Born in Vienna, son of Joseph, concert violinist and draughtsman. After his graduation from the University of Vienna, Beer was a freelance writer in Vienna and Berlin. He wrote plays and libretti to operettas, which were staged in those two German-speaking Capitals.
Among his works: ‘Der Hampelman’ (1923); ‘Sand’ (1932) and ‘Die Dame mit dem Regenbogen’ (1933.)
In 1939, after Austria was annexed to Nazi Germany (March 1938), Beer was compelled to leave. He emigrated to the U.S.A. via Netherlands and the U.K. In 1942 he became founder and president of the ‘American League of Authors and Composers from Austria.’
In 1946 Beer joined the Democratic Party and three times he was elected as a member of the County Committee of the 15th Assembly District, New York. Besides his political activity he continued to write novels, plays and film scripts. The libretto he wrote have been set to music by G. Weinberger, Jean Gilbert, E. Kuenneke, Oscar Strauss, Robert Stolz, E. Gysler and others.