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The Woman Who Knew Everyone By Meryl Gordon Read By Carrington MacDuffie
From a New York Times bestselling author, an revealing biography of feminist Perle Mesta–a beloved socialite, political hostess, and United States envoy.
Perle Mesta was a force to be reckoned with. In her heyday, this wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow was one of the most famous women in America, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents–Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, which inspired the hit musical based on Perle’s life – “Call Me Madam” – which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman’s financially flailing 1948 campaign.
In this intensely researched biography, author Meryl Gordon chronicles Perle’s lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington, while highlighting her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement.
- Duration:
- 3m
- Broadcast on:
- 07 Jan 2025
- Audio Format:
- other
Nestled high in the Rocky Mountains, with picture postcard views and healing hot springs, the Hotel Colorado attracted a rich and famous clientele from the day it opened in 1893. More than a half century later, when Broadway star Ethel Merman needed a break in July 1949 from belting there's no business like show business. In the long-running show "Annie Get Your Gun" she chose this isolated spot. Accompanied by newspaper executive husband Robert Levitt and their two young children, she convinced playwright Howard Lindsey and his actress wife Dorothy Stickney to join them. Merman had starred in two musicals created by Lindsey and his writing partner Russell Krause anything goes in 1934 and red hot and blue two years later. These members of Broadway royalty hoped to join forces again but the Rocky Mountain Sojourn wasn't meant to be a working vacation just a chance to relax nearly 2,000 miles from Manhattan's autograph seekers. However, inspiration doesn't punch a time clock. Sitting by the pool that July, catching up on his reading, Lindsey picked up a several months old copy of Time magazine featuring a cover story about Pearl Mesta, the Washington party giver who counted President Harry Truman among her closest friends. Anointing Pearl Mesta, the capital's number one hostess, the March 14th time solemnly stated, "Washington society persists chiefly because the capital is one of the world's most boring cities." The article included gossipy tales chronicling Pearl Mesta's unlikely rise from a Wild West Texas childhood with a brash father who dabbled in real estate, struck oil, and built the largest hotel in Oklahoma City to her marriage to a self-made Italian Pittsburgh steel magnet and, after his untimely death, her reinvention as a social climbing widow who conquered Stuffy Newport Road Island and set her sights on Washington. The Nouveau Riche Hostess changed the spelling of her given name from P-E-A-R-L to P-E-R-L-E because it sounded more sophisticated. She had a knack for ingratiating herself with up-and-coming politicians befriending Truman when he was a Missouri Senator and Dwight Eisenhower as an army major. By accumulating the "right" guests, a Washington hostess could invisibly pull the strings, whisper useful information into a senator's ear, help an underling gain a promotion through fortuitous seating, or put legislative opponents together in a congenial setting where aided by copious champagne they could forge compromises. You
From a New York Times bestselling author, an revealing biography of feminist Perle Mesta–a beloved socialite, political hostess, and United States envoy.
Perle Mesta was a force to be reckoned with. In her heyday, this wealthy globe-trotting Washington widow was one of the most famous women in America, garnering as much media attention as Eleanor Roosevelt. Renowned for her world-class parties featuring politicians and celebrities, she was very close to three presidents–Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower and Lyndon Johnson. Truman named her as the first female envoy to Luxembourg, which inspired the hit musical based on Perle’s life – “Call Me Madam” – which starred Ethel Merman, ran on Broadway for two years and later became a movie. A pioneering supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment, she was a prodigious Democratic fundraiser and rescued Harry Truman’s financially flailing 1948 campaign.
In this intensely researched biography, author Meryl Gordon chronicles Perle’s lavish life and society adventures in Newport, Manhattan and Washington, while highlighting her important, but nearly forgotten contribution to American politics and the feminist movement.