14. The hostess with the mostest

Born Pearl Skirvin in 1889 in Sturgis, Michigan, Perle Mesta was a socialite and political hostess. Known for her lavish parties whose guest lists included the cream of Washington society, she was dubbed the “hostess with the mostest.”

She was the daughter of William Baiser Skirvin, an opulent Oklahoma oilman. In 1916 she married George Mesta, a wealthy Pittsburgh steel manufacturer and engineer. While her husband was working in Washington as an adviser on war machinery to the president during WWI, she had her first introduction to politics and Washington society. After the war, the couple traveled extensively in Europe. By the time of her husband’s death in 1925, she was well acquainted with the worlds of business and politics. Mesta was the sole heir of her husband’s $78 million fortune (equivalent to $1.07 billion today). She moved to Washington in 1940. During that time, she changed the spelling of her name from Pearl to Perle.

Through business partnerships with her brother and sister, she parlayed the combined Skirvin and Mesta wealth into a vast estate. Her ventures ranged from their father’s oil operations to a dairy business and a cattle ranch. Her greater contributions lay in the causes of women’s rights, statesmanship and diplomacy. She headed social reforms for workers in her husband’s machine plants and elsewhere. In Washington, she went into the slums to establish daycare centers for children and programs for the poor. She established scholarship funds for deserving young people in the US and Europe. She was active in the National Woman’s Party and was an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment. She switched to the Democratic Party in 1940 and was a supporter of Harry Truman. He appointed her the first US ambassador to Luxembourg (1949-53). On March 14, 1949, Mesta was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Declaring her intention to know the people of Luxembourg, she went to the farms, mines, industries and government offices and met with all the mayors in the country. When two lonely American soldiers appeared at her door, she began her “GI parties” for US service personnel in Europe. When she left Luxembourg five years later, Mesta had entertained 25,000 men and women at her own expense and written personal letters to many of their parents.

Back in Washington, Mesta’s parties brought together high-level politicians and other luminaries. Her glamorous soirées were as lively and down to earth as she was. She had discovered that her type of guests liked to entertain each other. Hence at a Mesta party, you’d find president Truman playing the piano, general Eisenhower singing a song, and Mrs. Vanderbilt whistling in a duet. As a friend of Mesta’s commented, “You go to many beautiful formal houses here where people barely speak above a whisper. You go to Perle’s, and you know it’s going to be fun.” And speaking of fun, the musical Call Me

Madam was inspired by Mesta. Starring Ether Merman, the play opened on Broadway in 1950. Directed by George Abbott and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with music and lyrics by Irving Berlin, it ran for 644 performances and grossed more than $4m. It won a Tony for Best Original Score, which included songs such as “It’s a Lovely Day Today” and “(You’re Not Sick) You’re Just in Love.”

The film version came out in 1953, starring Merman, Donald O’Connor, Vera-Ellen and George Sanders. O’Connor, who literally danced up a storm in Singin’ in the Rain and a host of other movie musicals, later said that

Call Me Madam contained his best dancing. Perle Mesta died on March 16, 1975, in Oklahoma City. She was 85. –