Rural cemeteries in Great Britain and the United States were conceptually linked by shared ideas about life and death. But they were also connected by artistic and architectural style, and by people.

One such person is the stage-spectacle producer, Imre Kirafly. Imre and his brother, Bolossy, emigrated from Hungary to New York City in 1869. The entire family were involved in dance and the brothers started producing shows soon after their arrival. They specialized in stage-spectacles, which were elaborate theatrical entertainments produced on a huge scale for thousands of audience members. These extravagant spectacles included dancers, actors, acrobats, animals (if appropriate),  elaborate stage sets and a full orchestra. One of Imre’s most remarkable productions was Nero, or the Destruction of Rome,which was staged in 1888 in an elaborate outdoor theater on Staten Island. The production was met with critical success. P. T. Barnum liked it so much that he asked Imre to abridge the production and join him on tour in London with it. It became part of Barnum and Bailey’s Greatest Show on Earthand reached thousands in New York and London.

So it may not come as a surprise to know that after his death in 1919, Imre Kirafly was memorialized in both New York City and London nor that these monuments both reference the classical world. Although Imre died in England, he was actually buried in Green-Wood in a monumental classical-style mausoleum with a grand staircase that is labeled for all to see. But he is also celebrated at Kensal Green in another classical-style mausoleum built in his memory by his English wife, Marie, for their children and grandchildren. The mausoleum was built in a prime spot along the main drive up to the Anglican Chapel and is one of the largest and most ‘accurate’ classical monuments in the cemetery, ensuring that Imre remained on show even after death

The Kiralfys are not the only showmen to have chosen splashy classical tombs at Kensal Green – on the opposite side of the drive stands an older, rather more unusual (and at the time much derided) tomb, combining Greek and Egyptian features. It was built by the circus rider and producer of horse-based spectacles, Andrew Ducrow, on the occasion of his wife’s death. He joined her there after his own death in 1842.

The presence of these showmen in Green-Wood and Kensal Green reminds us of the opportunities for display offered by the suburban cemeteries and their choice of tombs that the classical world was not simply the preserve of a classically-educated social elite.

Additional reading:

To learn more about the mausoleum at Green-Wood, read Jeff Richman’s essay.

To learn more about Kiralfy and Stage Spectacles that focused on ancient themes, see the sources below:

Entry for the Kirafly Brothers on Wikipedia

Malamud, Margaret. “The Imperial Metropolis: Ancient Rome in Turn-of-the-Century New York.” Arion7, no. 3 (Winter 2000): 64–108.

Malamud, Margaret. Ancient Rome and Modern America. Malden, MA; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.

Malamud, Margaret. “The Imperial Metropolis.” In Classical New York, edited by Elizabeth Macaulay-Lewis and Matthew M. McGowan, 38–62. New York: Fordham University Press, 2018.