Dick Brooks (entertainer)

Dick Brooks (Ray Carter) (Dick Brookz)
Born	New York City
Occupation	Mystery entertainer, skeptic, producer, writer
Website
http://www.MysteryEntertainer.com

Dick Brooks, considered a magician of renown^[1] has been a professional performer since leaving school, was born in New York City. As a teenager he joined a Department of Parks magic club headed up by the official magician of New York City, Abe Hurwitz (Peter Pan the Magic Man), who was also the father of the soon to be famous Shari Lewis. When Hurwitz left the Peter Pan Magic Club, the members wanted a more mature name after famous magician Carl Ballantine joked to the members, "I love your peanut butter!" Brooks, came up with the name F.A.M.E., which stood for Future American Magical Entertainers, and the club lasted for many years thereafter. Then six magicians from the Society of American Magicians, who at first did not allow youngsters to join, formed the Society of Young Magicians (S.Y.M.) for youngsters in 1984.

The Magic Towne House

Brooks was founder along with Dorothy Dietrich, of the Magic Towne House ^[2] on the Upper East Side that presented magic in New York City for over 15 years.

According to William Dorflinger's book on magic history, The Magic Catalogue,^[3] "The Towne House is a discovery for magic lovers"... and Ray Carter (aka Dick Brooks (entertainer)) performs a wide range of magic effects also, and is well known for his demonstrations of ESP and mind reading."

Wanting a larger facility and a place to house his collection of Houdini memorabilia he opened The Houdini Museum ^[4] with Dorothy Dietrich in the Scranton- Wilkes-Barre-Pocono Mountain region of northeast Pennsylvania.

Imam would, after several years, break away and form his own competing club downtown in Greenwich Village. Dick Brooks along with partner Dorothy Dietrich resurrected Brother Theodore's career in the 1970s. Dick Brooks searched out Brother Theodore who he had seen perform in Greenwich Village years before, whose career had waned, to do several seasons of midnight shows at The Magic Towne House, and helped to bring him back to prominence that led to Theodore appearing on The Tom Snyder Tomorrow Show and a long series of TV and movie appearances. A picture of the Magic Towne House ad that appeared in local New YorkNewspapers such as the Village Voice and The New York post can be found at Shock Cinema Magazine at http://www.shockcinemamagazine.com/brother.html

Upon the closing of the Magic Towne House, Michael Chaut and Peter Samelson along with others would later develop "Monday Night Magic" which still runs successfully in New York City.

Author and publisher Hocus Pocus Magazine

While at the Magic Towne House Dick Brooks conceived, edited and wrote a widely distributed 64 page magazine for magicians, "Hocus Pocus Magazine", for three years.^[5][6]

The Houdini Museum

He conceived and founded the Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA which was featured in the recent book The Hollywood Walk of Fame as a fun and mysterious institution. ^[7] It is said to be the only building in the world devoted to Houdini.

Houdini consultant

Both TV and the press have utilized the service of Dick Brooks as consultant including The Criss Angel show, NBC, The Travel Channel ^[8] The New York Times,^[9] The Times^[10] and Inside Magic^[11] and The New York Daily News.^[12] The producers of the Travel Channel found his work and performance worthy of Highlighting on their show Magic Road Trip which played in the USA and on the CBC as well.^[13]

Magic consultant

He has acted as magic consultant for The New York Shakespere Festival, Woody Allen's "The Magic Light Bulb" at New York's City Center, and Radio City Music Hall. Because of his reputation he also manages to get exclusive interviews with hard to reach celebrities such as Uri Geller.^[14] He is an author and inventor of several books and magical effects.

Appearances

Brooks has appeared in top venues such as Rainbow Grill at the Waldorf Astoria in NYC, The Americana Hotel in Puerto Rico for 3 months, held over, and returned and headlined Number One Fifth Ave in New York City (Barbra Streisand and Woody Allen also headlined there), the Morocco in Montreal, repeatedly at New York's Living Room with Jack Jones and others, as well as Three Rivers in Detroit, and a series of other top cabarets.

He has appeared on the same bill, usually the opening act, with Jack Jones, Jerry Vale, Lou Monte, George Kirby, Pat Cooper, Neil Sedaka, Bobby Darin, Don Cornell and others.

Corporate appearances

He has worked as an entertainer for major corporations such as Coleco, Pepsi, Frito Lay, Maidenform, First Boston, Yago Sangria, Pool Trol, etc., with shows written by him that revolved around the product.

Television appearances

Dick Brooks performing for Muhammad Ali.

His television appearances include Atlantic City Alive, Travel Channel's "Magic Road Trip", Biography Channel's "Dead Famous-Houdini", Evening Magazine, Good Morning America, Home Box Office, as well as many local and news programs.^{[citation needed]}

Celebrity clients

Dick Brooks performing for Brooke Shields at New York's Copacabana.

He has been hired for major society parties by Diana Ross, Brooke Shields, Carly Simon, Barry Manilow, John Lithgo, David Merrick, Stevie Wonder, multiple times for the Rockefeller family and others.^{[citation needed]}

Shows

Brooks currently starring in Psychic Theater's ^[15] production "HAUNTED! Mind Mysteries & THE Beyond! The show has been held over for the past three years, runs up to 4 hours and has gotten excellent reviews. The Fall issue of the Pennsylvania Pursuits ^[16] put out by the Pennsylvania Tourism Office of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania picked Brooks' Psychic Theater as one of the 10 most haunted places in Pennsylvania, placing it at number 9.

His schedule includes traveling for outside events.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Pivovarnick, John (January 2003). "Ehrich Weiss AKA Houdini". Focus Magazine (Pennsylvania): 20 to 30. 
2. ^ http://magictownehouse.com
3. ^ Dorflinger, William (1977). The Magic Catalogue. New York: E. P. Dutton. pp. 242. ISBN 0-87690-272-7 and 0-87690-273-5. 
4. ^ http://houdini.org
5. ^ "Dick Brooks". MagicPedia. http://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Dick_Brooks. 
6. ^ "Magic Periodicals". MagicPedia. http://geniimagazine.com/wiki/index.php/Magic_Periodicals. 
7. ^ Samantha Hart (2000). The Hollywood Walk of Fame. Crybaby Books and Entertainment. pp. 598, 599. ISBN 0-9665787-0-8. 
8. ^ "Dick Brooks TRAVEL CHANNEL". http://www.insidemagic.com. http://www.insidemagic.com/magicnews/2006/09/06/houdini-museum-featured-on-canadian-travel-channel-friday/. 
9. ^ Driehaus, Bob (2007-05-23). "New York Times". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/us/23houdini.html. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
10. ^ "The Times". The Times. 2006-07-30. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/article690366.ece?token=null&offset=12. Retrieved 2010-05-01. 
11. ^ "Times of London". http://www.insidemagic.com/. http://www.insidemagic.com/magicnews/2006/09/01/times-of-london-consults-dorothy-dietrich-and-dick-brooks/. 
12. ^ Costella, Annmarie (2008-03-04). "New York Daily News". http://www.nydailynews.com. http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/queens/2008/03/04/2008-03-04_houdini_exhumation_to_test_for_poison-1.html. 
13. ^ "travel channel". http://www.insidemagic.com. http://www.insidemagic.com/magicnews/2006/09/06/houdini-museum-featured-on-canadian-travel-channel-friday/. 
14. ^ "museum featured". http://streetmagic.info. http://streetmagic.info/eMagic83.html. 
15. ^ http://PsychicTheater.com
16. ^ Christen Gruebel (2008). Pursuits Magazine, Top 10 most Haunted Places. Pennsylvania Tourism Office, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. pp. 56, 57, 58, 59, 60. 

Persondata
Name	Brooks, Dick
Alternative names
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Date of birth
Place of birth	New York, New York
Date of death
Place of death