♪♪ Travel with us to the scenic riverside city of Lambertville, New Jersey, a town along the Delaware that has become a beloved destination for Halloween.

♪♪ Hi everybody, welcome to You Oughta Know.

We are in Lambertville, New Jersey.

This haven for artists and craftsmen is full of hidden treasures.

This is where you'll experience the magic of Halloween, a place where art, creativity and whimsy come together as one.

It all started at this house behind me affectionately known as the Halloween House.

How did you get that distinction?

Well, Dolores Dragan and Lisa Shippy-Woods join me now with the story.

Dolores, talk to me about your creations known as the Dragans.

Well, the Dragans are all people that I know.

Many of them are people in my life, my grandchildren, students that I'd have in school.

What inspired you to get started and when did you start?

I started around 1998 and I had been involved in children's theater at the school I worked in and we were into puppets.

We had some residents come from Italy to build the giant puppets that we had parades in the street and it just caught on and so I started building things and I stole the I gave it back the nurse's skeleton and dressed her up as a bride and put her in the window and the kids were thrilled they gathered around and talked about it for the rest of the year and I continue to treat them by building something every year.

The Dragans are so mesmerizing.

I just love the shading and all of the detail.

What are they made of?

I'm a junk artist and they're made of a lot of different things.

Tree branches, plaster in the beginning but it became too heavy and the older I got the harder it was to move them.

So I started doing things with more lightweight.

I mean you might cut one of these open to fine chopsticks or Amazon boxes.

Literally whatever is around and I taught my kids to use materials like that when I was teaching.

You know everything can you know we're all artists.

And so since 98 you've been creating these Dragans every year.

How many about a year?

My art is tied to my life so sometimes I'll make eight, sometimes I'll make two.

Lisa, so if Dolores is making let's say eight Dragans every year since 1998 you've quite a collection on your hands.

So then how do you get this idea to then create the memory makers trail of magic?

My inspiration was to keep it going.

Dolores's art is renowned in our town.

Everybody loves her collection.

When we were faced with it going away when Dolores decided to retire, we just couldn't make that happen.

So Dolores and I got together in July and started talking about ways to keep it in the community and bring it into the central business district.

So I started a nonprofit and we will be able to take care of this collection forever.

How was the idea of the trail received?

Better than expected by far.

I was worried to start with that it would be difficult to sell sponsorships to have the art in the window.

But right now we have 44 sponsors, 44 window installations and the reaction has been phenomenal.

And then what do we see going forward?

Definitely have some ideas maybe this year or next year interviewing Dolores and having her tell the stories of each Dragan and doing an audio tour.

What's the best way to visit the trail?

Look at the map on our website and follow the trail.

That sounds like so much fun.

Okay, we are going to head out on the trail and we're going to take our viewers with us.

We head to Wilmington, Delaware, where a local high school teacher and his neighbors have created a spooky Halloween trail for the entire community to enjoy.

Around this time of year, you'll find Matt Hoopes in the woods behind his Wilmington home every chance he gets.

He's hard at work creating his annual Haunted Woods Halloween trail.

We still have trail maintenance we have to do.

We need a couple chain saws to cut up a tree that fell over the winter.

All the tree branches we're going to do two giant dump trucks worth of mulch that's going to be put in.

The trail is about 1200 feet long and winds through the backyards of four houses.

This is our 11th year doing this trail in one form or another.

Every year more and more people would come and every year more and more people would say how much they had fun and they enjoyed it and they loved it and the dads would get more and more into it and I'm not the only one doing this.

Let me introduce you to the Tim's Matt calls Tim Bishop and Tim Umbrecht creative geniuses because they outdo themselves every year helping Matt take the trail to the next level.

Throughout the year we're always thinking about it and having meetings and discussing it.

Tim and I meet every month just to talk about Halloween sometimes.

I think a lot of us are putting in like 40 hours, 40-50 hours per week including weekends and then that last week is just all hands on deck.

We have just as much fun if not more than the kids coming through the trail and at the end of the night it's just great to hear them scream and then as they're walking out there laughing about it and you know just entertaining people it's just fun.

Tim Bishop he's super creative he is the master of spray foam.

Some artist work in clay some work in paints he works in spray foam and it is amazing what he can create like I was so skeptical of his house last year I was like there's no way he's going to build a house there's no way he's going to build a house then he build a house out of fence and it looks like a house and it's amazing if there's a front porch there's a little girl swinging on the front porch it's creepy so this over the years we've made different things tombstones as you can see obviously and little crypts and everything else.

I'm in the background there is last year's elevator with that's has pneumatic bags on the airbags on it from the old pickup truck so I'm turning that into a ship this year so a lot of painting, draping, building does happen in here and slowly gets moved out there as we go.

Last year, 950 trick-or-treaters braved Matt's haunted trail.

The intent is for everyone to have a good time.

Obviously we have target audiences.

We're trying to scare the pants off of that.

That definitely happens.

When the little kids come through we don't scare but if you are one of the target audiences we're gonna make your life fun.

You're gonna enjoy yourself.

I do love Halloween because it has scary, it's got candy.

I remember it as a kid being the coolest thing ever.

The coolest thing for Matt, the Tim's and the hundreds who wind their way through the haunted woods of Wilmington, Delaware.

Now let's step into a world of wonder in Glenside PA There you'll find a living tribute to magic housed inside a nearly 100 year old bank.

Welcome to the House of Magic.

This is the Vault of Secrets.

There are over 2,000 safe deposit boxes in here.

Each one containing magic tricks that are used in our close-up shows.

These are the 12 Teller Vaults.

This is where they used to keep the money, but now they're VIP wine lockers.

When I was 5 and a half years old, I saw a magician perform at a friend of mine's birthday party.

Never seen magic before, at least that I can remember, and that really caught my attention.

So when I was about six years old, I started learning magic and doing magic.

The early days, there was no real outlet for either lessons or mentorship.

Later, I was frequenting Kanter's Magic Shop Downtown.

The old guys there, they realized I wasn't going away and so they better start working with me in teaching me so that I learned the right way.

My name is Marc DeSouza and I'd like to welcome you to my first magic video, prize-winning magic.

And so I started competing at magic conventions and when I got a little bit over I started winning some of those competitions.

But at the same time I would see magicians talking about historical magic and see people who collected antique magic.

And by the time I was about 20, 22 years old I decided, oh this is pretty cool stuff.

I want to start getting some of these older pieces of magic for my collection.

And now I have a lot of stuff.

Eugene Berger.

Eugene was a wonderful magician but more so a great philosopher and thinker in magic.

Eugene had a wonderful saying.

There are many rooms in the house of magic, meaning that there are places for everybody in magic, regardless of their interest, whether it's close up magic, children's magic, stage magic, illusions, but also whatever your level of interest is.

There is no facility that I know of in the country that marries both the performance aspects of magic and the historical learning and collecting that we have here at the House of Magic.

It started originally as the Glenside National Bank and Trust built in 1909.

They later expanded the building in 1927.

And so when I walked in here, it was a closed bank, but I looked around and said, "This is the place."

So right now we're sitting in the Johnny Thompson Theater.

They're seating for over a hundred people in here.

We have a second theater, the Fred Capps Theater, which is our close-up theater for more intimate performances, and then there's the vault of secrets, which is the old bank vault, and then downstairs is the museum.

The oldest effect in the history of magic is the Cups and Balls.

It dates back to at least the ancient Egyptian civilization.

This case depicts various versions of the Cups and Balls.

Different cultural manifestations of this effect, along with some of the standards.

In the main room there are a number of glass cases housing, artifacts of magic, beautiful piece of apparatus from over the years.

There are three history rooms, each holding costumes, props, photographs, posters, other memorabilia of famous performers from over a century from all over the world.

And then we have the library, which is the Eugene Berger Library.

It's one of the largest privately held collections of magic books and periodicals in the country today.

Magic, to me, it is the physical manifestation of accomplishing impossible acts.

I want people to understand that magic is art.

Magic can be a craft, but it can also be a great art.

Even a man who is pure of heart and says his prayers by night may become a wolf, when the wolf bain blooms and the moon is full and bright.

(wolf howl) Every year, the owner of an unassuming Philly jewelry store turns Halloween into a night of glitz, glamour, and sparkle, which reflects his elaborate approach to jewelry design.

Welcome to Halloween.

How may we help?

This store is 35 years in this location.

When I bought the building, they didn't tell me it was a historical building and it had to look like it does, but they can't touch the inside, so I can do whatever I want.

And I did.

My vision was that I want to present things that I love and give people choices because catalogs don't count.

And going online doesn't count.

You need to touch things and I want to show every available thing.

And not everything is a million dollars, not by any means.

We have things for ten bucks.

It's just jewelry in its most interesting forms for you.

It doesn't have to be crazy.

It can be the simplest thing, but it looks good on you.

Therefore, that's what we're going to make.

This whole section is all the antiques, meaning something from maybe 1840, 50, up to 1930s.

That's what I still consider antiques.

The balcony is categorized with sections of subjects.

There's 52 cases up there.

Dogs, cats, birds, animals, sea life, it goes on and on.

They are just to give examples.

Once people understand that anything could be remade in another version, smaller, bigger, it opens up their mind.

And we have a good time.

Some people find things as is wonderful.

Buy them go, everybody's happy.

But I just assume make it as no extra charge.

And I think I'm the last of a dying breed that does that.

But I want everybody happy.

The center section is all of our work.

It's myself and six other jewelers.

We put out everything we can think of what it could be.

So for example, if you think you'd like Opal, I have Opal you've never seen in colors you've never heard of.

I'll show you them.

I'll warn you about how fragile they are but how beautiful they are.

It's my favorite stone.

And then I'll show you the other colors available which could go in any form with whatever color metal pleases you.

We could make it happen.

This section is my whimsys I find a pearl or a stone.

I don't change it.

I just turn it into something else that it reminds me of.

The Woodmere Museum has decided that they like that idea and they're opening a Philadelphia Jewelers wing in their new mansion this month and they're featuring me.

I gave them names of other Philadelphia Jewelers who also do wonderful work.

These are things that I've created from what the pearl or the stone told me to do.

These pearls remind me of ears.

I did Mr.

Potato Head.

This is a volcano, the lava flowing down, a basket of baguettes and this is a drop of water and I have it coming from a watering can.

This is fun for me.

They're one of the kinds.

And to have these pieces appreciated not just by a private person but by a museum which will be forever, people can enjoy and understand that they're not locked into anything, anything is possible.

The Halloween Bowl is my hobby.

It started in 1968 because I had nowhere to go wearing my costumes.

It's grown into what it is.

It's fun.

The Bowl this year is at the Kimmel Center on Broad Street.

It's the third year there.

It's a great space for this kind of an event.

Dancing from 7:30 to 10.

10 o'clock we have the contest.

We have eight different categories.

They change every couple of years.

Preparation is beyond anything you can imagine because I wear a minimum of three costumes myself.

The year 2000, this was my first costume at that ball.

I'm on stills.

This is to greet the crowd.

And then I make an appearance as a caterpillar on a mushroom and then change to this.

I have to be able to be seen because it gets crowded.

So they've gotten taller and larger as time has gone by.

One year I rented a 15 foot inflatable pumpkin and I was on top of it as a spider.

That's my fun to greet everybody coming in.

We get every kind of person straight gay up and down the east coast.

We get people from California.

It's a kind of event where everyone's looking at everybody else.

Let me look at you.

Let me take your picture.

Who are you?

It's a great way to meet people.

There's more relationships and started and ended my party than anywhere else.

The similarity between the store and the ball are that I'm giving people an opportunity to express their wishes, their ideas, their wants, their desires in as nice a way as possible.

And I just want to make people sparkle.

Skeletons aren't just for Halloween.

Assemblage artist Sue Moerder, yes, that is her name.

Show us how skull art can be part of your everyday decor.

I don't know where the inspiration comes from.

It's hard to keep up with all the ideas I have sometimes.

I've always constantly worked over time with my idea, you know, making machine up there.

When I used to tattoo, I had a lot of hunters that I would trade with, and I also worked with a butcher in his family, I tattooed all of them.

And they were wonderful with getting me like sheep, drumfish skulls, are amazing.

My art is assemblage art.

It's made from old antiques, hardware, different textures, and then I add bones and skulls to give it a different kind of feel.

I grew up in an artistic family.

I went to Philadelphia College of Art.

I ended up tattooing, and then I fell in love with skulls and painting skulls, and then it became more sculptural.

And that's how I ended up with the assemblage art.

Skulls are beautiful, just as a natural component in my art.

There's so many details and beauty in the bones.

And I love the contrast between the metal.

I love using coyotes, deer, sheep.

I use ostrich skulls, cat skulls, dog skulls.

I've tried everything.

I'm very visually inspired by things.

I just forced myself to sit down and I go through all my buckets and find something that inspires me.

I think for city dwellers it's very important to get the most out of your items in your apartment so if you want art and it can be a lamp or a mirror that's two purposes so people can get a function out of them and still enjoy them.

Some people just like to buy one thing as like a focal point in their home.

It's a conversation starter.

Working at Other World was really an incredible experience.

The fact that I can have a room up there that's a permanent display is amazing.

Everybody takes their own direction when they look at my art.

Art is supposed to evoke a motion or a response and I get plenty of that.

I love seeing people react to it, especially when they see it in bulk and they come in.

It's like a skull wonder world.

It's a lot of fun.

On this Halloween night we go deep beneath the earth to explore a cave in Hellertown, Pennsylvania.

I grew up with this being part of my life every day.

As a young child I thought that didn't everybody have a cave.

The caverns were originally discovered by quarrying limestone.

They were using that limestone locally in the iron industry.

The limestone company went out of business and the cave itself was preserved but had been used in the very early part of its discovery as a dance hall.

It was a wooden plank floor and it had been inspired by the local trolley company as an attraction for people to come here and dance.

My grandmother and grandfather were discussing what they would like to do for the rest of their life.

And they eventually decided on the cave and that's how it got started back in the late 20's.

It was a little bit different, but it does sound interesting because as a young child, that you would have this wonderful opportunity to play and explore, but you didn't really think that it was unusual.

As my sister, myself, had taken over from my parents and we had worked in the cave, gave tours, did a lot of the maintenance work and so forth over the years.

In case you're wondering why someone would want to get married in a cave, it's a very handy place if you don't want to marry anybody on the face of the earth.

Everyone that comes here of course has different expectations as to what they're going to see.

Some people find it to be spooky, but what people find fearful about a cave is what they brought with them to the cave.

It's not what they find here in the cave.

It's very peaceful and quiet and serene.

There is a stream that flows through a cavern, which is called the Lost River.

And it's very clean water, it's crystal clear.

And this started out as rain soaked into the ground and then found its way down through the caverns.

But we don't find anything that would tie it directly to the surface.

It is pure clean.

Stalactites and stalagmites are probably one of the most well-known cave formations.

And those get confused but an easy way to remember as a stalactite have to hang tight the ceiling or they might become stalagmites.

You have a tremendous pride in being able to give people the knowledge and experience of being underground, experiencing the formations in their natural environment.

So it gives them a very complete understanding of how a cave develops.

I will invite you to come visit us.

You might actually learn a little bit about geology and the development of caves.

And more importantly, the enjoyment of natural wonder that you'll find.

We often call this the "underground wonderland."

Just as it is, it's pretty amazing.

Our trip along the Memory Makers Trail of Magic has come to an end, but there are still so many Dragans left to be discovered.

We're going to send you off with a look at some of the other stops along the trail.

Happy Halloween everyone!

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