- In the days of King Arthur, they lived in Camelot, who entertain the royal court with miraculous feet south high above the walls.

The ancient meet with members of the magic round table.

Come with us now to the secret room of - Did.

Did you see what happened?

That car just vanished and it turned into, well, I don't know what this is exactly.

It looks like a 20th century house, but we'll, we'll find out more about this later on.

Right now.

It's time for what?

Right?

It's time to make the mighty sword Excalibur rise and learn the theme word for the day.

Let's, let's say the magic words together, shall we?

Here we go.

Fiddly, die fiddly.

D magic sword rise for me.

And the magic words today are, can you spell that?

Two words, aren't there?

Haunted house.

Do you know what a haunted house is?

Well, it's supposed to be a place that has spooks inside of it, ghosts and spooks.

But you and I know that, that spooks don't exist.

There are just in the mind.

Right?

There are no spooks.

That's just something that is a superstition in people's mind.

We're gonna talk about haunted houses today.

And I did, did, oh, what is that?

I hear something, but I don't see anything.

Do you?

What?

- Look, look behind you.

Merlin.

- Oh, it's, it's just, just Smedley.

The spook.

Hi, Smedley.

- Hi.

I'm Smedley.

Yeah.

The spook.

Yes, but that, aren't you as scared?

- No, I'm sorry.

That doesn't do a thing to me.

Smedley.

I'm not frightened at all.

Not really.

- No.

Merlin.

- Yeah.

- That's not very nice.

You're supposed to be afraid of me.

- Well, I'm not afraid because I just like, you know, he's just a trick, isn't he?

- Oh, you've spoiled my whole day.

I'm sorry.

Nobody, nobody's afraid of me.

- I'm sorry.

Don't, don't cry.

You.

You're, you're getting the floor all wet, Smedley.

No, I can't, can't help it.

Don't.

I'm a failure.

Oh, isn't that a shame?

Nobody's afraid of, I'm sorry, Smedley.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry.

He's such a nice friendly, make-believe, spook that.

I hate to make him feel badly, but you and I do know right?

Spooks or ghosts do not exist.

But our theme word today deals with haunted houses.

So we have a haunted house, a pretend one from the 20th century.

Now, I'm told that whenever spooks appear at a haunted house, it's usually the hour of what time?

It's usually the hour of midnight.

Listen.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 O'clock.

And what about 12?

Oh my, that's a cheap clock, isn't it?

Alright, it's midnight.

We'll pretend it's midnight.

And you know, what else?

Do you know what else happens when spooks appear in haunted houses?

Do you know?

Well, usually it's a dark and stormy night and it, it thunders and lightnings.

I'm scared already.

It's a scary night.

And do you know what else is going to happen if you use your imagination right now?

Our friend gpi the Ghost, his name is Py.

Isn't that a funny name?

About this time at midnight on a dark and stormy night, he walks up to the front porch.

Did you see him?

You didn't.

Well watch a little more closely and maybe you'll seepy open the front door.

Watch.

And now he's going upstairs here.

Hear him go upstairs.

Now he's going to the front bedroom window.

And if you watch closely, you may see him open the window.

Watch, there's glory.

Oh, oh, he saw you.

He's frightened and he ran away.

Let's look inside of our house and see if we can find Gopi.

Our little make believe spook.

It's possible that we can see him inside.

I'll take the front of the, of the house off.

Right now I don't see py, but I see instead a glass, an empty glass.

Hello.

Py py.

I don't see him anywhere.

I What?

We'll do, we'll, we'll put a little milk in the glass and see if, if Gopi will, will drink the milk.

I understand that that ghosts like milk very much.

I'll just pour some right in here.

He may be a little bashful, you know, because it takes a little while sometime.

Gopi, I see you're hiding in the corner.

Now.

Here I'll put the, he's lazy.

I'll put the straw over where he can get it.

Over here.

Here.

Gopi, will you please drink?

Just, just put, just no, not there.

The end of the straw.

I want you to take right gl, just a straw, - All of it.

I want you to be good and strong.

gl.

Yes.

Good and strong.

All of your milk.

All of it.

Down to the bottom.

Every bit - That, there we go.

Now I think, Py, you can just wait.

I'll be right back.

I think Py is now strong enough that he will cooperate and do some tricks for us.

I hope he will because he is really quite a friendly, quite a friendly ghost.

You know how you can tell if he's there?

Well, we test with a little spirit bell.

This is a spirit bell and I'm going to place it down in the house.

If you're Thereor, ring the bell.

Ring the bell.

Well gopis there.

We know that, don't we?

All right.

I wonder if he can answer a question.

This is a spirit hammer and spirits answer questions by wrapping one for no and two for yes.

Let's, let's think of a question to ask.

Lordy, shall we?

Alright, I'm gonna put the hammer right here in the center of the house where you can watch.

It should be one for yes and two for no.

I had it backward.

One for yes and two for no.

Are you there?

Gl?

Yes.

Do you like to entertain us?

No, you don't.

Is Michael LaPage a good, a good boy?

Yes.

We all agree to that.

We think Mike LaPage is, is a pretty good boy, don't we?

Now this is one of the most difficult tests of all for a, a spook to performant.

I don't know if he'll do it, but we'll try it.

It's called the test of the enchanted candlestick.

This is a candlestick right here.

And I'm going to place the candle right in the center of the house, right down here.

And sometimes Gopi will lift the candlestick that's right, right out of the holder and he'll spin it around in the air.

Let's watch.

Come on.

You're strong.

You can do it all the way.

Isn't that a good trick?

Now slowly put it back down.

Gopi slowly put it down.

That's a good boy all the way down.

That was rather good, wasn't it?

Have you ever seen, have you ever seen the spirit table?

This is even better than a magic trick.

And I think, I think Py might do that if we give him a little encouragement.

You've seen a magician.

Make a lady float.

Well, py is going to make something else float, we hope.

I'm gonna put the table right here, right in the center of the haunted house.

And if he's strong enough, our little friend, I think he can make the table.

Well you watch and see for yourself.

Watch little more, little more.

Now I'm gonna try to put a ring around there and see if anything's holding it.

See if he's using a trick or something.

No, there doesn't seem to be anything holding it at all.

A little higher.

Glory.

That's it.

Have you ever seen a spook make a table float before?

I've never seen that happen.

It's the most unusual trick.

Now there is one final, one final trick that some spooks like to do, and that is, well, how shall I say it?

It's called the flower trick.

When they're all through with their spirit manifestations, they sometimes disappear and turn into many, many flowers.

Now you're gonna have to come very close to watch this.

I don't feel anything around here in the general area, nothing at all.

But if I snap my fingers once, twice, and three times, let's see what happens.

One, two, and three.

This is the most difficult of all spirit tricks.

And it's called the flower.

The flower materialization.

These smell very nice.

Would you like one for yourself?

You and your mother?

Here, you dropped that one.

Catch this one.

Fine.

That's good.

I'm gonna keep these for myself.

And I have something over here in which you might be interested.

Now you know that spooks don't exist.

There are no such things as haunted houses and spirits.

It just looks that way.

And just as Merlin did magic tricks.

So do spirits manifest themselves or appear?

It's done either by trickery or by accident.

There are no real spooks.

There's no real smedley to spook.

It looks like it.

It even looks sometimes like he has.

Well, like he has an invisible dog.

I think he's coming now.

Smed Lee's dog.

Come here.

Come here.

All you little rascal.

Isn't he nice?

Now?

You know very well.

I don't have a dog here, right?

It's impossible, but it just kind of looks.

Now take it easy, boy.

Take it easy.

You know?

Of course.

Come back here.

Please let you come back.

Oh, come on now.

Boy, take it easy.

That's it.

Relax.

I hope you will believe that all so-called spooky things just happen by natural means that all you're seeing when you see a spook show is a magician show.

Just somebody doing magic tricks.

Boy, take it easy.

Take it easy.

That's it.

Just say it.

That's it.

When a, a shutter bangs in your house and you hear it squeak at night or a window slam shut, it just happens from a natural cause, right?

Just from a natural cause.

And really spooks don't exist.

You can explain all of these things by the wind blowing, by the house being old and squeaking a little bit.

And hence comes the myth of the haunted house.

Every neighborhood claims they have one.

And goodbye now.

Bye.

I'll see you soon.

Merlin was produced in the studios of Ohio University Television, Athens, Ohio.