Who is
Lucius Beebe ?
That's an excellent question. And it's one we here at the
Lucius Beebe Fan Club have a hard time answering in a sentence or two!
The thing is, Lucius Beebe was known for many different things. To borrow Beebe's own words, he "was no damned specialist" and considered himself as a "Renaissance Man".
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So to call him a railroad historian & author, as he's perhaps best remembered, would be leaving out his contributions to American Old West history, fashion, gourmet food & drink, New York City's Cafe Society, journalism, the gay community, luxury automobiles and poetry.
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We hope that by exploring this website and fan club that you'll become better acquainted with Mr. Beebe and the multi-faceted and fascinating life he led.
"I admire most of all the Renaissance Man and if it can be said at all without pretensiousness like to think of myself as one, at least in small measure.
Not a Michelangelo, mark you, but perhaps a poor man's Cellini or a road company Cosmo d'Medici.
The Medieval Man and the Renaissance Man did a number of things, many of them well, a few beautifully.
He was no damned specialist."
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–Lucius Beebe, circa 1960 in a letter to
Herb Caen, the legendary San Francisco columnist
He was a Writer
Writing in some form or fashion seems to be a common thread of Beebe's diverse interests.
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He was a journalist for the New York Herald Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, Playboy, Esquire, Gourmet, Holiday, the Territorial Enterprise, Railroad Magazine and more.
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He wrote over 30 books. Many of his books were co-written with Charles Clegg, his partner in work and life.
Most of the books he published were about railroad history but he also wrote about fine dining and high society in the 1940s era, the history of Boston and histories of Virginia City, Nevada.
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In his collegiate years, he studied poetry at Yale and Harvard. Edward Arlington Robinson served as a mentor to the aspiring poet.
He was a Historian
Among railfans, Beebe and Clegg are names that need no introduction. Their contributions to the world of railroading remained revered by many a train enthusiast.
He also chronicled the history of fine dining in America, such as recording what's thought to be the first published recipe for the Bloody Mary in his Stork Club Bar Book. Several seminal restaurants of the day proudly dedicated a page in their menu to Beebe's written history of their establishment.
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He cherished and championed the history of Virginia City, the old mining Nevada boomtown and his adopted home. His books and revitalization of the town's Territorial Enterprise newspaper––where Mark Twain got his start writing––put the city back on the minds of a new generation in the 1950s and led the way for the town's tourism revival.
Though Beebe's relationship with facts and figures can be described as casual at best by serious scholars, Beebe's
P.T. Barnum--like gift for putting on a good show and promotion did something for history that academia often falls short of: he made history fun, interesting and approachable to the general public.
CBS Press Photo
From The Best of Everything Archives
He was a Dandy
In the 1930s and 1940s the words "Lucius Beebe" was more than the name of a conspicuous newspaper man. It was used as a euphemism for an exceptionally well-dressed man.
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Beebe wore clothes that were considered old fashioned in the 1930s and 1940s. He typically passed on the double-breasted suits and fedoras that were popular at the time in favor of Edwardian era cutaway coats, opera capes and top hats.
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It's remembered that he influenced the fashion stylings of a generation of Yale men, who took to wearing plus four knickers and other vintage menswear styles after Beebe began wearing them to school in the early 1920s.
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He was voted the Best Dressed Man in America several years over in the 1930s and immortalized on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1939 for his sartorial splendor.
He was a Cuisine Connoisseur
In an era that had yet to fully appreciate American cuisine, Lucius Beebe was busy championing the finest dining his country had to offer.
From his pulpits in the pages of Gourmet magazine and the New York Herald Tribune, and later his own Territorial Enterprise newspaper, Beebe preached the good word of good eating in America.
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Beebe worked with culinary luminaries like James Beard, Henri Soulé, the 21 Club, the Palace Hotel and Helen Evans Brown.
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He was a member of the elite Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin, a "baccanalian fraternitiy of burgundy wine connoisseurs."
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And, it's been said in a believable jest that he was known to have brushed his teeth with chablis.
Lucius Beebe's Associations
Beebe took pride in rubbing elbows with a unique collection of nabobs, artists and epicureans. Here are just some of the notable people that could have been found in Beebe's Rolodex.
Cecil B. DeMille
Hollywood Director
DeMille gave Beebe his first "close-up" of Hollywood when he invited Beebe to use his railroad history expertise and consult on the set of "Union Pacific" in 1938.
Mark Twain
Author & Humorist
Beebe reiginited and carried the torch of Mark Twain when he restarted the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in 1952. It's "Where Mark Twain Got His Start" and Beebe did much to tout that fact.
Herb Caen
Columnist & Reporter
Herb was known as "Mr. San Francisco" to a generation of Americans. The beloved columnist was a friend of Beebe's for over three decades. The pair would get into high-proof hijinks together ranging from getting tattoos in the Wharf to trashing Hearst Castle--from a blimp.
Tallulah Bankhead
Actress
Bankhead was a senational actress in of her day and was the real-life inspiration for Cruella De Vil.
"Tallu" and Beebe were birds of a feather and were seen "flocking together" many times in the nightclub scene of New York City
in the '30s & '40s.
They shared a talent for finding the sensational and indulgent aspects of nearly any situation.
Evelyn Walsh McLean
Heiress & Socialite
Evie McLean is known for being the last private owner of the Hope Diamond. In her day she was known for her deluxe dinner parties where "lavish" is too pedestrian an adjective to describe. Evie and Lucius were close friends and she'd even let Lucius wear her Hope Diamond on occasion.
Jerome Zerbe
Photographer
Zerbe's credited with inventing the candid camera style of celebrity photography, later called paparazzi. "Jerry" as he was known to his famous friends took raw and stylish pictures of anybody who was anybody in the
1930s-1960s.
Cole Porter
Songwriter
Cole Porter, the iconic lyricist of the Jazz Age who wrote classics like "It's De-Lovely", ran in the same circles as Beebe. So naturally Porter couldn't help but including Beebe in the lyrics of his songs.
Helen Evans Brown
Chef & Author
"The Godmother of California Cuisine". Many chefs today revere James Beard. James Beard revered Helen Evans Brown. Beebe hired Brown to write the regular cooking column for his newspaper the Territorial Enterprise.