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| Dick Brookz & Dorothy Dietrich |
Dick Brookz and Dorothy Dietrich came up through the ranks
and the trapdoors: childhood magicians, cabaret owners, New York City
entrepreneurs and, since 1988, owners and operators of the only building in the
world devoted entirely to Houdini: the Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA.
Now they’re going international: they’ve just published the
first Houdini board game, known as Houdini-Opoly. It’s already making history –
according to a business school study, it raised more dollars per capita than any other Kickstarter
funding project surveyed.
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| Houdini-Opoly board & money (click to enlarge) |
“We didn’t even have a business plan,” says Dick proudly –
an enthusiastic improviser since his early days as a cabaret comic and mind
reader.
“We wanted to do something historic,” Dorothy adds. It wasn’t
enough that she’d been doing magic professionally since age 13, and was already
the only woman in the world ever to catch a bullet in her teeth – the trick
Houdini was too scared to try.
So why did they shift their headquarters from the pinnacle of
New York's magic world to Scranton, PA?
It was Donald Trump.
“He began buying up and knocking down buildings in our
neighborhood to build Trump Tower,” Dick and Dorothy recall. “Our rent at the
Magic Towne House went from $1000 a month to $30,000. We were driven out.”
This was hardly their first, or worst, hardship. Dorothy had
become a magician by running away from her childhood home in Erie, PA, where
she had regularly been beaten by her abusive, alcoholic father.
Dick had also been a childhood performer and magic
entrepreneur, having started and run the magic magazine
Hocus Pocus for several years. He and Dorothy met while doing “go-sees” at
agents’ offices on Broadway. They’ve been partners ever since.
Dick himself did the graphics for the Houdini game, which
has a charming turn-of-the-century look. They borrowed the game structure from older real estate trading games but transformed it with locations from Harry Houdini’s
life.
“’Opoly’ is generic,” Dick explains. “Anyone can make an ‘-opoly’ game
without copyright problems.”
Like everything they do, there’s a hidden side to Houdini-Opoly.
Dick and Dorothy are far too smart to leave their circle of competence to compete head-to-head in the dicey world of board games.
“We’re only making a limited edition,” they say. “One
thousand copies, signed and numbered. They’ll be valuable one day – like everything
Houdini.”
They're a good value already, selling - for a limited time only! - for $35.
They're a good value already, selling - for a limited time only! - for $35.
Thanks for the great article. It really means a lot to have your support. We have worked so hard on this new Houdini board game and your input is really appreciated. After decades of doing research on Houdini, we wanted to put something together that we could share Houdini’s story with the world in a fun way. Every item in the game was researched as best we could. We wanted to tell Houdini’s story in chronological order and highlight many of the most memorable, and little known facts about Houdini’s incredible story. It’s was so much more work than we could imagine. Our idea was to tell Houdini’s story in a fun way that everyone could enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteIt is not simple to do an "opoly" game. There are certain things one has to steer clear that have been added as the years have gone by and that are protected by the length of copyright law, depending on the year or years they were installed. These would be mostly design elements which do in fact have copyright protections. Art work, game rules, corner elements that are unique, color combinations, character drawings, etc.
ReplyDeleteDick Brookz and Dorothy Dietrich
The Houdini Museum, Scranton, PA
The Only Building in the World Dedicated to Houdini