In true movie-star fashion, Beauty, a police dog and half-brother of canine star Rin Tin Tin, came to the rescue of several Angora kittens when a pet shop at 735 Lexington Avenue caught fire on November 30, 1926.
The fire in the pet shop, owned by former lion tamer Captain Joseph Hamlisch, was first discovered by a young girl who noticed smoke coming from the basement windows. She notified Policeman Esposito at Lexington Avenue and 59th Street, who sent in a general fire alarm and ran toward the shop.
At the time of the fire, Frank Semon, a salesman in the pet shop, was in the store with about 300 canaries, numerous fish, and about 350 various animals, including dogs, cats, monkeys, and ferrets. When Esposito ran into the shop, he found Semon in the rear of the store, dazed and searching for the source of the fire. Esposito brought the salesman outside to the street.
As Semon waited on the sidewalk for the fire department to arrive, Beauty came running out of the building and leaped onto him. The dog barked and tugged at Semon’s jacket to get his attention. When Semon looked into the window, he saw five Angora kittens throwing themselves against the glass in attempts to escape the smoke-filled store.
Semon ran into the store and rescued the kittens in the shop window. When he brought them outside, a crowd of people cheered.
On a second trip into the store, Semon carried out a monkey named Jimmy, who thanked his rescuer by biting him. Although exhausted and nearly overcome by the smoke, Semon made three more trips, saving ten cats, four ferrets, a parrot, five puppies, 15 canaries, and six dogs, including a mother Pekinese dog. Unable to make any more trips, he collapsed on the sidewalk from smoke and exhaustion.
Fourteen firemen were overcome by smoke in the fire, which reportedly started in a rubbish heap in the basement. Sadly, most of the pet shop animals perished, including 300 canaries, four parrots, three monkeys, four ferrets, six dogs, and four Angora cats. All of the fish survived.
Captain Joseph Hamlisch
Born in Vienna in 1870, Captain Hamlisch, the owner of the pet shop on Lexington Avenue, called himself a trainer of wild animals. After serving in the Austrian Navy and Army, he became a lion tamer, working primarily with lions at venues such as the Hippodrome at Luna Park. (He also sold lions at his pet shop–in 1922, he ran an ad for two performing lions that he was selling from his shop for $1500).
Hamlisch was also an expert at hunting — his claim to fame was serving as a hunting partner of President Theodore Roosevelt in Africa (he had a medal that was presented to him by the president to prove it) and explorer Carl Akeley in the Belgian Congo.
Following a long illness, the captain died in his home at 509 East 77th Street in 1943 at the age of 73. He reportedly continued running his pet shop and an animal ambulance service until he took ill.
