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Perle Reid Mesta (born Pearl Skirvin; October 12, 1882March 16, 1975) was an American socialite, political hostess, and United States ambassador to Luxembourg (1949–53).
Mesta was known for her lavish parties for Washington, D.C., society. Attendees included artists, entertainers and many national political figures.
She was the inspiration for Irving Berlin's musical Call Me Madam, which starred Ethel Merman as the character based on Mesta in both the Broadway play and the movie. She appeared on the March 14, 1949, cover of Time. She was the title character played by Shirley Booth in the Playhouse 90 feature "The Hostess with the Mostess" in 1957. In a 2009 essay by Thomas Mallon, Mesta has been identified as a model for the character Dolly Harrison in Allen Drury's 1959 novel Advise and Consent. "'Advise and Consent' at 50" by novelist Thomas Mallon, The New York Times Book Review, 6/25/09 (p. BR23 of 6/28/09 NY ed.). Retrieved 6/28/09.
She was active in the National Woman's Party and was an early supporter of an Equal Rights Amendment. She switched to the Democratic Party in 1940 and was an early supporter of Harry S. Truman, who rewarded her with an ambassadorship to Luxembourg.
Mesta is most noted for her festive parties, which brought together senators, congressmen, cabinet secretaries and other government figures in bipartisan soirées of high-class glamour. Invitation to a Mesta party was a sure sign that one had reached the inner circle of Washington political society. Her influence peaked during the Truman era; being an old friend of the Eisenhowers, she maintained her social position throughout the 1950s despite her support of the Democratic Party. Her power waned significantly with the rise of the Kennedys in 1960. Perle was, in fact, a friend of Rose Kennedy, but a generation gap between her and Jacqueline Kennedy had made it impossible for her to stay relevant during the Kennedy era. Nevertheless, she remained an avid hostess until her later years.
She was apparently the inspiration for the Black Russian cocktail when the bartender at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels decided to make a signature drink for her.
Mesta wrote the autobiography Perle: My Story, published in 1960, and was the subject of a book by titled Playing Her Part: Perle Mesta in Luxembourg. Lesch also directed a documentary film about Mesta's stay in Luxembourg titled Call Her Madam (Samsa Film, 1997).
In 1951, she was inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. Oklahoma Heritage Society. "Oklahoma Hall of Fame". Retrieved December 9, 2012.
Mesta died of hemolytic anemia (1980). 9780674627321, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674627321 on March 16, 1975, aged 92 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is interred with her late husband in the nonsectarian Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.
Mesta is the namesake of the Mesta Park neighborhood in Oklahoma City.
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