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By Bill Coate

Witches! Goblins! Ghosts! They are all part of a Halloween tradition that has grown up over the years. At sunset, each Oct. 31, children put on costumes and go " trick-or-treating."

For the most part, it is a night of innocent make-believe, unless one is part of those annual seances that are held each Halloween in various cities across the nation. Folks who attend these gatherings take the night very seriously. Since 1927, they have been trying to make contact on the last day of every October with their deceased hero, Ehrich Weiss.

Weiss was born on March 24, 1874, in Budapest, Hungary. His family immigrated to the United States when he was four years old and settled in Appleton, Wis., where his father served as rabbi of the Jewish Reform Congregation. In 1887, the Weiss family moved to New York City, and in 1893, Ehrich met Bess Rahner. He married her three weeks later.

Ehrich became a stage performer of considerable renown, but his real love was for the two women in his life - his wife and his mother. When the latter died in 1920, Ehrich was thrown into a state of depression, and in desperation he and Bess contacted several spiritualists in an attempt to reach his mother across the Great Divide. When none of the mediums were able to provide the couple with a message from the dead, his faith in spiritualism turned to cynicism. Ehrich shifted his energies toward debunking self-proclaimed psychics and mediums. As a result, in addition to his stage fame, he gained a national reputation as a "ghost buster."

Then, on Halloween, 1926, at the age of 52, Ehrich Weiss died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix. That set the stage for one final sting for his spiritualist opponents. Shortly before his death, he made a pact with Bess that he would contact her from the other side if possible and deliver a pre-arranged coded message. For the next 10 years, Bess held a seance on Halloween to test the pact. Finally, in 1936, after a final unsuccessful attempt to contact her husband from the roof of the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, Bess extinguished the candle that she had kept burning beside a photograph of her husband since his death. Later she explained that "10 years is long enough to wait for any man."

Such was not the case, however, for the thousands of diehard followers of Ehrich Weiss, better known by his stage name as Harry Houdini. To this day, they continue to hold annual seances each Oct. 31, in hopes that the great illusionist will pull one more trick out of the proverbial hat.

So far, this has not happened, and one suspects that it won't. Although Harry Houdini got himself out of any number of tight spots while he was among the living, one suspects that it will take more than some fanciful twisting and turning to escape the chains of death - even on Halloween night.

Bill Coate William "Bill" Coate is a San Joaquin Valley historian, author, television personality and retired public school teacher with 36 years of classroom experience. He is the award-winning founder of the Madera Method, a research-based educational program that uses primary source materials to help students explore history. He writes about the past of our nation and valley with a weekly column and story. He also writes articles pertaining to local schools. The Madera Tribune online subscription To subscribe or log on, CLICK HERE. For more information first, CLICK HERE.