Who Do You Think You Are us s01e01 sarah jessica parker - Dailymotion Video
Posted on 03/31/2016 6:11:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
How did Salem, Massachusetts become a Halloween destination? For centuries, the New England town avoided any association with its infamous Puritan ancestors, who executed 19 people under suspicion of practicing witchcraft. The surprising answer, author Stacy Schiff writes for The New York Times, has a lot to do with the sitcom "Bewitched."
These days, Salem is rife with kitschy witches and Halloween attractions. But before the late 20th century, town citizens rarely acknowledged the Puritan trials. When playwright Arthur Miller visited Salem to research "The Crucible" in 1952, locals refused to help him. "You couldn't get anyone to say anything about it," he complained, according to "Salem: Place, Myth, and Memory."
Until "Bewitched," that is. In 1970, the popular sitcom filmed episodes on location in Salem, including one where Samantha Stephens, the titular sorceress, travels back in time and is put on trial. Schiff writes:
Accused of witchcraft in old Salem, she winds up manacled, on trial for her life. She admits to the charge. But she announces to the courtroom that she will also prove that no 17th-century suspect was a witch [...] "How can you imprison someone who can vanish before your very eyes?" she demands. Firmly she sets our Puritan forebears straight: "The people that you persecuted were guiltless. They were mortals, just like yourselves. You are the guilty," she informs the old Salemites, before she vanishes, at long last clearing the air.
After "Bewitched," Salem began to embrace a tourist-friendly version of its grim past. The town began hosting an annual Haunted Happenings festival in 1982, which quickly exploded into a month-long Halloween celebration. In 2005, a statue of Elizabeth Montgomery, the actress who played Samantha, was erected in Salem's town square. Today, even the city's police cars are decorated with witch insignia.
(Excerpt) Read more at smithsonianmag.com ...
They’re all trained by a senselessei.
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After all these years, we know Salem was right.
Witchcraft has just been legalized everywhere these days.
Wow, that’s supposed to be a secret. ;’) Asimov wrote “The Martian Way” for the same reason.
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Those mamaries could feed a battalion.
That B- Samantha did. I was enjoying my usual bowl, then one musical twitch of her nose later, and I’d been turned into a chimp and was swinging around trees in the back yard.
All of the Yankees that remained in Salem moved to Marblehead and points West.
One of the Proctors worked for me years ago, possessed by the devil and commie to the core.
Witchcraft vs Santa Claus vs the Tooth Fairy — good idea for the next big Marvel Comics style blockbuster movie.
BTW, apropos of nothing, Dick York’s performances were what drove that show. The guy was great. As sitcoms go, it was a whole different style then, and other than Hogan’s Heroes had little contemporary competition as far as the ensemble cast. What a lineup. I find most of those shows difficult to watch now, because the jokes aren’t funny, and the laugh tracks are just obnoxious.
I had that in Asheville, NC. The city, not the part around the Biltmore. I couldn’t wait to leave.
Agreed! Fabulous lady!
Who Do You Think You Are us s01e01 sarah jessica parker - Dailymotion Video
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