JOE ARMSTRONG, ADVISER AND FRIEND OF JACQUELINE KENNEDY ONASSIS Jackie called me up and said, "You know, John doesn't know what he wants to do. He's at the DA's office. Two weeks ago, he had to file an action against somebody who stole a bag of potato chips. Would you just talk to him?" He didn't want to be a lawyer, and she knew that. She told me he didn't study for the first bar exam because he didn't feel like it. Or for the second, because he was having some romantic drama. After he failed it twice, he said, "I better study and get 3,800" a perfect score. He came close. Anyway, we had a few lunches before the magazine idea came up. It was Michael Berman's idea. It wouldn't have happened without John, but it also wouldn't have happened without Michael.
ROSEMARIE TERENZIO, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT One day, in the conference room [at Random Ventures, Kennedy's LLC with partner Michael J. Berman], the table was piled with photos, like 8-by-10 headshot things, and I realized they were all Herb Ritts photos. Gorgeous. Initially I thought it was for a charity thing. But it turned out John and Michael were starting a political magazine, and this was for the prototype. It was all pretty hush-hush. At one point they went to some class on magazines and were told, "The only two magazines that will never sell are religion and politics." And they were like, "Oh, great."
ARMSTRONG I was spending a week with Jackie in the Vineyard and John was in Vietnam with Daryl Hannah. He called and said, "Mummy, tell Joe that I was going through the tunnels in Vietnam and it hit me today that the magazine ought to be named George." And I'm thinking, "Tunnels? George?" But once he knew what he wanted, I could help him with a business plan.
TERENZIO The name George came from [music producer] Lou Adler, Daryl's brother-in-law. I think John chewed it over for a while, then was sold. He thanked Adler by putting him on the masthead.
After all, Carnival offered many of them free vouchers for future trips. The more you travel with them, the more goodies they give you, says Courter, a survivor of the Diamond Princess. Its like rats and cocaine.
Here's one for you. You like informative articles.
All in all, I don't believe that the cruise lines responded any worse than most countries and cities did, based on all the bogus information that was out there at the time, much of it disinformation from the CCP.
During the eighties, we cruised to the Caribbean and around the Gulf of Mexico on ships that carried fewer than a thousand passengers and had really wonderful times every sailing. No complaints whatever.