried his bride over the threshold singing “The Hawaiian Wedding Song.” Priscilla was overjoyed that the love of her life was now her husband and she would now have the respect due Mrs. Presley, something she was always denied when the press dubbed her “Elvis’s Live-In Lolita.”

  Nine months later Lisa Marie Presley was born. Although her birth brought them together, it also helped contribute to the demise of their marriage. Elvis had a Madonna complex; he no longer sexually desired the woman who had given birth to his child. By 1976, Priscilla had washed the makeup from her eyes; Cilla could no longer exist. No longer able to live happily in the world of Graceland, Priscilla made the most difficult decision of her life—she began an affair with her karate teacher and moved out of the mansion that had become her prison. Although she would forever love Elvis, she could not live with him. To do so would have meant her emotional demise. She knew she could not save the King; all she could do was save herself. Overcome by his misery, Elvis sat down in a Las Vegas suite and wrote a prayer asking God to forgive him for anything he might have done to hurt Priscilla and his little girl. Sequined and stoned on stage, Elvis serenaded his audience, though the songs were for the woman he had lost: “Hurt,” “Separate Ways,” “Always on My Mind.”

  While a single Priscilla blossomed, Elvis’s life spiraled ever further out of control. With the loss of the trinity of the only women he had ever loved, Graceland became his Heartbreak Hotel.

  Postscript

  Elvis Presley passed away in 1977 in Memphis from ailments exacerbated by drug use; he had fourteen different drugs (both legal and illegal) in his system. His funeral was held at Graceland. Outside the gates, a car plowed into a group of fans, killing two women and critically injuring a third. Approximately one hundred thousand people, despite the stifling heat, lined the processional route to Forest Hill Cemetery. More than a hundred vans were needed to transport the floral tributes from his fans. A motorcade of fourteen white Cadillacs and a hearse made its way to the plot where Presley was interred next to Gladys Love Presley. It was a fitting send-off for a king. An attempt was made to steal his body; afterward the remains of both Elvis and his mother were reburied in Graceland’s Meditation Garden.

  30

  John Lennon and Yoko Ono

  1966

  John Lennon, whose 1960s mantra was to give peace a chance, was gunned down by a random act of madness. The world mourned his passing, but none more than the woman with whom he had helped define an era.

  John Winston Lennon was born in 1940 on a night when the sky rained death from the Luftwaffe attack on England. When his sailor father returned and found his wife pregnant by another man, he took off, and custody of John was ultimately regulated to his Aunt Mimi. However, John stayed close to his mother, Julia, and was devastated when she was killed in a car accident when he was seventeen. He met his wife Cynthia when both were enrolled in the Liverpool College of Art. Eventually his group, the Beatles, afforded him superstardom, though happiness remained elusive.

  John’s destiny, Yoko Ono, was born in Japan to a wealthy banking family with imperial ties. She survived the bombing of Tokyo when her family sheltered in a special bunker. After a failed first marriage she wed Anthony Cox, who tracked her down to a Japanese mental institution, where her family had placed her after a suicide attempt. Their union disintegrated and the couple threatened one another with kitchen knives; however, they stayed together for the sake of their careers and their daughter, Kyoko.

  The first time John met Yoko was on November 9 when Lennon went to the London-based Indica Gallery to view an avant-garde exhibit. When John entered, the Japanese artist who was in charge of the show, Yoko Ono, passed him a card that bore one word: Breathe. One exhibit was a white board with a sign that invited visitors to hammer an illusory nail in its surface. Yoko told John Lennon that he could hammer in a nail for five shillings. John then responded with his first words to the woman who would become his last love, “I’ll give you an imaginary five shillings if you let me hammer in an imaginary nail.” Their connection was instantaneous.

  One of the main impediments with John and Yoko having a relationship was their respective spouses and children. Nevertheless, John felt, from the onset, that their love was preordained, that Yoko was both his soul mate and muse. In 1980, in an interview with Playboy magazine, he explained that when he wrote “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” his mind harbored “the image of the female who would someday come save me—a ‘girl with kaleidoscope eyes.’ It turned out to be Yoko, though I hadn’t met Yoko yet.” At one point, John and Yoko decided to be together, despite all marriages.

  In May 1968, John treated his wife Cynthia to a vacation in Greece. On the night before her return he invited Yoko to his country home in Weybridge. They talked for hours and made an experimental recording that would later be released under the title Unfinished Music No. 1: Two Virgins. It was thus christened because they considered themselves virgins emotionall
y and physically, until they had met one another. Its cover depicted the couple, sans clothes, from the back. At dawn they consummated their union. When Cynthia returned home, she found her husband and Yoko sitting together in robes (Yoko was wearing Cynthia’s), drinking tea, and sharing an undeniable aura of intimacy.

  Cynthia later said of her reaction to the tableau, “I was absolutely shattered ... I felt I had to get out of there immediately,” which she did. After a brief reconciliation, the couple divorced in May; Cynthia received custody of five-year-old Julian. Paul McCartney penned “Hey Jude” for their son to help soften the pain of his father’s departure. In future years Cynthia stated, “John is neither a saint or a sinner. He was just human, like the rest of us.” In the same interview, when asked about her relationship with Yoko, she responded, “A freezing day in Moscow, before the cold war ended.”

  Lennon moved to a London flat owned by Beatle drummer Ringo Starr. He later said of this “summer of love,” “It was a strange cocktail of love, sex and forgetfulness. When we weren’t in the studio we were in bed.”

  It was in the studio where, partially because of John’s consuming relationship with Yoko, problems arose between him and the other Beatles. Not willing to be apart from the woman he loved, John began to bring Yoko to recording sessions; at the time the Beatles were working on the White Album. Ono, never one to keep her strong opinions to herself, wasn’t shy about offering musical suggestions, which exacerbated tensions that were already simmering. Lennon felt that his bandmates and others at Apple Studio disliked Yoko because she was strong willed and Japanese; he said they judged her “like a fucking book.” Ono said of the situation, “I sort of went to bed with this guy that I liked, and suddenly the next morning I see these three in-laws standing there.”

  In October, more trouble followed when John was arrested for possession of an illegal drug. Although it did not seem significant at the time, it was to later pose grave problems. By 1970 the in-laws had gone their own ways and John embarked on a solo career. In 1973 he penned his immortal “Imagine,” his vision of a utopian world.