# Aggie Grey

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{{Short description|Samoan hotelier}}
{{Infobox person
|name        = Aggie Grey
|image       = 
|imagesize   = 
|caption     = 
|birth_name  = 
|birth_date  = 
|birth_place = [Western Samoa](/source/Western_Samoa)
|occupation  = Hotelier
|years_active =
}}

'''Aggie Grey''' (born '''Agnes Genevieve Swann'''; 1897–1988) was a Samoan hotelier who founded [Grey Investment Group](/source/Grey_Investment_Group) and [Aggie Grey's Hotel](/source/Aggie_Grey's_Hotel_and_Bungalows).<ref name="Hotel in Apia Upolu">http://www.pacificislandtravel.com [http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/samoa/hotels/aggiegreyhotelapia.asp Hotel in Apia (Upolu)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130906100636/http://pacificislandtravel.com/samoa/hotels/aggiegreyhotelapia.asp |date=2013-09-06 }}</ref>

==Biography==
Grey was born Agnes Genevieve Swann<ref name="AGGIE GREY'S">travellinglady.tweedies.biz [http://travellinglady.tweedies.biz/country/wsamoa/aggies.htm "AGGIE GREY'S"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150607064258/http://travellinglady.tweedies.biz/country/wsamoa/aggies.htm |date=2015-06-07 }} The hotel that became a legend
in the South Pacific</ref> in [Western Samoa](/source/Western_Samoa) in 1897, the daughter of William Swann an English chemist and his Samoan wife Pele.<ref name="Hotel in Apia Upolu"/> In 1903 her mother died and she was raised by her father and later by him and her step mother.

In her adult life she became popular on the Samoan social scene.<ref name="books.google.com.au">The Samoans: A Global Family By Frederic Koehler Sutter [https://books.google.com/books?id=AtUCyMG-hqIC&dq=Aggie+Grey+Olaf&pg=PA161 Page 14 Aggie Grey: West Point Hotelier, Legend. Apia, Upolu, Samoa]</ref> She founded her hotel in 1933,<ref name="Hotel in Apia Upolu"/> and became one of Samoa's most popular and well known figures.<ref name="AGGIE GREY'S"/> She hosted many notable actors, including [Dorothy Lamour](/source/Dorothy_Lamour), [Marlon Brando](/source/Marlon_Brando), [Gary Cooper](/source/Gary_Cooper), [William Holden](/source/William_Holden), [Raymond Burr](/source/Raymond_Burr) and [Robert Morley](/source/Robert_Morley) who stayed at her hotel. Her hotel was involved with the production and housing of the crew on the American film production of [Return to Paradise](/source/Return_to_Paradise_(1953_film)) (1953) starring Gary Cooper.

Grey died in 1988.<ref name="books.google.com.au" />

== Personal life and legacy ==
Gray was friends with American writer [James Michener](/source/James_A._Michener) and she and her sister Mary Croudace (Aunty Mary) were widely believed to be possible models for his character [Bloody Mary](/source/Bloody_Mary_(South_Pacific)) that he created in ''[Tales of the South Pacific](/source/Tales_of_the_South_Pacific)'' (1946).  The book was adapted into Broadway's [musical](/source/musical_theatre) blockbuster ''[South Pacific](/source/South_Pacific_(musical))'' (1949) by [Rodgers](/source/Richard_Rodgers) and [Hammerstein](/source/Oscar_Hammerstein_II) (collectively known as [Rodgers and Hammerstein](/source/Rodgers_and_Hammerstein)), and subsequently the 1958 film [South Pacific](/source/South_Pacific_(1958_film)).

Gray's sister Mary Croudace ran "The Casino" a boarding-house in Apia, and was reputed to have been the lover of a Marine general in the war. Mr Croudace, reputed to have been a New Zealand official, was long gone.<ref>{{cite book |last= Hensley |author-link= Gerald Hensley |first= Gerald |title= Final Approaches: A Memoir |year= 2006 |publisher= Auckland University Press, NZ |location= Auckland |isbn= 1-86940-378-9 |page= 6 }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{cite journal|first= Kirsten Moana |last=Thompson |title=The Construction of a Myth: Bloody Mary, Aggie Grey and the Optics of Tourism |journal=Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies |volume=2 |number=1 |date=April 2014 |pages= 5–19|author-link = Kirsten Moana Thompson|doi=10.1386/nzps.2.1.5_1 }}</ref>

Grey is the subject of two biographies by Nelson Eustis<ref name=":0">{{cite book |title=Aggie Grey |last=Eustis |first=Nelson |publisher=Hobby Editions |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-9595609-0-9 |location=United States }}</ref> and [Fay Alailima](/source/Fay_Calkins),<ref>{{cite book |title=Aggie Grey: A Samoan Saga |last=Alailima |first=Fay |publisher=Mutual, USA |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-935180-79-4 |location=United States }}</ref> was on several postage stamps of Western Samoa,<ref>{{cite book |title=Stanley Gibbons Commonwealth Stamp Catalogue: Eastern Pacific |last=Stanley Gibbons Limited (2007). |year=2007 |edition=1st |isbn=978-0-85259-644-9 |location=London and Ringwood: Stanley Gibbons Limited. |pages=50}}</ref> and was a pioneering figure of the Samoan hotel industry.<ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=http://www.samoaobserver.ws/home/headlines/6407-aggies-signs-up-to-global-hotel-group |newspaper=Samoan Observer |date=8 August 2013 |title=Aggie's signs up to Global Hotel Group |access-date=10 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130812030809/http://www.samoaobserver.ws/home/headlines/6407-aggies-signs-up-to-global-hotel-group|archive-date=12 August 2013}}</ref>

The Aggie Grey Hotel is now three resorts, two on Upolu island in Samoa, in Apia and Aggie's Lagoon and one resort,  Le Méredien in Tahiti.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://aggiegreys.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000919131406/http://www.aggiegreys.com/ |url-status=usurped |archive-date=September 19, 2000 |title=Aggie Grey's Company |access-date=10 September 2015 |website=Aggie Greys.com }}</ref> In 2013 Aggie Grey's became part of the Sheraton chain.<ref name=":1" />

==References==
{{Reflist}}
* {{cite journal |title=The construction of a myth: Bloody Mary, Aggie Grey and the optics of tourism |journal=Journal of New Zealand & Pacific Studies |date=2014-04-01 |pages=5–19 |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.1386/nzps.2.1.5_1 |first=Kirsten Moana |last=Thompson}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Grey, Aggie}}
Category:1897 births
Category:1988 deaths
Category:Samoan people of English descent
Category:Hoteliers
Category:20th-century Samoan businesspeople
Category:Samoan businesswomen

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Aggie Grey](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Grey) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggie_Grey?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.