Four days after her October 20, 1968, marriage to Aristotle Onassis, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis found herself alone on her new husband’s yacht, The Christina. Her children had returned to school and Ari had resumed business negotiations—prompting reports in the press that the marriage was already over—so she picked up the phone and called an acquaintance.
“Billy, I need you,” Jackie implored. “I need a friend. How soon can you come to see me?”
A few thousand miles away in New York City, decorator Billy Baldwin simply asked, “What do you mean by ‘how soon?’” Two days later he was on his way to Jackie, Ari, and a whole lot of paparazzi.
A Doodad Kind of Town 