United States historic place
The
Sadie Thompson Inn
is a historic building in Malaloa, one of the constituent villages of
Pago Pago
in
American Samoa
. The building is noted as the guest house where from mid-December 1916 author
W. Somerset Maugham
resided for six weeks during an extended trip through the
South Sea Islands
. He described it as a "dilapidated lodging house with a corrugated tin roof" and complained that he contracted "a stubborn rash, no doubt fungus" while at the hotel, and of the weeks it took to cure it.
[2]
The building was subsequently the setting of his short story "
Rain
", published in 1921, which depicted a psychological battle of wits between a wayward, on-the-run prostitute, Sadie Thompson, and a conservative, self-righteous missionary. Although conclusive evidence is lacking, Maugham was apparently in residence at the lodging house with a real person named Sadie Thompson, who reportedly had been driven from a red-light district in
Honolulu
.
Considered one of Maugham's more noteworthy works, the story was later adapted to the stage and brought to the screen three times. The first film was the 1928 silent
Sadie Thompson
, starring
Gloria Swanson
as the titular character and
Lionel Barrymore
as Alfred Davidson, the missionary. Just four years later, in 1932, it was filmed again as
Rain
, with
Joan Crawford
as Sadie and
Walter Huston
, the missionary. And in 1953,
Miss Sadie Thompson
was released in
Technicolor
, featuring
Rita Hayworth
and
Jose Ferrer
.
The building was listed on the
National Register of Historic Places
in 2003 as the Sadie Thompson Building.
[1]
Previously, it had been known as the
Meredith Building
, the
Haleck Building
, and as simply
Boarding House
. At the time of its NRHP listing, the structure was being utilized as a department store on the first floor and a restaurant on its second.
[2]
It is currently used as a hotel and restaurant.
[3]
The Sadie Thompson Inn is historically significant for its association with Somerset Maugham during the waning years of the
British Empire
in the South Sea Islands. Maugham stayed at the lodging house from December 16, 1916, to January 30, 1917.
[2]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
External links
[
edit
]
Media related to
Sadie Thompson Inn
at Wikimedia Commons
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