[9] In a six-page article about the history of women in magic in the women's magazine, Bust,[10] which contained only two full-page pictures, one of Adelaide Herrmann and the other of Dietrich, Nichole Summer writes:Growing up in rural Pennsylvania with six brothers, she often found herself tied up as the damsel in distress during their games of cowboy and Indians but would somehow manage to escape on her own.

Doing odd jobs, at the age of 13, she saved enough money as a young teen to hitch a ride with a girlfriend's older brother to New York and ran away from her abusive father, her first true escape act.

[11]Among the books that inspired her as a child was a biography of Houdini, who became a childhood idol, a fact that later influenced her desire to perform magic and escapes.

Around this same time she earned her performing chops working a dime museum "grind show" Ten-in-One operation in Times Square run by legendary mouse pitchman Tommy Laird with such performers as Earl "Presto" Johnson, Lou Lancaster, Chris Capehart, Dick Brooks (a.k.a., Brookz), and others.

Dietrich also studied with "Coney Island Fakir" Al Flosso (for the coin routine), a regular performer on the Ed Sullivan television show, Jack London (for the bullet catch) and Lou Lancaster with the Milk Can and the Straitjacket escape, as well as sleight-of-hand magic.

"The recognition gradually put Dorothy Dietrich and her magic into resort hotels, nightclubs, school and college auditoriums, trade shows.

Sawing men in half, escaping from a straitjacket,[14] sleight of hand with coins via the Misers Dream, The Bullet Catch, and levitating audience members.

On television, Dorothy Dietrich won attention as a woman who, instead of allowing herself to be sawed in half, reversed the traditional illusion and severed into two parts the male hosts of talk shows and network specials.

[9] As word got around she was called to do a Bill Cosby[15] special while still in her early teens, but with the help of her sophisticated style and makeup she passed as an adult and was able to work night clubs and banquets in the best hotels and venues.

At this same time she performed with Loretta Lynn, Dick Van Patten, Henny Youngman, Jonathan Winters, and Tony Randall.

In addition to escapes and large-scale stunts, Dietrich has performs illusions with live animals such as doves, rabbits, poodles and ducks.

She also does an updated version of the classic Miser's Dream, plucking coins from the air, nose, ears and pockets of a youngster from the audience.

The seances have been shown on such shows as TV Land: Myths and Legends, Biography's Dead Famous-Houdini and Exploring the Unknown.

In 2013 she petitioned The Society of American Magicians, magic's most prestigious and wealthiest organization, thanks to Houdini, to help take over the care of the grave site at Machpelah Cemetery (Queens), which they agreed to by unanimous vote.

Long considered by film buffs as lost, Dietrich was aware since her teens that the only copy of Houdini's The Grim Game was buried in the apartment of Brooklyn collector Larry Weeks.

As part of the festival Turner asked Dorothy to perform a challenge strait jacket escape for which she got a standing ovation.