HOUDINI THE BOGEYMAN: A HALLOWEEN SPECIAL!

Here Comes the Bogeyman                                              Goya c. 1797

Every country, every culture has its bogeyman, and he's gonna getcha, sucka, unless you shape up right now!  

In Scotland he's called the Bogle. In Germany, he's the Butzemann. In New Jersey, he's the Jersey Devil. And in Appleton, Wisconsin his name is - Houdini!

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On our recent fact-finding trip to Appleton we learned first-hand about the dark side of Houdini. Our informant, whom we shall refer to as Miss X (though her real name was Miss Y) was born and raised in Appleton and graduated from the Houdini Elementary School.

Houdini spent his childhood years in Appleton and Miss X knew all about him from numerous trips to the Houdini Museum, in the building known as "The Castle" on College Avenue.

According to Miss X, during her childhood one of the most popular attractions of the Houdini Museum was a set of child-sized strait jackets. The parents would put their kids into one of these jackets, pull it a bit snug and - bye bye, please!  Hey, just kidding, the parents would tell the wailing children, as they set them free.

But this freedom had a long dark tail, Miss X reports. Afterward, back home, disobedient children of Appleton were continually threatened with Houdini as the bogey man: "if you don't clean up your room, Houdini's gonna come and put you in a strait jacket!"

We don't want to get all anthropological here, but we couldn't help noticing that Appleton's strong German roots include pagan folklore eerily similar: namely, the Krampus, a chain-rattling child stealer who shoves the little misbehavers into a hamper before carrying them off.

Happy Halloween! And eat your vegetables!





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