Word: mesta
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Senator need worry at a Mesta party if he cannot quote Oscar Wilde, if he thinks Picasso is a ham & eggs painter, or is unable to pronounce the name of French Premier Queuille. In the new, hearty Mesta milieu, the lorgnette has abdicated to the guitar. Said a friend: "You go to a great many beautiful formal houses here where people barely speak above a whisper. You go to Perle's, and you know it's going...
...Perle Mesta is shaped to the mold of a Rubens model who has reached the age of a Helen Hokinson character. Her figure requires stern corseting; she carries a diet book in her purse, consults it before ordering. Except for her parties, she hates to spend money. Once she walked two blocks to Democratic headquarters because her hotel charged 12? for a phone call. People are always trying to wheedle money out of her; she does her own ordering for big affairs, and drives a good housewifely bargain. Says Perle, thrusting out her chin: "I'm stingy. That...
...Drive. Perle Mesta began her final assault on Washington in 1941. She moved into the exclusive Sulgrave Club, got some professional advice on press relations, and started giving parties. She shrewdly gave a yearly alcoholic "tea" for the women's press corps. Either with rare good luck or uncanny generalship, she ingratiated herself early with Harry Truman. She feted him as a Senator, gave the first party in his honor-a $5,000 blowout-when he became Vice President. She gave a huge "coming-out" party for Margaret Truman in 1946. When Margaret sang in Oklahoma City, Perle brought...
...campaign to purge his home-town Congressman, Roger Slaughter. As co-chairman of last year's Jefferson-Jackson Day dinners, she raised $250,000, kept at it doughtily during the campaign. Declared Louis Johnson, chairman of the Democratic Finance Committee: "When our crowd got discouraged, Perle Mesta would raise hell. She called us men of little faith. She was a tonic for us -our little pepper-upper...
Rich, gusty, vigorous Perle Mesta obviously served Harry Truman well as Washington's No. i hostess, and Truman was obviously grateful. It seemed a very satisfactory arrangement for both...