Tales from the Margaret Mead taproom

by Nicholas von Hoffman

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0836206312
• ISBN13: 9780836206319
• Release Date: January 1976
• Publisher: Sheed & Ward
• Length: 154 Pages
• Weight: 0.88 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fear and Loathing in the South Seas: Three Celebrities Slumming in Samoa

When I was in high school in Samoa we would often hang out at the Rainmaker Hotel's pool after school ended every day. The hotel pool was the place to be, and the fact that you couldn't swim there unless you were a guest, or a "member" of the pool (which cost a few bucks a month, which of course none of us could pay). One of our pals worked in the dive shop poolside, which of course enabled us to hang out there whenever we wanted. One day, we were loafing as usual when one of us noticed a fortyish American woman, quite attractive, sunning herself and talking to a young boy, who we discovered was her son. She looked so familiar! One of us finally figured out, "Hey, she's on TV...an actress!" The kid confirmed this for us. "Yeah, my mom is on lots of TV shows," he said matter-of-factly. "My dad is a movie star." The boy's name was Christian Peppard (son of George "Hannibal" Peppard of "A-Team," and famed Hollywood actor ("Barefoot in the Park,' "Blue Max," etc)...and his mom, the woman we were staring at, was the famed stage and TV actress Elizabeth Ashley. So what does this have to do with the book? Turns out that Elizabeth and her son were visiting Samoa and accompanying the political writer Nick Von Hoffman, and "Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau. This little gang of mainland luminaries were involved in a "research" project, looking into life in the last of the American colonies, none other than our own American Samoa, for a projected book to be published back in what von Hoffman called "The Nifty Fifty." Nick's book is an interesting glimpse into daily life in America's Outback, circa 1975. It's not a pretty picture. And, even though the Feds have pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into the island economy, the place is still an economic wasteland. There are a few bright spots in more recent years, with the opening of mainland style retail businesses (and the inevitable invasion of McD's and KFC). Excerpts of this book originally ran in Rolling Stone (I kept the issues for years before they finally disintegrated), and it was several years later, after I had left the islands for college on the mainland, that I finally found a copy of this book. I still have it, and thumbing through it, it's interesting to note how much life in Samoa has changed...and how a lot of it hasn't.