\"American Socialite\" Perle Mesta Hand Signed FDC Dated 1948 For Sale

Up for sale "American Socialite" Perle Mesta Hand Signed First Day Cover Dated 1948. 

ES-4781

Perle

Reid Mesta (née Skirvin)

(October 12, 1889 – March 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, and 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. She

was born Pearl Skirvin in Sturgis, Michigan, a daughter

of William Balser Skirvin, an

original '89er who became a wealthy Oklahoma oilman and founder of

the lavish Skirvin Hotel located

in downtown Oklahoma City. Her younger sister was a silent-film (1896–1963). Mesta married Western Pennsylvania

steel manufacturer and engineer George Mesta in

1916, but was widowed in 1925; she was the only heir to his $78 million fortune

($1.14 billion today) Mesta settled in Newport, Rhode Island, but moved to

Washington, D.C. in 1940. She also maintained a home in the Pittsburgh suburb

of West Homestead, Pennsylvania, the location of her late husband's Mesta Machinery plant and headquarters, but spent little

time there, as she felt largely unaccepted by the Pittsburgh social scene. Four

years later, Mesta changed the spelling of her first name to Perle. 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.[5] Former President Richard M. Nixon remarked in grand jury testimony after

the fallout of Watergate and his resignation in June 1975 that: "Perle

Mesta wasn't sent to Luxembourg because she had big bosoms. Perle Mesta went to

Luxembourg because she made a good contribution." Mesta is most

noted for her festive parties, which brought together senators, congressmen,

cabinet secretaries and other luminaries 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 Paul Lesch 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).