I get a lot of interesting questions asked of me in my line of work. A lot of them are questions I won’t answer because let’s face it, even celebrities have a right to privacy. Some, I just plain don’t have the answer to. But over Rosh Hashanah, I got blindsided by a doozy!

A little old lady came up to me at Temple, and said to me, “You’re the gossip writer?”

“Well, I write a column, yes.” I admitted.

“Well, maybe you can tell me something” She went on. “What’s this I hear about the “Poltergeist” curse?”

Needless to say, I was surprised. Sure, there was an inside rumor about it, but I had no idea the industry legend had attained urban proportions. And, with Halloween just around the corner, I thought it would make an appropriate topic for this month’s column.

Yes, there was a supposed curse attached to the three Spielberg movies, which dealt with a disgruntled spirit wreaking havoc on a suburban family. Shortly after the completion of the first one, Dominique Dunn, daughter of the celebrated writer Dominick Dunn, was savagely murdered by her boyfriend. Then, within weeks of the completion of the second film, Julian Beck and Will Sampson both died, the former of cancer, and the latter from a mysterious heart ailment for which he had just undergone surgery. The most famous death, sadly, was that of Heather O’Rourke, who died of cardiac arrest due to advanced Crohn’s disease during the filming of the last movie. Some have even blamed the curse for the passing of Beatrice Straight, (who died eighteen years later from pneumonia,) justifying her inclusion by insisting there’s nothing worse than a slow lingering death.

But the curse didn’t stop there. Oliver Robbins, who played the Freeling’s son and who was almost killed when the clown doll began actually strangling him. Zelda Rubenstein, whose portrayal of a psychic in all three movies stole everything but the cameras, was sitting for some publicity photos when suddenly a jolt knocked her to the floor. Rumor has it, she looked up tearfully and said, “My Mother just died.” It was soon found thereafter that her mother had in fact passed, but more amazing was that one single frame of film, taken just before she lunged from the chair, was inexplicably clouded.

But if there was really a curse, then how, I have asked many times, does one explain the other side of the coin? JoBeth Williams, Craig T. Nelson, and James Karen, who played the oily real estate developer, Zelda Rubenstein, all continue to work steadily. Steven Spielberg seems unscathed, unless you call being arguably the most successful director in history being cursed. Oliver Robbins, who never acted again, went on to write and direct. The three films went on to achieve enormous success, and are still, a quarter century later, among the most oft-rented videos in the world.

I could list a lot of movies and television shows for which a curse might explain similar circumstances. Personally, I don’t believe in curses, especially where Hollywood is concerned. It seems that ever since King Tut’s tomb was opened, curses have been blamed for everything that people lack a rational explanation for. The Poltergeist films were no different than any other movie, other than an inordinate share of mishaps and unfortunate passings. Julian Beck knew he was dying of cancer when he made Poltergeist Two. Heather O’Rourke’s Crohn’s Disease was congenital. Dominique Dunn had been in the abusive relationship for some time, having been said to come to the set with bruises. And as for Beatrice Straight, she was eighty-six years old at her death. A curse had nothing to do with it.

But if you want to keep the mystique alive, and Zelda Rubenstein’s actual psychic experience doesn’t do it for you, try this one on for size.

While driving through the Creek Indian reservation, where Will Sampson is buried, Craig T. Nelson stopped to pay his respects. He remembered the cicadas were out and the noise they made was deafening. When he approached Sampson’s grave, he said, “Hey, Will, It’s Craig.”

The Cicadas became silent.

Till next month, Gang.