Guess I should have said it was not the EE I was curious about. I can understand why that one is sized as such. It is more the lathes up through 16" swing and even larger, and the overwhelmining most common bed length that I see is 30". jlegge's answer makes a lot of sense to me. I am currently experiencing a severe concrete shortage myself and totally understand about letting better things go due to lack of real estate. Something like a Series 61 with a 40" bed would be awesome. I will keep looking at old lathes and in a couple of years when I have some money saved I will try to snag one.
Speaking of South Bends an Monarchs (or as Stevie Wonder said "Ebony and Ivory"), I bought an old 13x54 SB from a PM member and he showed me his Monarch. It is a 20 1/2x72, built in 1946, and as cherry as is possible in 2008. Man, that lathe was incredible! It required some serious real estate, but if you have the floor space, that thing would be a wonderful addition to most shops.
I assumed the SB comment was a joke, as an SB sitting next to a Monarch is a joke (a joke which I have in my own shop BTW). They both serve different needs and both are very good at what they do, but a South Bend going head to head with a Monarch? It would be like disabled 140# me going up against Mike Tyson in a boxing ring. I can do a lot of things he can't do, but the results of me slugging it out with him are a foregone conclusion!