When Harry Truman appointed Pearle Mesta as the first woman Ambassador to Luxembourg, Irving Berlin got his inspiration for the musical "Call me Madam". Her main mission was to go to "Liechtenburg" and say no to a $10 million loan needed by bankrupt Liechtenburg. But she fell in love with the uniformed Secretary of State there, and failed her mission, but found love. No wonder everyone wants to go there since then.
PHOTO: Irving Berlin's former home (1)
Forty years later we bought Irving Berlin's mansion for cash, a wonderful turn of events. I guess the Luxembourg Government, today sitting on a multiple of its price, is still happy with what I did to them in 1990.
This is a chronicle of the event as published by the New York Times on May 5, 1990.
CHRONICLE
By Robert E. Tomasson
Published: Wednesday, May 2, 1990
IRVING BERLIN wrote the words and music to ''Call Me Madam,'' the musical based on President HARRY S. TRUMAN'S appointment of PERLE MESTA as Ambassador to Luxembourg, in his five-story town house at 17 Beekman Place in Manhattan. Forty years ago, ''Call Me Madam'' opened on Broadway. Yesterday, the Government of Luxembourg bought the building, where the composer died on Sept. 12 at the age of 101.
The house was built in 1930 by JAMES V. FORRESTAL, who lived there until 1946, when Mr. Berlin bought it, and who later became the first Secretary of Defense. It will be used for offices for Luxembourg's Consulate and its Mission to the United Nations, said EGIDE THEIN, Luxembourg's Consul General in New York. The price was $5.7 million.
By Robert E. Tomasson
Published: Wednesday, May 2, 1990
IRVING BERLIN wrote the words and music to ''Call Me Madam,'' the musical based on President HARRY S. TRUMAN'S appointment of PERLE MESTA as Ambassador to Luxembourg, in his five-story town house at 17 Beekman Place in Manhattan. Forty years ago, ''Call Me Madam'' opened on Broadway. Yesterday, the Government of Luxembourg bought the building, where the composer died on Sept. 12 at the age of 101.
The house was built in 1930 by JAMES V. FORRESTAL, who lived there until 1946, when Mr. Berlin bought it, and who later became the first Secretary of Defense. It will be used for offices for Luxembourg's Consulate and its Mission to the United Nations, said EGIDE THEIN, Luxembourg's Consul General in New York. The price was $5.7 million.
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