In loving memory of my dear friend, Marie Blood (Houdini's niece)

 
  I first met Marie around 1985 after a very long conversation with her on the phone. She and her beloved husband, Forest came to Las Vegas to meet me in person. I was so very excited and I arranged with Harrah's on the Las Vegas Strip to accommodate Marie and Forrest with a beautiful suite and I sent her flowers each morning to her room. We spent hours together talking, getting to know each other. She had dinner at my home and we all went out dancing one night. I could tell she enjoyed herself a lot. Everywhere I took her she was introduced as Houdini's niece, and you could see the night we went out dancing how she enjoyed the attention and the applause she received when the band introduced her to the standing and applauding audience in the lounge at Harrah's. I arranged for her to see a different show each night, including Siegfried and Roy. Afterwards we would meet and talk for hours in the coffee shops. 

 

 

 

 

 

Left photo is a picture of young Marie with her favorite uncle- Houdini. Right photo is Marie with her favorite Las Vegas magician- Dixie.
     She was an absolute delight. She had such a beautiful sparkle in her eyes when she spoke of her uncle Houdini. Within no time I felt I had known her all of my life, she became like family and I miss her very much. I would tell magicians I would introduce her to "this is the closest you will ever get to Houdini". And without a doubt anyone who met her would be able to see why Houdini loved her so. 

     She told things about Houdini that no-one and I mean no-one could have and one reason was because I spent so much time with her and listened. She had seen Houdini perform many times although it was many, many years ago she had a vivid memory of parts of his show. Example, she said every time she saw Houdini he opened his show by coming from the back of the audience, smiling and shaking hands on is way up to the stage as the band played " Pomp and Circumstance". She also said she had never witnessed Houdini falling through a cabinet after an escape acting as if he had  just barely made it out, in fact she said the exact opposite occurred. Houdini would throw the curtain back and it would appear as if he were ten feet tall and he had just concurred the world, he always acted triumphant and strong! Marie and I spoke so many times on so many small details about Houdini some things she remembered others she could not. One thing was for sure, the things she could remember were certain and etched in her memory forever. 

     I remember one day we spoke about Harvey Kartell's portrayal of her uncle in "A Fairy Tale" Marie told me that was the most stirring and accurate portrayal of her uncle she had ever seen. She asked me who the actor was and wanted to write him a letter to let him know "that was the way she remembered her uncle Houdini". On the other hand there were movies she thought were terrible.

     She remembered being on stage with a group of children while her uncle performed the die-box. She told me she had blurted out something and Houdini stepped forward from the group of children surrounding him and said something to the audience, she said  everyone in the audience burst out in laughter!

     I would look at her photos and we would look through books and she would stop and say "see those shorts? My mother made those for Houdini!" She told me all his shirts had to be custom made or altered because of the odd shape of his body.
     In 1989 I was asked to be the star performer for the opening of the Houdini Museum in Appleton, Wisconsin. Marie was there with Forrest as I performed two of her uncle's greatest escapes.

     The upside-down strait-jacket on the cold April morning celebrated Houdini's birthday and later that night as the finale' of the festivities, Houdini's death-defying escape from the inside of a giant milk can, filled this time with Wisconsin dairy milk.

     Making use of Sid Radner's original poster depicting how sixty years early Houdini had attempted to escape using milk. It was called "The Great Dairy Challenge." Marie told me that Houdini would have been so proud and that she knew Houdini would have loved every minute of it!
     There was a long time after the opening  where I did not get to see Marie, but we never stopped writing or talking on the phone. Our conversations always ended with I love you,as if we were related, a special relationship had be forged through time between us, a relationship that lasted until her death, I will always miss the calls, the cards, and the letters. She came to Las Vegas to see me again while I was at the Boardwalk with the "World of the Unreal" show. 

    
     She was flown in to give a talk on her uncle he last time I got to see her. She told everyone she had to see Dixie, and at the time I was so happy as I was starring and producing my own show at the Plaza Hotel and Casino called "Houdini Lives Again".

     I gave her the main booth front and center. The show was all "Houdini" escapes, magic, and a séance segment, and ended with the underwater milk can escape. It also had a segment in which I told the audience about Houdini, but on this day I informed them that we had a real treat and I invited Marie to the stage and she talked from the heart about her uncle and took questions, it was such a special event. As we left the theatre after the show she spotted the original Margery Spirit Table from my collection, she had seen most all of my original memorabilia but for some reason she stopped and said, "I remember this little table, my father made that for Houdini in his basement."

     I spoke with Marie many times after she left Vegas for the last time, but I knew it would not be long before she would join her beloved uncle and Forrest-her husband.

     When the news finally came I was really speechless-she was such a treasure.

     In years of studying Houdini, his escapes, retracing his footsteps all over the world, one thing always seemed to ring true. People tend to want to own Houdini, by recreating or out-doing his escapes and magic, owning his props or simply by thinking they know more about the man than anyone else, or perhaps using his name to make money.

     Marie wasn't about that and neither am I. She was a giver and wanted to see her uncle remembered in the right way, the way he was.  She saw this through with her sincerity and love. I think that is why the bond between she and I will always be strong and everlasting.

I feel privileged to have had her as my dear, close friend. "Houdini would have been Proud".

Dixie Dooley 2005

 

 

 

 
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