In today’s world of no-fly lists and full-body scans, it’s doubtful magician Harry Houdini would have been free to roam the world. At least not based on the details he include on his 1919 passport application.
First, he’s traveling under an assumed name. Second, his birthplace is just plain wrong. And third, he made the odd request to take a “small-sized” woman with him. It’s all very strange, but apparently it’s just what Houdini needed to embark on his 1920 European tour.
How did he get out of the country? Turns out the details included on Houdini’s passport application, which can be found on Ancestry, explained almost everything away.
The assumed name is the result of a legal name change as indicated by a handwritten note on the top corner of Houdini’s passport application. Ehrich Weiss became Harry Houdini in the City Court of New York City in 1913.
As for the birthplace, that’s a far niftier trick. Houdini claimed he was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, in this and several other historical records, although Ehrich Weiss was on the passenger list of the ‘Fresia,’ arriving in New York on July 3, 1878 with his mother and siblings — with their birthplace listed as Hungary. An included affidavit by someone who knew Houdini well affirms his birth was in Appleton. But an attached photo clearly shows Houdini and his wife, Bess. Go figure.
Now, about that small woman, she was actually a relative, too. As Harry Houdini prepared to travel to Europe, he wanted to make sure that Bess’s cousin, Miss Karchere, also received her passport. So he wrote a letter to the Secretary of State pleading his case (FYI, the letter is attached to the passport application):
And without the benefit of metal detectors and likely with his shoes still on, Houdini made it to his boat (maybe the authorities figured it would do no good to lock him up anyway). So while it’s no surprise that old passport records are great for revealing details about your family, who knew you could learn a magician’s secrets from them, too?
You’ll find more than just famous folks in historical records. Search for your family’s own mysterious past in passport records on Ancestry.