On Halloween night in 1936, the tiny, white-haired widow of Harry Houdini made her final attempt to contact him from beyond the grave.
Beatrice "Bess" Houdini fell hard in love with the escapologist and stuntman while she was working as a Coney Island dancer at just 18 years of age.
Now 60 and widowed for a decade, she took to the stage on the rooftop of Hollywood's Knickerbocker Hotel.
Before her were celebrities, a Supreme Court judge, reporters, magicians, a psychic researcher and 300 Houdini fans.
Behind her, the HOLLYWOODLAND sign — which today reads just HOLLYWOOD — lit up the skyline.
On a stand nearby were handcuffs, a pistol, writing tools and other items meant to be used by the spirits in the room.
At 8:30pm, her companion, Edward Saint, implored Houdini to make his appearance.
"Manifest yourself in any way possible," he can be heard droning in a recording made of the event.
"Houdini, are you here? Are you here, Houdini?
"Levitate the table, move it. Lift the table, move it, rap on it … we are waiting."
The only response, for more than an hour, was silence.
This was enough for Bess.
"The Houdini shrine has burned for 10 years," she said.
"I now reverently turn out the light. It is finished. Good night, Harry."
But while it was the end of the search for Bess, it was only the beginning of a tradition that has now lasted almost a century.
The 'great mystifier' and his secret code
Harry Houdini, born in Hungary as Erik Weisz, died suddenly of peritonitis, an inflammation of the abdomen, on October 31, 1926.
A week earlier the 52-year-old had performed before a packed house in Detroit and been rushed to hospital the same night.
His death meant the loss of "a great mystifier" and a "useful, forceful character", according to a New York Times obituary.
"Whatever the methods by which Harry Houdini deceived a large part of the world for nearly four decades, his career stamped him as one of the greatest showmen of modern times," they wrote.
In life, he had gained a reputation for denouncing fraudulent mediums — disproving psychic after psychic, sitting through seance after seance.
In death, he had left behind a cipher, a series of code words to prove if it was really him being contacted from beyond the grave.
He and Bess had used the code early on in their career as part of a mind-reading trick.
Now, it would prove whether any medium claiming to contact him was a fraud.
"Since my last seance proved a failure, after 10 years of constant and trying efforts, I'm firmly convinced that communication with the dead is a human impossibility," Bess said.
"I challenge any medium who proclaims tangible proof."
Just a few years later, a "gravely ill" Bess told Time Magazine she had completely given up trying.
"Ten years is long enough to wait for any man," she said.
In the aftermath of the "final" seance, a cottage industry in contacting Houdini sprung up.
On the 10th anniversary of the 1936 seance, Detroit magician Karrell Fox made a new — and once again unsuccessful — attempt.
More followed, organised by different magic societies, mediums and entertainers.
Some of those are still ongoing to this day.
The ever-lasting appeal of a 'golden-age' magician
Today, the annual Houdini seances arranged around the world are more focused on celebrating the magician's life, Houdini historian and author John Cox told the ABC.
"Certainly there are those who take seances seriously, and the Official Houdini Seance is always conducted in a serious and legitimate way," he said.
"But I'm pretty sure he's not coming back."
Mr Cox's love for Houdini began in 1975, after seeing a biopic starring Tony Curtis — first released in 1953 — on television.
From there, he was hooked.
Learning more about the man portrayed as a "bombastic egomaniac" through his letters and diaries, Mr Cox found instead a "role-model".
"I'd like people to know what a decent person he was," Mr Cox said.
"He had an ego, sure, but it is no bigger than any entertainer … he loved his family, his wife, and animals.
"He led a very clean and moral life, and the secret to his success was hard work [and] talent."
Almost a century after his death, Mr Cox noted Houdini was still "doing the job of a great magician".
"[He's] amazing the public," Mr Cox said.
"People are still baffled and impressed by stories of his escapes.
"You can't really say this about any other golden-age magician as magic tricks evolve … the old tricks and performers now seem quaint and old-fashioned.
"Not so with Houdini. He remains modern.
"Also, just the concept of his act — 'Nothing on Earth Can Hold Houdini a Prisoner' — is still hugely appealing.
"Everyone longs to escape something and Houdini embodies that very idea of freedom."
Handcuffs and memorabilia on the 2025 seance table
This year the Official Houdini Seance is being held at the House of Magic in Glenside, Pennsylvania.
The seance will be led by trance medium Scott Wells, with seance director Bill Radner.
"Houdini told his brother that if he were able to return in a material way, he would open a unique set of handcuffs," Mr Radner said.
"Those handcuffs, along with other Houdini memorabilia, will be placed on the seance table this year."
But what would Harry and Bess think of this longstanding tradition?
"I think they'd both be amazed that it is still going on and very pleased to see that Houdini is still the most famous name in magic," Mr Cox said.
"But they might just be disappointed that seances are even still a thing."
