Residents of New York City in the Victorian era believed that the afternoon light
of
the 'golden hour' gave house pets the ability to fly. It was this curious but
widespread
belief that actually led to the invention of the leash – not to keep the
family
pooch from running away, but to keep it from flying off. This strange mania traces
back
to the appearance in Manhattan of a Swedish magician named Acke Ansgar,
known
on stage as The Magnificent Swede. Ansgar made the levitation of dogs
and cats
a central part of his act, always timing his 'Aeroborne Animal Show' to
coincide
with the picturesque light of later afternoon. Thousands of New Yorkers
who saw
the floating dogs when Ansgar performed in Central Park were unaware
that they
were part of a magic act, and the superstition was quickly born. Few
people
now believe that the family cat will float up to the observation deck of
the Empire
State Building at sunset if left unattened; but the leash remains as
popular as
ever – if not quite for the reasons its inventors first envisioned.
