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Magicians summon Houdini in Cleveland on Halloween

In the bowels of the historic bank building at W. 25th and Lorain, magicians from all over the country set up a séance to channel the spirit of the Great Houdini.

In the bowels of the historic bank building at W. 25th and Lorain, magicians from all over the country set up a séance to channel the spirit of the Great Houdini.

They called on Cleveland medium Marianne Goldweber to conjure up their hero, Houdini, who's been dead for 91 years.

Goldweber told Channel 3 News, "No pressure. No. None at all. None at all.

You have to believe if Houdini was to come back, he'd do it in a room full of his biggest fans from across the country ON HALLOWEEN, IN CLEVELAND.

Harry Houdini died on Oct 31, 1926 in Detroit. His next stop was supposed to be Cleveland.

"Maybe he'll come tonight. It's where he was supposed to be,” said Cleveland Houdini enthusiast, Dr. Bruce Averbook.

Tuesday was the 91st Official Houdini Seance.

Houdini promised his wife Bess he'd try to come back.

So every year since his death they have been trying. Bess gave up after 10 years of unsuccessful seances.

Houdini’s brother took the torch from there, and Houdini’s biggest fans have been carrying on the tradition every Halloween since.

See, Harry and Bess Houdini set up a secret code and sealed it in an envelope.

That was to be the sign Houdini would give if he breaks out of the afterlife for his greatest act.

"We have the secret code here. I know the secret code," says Averbook.

Which isn’t entirely surprising when you know Averbook is a magician himself, was president of Cleveland Magicians for 17 years and has been obsessed with the Great Houdini since he was young.

Since then he's collected INSANE amounts of Houdini stuff, like Houdini’s handcuffs, and 2 personal Houdini diaries.

Averbook is incredibly proud of an autographed program from 1910 when Houdini hung from his feet right here in Cleveland working his way out of a straightjacket at 9th and Euclid.

Tuesday they were calling Houdini back to the CLE.

"Because he died on Halloween 1926 so we do it on the day he passed away, hoping to catch a glimpse of Houdini," said Averbook.

If the great escape artist DID find his way back to Cleveland, the magicians who admire him most said they would say…

"Welcome. We're going to find out if you're as good as we all think you are. We’ll even give you a pair of handcuffs to get out of."

Well, in the real world of news, we have a deadline and had to leave before the seance was finished. Averbrook later told us that it's hard to say if Houdini showed or not for the Inner Circle, but they don't want to discount what Marianne Goldweber said during the seance.

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