''The Revolt of Mamie Stover'' is a 1951 novel by

William Bradford Huie William Bradford Huie (November 13, 1910 – November 20, 1986) was an American writer, investigative reporter, editor, national lecturer, and television host. His credits include twenty-one books that sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In ad ...

about a young woman from Mississippi who goes to Hollywood to work as an actress. Driven into prostitution, she moves to Honolulu, works at a brothel and takes it over, challenges restrictions against prostitutes after the US armed forces are built up on the island, buys real estate, and becomes a wealthy

war profiteer A war profiteer is any person or organization that derives profit from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term typically carries strong negative connotations. General profiteering, making a profit criticized as ...

Plot

''The Revolt of Mamie Stover'' is an allegory for the decline of American society because of the country-wide democratization that conflict made possible. Using a Honolulu prostitute to state his case, Huie shows her rise economically, socially, and politically with the aid, in part, of the federal government as she flouts local regulation (prostitution itself being legal at the time). As the war progresses, Stover becomes a war profiteer, coming to control property, accumulating vast wealth in cash, and visiting proscribed beaches in the company of U.S. military officers. ''The Revolt of Mamie Stover'' is the first volume in a trilogy, including ''

The Americanization of Emily ''The Americanization of Emily'' is a 1964 British-American black-and-white romantic black comedy war film written by Paddy Chayefsky, produced by Martin Ransohoff, directed by Arthur Hiller and starring James Garner, Julie Andrews, Melvyn Dougl ...

'' (1959), and ''

Hotel Mamie Stover A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. Facilities provided inside a hotel room may range from a modest-quality mattress in a small room to large suites with bigger, higher-quality beds, a dresser, a re ...

'' (1963), all of which have the same narrator. In the first and third books, he is primarily present in order to observe and report, and in the second he relates his experiences in the late stages of World War II.

Adaptation

A movie version directed by

Raoul Walsh Raoul Walsh (born Albert Edward Walsh; March 11, 1887December 31, 1980) was an American film director, actor, founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), and the brother of silent screen actor George Walsh. He wa ...

was released in 1956 with

Jane Russell Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011) was an American actress, singer, and model. She was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s. She starred in more than 20 films. Russell moved from th ...

in the title role. The screenplay essentially dropped the Hollywood critique.

External links

Jonathan Yardley, "'Mamie Stover': Blond Ambition"
''Washington Post'', 31 May 2006 1951 American novels American novels adapted into films Novels about American prostitution Novels set in Mississippi Novels set in Hawaii {{1950s-erotic-novel-stub