"She was twenty-seven perhaps, plump and, in a coarse fashion, pretty."
Somerset Maugham first breathed life, but just barely, into the character of Miss Sadie Thompson in the pages of the April 1921 issue of Smart Set, in a self-titled story. Every other publication rejected it due to its racy content. "Miss Thompson" was about a free-wheeling and free-loving young lady whose lifestyle both excites and offends a married religious zealot and ends in tragedy for all. The story is based on actual persons the author encountered during a 1916 Pacific cruise.
Maugham was an English writer known for his plays, novels, and short stories. A prolific writer, between 1902 and 1933, he staged 32 plays, and between 1897 and 1962, he published 19 novels, nine volumes of short stories, and non-fiction books. His American publishers estimated that four and a half million copies of his books were bought in the US during his lifetime.
While Somerset was proofing the gallies of the story on vacation at a boarding house, he sought the opinion of a friend, John Colton. The next day, Colton approached Maugham with a proposal to adapt the story into a theatrical production. 'I didn't see a play in the story at all,' Maugham recalled. 'I told him to go ahead with it if he desired.' Colton partnered with Clemence Randolph, and the pair expanded the original story into a two-hour drama that showed the struggle between good and evil and how what appears to be one turns out to be the other.
After Eagels, each decade has had its own Sadies in both film and stage. Eagels lost out on her signature role to Gloria Swanson in 1928's silent version, filmed on Catalina Island. The 1930s saw M.G.M.'s Joan Crawford appear as Sadie in the first sound version to poor reviews. Tallulah Bankhead revived her on Broadway while Helen Hayes and fan dancer Sally Rand headed road shows to packed houses across the country. The 1940s found June Havoc, older sister of stripper Gypsy Rose Lee, appearing in a musical version on Broadway after Ethel Merman dropped out. The show closed after a few months, but Havoc toured with it for years. The show closed after a few months, but Havoc toured with it for years. The only version to make it to the screen was 1946's Dirty Gertie from Harlem U.S.A., starring colored actress Francine Everett and an all-black cast. In the early 1950s, Bette Davis spoofed her in a stage show, while Dorothy Lamour and Barbara Stanwick were among the various actresses mentioned to play a much toned-down version of Sadie. In 1953, Columbia released Miss Sadie Thompson, starring Rita Hayworth. Fox followed in 1956 with Jane Russell in The Revolt of Mamie Stover. By mid-decade, film audiences were no longer shocked by Rain's content, and even theatrical productions had diminished to community theater level. There was only one untapped venue left: television.
First invented in the late 1920s, television was a reality by the late 1930s, with experimental stations scattered across the United States, including Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, and two in New York City. Total television sales from 1939-41 were approximately 7,000. Between 1942 and 49, just over 3.5 million were sold. From 1950 and 59, between 5 and 7 million sets were sold annually. In 1950, only 9% of Americans had televisions (roughly 3,880,000). A decade later, 87% of the United States had just over 45,000,000 sets.
As a female producer, Ann Marlowe was a rarity in radio and early television. Born in Manhattan and raised in a well-to-do family in Westchester County, she first appeared on stage at ten. A gifted soprano, young Ann trained through her teens and found work as a singer on the radio. She was the "Rinso White Girl" for six years, singing the detergent theme song and appearing in small parts in several soap operas before moving to the other side of the microphone. She became a producer of radio shows, including the Maisie series with Ann Sothern, The Fat Man, Superstition, The Adventures of Sam Spade, and Let Yourself Go with Milton Berle, which led to her career in the early formative years of television.
By the late 1940s, she'd married Martin L. Strauss II, a successful businessman. The couple resided at 1160 Park Avenue and a one-hundred-acre country estate in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The pair shared a love of many things, including bringing quality programming to television. After a private screening of Quartette (1948), a British-made film of four of W. Somerset Maugham's short stories narrated by the author, it occurred to her that with networks looking for more ways to fill their airwaves, Maugham's vast library of work would translate well into the new entertainment medium.
Marlowe later told Helen Boldstad in April 1961, "I came out of there with stars in my eyes and told my husband, 'This is what I want to do on television—Maugham's stories. Do you suppose I could?' His reply was,' I don't see why not.' Through Maugham's American agent, Marlowe secured the exclusive television rights for his entire library of work with their first production, 1950's A String of Pearls, broadcast on C.B.S. and sponsored by the company headed by Mr. Strauss, Bymart Inc., makers of Tintair hair dye. When asked why he permitted his work to be on television, Maugham told critic John Crosby, "Since this generation is not much given to reading but more to listening and watching, I prefer them to listen and watch my stories."
The couple brought dozens of Maugham's work to the public until Mr. Strauss died in 1958. Marlowe refused to allow widowhood to slow her down and concentrated on her biggest project to date, The Moon and the Six Pence, starring Laurence Olivier. The actor had been adamant about not appearing on television, but a salary of $100,000 was a seductive mistress. The ninety-minute color production cost $385,000, with the DuPont Corporation footing the bill. Shown in October, it was a ratings bonanza for C.B.S. and won many awards, including the Monte Carlo International Television Festival.
Dorothy Kilgallen announced on March 14, 1959, that Marlowe's next project was a series of South Sea-themed Maugham stories to be filmed in Jamaica, with "big-name stars in the important roles." After Six Pence's success, Marlowe met with Alfred Hollender, executive V.P. of Grey Advertising, in search of potential sponsors. Six of the top ten television specials from the previous viewing season were Grey clients Revlon and Proctor & Gamble.
In an interview with Sponsor Magazine, Hollender said, "It is all the more important that such programs be really special—not just ordinary one-shot shows. [Former N.B.C. President] Pat Weaver's word for a really special, a "spectacular," was a better way of thinking then." When creating attention-grabbing advertising programs, Hollender stressed the importance of critical ingredients that make a show truly special and memorable - a 'fabulous' star, a 'fabulous' idea, or a 'fabulous' event as the central element.
He rejected Marlowe's pitch as lacking the above-mentioned "fabulosity." With Rain being Maugham's most famous work, Marlowe suggested it as a special. Hollender was interested if the appropriate star could be found. Marlowe came back with Lee Remick and then Susan Hayward. For Grey, Remick needed to be a bigger name, and Hayward was unavailable. Hollender jokingly suggested his "dream casting" as Marilyn Monroe.
Be careful what you wish for.
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