In 1940, a 43-year-old stenographer in New York looked a census taker in the eye and told him she was 23. She got away with it, and for decades, nobody in my family knew exactly how far she'd gone. This is the story of my great-aunt Celia, a bilingual secretary who outwitted the job market of her day with nothing but nerve and a single, very large lie.

Kálmán Wolf Róth (1869–c. 1944/45), known on the Hungarian stage as Pesti Kálmán, was the younger brother of stained-glass artist Miksa Róth. An actor, director, playwright, critic, and early film performer, he spent nearly four decades in Hungarian theater before disappearing from the historical record during the Holocaust era.