Monte Carlo

"work. In his mind’s eye he could see Monte Carlo awakening from the unnatural slumber and reverting to the glory of the past. One of his exciting visions was of a new outer harbor big enough to accom¬ modate the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth and attracting a big international cruising clientele. There was not a port in the Mediter¬ ranean capable of taking big passenger liners without subjecting them to the noise, smoke, and dirt of a commercial harbor, as in Genoa, Naples, Marseilles, or Barcelona. In Villefranche and Cannes the swell was so strong that it was impossible to embark or disembark pas¬ sengers during more than six hours at a time. Onassis visualized oceangoing liners coming in like yachts and staying while their pas¬ sengers flew on quick excursions to Paris, London, Rome, anywhere in Europe. It would put Monte Carlo among the great international harbors of the world and, he reckoned, attract two thousand visitors to Monaco every day. A man whose visions quickly solidify into hard figures, he worked out that even at twenty-five dollars a head a day, even without gambling, this represented a secure income of fifty thou¬ sand dollars a day. The project might require an investment of at least thirty million dollars but this was not an amount to deter Onassis."

"been full. He was in one of his jocular moods: “I am in business only in a little way,” he told a reporter who mentioned his hundred ships, “that’s no more than eight percent of the world’s merchant fleet,” he added, “just a tiny bit.” Monte Carlo, he said, was just a hobby."

"YOU started from nothing, you conquered everything you could dream of: you climbed to the top of the world in the sector you had entered as the last of the workers, you rang the bell at Wall Street, you bought Ray-Ban – all of Ray-Ban –, you're the richest man in Italy, you have a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, a yacht in Monte Carlo, a villa on the French Riviera, buildings across half of Europe, a charming villa in typical Caribbean style in Antigua, you have a new partner – the third –, you have a newborn child with her and another on the way, in addition to a child of not even ten years from your previous wife and three grown children who are living their lives. You are approaching your seventies."

"Sol soon set up an office on Jermyn Street, London, which he shared with Charles Fiddian-Green of Rennies and a young Johann Rupert. Peter Bacon, who had also left South Africa with his then-wife Vicky and their three girls, joined the rebounding Sol, too. Peter and Vicky bought a home in Hampstead from the musician Sting. Their hopes of settling down in London were quickly dashed, however, as Sol put together a deal in Monte Carlo, Monaco, to create Monte Carlo Sporting, a proposed leisure and sport centre with, of course, a casino. Bacon therefore moved to Monte Carlo."