Harry Houdini Museum
The Houdini Tour, show, and museum attraction is a popular Scranton attraction. The museum features memorabilia, artifacts, mannequins and films of Houdini. The Houdini Tour includes a magic show. A tour and show takes about two and a half to three hours.
The live show at the museum includes two nationally known magicians, Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brooks.
History
The Houdini Museum was created by Dorothy Dietrich and Dick Brooks (aka John Bravo and Ray Carter). The exhibits include items from their personal collections as well as artifacts given to Brooks by his father, who saw Houdini perform. Elements of the collection were on display for 15 years at the Magic Towne House in New York City, from the 1970s to the 1980s, before the move to Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Also on display at the New York location was the Society of American Magicians replica of Houdini's bust at Houdini's grave site, an item that the Society could not store. They were placed there for safe keeping. On September 27, 2011, The Houdini Museum along with "Houdini Commandos" (Dorothy Dietrich, Dick Brooks, and Steve Moore) replaced the statuary Houdini bust that was destroyed by vandals and missing at the grave for 36 years with the permission of the administration of the cemetery and Houdini family members. This project was funded by the not-for-profit Houdini Museum at a cost of about $10,000. With the urging of The Houdini Museum, The Society of American Magicians now contributes yearly to the upkeep of the Houdini grave site. Maintenance is also performed and financed by Scranton's Houdini Museum, the administrators of the cemetery, and volunteers and donors.
Other Houdini museums
- American Museum of Magic
- David Copperfield's International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which is closed to the public
- The History Museum at the Castle (Appleton, Wisconsin)
- Houdini Museum of New York At Fantasma Magic
- The House of Houdini
- University of Texas Library houses Houdini ephemera and a large collection of Houdini letters and manuscripts.
See also
References
- ^ Houdini Film-Museum Tour & Magic Show
- ^ "Scranton, PA - Harry Houdini Museum". RoadsideAmerica.com. Retrieved December 22, 2016.
- ^ Efthimiades, Michael (August 23, 1996). Pocono Weekend. Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. pp. 10 and 11.
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ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Malerie Yolen-Cohen (20 April 2015). "Ten Offbeat Reasons To Make Scranton, PA Your Next Mini-Escape". Huffington Post. Retrieved Jun 18, 2015.
- ^ Pivovarnick, John (January 2000). "Ehrich Weiss AKA Houdini". Focus Magazine. Pennsylvania: 20 to 30.
- ^ “Houdini Returns (Of Course.)”, New York Times published on October 24, 2011 by David W. Dunlap
- ^ Compeer (December 13, 2016). "House of Houdini Opens in Hungary". The Magic Compass. Society of American Magicians. Retrieved January 23, 2017.