Perle Reid Mesta was an American socialite, political hostess, and United States Ambassador to Luxembourg . Mesta was known as the hostess with the mostest for her lavish parties featuring the brightest stars of Washington, D.C., society, including artists, entertainers and many top-level 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. Mesta has also been identified as a model for the character Dolly Harrison in Allen Drury's 1959 novel Advise and Consent, i...
Continue reading...From
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.