Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brookz here.
Our power has always been to try do do historic things. Many famous magicians from Houdini, Thurston, David Copperfield and
Doug Henning wanted to create a magic show spot in New York City. We were the first to do it and it ran for 15 years as
The Magic Towne House, that spawned two other spots later on. Both by magicians that we started out in New York. Imam first. Then Michael Chaut along with another of our performers Peter Samelson and others, who put together Monday Night Magic that is still running successfully today.
Some of the magicians who got their early start at
The Magic Towne House are Eric DeCamps, Imam, Jeff McBride, Otto and George, Levent, Joe Monte, Johnny Ace Palmer, Joseph "Devlin" Pepitone, Joe Raven, David Regal, Rocco Silano, Peter Samelson and Meir Yedid. Established performers of the era also performed with them, including Bobby Baxter, Harry Blackstone, Jr., Milbourne Christopher, Daryl, Fantasio, Frank Garcia, Walter B. Gibson, Wesley James, Presto Earl Johnson, Lou Lancaster, Jack London, Bill McQueen, Max Maven (Phil Goldstein), Ben Robinson, James Randi, David Roth, George Schindler, Slydini and others. the top floor also housed New York's original Houdini Museum.
Then Dorothy did many firsts, including becoming know as "The First Woman to Saw a Man in Half", "The First Woman to Escape from a Strait Jacket while hanging from a Burning Rope", "The First Woman to Catch a Bullet in her Mouth", etc. We then took care of the Houdini grave site that was left neglected by magicians, the SAM, and others. We, at our own expense, replaced Houdini's bust missing for some 40 years, destroyed by Vandals. We recently, with the help of many others, convinced the club that Houdini pioneered, the international Society of American Magicians, to partake in the upkeep of the grave.
We did the Houdini seances on a regular basis in New York City with famous writer and close friend of Harry and Bess Houdini, Walter B. Gibson. Walter, before he died passed on the legacy of doing the seance that Bess had asked him to continue, to Dorothy, who to this day does them yearly. This past year she did it at the Sojourn Restaurant in New York, the site of the first place Houdini's family boarded at when they first moved to New York.
When rent became too high we left New York and decided we wanted to own our building or show spot so we opened
The Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA, which is part of the Pocono Mountain Region that tourists love. It has been and still is the Only Building in the World Dedicated to Houdini, along with a magic show and movie. We then uncovered Houdini's long lost and best film, "The Grim Game", long thought gone forever. With the help of others, Turner Classic Movies restored it, and now more people will see Houdini, than saw him in his entire lifetime.
Sorry about this long post, and I am probably leaving a lot out. We need the younger generation to take over and look to move the history and legacy of magic ahead. Who will take our place when we are gone/ Or will the museum just close and be lost to history like so many brick and mortar magic stores?
What is our latest project? Glad you asked. Always keeping up with the times, we have put together a
KickStarter project. It is called
Houdini-Opoly. It is running now, only half way through, has already reached its goal, and is one of the most backed, and most popular magic themed KickStarters since they began. You might check it out. You can find it at
http://HoudiniOpoly.com or
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1726279887/houdini-opoly-fun-exciting-legend-and-magic-hero-b/
And.. If you ever get a chance visit us at the museum in Scranton, PA. But CALL ahead for our schedule as it varies.
Thanks for your time.
