It was a beautiful day today, almost Spring-like; what better way to spend it than in search of the final resting place of a long-dead celebrity who died in tragic circumstances? Sigmund Neuberger is just the fella. Or rather:
Cutting a long story short-ish, Sigmund/The Great Lafayette was born in Hamburg in 1871, moved to the States with his parents at 19, became a stage magician, befriended Harry Houdini when they were both up-and-coming performers, and by the early twentieth century was living in London as the highest paid magician anywhere, ever. Outside of magician type circles, he’s possibly only remembered at all in Edinburgh, as his was the act on stage when the Empire Palace Theatre was destroyed by fire in 1911.
A few days before the fire, The Great Lafayette’s dog, Beauty, died. To say he loved the dog would be to say the least. After a bit of negotiation, Beauty was buried in Piershill Cemetery, just a wee bit to the east of Meadowbank. This isn’t all that unusual, as the cemetery was run by one of the many commercial cemetery companies of that era, so had very little bother with religious rules. It still is run by the Edinburgh Eastern Cemetery Company, it seems; they even have a wee website, which points out that there is a pet cemetery in the grounds (no more internments as it’s full). The deal was that The Great Lafayette would himself be buried there when he himself died.
There wasn’t long between them; the theatre burned four days later, set off by an accident during the finale of his elaborate stage performance. It could have been a lot worse, for the three thousand strong audience got away intact; eleven died, including members of the orchestra, backstage hands, and several of the Great Lafayette’s entourage. Not least a diminutive fifteen-year-old girl in a mechanical teddy bear costume.
His remains were sent to Glasgow for cremation; only a few days later did they discover that this was his body double. The real Lafayette was beneath the stage, identified by his jewelled rings. He was finally cremated. (Or re-cremated.) Estimates would have it that from 100,000 to 250,000 people lined the route of the funeral cortege to Piershill, where his ashes were laid to rest between the paws of his beloved Beauty:
The Empire Palace Theatre, meanwhile, was rebuilt as the Empire Theatre and went on to host acts ranging from Harry bloody Lauder to Laurel and Hardy; after a period in limbo as a bingo hall from the 1960s, and a radical change of exterior in the 1990s, it is now the Festival Theatre, just south of the South Bridge:
Here's a link to a couple of Scottish Screen Archive-hosted film clips from 1911 of the aftermath of the fire, and a wee bit of the funeral:
<Click 1><Click 2>There's lots more on the Interwebs of course. Incidentally, Piershill also has a very large Jewish contingent. I know I'm at risk of pretty much saying the place contains magicians, animals and Jews, but it was somehow touching to see a lot of gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions. I'm not sure why.
Here's to The Great Lafayette. *Swig*
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2012 11:02 pm
