Early Career
Dorothy Dietrich is a native of Erie, Pennsylvania. In a six-page article about the history of women in magic in the women's magazine, Bust, which contained only two full-page pictures, one of Adelaide Herrmann and the other of Dietrich, Nichole Summer writes:
| “ | Growing up in rural Pennsylvania with six brothers, she often found herself tied up as the damsel in distress during their games of cowboy and Indians but would somehow manage to escape on her own. When an aunt saw her freeing herself one day, she said to her, "Who do you think you are, Houdini?"
Dietrich had no clue who Houdini was but set off for the local library to find out. Doing odd jobs, at the age of 13, she saved enough money as a young teen to hitch a ride with a girlfriend's older brother to New York and ran away from her abusive father, her first true escape act. |
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Among the books she read was a biography of Houdini, who became a childhood idol, a fact that later influenced her desire to perform straitjacket escapes.
Early on, she learned her craft mostly from books. In New York, she auditioned for Westchester Department of Parks from an ad in a show business newspaper and was booked on the spot for a full summer of work, was recommended to the school district for the winter months, and re-booked the following summer for an increase in dates and price. Around this same time she earned her performing chops working a dime museum "grind show" Ten-in-One operation in hectic Times Square run by legendary mouse pitchman Tommy Laird with such performers as Earl "Presto" Johnson, Lou Lancaster, Chris Capehart, Dick Brooks and others. Showcasing for the Parent Assembly of the Society of American Magicians at about the same time, well-known magicians Russell Swann and Walter B. Gibson, captivated by her performance style, took her under their wing. Walter Gibson, who was a confidant and biographer of Houdini's said "What you have is very reminiscent of Houdini, when Houdini come out on stage, the audience automatically fell in love with him. In my long years I've never seen anyone who had that." Dietrich also studied with "Coney Island Fakir" Al Flosso, a regular performer on the Ed Sullivan television show, Jack London (for the bullet catch) and Lou Lancaster with the Straitjacket escape. "The recognition gradually put Dorothy Dietrich and her magic into resort hotels, nightclubs, school and college auditoriums, trade shows." She became a favorite of several New York booking agents.
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