Select Secrets: Rare & Important Magicana

Lafayette (Sigmund Neuberger). Lafayette Empire Theatre Broadside. Edinburgh: Ewen & Co., Printers, 1911. Two-color broadside on green stock, advertising Lafayette’s performances for the week of May 1, 1911 – just days before his life would be claimed by a fatal fire that destroyed the Empire Theatre. Descriptive text surrounding a large text medallion advertising Lafayette’s show, with a list of supporting variety artists below. 25 x 13”. Splitting at old folds, tiny chips and short closed tears to perimeter; laid down. Old rubber stamp to recto. One of but a handful of posters from Lafayatte’s final and fateful performances known to have survived. A true rarity. Lafayette was among the highest-paid variety artists of his generation. His act combined magic tricks with quick change routines and impersonations of famous figures of the era. On May 9, 1911 during his performance of his Lion’s Bride illusion at the Empire Theatre Edinburgh, a lantern fell to the stage and ignited a blaze that would consume the structure along with several of the animals and people performing on its stage. Lafayette managed to survive the blaze, but when he rushed back into the building to save his horse, he was killed. A body presumed to be the illusionist was discovered and sent to Glasgow for cremation but was later determined to be Lafayette’s double. Once Lafayette’s body was found, and after a funeral procession through the streets of the city attended by a reported 250,000 mourners, his ashes were interred in an urn in the same tiny coffin as his beloved dog, Beauty, who had died a few days prior to the fire. Said to be Lafayette’s constant companion and perhaps his one true friend, Beauty was gifted to him by Harry Houdini. A plaque beside the front door of Lafayette’s New York Greystone read, “The more I see of man, the more I love my dog.”