by During the month of October, three legendary figures that helped define the Halloween season as we know it today passed over “to the other side.”
On Oct. 3, 2004, Janet Leigh died of vasculitis. Best known of course as the 
unfortunate shower-taker in the original Psycho, Leigh actually built an impressively wide array of Hollywood work, including comedies, dramatic roles, and musicals. However, her roles in Psycho, The Fog, and Halloween H20 have assured her a spot in the terror hall of fame.
And, of course, Janet also has the distinction of being the mother of all scream queens, Jamie Lee Curtis!
1926 saw the passing of Harry Houdini. While his name has become synonymous with magic and illusion, his real passion later in life was the exposure of 
fraudulent mediums. Many find it ironic that the master of illusions targeted those who made a living out of tricking others, but who better to sniff out fakes than someone who was an expert in tricks of the mind?
When he died on Halloween, Houdini and his wife, Bess, decided on a “secret phrase” that he would utter if he returned from the grave to visit. Annual seances proved fruitless, and Bess died without ever hearing Houdini’s ghost saying to her “Rosebelle, believe.”
Born in St. Louis (just minutes away from this blogger’s home), Vincent Price starred in dozens of blood-drenched frightmares. 1939’s role in Tower of London set the stage for the mild-mannered Price to become the Master of the Macabre over the next several decades, playing everything from psychotic creator of living wax figures to murderous party hosts.
Surprisingly, one of his favorite roles was of neither a murderer nor an unfortunate victim, but instead the voice of Ratigan in the Walt Disney cartoon The Great Mouse Detective.
A lifelong smoker, the Pied Piper of Pallor died of lung cancer Oct. 25, 1993.
