Magic Collection of Jim Rawlins Part IV

Jarrow, Emil. Emil Jarrow’s U.S. Passport. 1924/26. Official United States passport issued to Emil Jarrow in 1924 at the age of 49, permitting travel to “all countries” for “professional work and travel.” Photograph signed by Jarrow affixed to front page, again signed “Emil Jarrow” below his physical description. 12 x 9” (folded open). Visas, most obtained in 1926, in multiple countries including Germany, South Africa, and England. Lacks covers; separation at folds. This passport documents Jarrow’s travel at the peak of his career in vaudeville, including his last extensive foreign tour as a performer. While contemporaries such as Horace Goldin filled theaters with the popular Sawing a Woman in Half illusion, Jarrow famously advertised his signature feat, the bill in lemon, under the headline “Emil Jarrow: Sawing a Lemon in Half.” In June of 1926, the same year many of the visas on this passport were obtained, Jarrow’s wife unexpectedly died in Hamburg. A visa on the last page shows Jarrow in Hamburg with his young daughter Evelyn on June 15, though he was back in England the following month, leaving his daughter in the care of her grandmother (Charvet, “Jarrow: The Humorist Trickster,” Magic V21 N10/11, 2012).