Grave for The Great Lafayette

photo by Lucy Clement, used with permission

In Piershill Cemetery in Edinburgh Scotland, there is an unusual grave. Buried here is a man and his dog. It's safe to say that it's the only animal buried in this particular cemetery. Sigmund Neuberger, who was known professionally as The Great Lafayette purchased the plot to bury his dog, Beauty. The dog had been a gift from escape artist Harry Houdini. I'm sure even Houdini had no idea just how attached Lafayette would become to his dog. Beauty became Lafayette's best friend and traveling companion. In his home in London, the dog had her own bedroom and bathroom, right next to Lafayette's.

Jesse Lasky's Grave

Though not a magician in the traditional sense, Jesse Lasky did have ties to the magic world. He performed for a time in Leon Herrmann's show as part of a Quick Change Act and also played the clarinet. Later he managed Herrmann. Then in 1918 and 1919 he produced two of Houdini's movies, The Grim Game and Terror Island.

Lasky though is best known as one of the founders of Paramount Pictures. He was one of the early Movie Moguls.

He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood Los Angeles County California, USA
Plot: Abbey of the Psalms, Sanctuary of Light, corridor G-3, crypt 2196

Please check out my other blog about Lasky's connection to the World of Magic.
http://deancarnegie.blogspot.com/2011/03/jesse-laskys-magic.html

Harry Kellar's Final Resting Place

photo used with permission of Mike Caveney

Harry Kellar had been suffering from pneumonia and died on May 10th, 1922. He was known as the Dean of Magicians, an official title he received from the Society of American Magicians. Prior to that he was the first world famous American born magician in the country. When he retired in 1908, he sold his show to Howard Thurston where the 'mantle of magic' was passed from Kellar to Thurston.