Anyone know who Lucius Beebe was? My uncle Kent mentioned him so I looked him up. He was considered the best-dressed man back in the 30’s-40’s. He was a sassy dapper dan, a top food and culture writer, with several long-lasting columns spanning decades in newspapers and magazines like Gourmet.
As a young newsreporter he would cover fires in formal attire. He coined the term “cafe society,” saying only 500 people worldwide qualified, and that they had to have elan and panache and be adventurous and interesting. He was a fancy lad who did Europe and was kicked out of both Harvard and Yale before deciding the Wild West was for him. He lived awhile in San Francisco then went to Nevada and bought a newspaper with his personal and professional partner, Charles Clegg. He was a bonafide bon vivant who was unabashedly “out” before it was legal to be so. They enjoyed life in the Wild West in the 1950’s in part I have heard because people were more tolerant there.
So Lucius was a foodie, a fancy lad, and outrageously out before any of these were the hip things they are today.
He was also a railroad expert and photographer, developing the coffee table photo train book genre, and owning an ornate Pullman car that they traveled the country in.
Now, why would a make-do outdoorsman relate to Luscious Lucius? Well, maybe both the top of the ladder and the bottom are more interested in style than strain. : ) It might be that the middle is where the focus is on career and overtime with simplistic R&R flipflopping in the off-hours. Lord, love ’em, someone has to do it. But if you’re not going anywhere — either because you’re already on top or because change is not in the picture — then you can go for “elan and panache” (as long as you have the basics covered). I recall reading that Southern/Frontier po’ folk culture back in the benighted days was built around just enough work not to starve (and a roof that was as dry as any man’s when it wasn’t raining) then the rest of the time it was all about horses, dogs, pals, guns, long trips, booze, stories, music and dance. Folk culture, in other words. …And in this sense, there are likely more than 500 folks living large on a shoestring in town or in the sticks, worldwide. Millions? All it takes is imagination and the effort to be creative, to make do, to make happen. It does take a sizable amount of effort to avoid stagnation, and it takes mutual encouragement. Such players may not count to the Monaco set but they don’t mind. They know the score. Life goes to the bold.
https://www.bookpatrol.net/2010/01/lucious-lucius-beebe-bon-vivant-book.html
