Eric "Big Daddy" Nord (1919–1989) was a Beat Generation coffeehouse and nightclub owner, poet, actor, and hipster. Newspaper columnist Herb Caen called him the "King of the Beatniks." Corpulent, standing 6 feet 7 inches tall, Nord was the face of the Beat generation to San Francisco and Los Angeles newspaper readers in the late 1950s and the founder of the hungry i nightclub.
Eric "Big Daddy" Nord and Julie Meredith at a Police Commission entertainment license hearing for the Gas House, 1959
The Hungry I was a nightclub in San Francisco, California, originally located in the North Beach neighborhood. It played a major role in the history of stand-up comedy in the United States. It was launched by Eric "Big Daddy" Nord, who sold it to Enrico Banducci in 1951. The club moved to Ghirardelli Square in 1967 and operated mostly as a rock music venue until it closed in 1970.
Eric Nord, 1959, Los Angeles
The then-current strip club at 546 Broadway (2017)