SCRANTON, Pa. — Because of David Blaine’s Houdini-esque stunts the Board of Directors of The Houdini Museum in Scranton has decided to place David Blaine up for nomination for the first ever Houdini Award to be given out by the prestigious museum. When David Blaine is buried alive for seven days, frozen in a block of ice or hung upside down for 60 hours, he credits Harry Houdini’s legendary escapes as his inspiration. In April, Blaine broke a world record by holding his breath underwater for 17 minutes and 4.4 seconds, another Houdini inspired stunt.
Others who have been nominated include James Randi, Dorothy Dietrich and Caesar Pelez of Le Grand David. Criss Angel, David Copperfield, and Penn and Teller were in the running for nomination but did not make the cut this year. The winner of the award is to have a special coin minted in their honor.
The Houdini Museum, a 501 C-3 non-profit organization, is the only building in the world dedicated to Houdini and has been located in Scranton, Pennsylvania for the past 20 years. Before that the exhibit was in New York City, Houdini’s home for all of his adult life.
The Houdini Museum, 1433 N. Main Ave, Scranton, PA known worldwide has been featured on the Biography Channel, The Travel Channel, “Dead Famous,” “Top Myths & Legends,” “Exploring the Unknown,” Ripley’s Believe It Or Not, You Asked For It, BBC, CBC, TV Land, as well as the all the various networks.
The museum features daily Houdini tours and magic shows by reservation honoring the great legend throughout the year. A new evening presentation, “Haunted! Mind Mysteries & The Beyond” is currently breaking records with its five-year run. The Houdini Museum is currently headed up by magician, psychic investigator and “Female Houdini” Dorothy Dietrich and paranormalist and mystery entertainer Dick Brooks. Recent feature stories about the museum have included paranormalist Uri Geller and “psychic” Kim Dennis.
The museum is also responsible for the important yearly Halloween Houdini Seance on the anniversary of Houdini’s death, that was done by Houdini’s wife for ten years that she then passed on to biographer and writer of the Shadow series Walter B. Gibson who, before he died, passed it on to Dorothy Dietrich.
More information: http://www.houdini.org.
[tags]Houdini Museum in Scranton, magician David Blaine, Houdini Award, James Randi, psychic investigator Dorothy Dietrich[/tags]
