SALEM, Mass., Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Terrorism isn't scaring people away from having a frightfully good time this year in Salem, Mass.
In this historic "Witch City," terror is a $30-million-a-year business.
It's make-believe terror, though, usually engaged in playfully by ghouls, ghosts and goblins and other creepy creatures.
And during the Halloween season, nobody dresses the part quite like Salem.
This year, however, the festivities have been tempered somewhat by real-world acts of terrorism.
While shocked and saddened by the atrocities of Sept. 11 and mindful of threats of more terrorist acts, Salem is heeding President Bush's suggestion to all Americans to "go about their lives."
And the seaport city just north of Boston is doing just that, with enthusiasm.
The month of October is the busiest time of the year in Salem, a town infamous for the hysteria that led to the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 during which 20 men and women were executed as witches, all but one at the end of a rope on Gallows Hill.
That historic event spawned a major industry for Salem, which expects some 200,000 visitors during the October-long celebration known as "Haunted Happenings."
People come to Salem from all over to enjoy dozens of museums, shops, fright houses, and restaurants, and to take part in street parties and costume balls. The major ball is on Oct. 31 at the Hawthorne Hotel, where the King and Queen of Halloween will be crowned.
Have the terror attacks on America cowed the people in Salem?
"Absolutely not," said Ellen Tobiasz from behind the ticket counter at Salem's Museum of Myths and Monsters, which offers a guided tour through the history of fear.
Surrounded by dozens of snarling and grotesque masks glaring down from the walls, Tobiasz said her phone "has been ringing off the hook" with people looking for information.
At the nearby witch shop, The Cat, the Crow and the Crown, Joanna (who declined to give her last name) said people were a bit depressed for a few days after Sept. 11, but "are getting on with their lives" so that the terrorists would not win.
"I'm looking forward to Halloween," Joanna said, "like the rest of the people in Salem."
Business has also been good at the Salem Witch Museum, which through staged sets tells of the time of terror for those caught up in the witch hysteria of 1692, when "fear was the climate of their lives."
"There's been no tour cancellations, and the traffic is just crazy," said the museum gift shop cashier, ringing up another sale.
Organizers of the Halloween-related festival had already begun to scale back the terror factor a bit even before Sept. 11. Denise Flynn of the Salem Chamber of Commerce said she and others "have been trying to make Halloween more family friendly and less terrifying."
She said "backing away from the terror factor ... was afoot anyway, long before the September thing."
Kate Fox of the Salem Office of Tourism and Cultural Affairs, agreed. She said planners have been "gearing toward family activities," and events downtown so far this month have drawn great crowds.
"People seem to be having a really good time escaping," she said. "A month has passed and people are ready for a little escapism, and Haunted Happenings is a great place to do that."
Because of Sept. 11, some venues have "changed their scripts," Fox said, such as a "Haunted House" that tempered down its extensive use of the word terror.
Visitors can still get a good scare in Salem, if they want.
Three downtown attractions are featured on one ticket, called "The Fright Pass, Salem's only Ticket to Terror." It's good for Terror on the Wharf, the Vampire Vortex Tunnels of Terror, and Boris Karloff's Witch Mansion, which boasts: "If we don't scare you, you're already dead."
Also among Salem's official "fright sites" are Dracula's Castle and the Salem Wax Museum of Witches and Seafarers.
One visible sign of change since Sept. 11 is a big trend toward patriotic costumes.
Katie Morrison at Samantha's Costumes said she's noted a definite difference in what costumes customers want this year.
"It's a lot of like Uncle Sam, Uncle Sam hats, and Lady Liberty, Betsy Ross costumes. Everybody's calling for the Statue of Liberty," she said.
There are fewer devils and grim reapers, and "no one looks at the Arab-type costumes," she said. "They go, 'OK, don't think we can do that this year,' and they walk right by. (Or) 'Don't do that, somebody might kill you,' I've heard about every remark that you can get."
The Chamber of Commerce's Flynn said one person showed up at a recent event dressed as an eagle.
"It was," she said, "a beautiful costume."
