Dateline>City of Angels

Except maybe during rush hour when traffic grinds to a crawl, the winding drive along Laurel Canyon Blvd. can border on the mystical. After all, this rustic L.A. neighborhood is steeped in history and lore. Once a stage pass from the San Fernando Valley through the Hollywood Hills, since the late 1800s the ravine has been a haven for banditos, movie cowboys, prohibition-era boozers, bohemian artists, musicians and other sundry counterculturists. Little wonder so many Angelenos insist the free-spirited road remains a prime connection to otherworldly adventure.

Perhaps no Laurel Canyon site better symbolizes this than the mysterious ruins of a once-posh estate near the intersection of Lookout Mountain Road. Allegedly haunted by master-illusionist Harry Houdini, the private grounds continue to draw lookie-loos seeking fleeting glimpses of his lonely shade amid the property’s rocky stairs and grottoes.

Of course, Halloween is an especially popular time for Houdini drive-bys, since he met the Grim Reaper on this night in 1926. Over the years, there have even been rumors of trespassers sneaking onto the property for clandestine seances in the hopes of conjuring up his spirit — an ironic twist, considering Houdini actually spent much of his career trying to debunk such occultism. Nevertheless, true believers claim the so-called Houdini Mansion is among L.A.’s most haunted places.

But something seems to have escaped Houdini’s spiritualist following. According to historians, he never lived here. Despite what you may read on the Internet, expert research has uncovered no title in his name, nor any conclusive evidence he owned or even rented any home in the vicinity.

In actuality, the estate belonged to Eliza Walker, a Los Angeles furniture entrepreneur. About 1918, Walker built an immense villa on the site, which a wildfire later claimed in 1959. So how did Houdini’s name come to be attached to this locale?

Some Houdini biographers speculate that the master illusionist may have been a silent investor in Walker’s land ventures, and therefore may have been a guest of Walker’s during rare West Coast visits. In his 1974 book Haunted Hollywood, the famous ghost hunter Hans Holzer reported that he was invited to investigate the property in 1969 and again with a psychic in 1970. Fania Pearson, the estate’s owner at that time, insisted that Houdini had held seances in the residence’s large salon during his stays.

Other historians suggest the real association lies with Houdini’s wife Bess, who moved onto Walker’s estate after her husband’s death. City directories from the 1930s give her address as 2435 Laurel Canyon Blvd., a former parcel also belonging to Walker across the street from his mansion. Later, she may also have relocated to a second, Gothic-style guest house that reportedly survived the 1959 blaze and still stands today within the villa’s main gates.

Seeking to establish once and for all whether spirits could be contacted, Houdini made an agreement with Bess before his death. She would hold regular seances and, if successful, he’d reveal his presence via a prearranged code word. Paranormal investigators say Bess almost certainly made an attempt or two at occult contact in Walker’s parlor.

Perhaps Bess succeeded in summoning his spirit forth, but somehow failed in returning it to the Great Beyond. Still dazed, lost and confused, his wraith wanders the Laurel Canyon ruins aimlessly on spooky, moon-filled nights.

Seriously… How else would one explain a ghostly magician materializing again and again to a place that was never among his frequent haunts in life?

[Intersection of Laurel Canyon Blvd. and Lookout Mtn. Road, on the east side. Note the estate is private property, with restricted parking.]