Her Glamorous Guest Lists
The Wall Street Journal|January 22, 2025
The Woman Who Knew Everyone
By Meryl Gordon
Her Glamorous Guest Lists

Washington has its share of prominent hostesses. As the sociable wife of the nation’s fourth president, Dolley Madison brought together the warring members of Congress at her famed Wednesday evening “drawing rooms.” Then there was Alice Roosevelt Longworth—the strong-willed, sharp-tongued daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt and the wife of Nicholas Longworth, speaker of the House. A throw pillow in her living room was embroidered with the words: “If you can’t say something good about someone, sit right here by me.”

But Dolley and Alice were pikers compared with Perle Mesta, the wealthy widow from Oklahoma who reigned over the Washington social scene from the 1930s until her death in 1975. One of the most recognizable women of her era, she is little known today—unless you’re familiar with Irving Berlin’s 1950 Broadway musical “Call Me Madam,” which was inspired by Mesta’s exuberant personality and her 1949 appointment as U.S. minister to Luxembourg (the show’s signature lyric, sung by Ethel Merman in the original production—as the hostess with “the hostess” on the ball).

In contemporary lingo, Mesta was the “GOAT” of Washington hostesses—the Greatest of All Time. Author-journalist Meryl Gordon presents Mesta in delectable detail in “The Woman Who Knew Everyone,” a lively and readable biography. Ms. Gordon has also written biographies of the style icon Bunny Mellon and the Manhattan socialite and philanthropist Brooke Astor.

This story is from the January 22, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

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This story is from the January 22, 2025 edition of The Wall Street Journal.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.