February 25, 1871

Harry Houdini had a good friend, a fellow magician, named Sigmund Neuburger, (probably, February 25, 1871 to May 9, 1911) but known to all as the Great Lafayette. Houdini was connected with getting this friend a dog, who would be named 'Beauty.' 

The story is told this way by another:

....the dog accompanied ...[Lafayette] everywhere, onstage and off. Beauty was given her own hotel room while she toured with the magician, and as they traveled the British Isles by train, she luxuriated in a separate compartment with a small sofa, and a bed with velvet cushions. Lafayette routinely tacked a sign on the door of his suite of rooms which read, "You may drink my wine; you may eat my food; but you must respect my dog." He spoiled the dog completely, giving her a series of diamond-studded collars, and feeding her steak dinners ordered from the room service menu. This last may have proved her undoing. On April 30th, 1911, just before the opening of a two-week engagement at Edinburgh's Empire Palace Theatre, Beauty died of an apoplexy brought on by what some speculate was overfeeding.

Lafayette was distraught at the death of his best friend ..... He insisted that Beauty be buried in Edinburgh's Piershill Cemetery, previously a final resting place reserved for humans. The burial was only permitted when Lafayette purchased the plot for himself at a premium price, and signed a contract agreeing that upon his death he would be interred alongside the canine. It was said that Lafayette remarked that now that Beauty was dead, "I fear I shan't live much longer." If true, it proved to be an uncannily accurate premonition. Less than two weeks later the magician was dead...

On the evening of May 9, 1911, the Great Lafayette was on stage performing his grand finale "The Lion's Bride," an extraordinarily elaborate illusion including a real lion, a horse, a "midget," a dancing girl, and several actors in supporting roles. In the midst of the finale, a faulty stage light set the scenery ablaze. The fire spread rapidly across the stage, but the audience members remained seated, believing it was all part of the act. Only when a stage hand lowered the fire safety curtain did the audience grasp that the fire was indeed real, and potentially deadly. The orchestra conductor, in a moment of brilliance, launched his musicians into an impromptu rendition of God Save the King. This immediately caused the audience members to stand, and file quickly from the theatre to safety.

Not so the people and animals behind the curtain.