Perle Reid Mesta (born Pearl Skirvin; October 12, 1889March 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. Biography 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 actress, Marguerite Skirvin Tyson (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 $78 million fortune ($ 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. 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