Friday, March 30, 2012

The true story of the Laurel Canyon Houdini Estate

Last month Patrick Culliton and I had the great pleasure of touring the "Houdini Estate" in Laurel Canyon, CA, with the current owner, José Luis Nazar.

There is some confusion about this property and whether or not Houdini ever lived here. Some say it was Houdini's house. Some say "he never set foot" on the property. Some identify a larger house up the street as the real "Houdini mansion." So I thought I'd use this blog to clear up the mystery and history of the Houdini house...as much as I can.

The truth is the property at 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd was never owned by Houdini. It was owned by Ralf M. Walker, who in 1915 built a Mediterranean-style villa at what was then 2398 Laurel Canyon Blvd (the address became 2400 later). The house was three stories with 11 bedrooms, nine baths, a ballroom, a 15-foot stage for musicians, and a ballet room big enough for 10 dancers. He also built a four-bedroom guest house across the street at 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd, and this is where Houdini comes in.

Walker and Houdini were friends -- Houdini might have even invested in Walker's Laurel Canyon Land Co. -- and when the magician came to California in 1919 to film his two features for Famous Players-Lasky, The Grim Game and Terror Island, he and Bess are said to have stayed at Walker's guesthouse at 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd. That house is now long gone, but here the great Patrick Culliton, author of Houdini The Key and lifelong Laurel Canyon resident, shows us exactly where the Houdini house once stood.


Now, it needs to be said that we don't (yet) have smoking gun evidence that puts Houdini and Bess in the Walker guesthouse in 1919 (update). But we do have circumstantial evidence. In Harold Kellock's Houdini His Life Story (page 271), it says that Houdini spent "his leisurely evenings at home in the modest bungalow he had rented in Hollywood" and that "fellow players returning from late parties, who might have been moved to investigate the solitary light burning in the Houdini bungalow, would have seen the Handcuff king and escape artist scratching busily with his pen at a table littered with manuscripts and old volumes." 

The house at 2435 did indeed sit on a bluff above Laurel Canyon Blvd where, yes, one would have been able to see a solitary light burning in the window while driving to and from parties in the Hollywood Hills. There's also the below photo of Houdini diving into a swimming pool. Those who remember the Walker mansion identify this as the pool on the property. So it appears Houdini made himself at home on the larger estate.


But most significantly, we have Bessie's return to 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd following Houdini's death. This suggests a familiarity with this Hollywood "home" and Mr. Walker. And unlike the brief 1919 stay, we have ample evidence of Bess and Edward Saint's occupancy at this time.


This is probably when the legend of the "Houdini mansion" took root. When Bess would throw parties or hold seances, etc., she would do so at the Walker mansion across the street. It has been said that the guesthouse even had an elevator that went down to a tunnel that ran below Laurel Canyon and came up in the big house grounds (the tunnel is sealed but still exists). One can understand how local magicians who attended these events came to assume that the house belonged to Bess and, by extension, Houdini. The "Houdini mansion."

Bess and Edward Saint left 2435 Laurel Canyon when Walker either died or sold the estate in 1935 to a real estate broker named Charles Wilson. The property went through a series of renters, including evangelist Joe Jeffers, who turned the mansion into the Temple of Yahweh and required donations of up to $100,000 to live on the property. Following Jeffers came an eccentric poetess, Lee Alden, who was known as "The Green Virgin." After Charles Wilson's death in 1954, Fania Pearson bought the property with the intention of turning it into a girls school.

But then in 1959, the Walker mansion and the guesthouse at 2435, which was then owned by a man named Al Sulprizio, both fell victim to the great Laurel Canyon fire. Newspapers at the time reported that "the old Houdini mansion" was among the homes destroyed. The clip below is a news report on that famous fire. 




Following the fire, the Walker property was abandoned. A petition to preserve the remains of the burnt-out house as a historical landmark was denied and the house was finally demolished in 1970. All that remained was a smaller carriage house and the sprawling paths, stairways, and stone archways, which for the next few decades became home to hippies and homeless, including a man known as "Robin Hood" who believed Laurel Canyon was Sherwood Forrest and would shoot arrows at trespassers. (For a taste of this time, read Escape from Houdini Mountain by Pleasant Gehman.)

The overgrown ruins were visible from the heavily trafficked Laurel Canyon Blvd, and the legend of it being Houdini's house only grew, especially when it was identified as such in the 1972 guide book, This Is Hollywood, by Kenneth Schessler. The property drew magic pilgrims from around the world. Even I trudged through the ruins with my sister and father in the mid 1970s, excited to carry away a brick from "the Houdini mansion." Of course, many claimed it was haunted by the ghost of Houdini (as well as the Green Virgin), and to this day it still gets written up in publications about "Haunted Hollywood".

Doing my best "Houdini" at the Walker ruins circa 1976.
Robin Hood's lair?

But what happened to the remains of the real Houdini house across the street? According to Patrick, whatever remained of 2435 was completely demolished in the 1960s when the hillside was graded back to widen Laurel Canyon Blvd at what had been a nasty hairpin turn. There are currently foundation ruins on the hillside (also said to be haunted) which someone has tagged "2435", but Patrick assures me those ruins are for a different house. 

Just to complicate matters, in 1991 the band The Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded their album Blood Sugar Sex Magik in what they believed to be Houdini's home. That house, which is owned by music producer Rick Rubin, sits a block north of the Walker property on Laurel Canyon Blvd. It has nothing to do with Houdini, but the publicity about the famous recording session, which includes the documentary Funky Monks, has created a second local "Houdini mansion" legend to contend with.

In 1989 the Walker property -- which was still owned by the reclusive Fania Pearson, then 70 -- was put up for sale for $2.5 million by Merrill Lynch. They initially listed it as "The Harry Houdini Estate" until Houdini historian Manny Weltman threatened to sue them for making a false claim (even though Manny had in his collection Bessie letterhead with the 2435 address). Merrill Lynch revised their sell sheet to state only that it was "known as" the Houdini estate.

The property was owned for a time by a man named Mark Jacobs. Then in June 1997, Patrick Williams, a colorful antique dealer from Georgia, purchased the property for $377,777.77 (his opening offer was $333,333.33). Williams cleaned away decades of brush and debris, and regularly uncovered "artifacts" that he thought could have belonged to Houdini (a pen with the initial "H" went right up on eBay as "Houdini's fountain pen"). He even developed a movie/book idea, "The Treasures of Houdini's Gardens", about a group of orphans who inherit the property and discover Houdini's secrets hidden in an underground lair.

Williams gave me a tour of the property around this time, showing me a gate that had the words "Houdini & Wilson 1919" stamped on it. (Charles Wilson, maybe?) If that stamp is legitimately from 1919, it's the smoking gun evidence that puts Houdini himself at the Walker estate.

Williams reportedly put the property back up for sale in 1999 for $1,777,777.77 (he likes his 7s). I'm not sure if it ever sold, but I know the property was back on the market in 2006.

And that brings us to the last chapter in the Houdini Estate story and to the new owner, José Luis Nazar. It's a happy ending! This is 3.9 acres of land in a very desirable area, and every time it goes up for sale, I dread seeing bulldozers come in and subdivide the land to make way for a dozen mac mansions. Happily, this isn't the plan. José has preserved the property and its history and has continued with extensive restoration, including tapping back into the natural spring and reinstalling large gates so the property is once again private. José has also opened up the estate for use as a location for parties, weddings, photo shoots, and filming. The estate now has a website thehoudiniestate.com.

José is also genuinely interested in Houdini history and, as I said, generously allowed Patrick Culliton and I to freely roam the restored grounds of landscaped terraces, waterfalls, and beautiful works of art and statuary (including a massive authentic Buddha). There is also a large bust of Houdini that looks out over the property.

We also got to see inside the old carriage house, which is now expanded and decked out with a new pool and large paintings of Houdini in every room. There we toasted -- with 100-year-old port from José's world-class wine collection -- to the memory of Houdini in a house that is now worthy of the great man himself. It's a magical place indeed!


Sources:
  • "Houdini Lived Here (Well, Maybe)" by Bill Sharpsteen, Los Angeles Times Magazine, March 1, 1998.
  • Houdini is Haunting the Wrong Mansion by Patrick Culliton.
  • Who haunts the Houdini Manson by Richard Carradine.
  • "Houdini Legend Persists at Aging Estate but Facts Are Elusive" by Michael Szymanski, Los Angeles Times, October 29, 1989.
  • "Revelations About The 'Houdini Estate' in Hollywood" by John Booth, The Linking Ring, March 1997.
  • "List of Homes Razed" (unidentified newspaper clipping on 1959 Laurel Canyon fire).
  • Laurel Canyon Stories website by Steve Eastwood.

This story has been updated with new photos and information.

66 comments:

  1. Excellent work.

    My mother lived in Laurel Canyon when she was carrying me and used to visit the ruins in the belief that they were of Houdini's estate and haunted by him. This had no influence at all on my interest in Houdini, since I was ignorant of her antics when I first learned about him, but she later appealed superstitiously to her visits as an explanation for my interest.

    Little did she know that had her mystical nonsense been true, she would actually have been setting me up for an interest in Ralf M. Walker!

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  2. What a cool sounding place! I wonder if anyone's ever thought about opening up the tunnel? (I would. Although that's probably because I think secret passageways are cool.) The cute movie concept about the little kids who discover an underground lair of Houdini magic also brought me back to a funny little notion I've had for a while about Houdini maybe having a secret room somewhere. Just sounds like something he'd do. Although that may just be my weird fascination with secret passageways again... :D

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    1. The tunnels might be filled in. Not sure it would be safe to open them up as they run under Laurel Canyon and that's now a very busy street.

      BTW, I had heard the tunnels were a myth, but Jose showed us where they connect to the property. They might actually be less "secret tunnels" than some kind of city irrigation channel or drain.

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    2. The article itself says theres a tunnel from under Houdini's house to the mansion. With elevators. Where is that? It also says caves. Are there natural cave systems in the area?

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    3. The elevator is something Pat talks about and is long gone. The caves on the property are not tunnel like cave. More like alcoves.

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    4. Houdini was an assassin. He used the tunnels in his work as an assassin of the Invisible Lodge. Of course tunnels are present under his habitats, he came and went...and killed.....and lived....with complete secrecy about his "true" occupation. Diamond Jim of Chicago was just one of Houdini's "hits" while Houdini was "on stage."

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    5. This sounds like a cool graphic novel. Except the Invisible Lodge was not founded until 1953. But still.

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    6. It’s said now that Diddy’s house has tunnels and so did the play boy mansion. It’s also said that they are used for sex trafficking. I’m curious which house on Laurel Canyon Boulevard has different rooms with all the colors of the Rainbow? It said that they have parties there and initiation practices that people get invited to each room signifies with a color, a different sinful nature. Green for envy, Red for wrath and anger, And so on.

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    7. Nothing like that on this property. Diddy would be bored.

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    8. From my best guess, That house with the colors belong to M.R. or R.R. that's as best as I can put it. Now this isn't for sure. That's the most I will speak on this dangerous topic.

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  3. This was great - it's been well worth the wait. Nice work.

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  4. Incredible stuff. I enjoyed the Circumstantial Evidence and am also intrigued by the gate that had the words "Houdini & Wilson 1919" stamped on it.

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    1. Jose still has some of the original gates stored on the property. I climbed around them hoping to find the stamped one, but no luck. Both Jose and Patrick dismissed it as something Williams cooked up himself. But I don't know...

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  5. I visited the site from the road with Patrick a few years ago.
    It was nice to see close up pics of the estate that I did not get to see.
    Very good research. You guys did good.

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    1. Thanks Mark. I have Patrick to thank for this. He was the one who was invited. He insisted I come along. :)

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  6. John, You and Patrick did a fantastic job, as usual.

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  7. Wow, another awesome article! Thank-you and thanks to Patrick Culliton for bringing some light to this murky, mythical story. I wish I could go see that myself!

    P.S. You were a cute kid, John! :)

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  8. Houdini might have played poker over at Mr. Walker's place a lot to make people think that way. He is, after all, a frequent visitor.

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    1. Yes, if he did rent the house across the way, he would have been a frequent visitor.

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  9. This would be good place to visit to! I've been wondering what kind of enrollment does Houdini lived into and how did he developed such amazing skill to do those life-threatening tricks. I guess, the home he used to live to will pretty much explain it.

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    1. You might like to read this, Shannon. This is about his home in New York: Discovering 278: the home of Houdini

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  10. The tunnel was destroyed in 1957 when large storm drains were installed under Laurel Canyon. Laurel Canyon, being a natural waterway, with spring fed streams all year rounds and serious flooding during the rainy season, needed these storm drains. However, I am told that something still remains of the tunnel. It was strictly to allow pedestrian traffic to travel between 2435 to 2400.
    Also, the July, 1935, final Houdini seance with a small group of magic dignitaries was held at 2435. The cocktail party which I think was the following day was outdoors at 2400 and of the five hundred PCAM conventioneers and their wives "most attended."

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    1. Thanks for the info on the '35 seance, Patrick. Great to know.

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  11. As a Chelmsford Estate Agent, we get "famous" and "historical" properties littered amongst our roster from time to time. There are quite a number of properties in the UK which have that little sparkle to it having being owned by someone whose name people remember. Houdini is definitely one of them and I envy the agent who got to represent this little piece of real estate!

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  12. Great article. Ralf was my great-great uncle. So many interesting stories about him.

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    1. Really? That's great. Any stories about him knowing Houdini?

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  13. My great aunt, Freda Evans lived in the carriage house for many years when it was owned by Fania Pearson. She and her friend were teachers who formed Kalifornia Kiddie Kollege...a school for underprivileged and homeless children. There were times when work was needed to the carriage house, they would be temporarily housed at the estate across the street. We visited her in 1977 or 78. We saw all of the tunnels and caves. Her friend passed away and she resided there until she was no longer able to live on her own. She moved from the Carriage house into a nursing facility in Santa Monica, where she passed away at the age of 100. Freda Rayburn Evans was from East Liverpool, Ohio. She began her teaching career in East Liverpool. I am so happy to see that the carriage house property has been updated and is still being used. I have fond memories of visiting her there.

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    1. My sister.
      And I lived there in the 70s And have vague but magical memories about Is growing up in the laurel canyon. We Must have been The homeless Talked about in this article. Robin hood spoke of here was like a dad to me, My mom was his girlfriend and he called her maid marian. He used to teach us how to make arrows out of add a twigs and sharpen them and bows. I remember learning piano From miss pate and misses Evans. I wish I had photos of us at the mansion but I have such great memories running around the property , exploring the caves. I do have photos of Robin hood and my.Self in my sister when we were little If anyone is interested. He also had a friend he called piper, She played the flute and drove a motorcycle.

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  14. My great aunt, Freda Rayburn Evans, and her friend were both teachers. They formed Kalifornia Kiddie Kollege...a school for underprivileged, homeless and wayward children. The both resided in the carriage house on the property for many years. It was when Fania Pearson owned the property. I remember visiting them in 1977 or 78. I love exploring all of the tunnels and the caves. I remember the red brick garage was still in tact. Her friend, Mrs. Pate, owned a really old black Cadillac which was kept in the garage. Adjacent to the carriage house, to the right, was a level area above the garage. It was full of beautiful flowers. At times when a movie would be shot at that property, the ladies would temporarily be housed in the old Barrymore Estate across the street. It also has been seen in many films. I am happy to see that the carriage house property has been updated and is still being used. I have fond memories of visiting there. Mrs. Pate passed away, and Freda, remained there until her health took a turn. She live to the age of 100. She began her teaching career in her hometown of East Liverpool, Ohio. Thanks everyone for keeping this post "alive".

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    1. So that was your Aunt I met there in the early 80's, [84] ? She was so sweet, and mystical !! I can still see her in my mind, Large straw gardeners hat, flowers pinned to her blouse, Great smile and attitude, a bucket and watering pail in hand. !!!

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    2. Hello, Kathleen. Do you know where the old Barrymore Estate was located?

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    3. Edie, The Barrymore estate in Beverly Hills or Chatsworth CA?

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  15. In 1973 I was summoned to the "Guest House" , noy knowing it had been the Houdini Mansion property. I was there to help "Ron" with his Triumph motorcycle. It was dark and I walked over to the ruins and investigated a bit. It felt spooky as hell. A few days later Ron was by the shop where I worked and were discussing his bike and where he lived. As I told him about my thoughts he replied. nonchalantly, "Oh yes, I life at Houdini's Guest house !! I revisited him a couple times and then went there last time in the early 80,s. I spoke to the resident, an older flower lady, somewhat mystical acting. We spoke about Ron and I wish I had pictures....

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  16. I will share my contact info if you ask, I am not good with computers. Do you know of Ron?? He rode a pre unit Triumph , what they call a Bobber now days. I was employed at Bud Ekins old dealership, Sherman Oaks Honda and Triumph, 1973

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  17. This humble abode used the credits on The Bachelorette,series

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  18. Hi

    Just a typo above music producer Rick Rudin is Rick Rubin. Just thought you should know.

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  19. The "Green Virgin", Lea Alden, published an interesting book of prose in 1951, called SONGS OF THE SINGING POETESS.

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  20. It's 3:58am and I have a wedding there tomorrow. I was just there on the estate for 3 hours and can't begin to speak of what happened. My close friend happens to be a medium and the house has come alive to us. She aksed me about a woman in a green dress and I now know she's speaking about the Green Virgin or Madona. As for Houdini, he's majorly prominent on the grounds but doesn't not want to be read.

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  21. I was aware that Houdini stayed at the estate. I don't have any stories about him, other than that my grandfather was in Detroit when Houdini passed away. My grandfather was a pathologist, and, according to my father, Ralf basically paid for his medical education.

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  22. Well youve got the mentally unstable part wrong because if you look on a map that area of laurel cyn is called Sherwood forest.. Robin Hood was the only person that was actually allowed to stay on the property by the owner fania pearson He managed the property at 2400,2401,2451 for 29 years.

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    1. Sorry about that. I've cut "mentally unstable." Is it true he used to shoot arrows at trespassers?

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  23. Great article.
    I do want to point out this subject/verb agreement error: when you say "After being owned for a time by a man named Mark Jacobs, in June 1997 a colorful antique dealer from Georgia named Patrick Williams purchased the property for $377,777.77," you're saying that Patrick Wilson was owned by Mark Jacobs. : )

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  24. My husband and I were allowed to live there for 6 months, with our 6 children, in tents in 1986. My husband I started the renovation of the gardens for Fania Pearson who at the time was being threatened with enormous fines for the property being a fire hazard. Robinhood wasn't ever the manager, just another occupant. Though He was a colorful character with big black limo and a beer bottle collection, he wasn't mentally ill. Nor did he shoot arrows at anyone. My husband had a national radio program featuring his music he produced there and became nicknamed by Fania as The Singing Rabbi of Laurel Canyon. I drew a cartoon series of our adventures living there which was considered for publication in a local news entertainment paper. The grounds were haunted by a woman which we would occasionally see. We had a family emergency and move to Merced CA at Christmas time and were never able to return to finish Fania's plans to build a community art center in memory of her son. Our time living and working there is one of our family's favorite memories.

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    1. Wow, thank you so much for sharing these terrific memories, Katrina.

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  25. Somewhat confused a bit. My son (band member, Slipknot) said his band stayed in the "Houdini Mansion" when they were recording. I guess they had many paranormal experiences. After reading all the replies, etc., I think that Slipknot stayed at Rick Rubin's. I think he was the producer on their album. Houdini and this history, so very interesting.

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    1. Yes, it very could be they were at Rick Rubin's and believed it was the Houdini house. I've heard this confusion with other bands as well.

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    2. I live in Columbus, Georgia, the hometown of Patrick Williams. He died in July, 2017, and ran an antique store at 3506 2nd Avenue for many years. He was locally renouned as a con man and a fencer of stolen property.

      Today I was at his estate sale at the old shop. One of the salespeople told me that the iron gates on the front of the shop were "Houdini's Gates," and that the family was attempting to sale them to his estate.

      Google led me to this article. I think these are the gates referred to. However, given Williams' reputation, I don't think I would put much faith in any of his claims.

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  26. I worked for the red hot chili peppers (long after the Blood Sugar sessions) and worked on the recording of the Stadium Arcadium album there. We all had heard stories of the haunting, but never saw anything "scary". Flea was living in Malibu and didn't want to commute, so he spent many a night there. The only thing scary that happened to him was one night Magician David Blain climbed through the 3rd floor bedroom window with a girl in tow, not knowing anyone was there. Which is understandable since he was friends with then owner Rick Ruben. Although owned the house lived elsewhere, and used it primarilyfor a recording studio. We had heard about a tunnel, and searched for one, but never found one. Or any evidence of one.
    The basement is pretty creepy. I'll say that much.
    I did get a chance late one night to play a prank on our production assistant. Made him think he hadca ghostly encounter by sneaking into the upstairs bathroom and turning the water on repeatedly. It was hilarious. He came flying down the stairs all excited about the "ghost". When I told him it was me he was so let down that I felt bad. His name is Anthony and still to this day works as John Frusciante's personal assistant. Great guy. Had good times there.

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    1. Thanks for sharing these fantastic memories, Dave! I love David Blaine coming in through the window. :)

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  27. Around 1970, I was a student at Fairfax High and a rank beginner in magic. Several of us decided to hold a Seance in the large burned out house reported to be Houdini's old home. It was a very spooky experience as we knew there was security on the property and we all carried large tins of pepper to confuse the security dogs. Dropping the pepper on the trail, we blindly worked our way in the dark up to the house. We did not use the flashlights carried, as we did not want to alert security to our presence. We entered the house and walked up the stairs, which were open to the sky due to the fire. We sat on the carpet in a circle, held hands and tried to figure out what to do next! I quietly called for Houdini. Nothing happened. We heard dogs barking in the distance and someone yelled, Dogs, I'm getting out of here. We all scrambled down the steps and scattered in all directions, making our way in the dark, back down to Laurel Canyon. I think one or two kids were captured by security, but I do not recall for sure.

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    1. What a great story. Thank you for sharing, Malinda. You can see the inside of the house around that time in THIS POST. Maybe it will bring back some memories. :)

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  28. Strange story since Houdini lived in Harlem NY from 1904 until his death but I guess it is possible he had several homes in his escapades.Spooky stuff for some superstitious folks I suppose.

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  29. Well this is a true story, not a joke, back in the late 60,s my boyfriend best friend Nancy and I went to then known Houdini and we nade our way uo the crumbled stairs from Laurel Canyon, when we git halfway up which their was a tunnel or sonetging, we geard chain dragging and saw a ghist of a woman in a white gown calling the name Robert we ran down the hill, Nancy lost one if her new shoes, Nd she did not want to go find it, and we never visited again, did anyone else experience anything like this?

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    1. Wow that must have been a frightening experience.

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  30. Tangentially related to the so-called Houdini Estate at 2400 Laurel Canyon Blvd are the first two Love LP covers, with the band photographed (in the words of band member Johnny Echols) "at a burned-out house next to the old Houdini mansion. They've torn it down and restored the mansion. It's now a tourist attraction." It's hard to tell where that house would have been—to the south along LC Blvd? to the northeast with a Willow Glen address? Do you have any ideas? Is it possible the house burned in the 1959 fire (a mere seven years before the first Love album was done), leaving just the fireplace standing? If there are any post-fire photos, they might show it.

    Here is what the fireplace looked like in 1966–67:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(Love_album)#/media/File:Love_Album_Cover.jpeg

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Da_Capo_(Love_album)#/media/File:DaCapo_(Love_album_cover).jpg

    https://i.pinimg.com/originals/8c/63/6c/8c636c63cf96327e248a5bfebb8e3d7c.jpg

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    1. Those appears to be remains of a different fireplace than the one that sat on the Houdini property. Could be one of the houses across Laurel Canyon. At that time there were a lot of remains from the '59 fire.

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    2. Is there any repository of photos from that fire? I'll start searching Google, maybe I'll find a pic of that fireplace!

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  31. Not sure if anyone’s mentioned this before, but the “Houdini mansion ruins” feature prominently in Tim Powers’ magical realism novel “Expiration Date.” Allegedly in the novel, the main protagonist acquired Houdini’s own mummified thumb and two plaster casts of his hands from his grave in New York, and then hid these magically-charged artifacts in the carriage house of the Houdini mansion in Hollywood. It even mentions how the “Green Virgin” is a ghost who feels psychically attached like a kind of lost and confused guardian for these items as they remained hidden. In the lore of the novel, Houdini’s mummified thumb acts as a kind of ‘psychic mask’ hiding you from villainous types trying to track you down, and if you hold the plaster hands in your own, they melt away and your own hands temporarily become Houdini’s, capable of all his sleights and lockpicking tricks.

    Tim is also the author of “On Stranger Tides,” upon which the Pirates of the Caribbean movie of the same title was based (and though he’ll deny it up and down, he was friends with Philip K. Dick and is likely Dick’s original inspiration for Deckard, the replicant hunter from “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” upon which “Blade Runner” was made).

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    1. Oh, wow, I've never heard of this. It sounds cool. Thank you for letting us know!

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  32. Thank you for doing the research on this. Ads for the estate keep showing up in my IG feed, and my natural skepticism led me to you. Great story!

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