How Salem got ‘Bewitched’

By Sharon Oliver
Contributing Writer

SALEM – Salem’s grim history of witch trials and myths about burnings at the stake is legendary. Executions did occur and the city, once one of New England’s wealthiest towns thanks to its port, suffered a tarnished reputation and fell on hard times due to the controversy. Residents managed to disassociate themselves from their Puritan ancestors for centuries. When playwright Arthur Miller visited to do research for “The Crucible” in 1952, he complained that locals refused to help him and he could not get anyone to say anything about it, as told in the book “Salem: Place, Myth, and Memory.”

Hollywood comes to Salem
By 1970, however, something magical happened that stirred the winds of change. The New England town may be home of the infamous witch trials, but there was a famous fictional witch by the name of Samantha Stephens. She had been captivating a television audience since 1964 in the fantasy sitcom “Bewitched” and in 1970, the cast and crew came to Salem. 

Due to a studio fire on the series set, Hollywood came to Salem to film several episodes of the popular sitcom wherein Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) and husband Darrin (Dick Sargent) travel to Salem after she is summoned there for a witch’s meeting. On their very first day, Samantha is met with trouble during a tour of the House of Seven Gables when an antique bed-warmer begins following her around.

The Season 7 “Salem Saga” episode titles include “To Go or Not to Go, That Is the Question: Part 1,”  “The Salem Saga: Part 1”  (The couple stays at the Hawthorne Motor Hotel in Salem for five episodes), “Salem, Here We Come: Part 2” (partially filmed in Salem),  “Darrin on a Pedestal (filmed in Gloucester),” “Paul Revere Rides Again,” “Samantha’s Bad Day in Salem” (filmed partially on location in Salem), and “Samantha’s Old Salem Trip.” Footage of the Hawthorne Hotel and other iconic landmarks can be seen in various episodes.

Adams native Stacy Schiff, author of “The Witches: Salem, 1692” wrote in the New York Times about Samantha’s journey back to Salem. “Accused of witchcraft in old Salem, she winds up manacled, on trial for her life. She admits to the charge,” Schiff wrote. “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.”

Tourism boom
The event created a significant economic boom and historical awareness in the now tourist-friendly town. In 1982, the annual Haunted Happenings festival began and exploded into a month-long Halloween celebration. In 2005, there was an unveiling of a bronze “Bewitched” statue of Elizabeth Montgomery’s character Samantha in Lappin Park. This collaboration between the city and the network TV Land was welcomed by a crowd of 1500 spectators, along with the late Montgomery’s ex-husband and director of the series, Bill Asher, and Erin Murphy, who played Samantha’s daughter Tabitha.

However, not everyone was pleased with the proposal of having the statue. Some feared it was an affront to the innocent people who were killed even though they agreed it furthered tourism. One Salem resident told The Boston Globe that she felt it was insensitive to what happened in 1692, adding that although Samantha was a fictional witch, the people who died were not witches.

Nevertheless, the statue is still a popular destination spot for tourists taking pictures. Salem recorded over one million visitors during October of last year, including over 87,000 on Halloween alone. The month represents 30 percent of the city’s annual revenue from tourism, but the large crowds and difficulty finding parking may keep some people away. Why not visit Salem in September and enjoy the charms of the Witch City, including half a dozen attractions related to the witch trials, without the huge crowds instead?

Elizabeth Montgomery died in 1995 at age 62 from colon cancer.

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