{"id":64,"date":"2016-06-15T09:42:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-15T09:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/?p=64"},"modified":"2016-06-30T08:18:16","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T08:18:16","slug":"harry-houdini-commencement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/en\/harry-houdini\/harry-houdini-commencement\/","title":{"rendered":"Harry Houdini – Commencement"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following article appeared in the June 12, 1926, issue of the Cleveland Plain Dealer:<\/em><\/p>\n

\"cleveland\"<\/p>\n

The Editor answers that Houdini was born in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1874. Readers sat back thinking that they had the full truth: the legendary artist, one of the most famous people in the world, was born \u2013 where else? \u2013 the United States!<\/p>\n

The Editor did not mean to falsify the facts. The public was not aware that Houdini was born at another time and in another place\u2026<\/p>\n

Houdini himself denied his Hungarian origin. In one example, he submitted the following passport application in 1913:<\/p>\n

Passport application #13451 was issued on July 25, 1913 to Harry Houdini. This record consists of one page and has been reproduced as* Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925* (National Archives Microfilm Publication M1490, roll 193, Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houdini\u2019s self-reported birth place, Appleton<\/em>, can be seen in the center of the page.<\/p>\n

He repeated this place of birth in his passport application from 1919:<\/p>\n

Passport application #116792 was issued on September 15, 1919 to Harry Houdini. This file consists of four pages and a photograph of Mr. Houdini and his wife, Beatrice. The record has been reproduced as *Passport Applications, January 2, 1906 – March 31, 1925 *(National Archives Microfilm Publication M1490, roll 912, Records of the Department of State, Record Group 59).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On both of these official documents, Houdini states under oath that he was born in Appleton on April 6, 1874.<\/p>\n

\"the-right-way-to-do-wrong_main_200\"<\/p>\n

Houdini published The Right Way To Do Wrong<\/em> in 1906. In a passage referring to his private life, he states, on page 94: \u201eI am an American by birth, born in Appleton, Wis., U.S.A., on April 6, 1873.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"the-right-way-to-do-wrong_bk_sli\"<\/p>\n

For some mysterious reason he declared 1873 as his year of birth in this book\u2026<\/p>\n

One should not be surprised that the Editor repeated the same false information. It took many years and a lot of investigation to reveal the truth of Harry Houdini\u2019s Hungarian origin.<\/p>\n

But how did the truth came to light? Follow our future posts to find out.<\/p>\n

B. K.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One should not be surprised that the Editor repeated the same false information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harry-houdini","tag-birth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/151"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.houseofhoudinibudapest.com\/research_news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}