2007-04 Dennis' Thanks

Dennis expresses thanks!

Bev Bergeron was honored by the FAME Board at our March 24th banquet with "The Founder's Award" for service to FAME from the early 1970s to today. When Bev made the move from Hollywood to Orlando to take a staring role in The Diamond Horseshoe Review at The Magic Kingdom, he continued his service to the magic fraternity and helped revive Ring 170 and establish FAME. Our Ring is what it is today because of the long years of hard work and service by magic legend Bev Bergeron. He deserves our gratitude.

Harvey Brownlow and M.J.Emigh were given Past President Awards for their labors and service in their two-year tenures as President of FAME Ring 170. Serving as President is a task with a lot of responsibility and leadership demands. They served us well.

I want to express my gratefulness for being honored by the FAME board with a Lifetime Membership Award. Actually , I was stunned when Art Thomas emotionally read my name at the Banquet platform. I am a rookie in great company with FAME legends like Bev Bergeron, Bill Rosenthal and the late Dick Randall.
I think most of you know my association with FAME began in 1975 when I moved to Orlando from Charlotte, North Carolina. Through the years there were times when educational and employment demands kept me from regular attendance. In fact, I believe I was a "regular" for ten years before Bev made me officially sign up in 1986!

In the mid 1990s life settled down a bit for me and FAME needed a Secretary and ornery wordsmith to keep FAMULUS interesting , so Bev appointed me to the writing duties that he had labored at for so very long. Thank you for your honors.

As most of you know, there is an attempt to exhume the body of Houdini to see if he was poisoned by angry Spiritualists. Most scholars of Houdini see this as a ploy by the publishers of the latest Houdini book to boost sales. This is a national news story and I was invited to be interviewed by Bud Hedinger on his talk show on WFLA 540. The 15 minute interview was on the air in Tuesday afternoon March 27th and is available to be heard by clicking on Bud's section of the stations web site.
I detail how Houdini may have died from the effects of Leukemia (CML) due to a weakened immune system from heavy X-Ray exposure. His brother Leo was a radiologist and Houdini was fascinated with the machine that Leo kept in Houdini's home when he was living with Harry and Bess. My interview with Bud takes a few unusual turns!

Scroll down, the Quicktime link is on the right hand side of the page in the article description.

http://www.540wfla.com/cc-common/podcast.html

Have fun!
Dennis