Ernest Beyl — S.F. writer, publicist, man-about-town
Ernest Beyl, an oldstyle North Beach manabout-town and author, died of an apparent heart attack last Thursday, one day after his 90th birthday and the publication of his new book.
Beyl was the guest of honor at a big party at Original Joe’s, his favorite San Francisco restaurant, the day before his death and seemed in excellent spirits and health as nearly a hundred of his friends praised his work, his personality and his ability to represent the life and times of his North Beach neighborhood.
“He died in the glow of a glorious book launch and birthday celebration,” said John Briscoe, an attorney and old friend. “He surely felt the town’s love for him that night.”
Beyl was a former Marine turned newspaper reporter, turned public relations executive, freelance writer and world traveler. He had just published “Stops Along the Royal Road,” a memoir of 70 years’ worth of travel adventures. It was his third book, and Beyl had planned a fourth.
“I’m an optimistic guy,” he told Geri Koeppel on the local news website Hoodline in an interview posted a few days before he died.
Beyl’s career was varied, to say the least. He had been a press agent for movie stars, drank with Ernest Hemingway, climbed mountains, watched bullfights and hung out with jazz greats, but his favorite pastime was telling stories. One of his favorites was how, after an afternoon at a Puerto Vallarta bistro, he walked Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor home to their villa just up the hill. When it came time to say good night, Taylor — “the most beautiful woman in the world,” Beyl called her — gave him two kisses. Beyl loved this story and told it often.
“In a saloon in San Francisco’s North Beach or in Timbuktu, Ernie Beyl is the person you want to find on the barstool next to you,” wrote Fred Lyon, the noted San Francisco photographer. Lyon was at Beyl’s party last week and must have sensed something. “This is great,” Lyon said at the party, “but we are all passing away.”
Ernest Beyl was born in Fresno on April 11, 1928. His father, an immigrant from the Alsatian region of France, was a chef, and he moved the family from Fresno to San Francisco when his son was less than a year old. The Beyls later settled in Oakland, where Ernest went to high school. In 1947, when he was 19, he joined the Marine Corps, hoping to see the world. He served in China and Japan, and developed a lifelong interest in Asia.
After his discharge, he attended San Jose State College, as it was called at the time, and Stanford University. The day after his graduation from Stanford, he went to work for The Chronicle as a copyboy. Promoted to reporter after six months, he wrote about dogs, fires, civic meetings and crimes — the usual fare for a junior reporter. “Golden years for me,” he said later.
He then went to work for Collier’s magazine and, when that closed, signed on as a Hollywood press agent. He represented movie stars.
He later worked for Cathay Pacific Airways in Hong Kong, for the P&O cruise line, and for various posh Asian hotels. He opened his own business in San Francisco and represented clients as diverse as the Monterey Jazz Festival and Trader Vic’s restaurant.
As Beyl got older, he never really retired. Instead, he became a regular at North Beach restaurants and walked everywhere.
“The champion flaneur of North Beach,” the writer Herb Gold called him. Beyl began a column in the Marina Times newspaper and wrote books. He dined out nearly every day, and awarded “Ernestos” to restaurants he liked.
He retained a sense that the best was yet to come.
“I hope you agree I’m getting younger all the time,” he wrote in his last Marina Times column.
Beyl is survived by his wife, Joan Lawson Beyl, of San Francisco; a son, Jeff Beyl of Seattle; and a daughter, Laurel Beyl of San Francisco; six grandchildren; and four greatgrandchildren.
A memorial is being planned.
Carl Nolte is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cnolte@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @carlnoltesf