Walking down Vine Street one morning, Cincinnati Police Chief Phillip P. Deitsch erupted in rage. Stretched across the façade of Heck and Avery’s New Museum was a painted canvas banner depicting a policeman kissing and hugging an alluring young lady. Not just any policeman, but Grant Thomas himself—the very policeman Colonel Deitsch had just personally dismissed from the Cincinnati police force for indulging in exactly that unseemly behavior. The Chief fairly sprinted back to his office at City Hall intent on shredding the humiliating display.
What was former Officer Thomas, fired in disgrace, doing at the Dime Museum anyway? That institution was a disreputable emporium of bizarre curiosities and freakshow entertainments. A promotional squib in the Cincinnati Enquirer [April 12, 1896] provides the gist:
“A few weeks ago Mr. Thomas was only an ordinary policeman. Quite a great deal of credit was attached to this, because he was not a New York or Philadelphia policeman, but one of Cincinnati’s finest. Mr. Thomas was always considered one of the most efficient officers, but he was burdened by a deep sense of his duties. He was always afraid that he would leave something undone. He labored under the impression that the Mayor, Chief of Police and the Board of Police Commissioners would unitedly condemn him, if he did not attempt to kiss every pretty woman on his beat. This is just what got him into trouble. While Mr. Thomas is a man of magnificent presence and handsome features, yet all his victims did not seem to appreciate the honor bestowed and some of them kicked. The matter came to the attention of the Police Commissioners, and they released him from his duties. Mr. Thomas now can devote his entire time to osculatory pursuits, if he so desires. He has not decided yet what he intends to do, but knowing that thousands of people want to see him inasmuch as he has won the sobriquet of ‘The Kissing Copper,’ he will exhibit himself at the museum this week.”…