Out and About
“Why should I travel when I’m already there? The ultimate snobbism nowadays is staying serenely at home while everyone else clamors to be insulted in France and goes to inordinate trouble to be swindled in Rome.” - Lucius Beebe
Look at The Gold Coast private passenger car. It’s elegant. Its décor evokes a different time and place. Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg purchased this car in 1948. They were successful photographers and authors of numerous books on railroad history. The car reflects their status as wealthy men with extravagant tastes. In this way, The Gold Coast tells us a story about Beebe and Clegg’s public personas, both as railroad advocates and as well-dressed tastemakers.
The Gold Coast also helps us understand another aspect of Beebe and Clegg’s life. They were partners not only in business, but also in love. At a time when their relationship was illegal, Beebe, Clegg, and their beloved dog, Mr. T-Bone Towser, lived in the train car as a family. The Gold Coast offers a window into the ways that their storied professional collaboration was animated by their personal relationship, weaving one thread in the rich tapestry of LGBTQ+ history.
Background image: The interior of The Gold Coast. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
Lucius Beebe
“I lived higher on the hog through the disaster years of 1929 to 1934 than I ever have before or since.” Lucius Beebe
Lucius Beebe was an American writer, photographer, and railroad historian. Today we would consider him an “Influencer.” Throughout the depths of the Great Depression, night clubs, hotels, and restaurants paid him to be seen at their businesses.
Beebe was born into a wealthy Massachusetts family in 1902. He attended the best prep schools and universities. Bad behavior, including poor grades, a dynamiting incident, and impersonating a professor resulted in expulsion from more than a few of these schools.
Beebe graduated from Harvard in 1927, moved to New York City, and got a job working for the New York Herald Tribune newspaper. He reported on the city’s fashionable society in his “This New York” column. The popularity of his articles propelled his celebrity.
Lucius Beebe was an opinionated man. He wrote for many publications on a variety of topics. Sometimes his social commentaries reflected the racist and classist views he held as a privileged and wealthy white man.
Background image: Lucius Beebe (left) and Charles Clegg (right), March 1953. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
Charles Clegg
“. . . [A] study of his [Clegg’s] photographs in this book ["Highball"] will reveal a devotion to the atmosphere and wonder of railroading not often encountered.” - Lucius Beebe describing Charles Clegg’s photography
Charles Clegg was an American author, photographer, and railroad historian. He was born into an upper middle-class family in Youngstown, Ohio in 1916. His parents divorced when he was a child. Charles, his mother, and his siblings moved to Rhode Island to live with his mother’s father. At the age of 21, Clegg moved to Washington, D.C. There, he worked for Garfinckel’s, an exclusive department store. This enabled him to meet and mix with Washington, D.C. high society.
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Charles Clegg volunteered for service. He worked as a radio technician in the Navy Reserves while stationed in Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. In 1943, the Navy shipped Clegg to the South Pacific. He was discharged on January 5, 1944.
More than 9,000 men and women received an undesirable discharge from the military during WWII because of their sexual orientation.
Background image: Lucius Beebe (left) and Charles Clegg (right), March 1953. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
Beebe and Clegg: Partners for Life
[Speaking of Lucius Beebe] “I think our mutual bad behavior enchanted each other and we began a friendship which lasted more than a quarter of a century.” Charles Clegg
Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg met each other in April 1941. Socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean invited the men to a party at her Washington, D.C. mansion. Clegg attended as a guest of F.B.I. director, J. Edgar Hoover.
Standing tall at 6 feet, 4 inches, Lucius Beebe was a hard man to miss. But the well-dressed charismatic figure stood out more than usual when Clegg met him. Ms. McLean owned the 45-carat Hope Diamond. Beebe thought it would be fun to borrow the famous diamond and wear it at the party. This act caused a lot of commotion. It also made the Pinkerton security detail very nervous. Clegg was impressed and laughed at the spectacle. They began what became a committed relationship soon after their meeting.
Background image: Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg at home, photographed by Ernie Mack. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
This New York
“In New York, one can live as Nature demands without setting everyone’s tongue wagging.” - Unnamed New York immigrant, 1882
Beebe and Clegg lived together in New York City for nearly a decade. Before World War II, extensive LGBTQ+ subcultures developed in big cities like New York. People who moved there could live without the types of restrictions they experienced in their small hometowns. They felt the freedom to be themselves.
LGBTQ+ communities developed in several neighborhoods. The Bowery, Greenwich Village, and Harlem all became favored places to live. These were also areas where artists, writers, and bohemian inhabitants felt at home. Even so, LGBTQ+ clubs, tea rooms, and restaurants were frequently subjected to violence and police raids.
Race and class also impacted the way LGBTQ+ people were treated. Beebe and Clegg’s wealth and privilege as white men allowed them to live relatively openly as a gay couple. Their social circle included writers, poets, restauranteurs, and others. Many of their friends were also from the LGBTQ+ community.
Background Image: New York City, c. 1932. Image courtesy of Library of Congress.
Beebe and Clegg’s Professional Partnership
“His prime love was railroading; big, powerful, smoky locomotives, and his books on this subject were magnificent.” - Charles Clegg
Before Lucius Beebe, railroad photography was limited to side views of locomotives sitting still. In 1938 he published his first railroad book, High Iron: A Book of Trains. Beebe’s photos showed locomotives in action from many angles. He popularized the wedge shot, which was a three-quarter angle action perspective.
Beebe wrote two more books before partnering with Charles Clegg. Of Beebe’s 40 books, Clegg co-wrote 17 of them. They traveled the country taking interesting photographs. Clegg’s photos looked beyond the train and included the beauty of the surrounding landscape. Their first book together was Highball: A Pageant of Trains.
In 1947, Beebe and Clegg released their most influential book, Mixed Train Daily. This book featured short line railroads. Mixed Train Daily stands out as one of their best because it examined the social history of railroading. The book had an important impact on museums and railroad preservation.
Background image: One of the many locomotive photographs taken by Beebe. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
A selection of Beebe and Clegg's extensive portfolio. Images courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
"The Gold Coast" Private Passenger Car
“Private cars are a bit new in our experience, at least as owners, but I guess they sort of run to members of my college class. . . who am I to ignore a trend?” - Lucius Beebe
The Gold Coast private railcar is a tale of two centuries. It was built in 1905 but underwent a twentieth-century makeover that embraced nineteenth-century luxury. The car emulates Lucius Beebe who idealized nineteenth-century lifestyle.
Beebe and Clegg bought a Pullman Officers Car from Georgia Northern Railroad in 1948. A private car was the only way to travel with their enormous St. Bernard dog, named Mr. T-Bone Towser.
They hired Hollywood designer, Robert T. Hanley, to redesign the car in the Victorian style they admired. The furnishings include crystal chandeliers, a non-working faux marble fireplace, and Venetian glass mirrors.
Beebe and Clegg named the car The Gold Coast. From 1948 to 1950, they retained their permanent residence in New York, but spent their summers living in The Gold Coast. When they weren’t on the move, they kept their “mansion on rails” at the railyards of the Virginia & Truckee Railroad in Carson City, Nevada.
Background image: Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg in the Virginia City with T-Bone Towser. Photographed by Julian P. Graham. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
Virginia City, Nevada
“The alcoholic proof here is so high, and the moral tone so low, that we can absolutely be inconspicuous. Let’s see if there is a house for sale.” - Lucius Beebe describing Virginia City, Nevada
Beebe and Clegg loved their summers in The Gold Coast. In 1950, they decided to permanently leave New York and move to Nevada.
New York City was changing. High taxes. Overpopulation. Bad traffic. Beebe complained that formal society didn’t exist anymore.
By 1950, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination was on the rise. The American Psychiatric Association publicly classified “homosexuality” as a mental disorder. Thousands of federal LGBTQ+ employees lost their jobs in the “Lavender Scare.” Policing of LGBTQ+ communities intensified.
New York no longer suited Beebe and Clegg. They knew it was time to leave. On April 1, 1950, Beebe resigned from the Herald Tribune.
Beebe and Clegg purchased the John Piper House in Virginia City, Nevada. They restored the house and added elaborate gardens and a swimming pool. They built a 6-car garage for Beebe’s 5 Rolls-Royces and Clegg’s Jaguar.
Background image: Virginia City hillsides. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock Images.
Goodbye "Gold Coast". Hello "Virginia City!"
“Dogs will be tolerated aboard room cars if they can be brought aboard secretly or unobtrusively by their owners.” - Lucius Beebe quoting railroad policy
The Gold Coast private car was the dream of Lucius Beebe and Charles Clegg. They enjoyed three summers in the car, but traveling in it became increasingly difficult. Since the car was made of wood, railroads did not consider it safe for travel. As a result, Beebe and Clegg decided to retire The Gold Coast. In 1954, they purchased an all-steel Pullman car named Golden Peak.
Once again, Beebe and Clegg hired Robert T. Hanley to remodel their new car. Renaming it the Virginia City, the men traveled in style with their dog, a hired wait staff, and chefs from the Southern Pacific Railroad.
In 1954, Beebe and Clegg gifted The Gold Coast to the Pacific Coast Chapter of the Railway and Locomotive Historical Society.
Background image: Server with Charles Clegg and Lucius Beebe in The Gold Coast. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
End of an Era
“I found Lucius to be an enormous, almost majestic man.” - Charles Clegg
In 1957, Beebe and Clegg bought a second home in Hillsborough, California. From 1960 until his death in 1966, Beebe published 6 books. In addition, he co-authored 5 books with Clegg and wrote a column for the San Francisco Chronicle. Beebe died of heart failure on February 4, 1966, leaving Clegg alone.
Clegg honored Beebe’s memory by completing 2 of Beebe’s unfinished books. He also compiled the Lucius Beebe Reader, with friend, Duncan Emrich. It features a selection of Beebe’s writings.
On August 25, 1979, Charles Clegg took his own life on the day he reached the same age as Lucius Beebe. Both men lived 23,069 days. The act stands as a powerful testament to the love the two shared.
When Charles Clegg died, he left most of his estate to his sister, Ann Clegg Holloway. She gifted a collection of Beebe and Clegg’s photographs and papers to the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
Background image: Interior view of The Gold Coast parlor. Image courtesy of the California State Railroad Museum Library & Archives.
A Lasting Legacy
“This will be its claim to immortality in the pattern of American life and may well be its epitaph in the graveyard of remembered things. The private car was never in its lifetime anything but what its name implied." - Lucius Beebe
On July 13, 1970, California Governor Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, met with railroad museum advocates for an elegant dinner on board The Gold Coast. They discussed the development of a future railroad museum in Old Sacramento. That museum, the California State Railroad Museum, opened its doors in May 1981.
In the decades since its 1981 debut, millions of visitors have gazed into the windows of The Gold Coast. Beebe and Clegg worked, lived, and loved in this car. As you peer inside, what do you see? Can you imagine Lucius Beebe typing his latest book at his desk in the parlor? Perhaps you see Beebe and Clegg sitting down to dinner in their formal dining room with their beloved dog waiting for handouts. The Gold Coast was their home, their private refuge. Through its windows we can see how their legacy in railroading was shaped by their personal relationship. The Gold Coast gives us a rare view into twentieth-century LGBTQ+ history.
Background Image: The Gold Coast today at the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento, California. Image courtesy of California State Railroad Museum Exhibits Team.
The Interior of "The Gold Coast" Today!
Want to Learn More? Dive into LGBTQ+ history with these resources!
"LGBTQ+ in World War II" - National World War II Museum
Learn about the experiences of LGBTQ+ individuals during World War II in this series of articles from the National World War II Museum in New Orleans, Louisiana.
"LGBTQ+ Stories from the World War II Home Front" - National Parks Service
In this article, learn how the National Parks Service (NPS) has broadened its interpretation to include the overlooked stories of the LGBTQ+ community during World War II.
LGBTQ America: A Theme Study of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer History - National Parks Service
Led by the National Parks Service (NPS), this comprehensive theme study highlights major themes and experiences within the LGBTQ+ community. It heavily focuses on the preservation and interpretation of LGBTQ+ spaces and stories.
Library of Congress Guide to LGBTQ+ Studies
This guide provides a glimpse into the LGBTQ collections held by the Library of Congress. It also provides an excellent list of resources for research.
New York City LGBTQ+ City Context Statement - National Park Service and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation
This context guide provides an overview of major themes and events within New York City's rich LGBTQ+ history.
“These People Are Frightened to Death” Congressional Investigations and the Lavender Scare - National Archives
In the years following World War II, the Lavender Scare targeted LGBTQ+ government employees and led to an increase in LGBTQ+ discrimination nationwide. Explore a variety of primary sources in the National Archives Collections.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
If someone you know is in crisis call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988. The Lifeline provides 24-hour, confidential support to anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress.