Dorothy Dietrich

Dietrich also crusades against those who falsely claim to speak to dead relatives of vulnerable grieving citizens. Early on, Dorothy Dietrich realized that there were those who would use magic and various deceptive arts to manipulate and even cheat people out of money. So following in the footsteps of famous debunkers who came before her, such as Houdini, Milbourne Christopher and James Randi, she takes on such a role where possible. She has a $10,000.00 reward for anyone who says they can contact the spirit of Houdini. One who tried recently was Canadian television "medium" Kim Dennis, who had contacted the Houdini family claiming she was getting messages from Houdini.*A recent article in the Tennessee Star Journal stated October 29, 2014, "Houdini exposed numerous phony mediums and inspired other magicians to follow suit. The Amazing Randi, Dietrich, Penn & Teller and Dick Brookz are magicians that have exposed these unscrupulous mediums. According to Dietrich, mediums are thriving today in the U.S. and Europe. Dietrich doesn't mince her words in her criticism of "psychics" Sylvia Brown, Lisa Williams and John Edward, who she cites as examples of mediums that are taking advantage of grieving people who are seeking to communicate one last time with their deceased loved one ... "We had a man come into our museum not long ago who had been to a phony medium," said Dietrich. "They tried to get him to take a substantial amount of money from the bank and bring it to them. They told him the money was cursed and they were going to cleanse the money of the curse." According to Dietrich, the mediums were attempting to scam the man with an old switch con in which they take the money and bundle it up. The mediums then tell the victim of their scam to take the bundle home and put it in his freezer and not to look at the money for 30 days. After 30 days, when he looks in the freezer he will realize they switched the bundles and his bundle contains no money. By then the con artists are long gone with the victim's money. Dietrich attempted to persuade the gentleman to contact the police, but he refused and told her the "psychics" know where he lived."

In 2014 Dorothy Dietrich partnered with Dick Brookz to create a board game based on the Houdini Museum. And so the concept of HoudiniOpoly was born. It would take over two years to design and research all the facts and graphics that would make up the game. A large sum of money would be required to produce the full featured game that it developed into. In early 2017 they decided Kickstarter would be the way to go. If they could generate enough interest to run a successful campaign, it would all work out. Since Kickstarter is an all or nothing proposition, if enough interest was not generated, everyone would get their money back. They felt they would need between ten and fifteen thousand dollars to make it work. They were willing to risk some of their own money in the project, so they set their Kickstarter goal low at eight thousand dollars, for fear of the project not getting completed. The project was a success, garnering over $14,000. Once the basic goal was reached they added "stretch" goals of unique appropriate pawn pieces that ran up to fourteen. They had the help of many friends too numerous to mention here. Most of them are listed on the back of the box. Some of the largest boosters included John Cox (screenwriter) of WildaboutHoudini.com, Joe Notaro of HarryHoudiniCircumstantialEvidence.com, Dean Carnegie of TheMagicDetective.com as well as the game being sanctioned and supported by The Society of American Magicians. Plus a long list of magicians and friends. It would then take almost another full year before the game was finished, approved and delivered, with a few bumps along the way. Everyone was more than happy with the results. The results can be seen at the KickStarter website. as well as on HoudiniOpoly.com.

On September 27, 2011 a group she formed, that came to be known in the media as The Houdini Commandos, secretly replaced the statuary bust at Houdini's grave site: Machpelah Cemetery (Queens) that had been missing due to vandalism for 36 years. This was reported in a half-page story worldwide in The New York Times on October 24, 2011. Her world-famous attraction, Scranton's Houdini Museum that she runs with mystery entertainer Dick Brooks, has been asked by both the family of Houdini and the management of the Machpelah Cemetery (Queens) to take over the upkeep of the grave that has been in disarray for many years. In 2013 she petitioned The Society of American Magicians, magic's most prestigious and wealthiest organization, thanks to Houdini, to help take over the care of the grave site at Machpelah Cemetery (Queens), which they agreed to by unanimous vote. Dietrich commented on this, "I will not live forever, but The Society of American Magicians will!" Because of their work over the years, in 2016 Dietrich and Brooks were given the highest honor that can be bestowed on any magician: The Society of American Magicians rare Presidential Citation for their work in promoting the art of magic.

In 2008, Bust (magazine) reported about Dietrich's 1988 attempt to catch a bullet in a metal cup in her mouth. She performed it at Donald Trump's Resorts International's 10th anniversary in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was televised on a special called, Just For The Record, The Best Of Everything. This came about after catching a .22 caliber bullet for the yearly convention of the International Brotherhood of Magicians in Pittsburgh. It was shown on Network TV's Evening Magazine, and on The New You Asked For It with Rich Little as host. She performed it again in Canada on a TV show called Autobus du Canada for the highest amount ever paid a magician on Canadian television. She is the first and only female to successfully complete the bullet catch in the mouth. It was done under test conditions with the bullets bought by a committee. Brought in under guard, an independent marksman picked and fired the bullet. One of two chosen bullets was fired into a concrete backstop and the second was fired at Dorothy. Dietrich challenged anyone who could prove that the bullet did not leave from the gun by offering a $10,000 reward. Feature stories and articles about her have appeared in major publications such as The New York Times and TV Guide.

The 2006 Columbia Encyclopedia included Dietrich among their "eight most noted magicians of the late 20th century", and entertainment writer Samantha Hart in "The Hollywood Walk of Fame: 2000 Sensational Stars, Star Makers and Legends", called her a "world-class magician" and "one of the world's leading female magicians". Early on, as a teenager, she already was referred to as "The First Lady of Magic", a reference later copied by others.Dietrich, often called the female Houdini, has duplicated many of Houdini's original escapes, and has gone one step further by doing the Jinxed Bullet Catch Stunt – the one that Houdini backed away from.

Dorothy Dietrich (born October 31, 1969) is an American stage magician and escapologist, best known as the first and only woman to have performed the bullet catch in her mouth (however Adelaide Herrmann was the first) and the first woman to perform a straitjacket escape while suspended hundreds of feet in the air from a burning rope. She was the first woman to gain prominence as an escape artist since the days of Houdini, breaking the glass ceiling for women in the field of escapes and magic.