LAFAYETTE (Sigmund Neuberger, 1871 – 1911). The Great Lafayette / “Doctor Kremser.” Belfast: David Allen & Sons Ltd., ca. 1909. Color lithograph half-sheet poster depicting the magician disguised as the vivisectionist Doctor Kremser, one of the many characters portrayed in the quick-change portion of his stage spectacle. 30 ¼ x 18 ¾”. Linen backed. Repaired tears with inpainting to edges of image and along folds; touched-up along folds; a few small replaced losses. B+/B. Dawes, The Great Illusionists, p. 102 and dust-jacket (rear). Believed to be the unique example of this poster.
According to Lafayette’s own publicity material, the “one-act drama” in his show featuring the subject of his poster was a sinister tableaux incorporating not only incredible magical feats of appearance, disappearance, and “vivisection,” but also incorporated a theme so central to his life, his dog.
“Dr. Kremser, the great hypnotic surgeon and vivisectionist, is faced with a terrible problem. His only daughter is on the point of death, suffering from a mysterious disease, the treatment of which the doctor is not acquainted with. He realizes that the only means of discovering the effect of a new operation is to ‘try it on the dog’.
“It is night when he comes to the decision, and the only dog he can obtain is his own faithful hound. He shudders at the idea of practicing on his own dear canine companion, but it is a question between his own flesh and blood and that of a dog. He decides against the dog. “The doctor proceeds to prepare the anesthetic, and calls upon a [black] servant to get the animal into position for the operation. The [boy] pleads for the dog, but is promptly hypnotized by the doctor and under this influence proceeds to arrange the vivisection table.
“The doctor is proceeding with the preparation of the anesthetic, when suddenly the chemicals overpower him and he falls to the ground. Then does he pass through a sequence of awful tortures. One large creature, with the head of a dog and the body of a human being, approaches him. A vision of his own beautiful dog comes before him, and then alongside appears his daughter, pleading for the life of the dog. He rises to get to the vision, but it disappears, and the dog-headed human being approaches him again, this time armed with a knife. The doctor is decapitated, and his fright in the process is pitiable. No sooner has the head of the doctor been taken off and hurled into the blazing pit than a door opens, and in walks his daughter in her nightdress. She rushes to his aid and raises him. He looks wonderingly at her and strokes her hair lovingly. He calls, and the dog appears, delighted to be befriended by her master. The curtain falls as the doctor takes his knife, contemplates it for a moment, and then hurls it through a window.”