Midmorning With Aundrea - November 6, 2020 (Part 3)

Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" has become a perennial spooky favorite for over two centuries.

We visit the area where it all began

The spooky season may be over.

But in one part of the country, the legend of sleepy hollow is year round.

It was first published 200- years ago by washington irving, considered by many to be the father of the american short story.

'sleepy hollow' may be america's all-time greatest ghost story... and two centuries later, still linked forever to halloween.

Jeff glor visits the history of this classic tale, in the spot where it all began.

Many people passing by these days don't even know it's there.

But 25 miles north of new york city, in a place overlooking the hudson river, the legend of the headless horseman took off.

Jeff glor: i can't think of a more iconic halloween character than the headless horseman.

Elizabeth bradley: he really is the one.//he's kind of the original american ghost story, and he's our arch-villain.

Elizabeth bradley is an author and expert on the man who first told of the horseman 200 years ago: washington irving.

Jg: he wrote here?

Bb: he did.//and he wrote in that room right there - that was his study.

We spoke to her at irving's famed sunnyside estate.

Betsy bradley: the stories he wrote were witty, mischievous, anarchic-- and they have really formed the foundation for so much of-- of american literature.

Jeff glor: "mischievous" is good word for it.

Betsy bradley: definitely.

Definitely.

Set shortly after the american revolution, irving's "th legend of sleepy hollow" unspool the story of ichabod crane, an oddball outsider who arrives in town and pursues a beautiful young woman, katrina van tassel.

The story has spawned countless adaptations& most notably disney's 1949 classic "th adventures of ichabod and mr. toad"... and the 199 tim burton film "sleepy hollow starring johnny depp jeff glor: when people revisit the legend of sleepy hollow today, what should they think?

Elizabeth bradley: i think they should take the time to appreciate the imagery and the way in which it's inspired all of the adaptations.

You can see the language of irving reflected even in the disney version as well as the burton version and-- and-- and onward, there is something about the mystery and the way in which irving describes the landscape as being a "visionary one, one of "contagion," that think really describes our own obsession with halloween today.

That contagion takes on an even more eery relevance these days.

Guess what else was happening a little more than two hundred years ago.

Jeff glor: washington irving fled a pandemic?

Elizabeth bradley: he did, he did.

He came to this region first as a teenager.

And the reason he did so is because new york was experiencing an epidemic of yellow fever.

Jeff glor: so people trying to get out of a major city into the suburbs?

Elizabeth bradley: very much as they are today.

Very much as they are today.

Irving's sunnyside is still open to visitors, but because of our current pandemic, no one is allowed inside, where his writing desk, and the bedroom where he died in 1859 have been preserved.

People of all ages come to hear the stories& about the legend, and its author, whose penchant for mischief is on full display: betsy bradley: 11:17:06 1656 is just a date that that irving put up for the fun of it -- this is-- a little touch of //the ways in which-- irving liked to play with ideas of authenticity, with the notion of history being fixed.

Jeff glor: 11:17:46 so people walk by this and say, "1656, and like, what does that mean, and-- betsy bradley: 11:17:48 they think that the house, as-- as we see it today, must have all been built in 1656.

And i think irving would have loved that.

Jeff glor: 11:17:55 which-- but it's not true at all?

Betsy bradley: 11:17:56 it's not true.

No.

There would have been a very small farmhouse here.

Not far away from the house, the graveyard at the old dutch church where the horseman is said to roam, is also a tourist attraction today.

Jg: so he just hangs out here?

Bb: that is what they say.

You can come back here after dark if you'd like to test that theory.

Irving is buried in the adjacent sleepy hollow cemetery.

Betsy bradley: part of what makes this region feel so charmed and-- and possible haunted is that not only is his home here, but his gravesite is here, and they're both accessible to anyone who wants to come and see them.

The cemetery even features a bridge, not unlike one that figures prominently in the legend.

Jg: people know it as the horseman's bridge?

Bb: they insist this must be the bridge//y'know at the base of this bridge is where they were meant to have found the shattered pumpkin, and the saddle of the horse ichabod rode, and no ichabod, and he was never seen again.

At least... on the pages of irving's story& jeff glor: what's your favorite version of the story?

Elizabeth bradley: i'd say irving's, because there's so much magic in it and there's so much detail and mystery to be mined.

And there's a lot of comedy too that people tend to lose sight of.

Jeff glor: but the ending is-- the ending in-- in irving's version remains nebulous.

Elizabeth bradley: yes.

It's purposefully vague, i think.

And that's part of irving's genius.

Jeff glor: that means that the headless horseman then could still be-- elizabeth bradley: absolutely.

He's-- he's ageless.

So yeah.

So just-- just-- you know, don't look behind you.

Still to come, fall television is back on cbs with an unusual story of sharing.

Mid morning