Lucius Beebe

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Lucius Morris Beebe Flag of the United States

Lucius Beebe (r), with Charles Clegg at the office of the Territorial Enterprise newspaper, Virginia City, Nevada.
Born December 9, 1902(1902-12-09)
Wakefield, Massachusetts
Died February 4, 1966 (aged 63)
San Francisco, California
Cause of death Heart attack
Residence Boston; New York; San Francisco; Virginia City, Nevada
Education Harvard University - 1926, Yale University
Occupation Author, Journalist, Columnist, Photographer, Gourmand
Employers New York Herald Tribune, San Francisco Examiner, Boston Telegram, Boston Evening Transcript, Territorial Enterprise
Known for Railroad history and documenting café society
Partner Jerome Zerbe, Charles Clegg

Lucius Morris Beebe (December 9, 1902 – February 4, 1966) was an American author, gourmand, photographer, railroad historian, journalist, and syndicated columnist.

Contents

[edit] Early life and education

Beebe was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, to a prominent Boston family. Beebe attended both Harvard University and Yale University. During his tenure at boarding school and university, Beebe was known for his numerous pranks. One of his more outrageous stunts included an attempt at festooning J. P. Morgan's yacht Corsair with toilet paper from a chartered airplane.[1] His pranks were not without consequence and he proudly noted that he had the sole distinction of having been expelled from both Harvard and Yale, at the insistence, respectively, of the president and dean of each.[2] Beebe eventually was readmitted to Harvard where he earned his undergraduate degree in 1926.

[edit] Journalist

During and immediately after obtaining his degree from Harvard, Beebe published several books of poetry, but eventually found his true calling in journalism. He worked as a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner, the Boston Telegram, and the Boston Evening Transcript and was a contributing writer to many magazines such as Gourmet, The New Yorker, Town and Country, Holiday, American Heritage and Playboy. Beebe re-launched Nevada's first newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise, in 1952.

Beebe wrote a syndicated column for the New York Herald Tribune from the 1930s through 1944 called This New York. The column chronicled the doings of fashionable society at such storied restaurants and nightclubs as El Morocco, the 21 Club, the Stork Club, and the Colony. Mr. Beebe is credited with inventing the term "cafe society" which was used to describe the people mentioned in his column.

In 1950, Beebe and his long-time friend and partner, Charles M. Clegg, moved to Virginia City, Nevada, where they purchased and restored the Piper family home and later purchased the dormant Territorial Enterprise newspaper. The newspaper was relaunched in 1952 and by 1954 had achieved the highest circulation in the West for a weekly newspaper. He and Clegg co-wrote the "That Was the West" series of historical essays for the newspaper.

In 1960 Beebe began work with the San Francisco Chronicle where he wrote a syndicated column, This Wild West.[3] During the six years that he wrote the column, Beebe covered such topics as economics, politics, journalism, religion, history, morals, justice, finance and travel.[3]

[edit] Gourmand

Beebe was a noted gourmand. He wrote numerous articles in Gourmet, Holiday, and Playboy about restaurants and dining experiences around the world. Some of the restaurants he covered include The Colony, The Stork Club[4], The Pump Room, the 21 Club, Simpson's-in-the-Strand, and Chasen's. A noted wine aficinado, he was a member of the Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin.

[edit] Author

In addition to his work as a journalist, Beebe wrote over 30 books. His books dealt primarily with railroading and café society. Many of his railroad books were written with longtime companion, Charles Clegg.

Beebe was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 1992.

[edit] Railroad history

Along with Clegg, Beebe owned two private railcars, the Gold Coast and The Virginia City. The Gold Coast, Georgia Northern / Central of Georgia No. 100, was built in 1905 and is now at the California State Railroad Museum. After Beebe and Clegg purchased The Virginia City they had it refurbished and redecorated by famed Hollywood set designer Robert Hanley in a style known as Venetian Renaissance Baroque. The Virginia City has been restored and currently operates as an excursion carriage.[5]

[edit] Ship travel

Beebe was also a noted partisan of the Cunard Line and passenger liner travel in general. He wrote several articles about trans-Atlantic passage on Cunard ships during the "Golden Era" of the 20's, 30's and 40's.

[edit] Sartorial splendor

A noted boulevardier, Beebe had an impressive and baroque wardrobe. Beebe's clothing included 40 suits, at least two mink-lined overcoats, numerous top hats and bowlers, a collection of doeskin gloves, walking sticks, and a substantial gold nugget watch chain.[6] Columnist Walter Winchell referred to Beebe and his wardrobe as "Luscious Lucius."[7] Beebe's sartorial splendor was recognized when he appeared in full formal day attire on the cover of Life over the title of "Lucius Beebe Sets a Style."[8][1]

Many of Beebe's articles and columns addressed men's traditional fashion. He was especially fond of English bespoke tailoring and shoes and wrote glowing articles about noted court tailor Henry Poole and Company and noted bootmaker John Lobb, whom he patronized on a regular basis. He also liked men's hats and wrote of the history of the bowler hat.[9]

[edit] Personal life

In 1940, Beebe met Charles Clegg while both were houseguests at the Washington, D.C. home of Evalyn Walsh McLean. The two soon developed a personal and professional relationship that continued for the rest of Beebe's life. By the standards of the era, the homosexual relationship Beebe and Clegg shared was relatively open and well-known.[10] Previously, Beebe had been involved with society photographer Jerome Zerbe.

The pair initially lived in New York City, where both men were prominent in café society circles. Eventually tiring of that social life, the two moved in 1950 to Virginia City, Nevada, a tiny community that had once been a fabled mining boomtown. There, they reactivated and began publishing the Territorial Enterprise, a fabled 19th century newspaper that had once been the employer of Mark Twain. Beebe and Clegg shared a renovated mansion in the town, traveled extensively, and remained prominent in social circles.

Beebe was a community activist while living in Nevada. He was appointed by Nevada's governor to be a member of the Nevada State Centennial Committee (1958) and was Chairman of the Silver Centennial Monument Committee, groups that planned events honoring Nevada's and Virginia City's history. Through their efforts, the federal government commissioned a commemorative stamp in recognition of the discovery of the Comstock Lode in the Virginia City region.

Clegg and Beebe sold the Territorial Enterprise in 1961 and purchased a home in suburban San Francisco. They continued the writing, photography, and travel that had marked their lives until Beebe's death from a heart attack in 1966, at the age of 64. Clegg committed suicide in 1979, on the day that he reached the precise age at which Beebe had died.[10]

[edit] Quotes

All I want is the best of everything and there's very little of that left. (disputed attribution)

New York... Babylon-on-the-Hudson, sinful, extravagant, full of the nervous hilarity of the doomed.

Once Beebe came upon a noted gastronome glaring with horror at a row of orchids on his table. "Throw wide the windows!" cried the gourmet. "Air the rooms! Is the bouquet of my wines to have to conflict with these stinking flowers?"

When a friend complained that if Thomas E. Dewey was elected it would set the country back 50 years, Beebe retorted "And what was wrong with 1898?"

If anything is worth doing it is worth doing in style, and on your own terms, and nobody's Goddamned elses!

[edit] References

  • A Passion for Trains: The Railroad Photography of Richard Steinheimer with text by Jeff Brouws. 
  • The Provocative Pen of Lucius Beebe, Esq.. 
  • The Lucius Beebe Reader. 
  • Reevy, Tony; Dan Cupper (Fall-Winter 2005). "Mixed Legacy". Railroad History (193): 28–39. 

[edit] Bibliography

  • Beebe, Lucius (1921). Fallen Stars. Boston: Cornhill Publishing. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1924). Corydon and Other Poems. Boston: B.J. Brimmer. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1932). The Awful Seeley Diner. New York: F.R. Publishing. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1935). Boston and the Boston Legend. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1936). The Ritz Idea: The Story of a Great Hotel. New York: privately published. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1938). High Iron, A Book of Trains. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1940). Highliners, A Railroad Album. New York: Bonanza Books. 
  • Beebe, Lucius. Trains in Transition. ISBN 0801578825. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1943). Snoot if You Must. New York: D. Appleton-Century Company. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1945). Highball, A Railroad Pageant. ISBN 0517004208. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1947). Mixed Train Daily: A Book of Short-line Railroads. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1947). The Plaza: Fortieth Anniversary, 1907-1947. New York: Hilton Hotels. 
  • Beebe, Lucius. The Stork Club Bar Book. ISBN 0974325910. 
  • Beebe, Lucius; Charles Clegg (1952). Hear the Train Blow: A Pictorial Epic of America in the Railroad Age. New York: Dutton. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1954). Comstock Commotion, The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 
  • Beebe, Lucius; Charles Clegg (1958). Narrow Gauge in the Rockies. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1959). Mansions on Rails, the Folklore of The Private Railway Car. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1961). Mr. Pullman's Elegant Palace Car, the Railway Carriage that Established a New Dimension of Luxury and Entered the National Lexicon as a Symbol of Splendor. New York: Doubleday & Company. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1962). 20th Century, The Greatest Train in the World. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1963). The Overland Limited. Berkeley, CA: Howell-North Books. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1965). Two Trains to Remember: The New England Limited, The Air Line Limited. Virginia City, NV: privately published. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1966). The Big Spenders. New York: Doubleday & Company. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1966). in Scott Newhall (ed.): The Provocative Pen of Lucius Beebe, Esq.. San Francisco: Chronicle Publishing Company. 
  • Beebe, Lucius (1967). in Charles Clegg and Duncan Emrich (eds.): The Lucius Beebe Reader. New York: Doubleday & Company. 

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ “Review of Snoot if You Must”, TIME Magazine, November 29, 1943, <http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,791195-1,00.html> 
  2. ^ The Lucius Beebe Reader, p. 7.
  3. ^ a b The Provacative Pen of Lucius Beebe, Esq., p. vii.
  4. ^ Kamp, David The United States of Arugula, New York: Broadway Books, 2006.
  5. ^ VC History. Retrieved on 2007-07-16.
  6. ^ Emrich, D. "Biographical Sketch" in The Lucius Beebe Reader, p. 391.
  7. ^ Emrich, D. "Biographical Sketch" in The Lucius Beebe Reader, p. 391.
  8. ^ "Lucius Beebe Sets a Style",Life Magazine, cover page, January 16, 1939.
  9. ^ "The Bowler" in The Lucius Beebe Reader, p. 278.
  10. ^ a b Reevy, Tony, and Dan Cupper. "Mixed Legacy." Railroad History 193 (Fall-Winter 2005), 28-39.

[edit] External links