148 / 148
Lucius Beebe
and
Sherman Billingsley
in
an editorial trance over an assortment of
vitamins in the Cub Room of the Stork–
that sanctum sanctorum where most of the
contents of this book were conceived,
concocted and consumed.
Lucius Beebe, originator of the phrase
"saloon society", was first introduced to
the Stork Club back in 1930 in the brave
old East 58th Street days by Heywood
Broun. Since that time he has several times
left the premises to go to the barber or col·
lect his laundry, but these occasions have
been infrequent.
In Social Circle, Georgia, and Poca–
tello, Idaho, where NewYork glamour is
an almost tangible commodity, it is an im·
mutable item of the American credo that
Lucius Beebe sleeps in an opera hat and
brushes his teeth every morning in a light
Moselle. For the record he is a member of
the
Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin,
a Burgundian order of knighthood dating
back to the 12th Century and into the wine–
worshipping mysteries of which only a
hand£ul of Americans have ever bee n
inducted.
Of him Stanley Walker has written:
"Mr. Beebe will drink a double bottle of
champagne without batting an eye when–
ever the mood comes over him, and, from
my personal conviction, the mood comes
over him agreeably and