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The Haunted Mansion is a complex dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris (as Phantom Manor). Each incarnation of the attraction features a ride-through tour of a haunted house in Omnimover vehicles called Doom Buggies, preceded by a walk-through show in the queue and exit. Both parts of the attraction showcase special effects and spectral Audio-Animatronics.
History
Original concept
The attraction's roots date back to even before Disneyland was built, when Walt Disney had just hired the first of his Imagineers.
Discussion
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Encyclopedia
The Haunted Mansion is a complex dark ride attraction located at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Park in Paris (as Phantom Manor). Each incarnation of the attraction features a ride-through tour of a haunted house in Omnimover vehicles called Doom Buggies, preceded by a walk-through show in the queue and exit. Both parts of the attraction showcase special effects and spectral Audio-Animatronics.
History
Original concept
The attraction's roots date back to even before Disneyland was built, when Walt Disney had just hired the first of his Imagineers. The first known illustration of the park showed a main street setting, green fields, western village, and a carnival. Disney Legend Harper Goff developed a beautiful black and white sketch of a crooked street leading away from main street leading by a peaceful church and graveyard, with a run-down manor perched high on a hill that towered over main street.
While not part of the original attractions when Disneyland opened in 1955, Walt assigned Imagineer Ken Anderson, to make a story around the Harper Goff idea, and design of his new 'grim grinning' adventure. Plans were made to build a New Orleans themed land in the small transition area between Frontierland and Adventureland. Weeks later New Orleans Square appeared on the souvenir map and promised a thieves' market, a pirate wax museum, and a haunted house walk-through. After being assigned his project, Ken studied New Orleans and old plantations to come up with a dirty drawing of an antebellum manor overgrown with weeds, dead trees, swarms of bats, and boarded doors and windows topped by a screeching cat as a weathervane.
Despite praise from other Imagineers, Walt wasn't too thrilled with this drawing, hence his well known saying, "We'll take care of the outside and let the ghosts take care of the inside." Despite this, Walt journeyed out to the Winchester Mystery House and became deeply captivated with the massive mansion with its stairs to nowhere, doors that open to walls and holes, and elevators. Ken came up with stories for the mansion including tales of a ghostly sea captain who killed his nosy bride and then hanged himself, a mansion home to an unfortunate family, and a ghostly wedding party with previous Disney villains and spooks like Captain Hook,Lonesome Ghosts, and the headless horseman. Some of the Universal Monsters were even planned to appear.
Rolly Crump and Yale Gracey, two Imagineers put in charge of the spectral effects, recreated many of Ken Anderson's stories. Walt gave them a large studio at WED enterprises; they studied reports of hauntings and Greek myths and monster movies, eventually making quite a show in their private studio. Some of these effects frightened the cleaning crews that came in at night to the extent that management eventually asked the crew to leave on the lights and to turn off the effects after hours. Defying this, Crump and Gracey connected all the effects to a motion-sensitive switch that, when passed, would turn everything on. The next day when the two returned to work, all the effects were running with a broom in the middle of the floor. Management told them that they would have to clean the studio themselves, because the cleaning crew was never coming back.
The duo made a scene where a ghostly sea captain appeared from nowhere. Suddenly a wretched bride emerged from a brick wall and chased the ghost around in circles. The frightened pirate melted into a puddle and flooded the entire scene only for the water to mysteriously vanish with the bride. "A ghost haunted by a ghost!" Rolly told Walt between chuckles. Walt and the Imagineers were amazed, but Walt still didn't like how the project was coming out. That put the mansion on hold for quite some time.
So, the decision was made to place it in the New Orleans Square section of the park, and thus the attraction was themed as a haunted antebellum mansion. In 1961, handbills announcing a 1963 opening of the Haunted Mansion were given out at Disneyland's main entrance. Construction began a year later, and the exterior was completed in 1963. The attraction was previewed in a 1965 episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, but the attraction itself would not open until 1969. The six-year delay owed heavily to Disney's involvement in the New York World's Fair in 1964–1965 and to an attraction redesign after Walt's death in 1966.
Many Imagineers such as Marc Davis, X Atencio, and Claude Coats contributed ideas after the fair and after Ken left the project. Rolly Crump showed Walt some designs for his version showing bizarre things like coffin clocks, candle men, talking chairs, man eating plants, tiki like busts, living gypsy wagons, and a faced mirror. Walt liked this and wanted to make the proclaimed "Museum of the Weird" a restaurant side to the now named Haunted Mansion, similar to the Blue Bayou at Pirates of the Caribbean. Although the idea died off, most of it lived on in the final attraction.
Marc Davis and Claude Coats, two of the mansion's main designers, were in a constant argument over whether the ride should be scary or funny. Claude, who had a life of a background artist, made moody surroundings like endless hallways, corridors of doors, and characterless environments, wanted to make a scary adventure. Marc, who designed most of the characters and zany spooks, thought that the ride should be classic Disney silly and full of gags. In the end both got their way when X. put all the scenes together.
After Walt's death in December 1966, the project evolved significantly. The Museum of the Weird restaurant idea was abandoned, and the walkthrough idea was replaced by the Omnimover system used in Adventure Thru Inner Space, renamed the Doom Buggy, a promising solution to the problem of capacity. Imagineers had been fighting the low-capacity nature of a walkthrough attraction for years, even going so far as suggesting building two identical attractions to get double the number of guests through.
On August 9, 1969, the Disneyland version of the attraction was completed, and remained essentially unchanged for years. The opening brought in record crowds and helped Disney recover from Walt's untimely death. In the early 1970s, the Imagineers gave some semi-serious thought to resurrecting many of the creatures and effects that Rolly Crump had originally created for the Haunted Mansion's pre-show as part of Professor Marvel's Gallery, which was "... a tent show of mysteries and delights, a carousel of magic and wonder". This was to be built as part of Disneyland's Discovery Bay expansion area.
In 1999, a retrospective of the art of the Haunted Mansion was featured at The Disney Gallery above the entrance to Pirates of the Caribbean. When the 2003 film The Haunted Mansion was released, a retrospective of its art was featured in the gallery as well.
In October 2005, Slave Labor Graphics began publishing a bimonthly Haunted Mansion comic book anthology giving the Disneyland Mansion a backstory, with the main recurring story of Master Gracey recalling the old sea captain storyline.
Other theme parks
The attraction opened at the Magic Kingdom in 1971, Tokyo Disneyland in 1983, Disneyland Paris as Phantom Manor in 1992. For each of these parks, the Haunted Mansion is an original attraction.
The Haunted Mansion was an opening day attraction at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, opening in 1971. This attraction was developed at the same time as the Disneyland version, resulting in a very similar experience to the Disneyland version, though the slightly larger show building allowed the addition of several new scenes. The attraction was placed in Liberty Square, a small land that was a tribute to colonial America, as the Magic Kingdom did not have a New Orleans Square. Thus, the Mansion was given a Dutch Gothic Revival style based on older northeastern mansions, particularly those in older areas of Pennsylvania and in the Hudson River Valley region of New York.
At Tokyo Disneyland the Mansion was placed in Fantasyland and was a near complete clone of the Magic Kingdom version. The only exterior differences from the Magic Kingdom are two bronze griffin statues guarding the main gates, as well as the left bottom and top windows being both smashed open, and the top having some velvet curtains hanging out. The narration is in Japanese.
At Disneyland Paris the attraction goes by a different name, Phantom Manor. Its architectural style is Second Empire.
When The Haunted Mansion was transplanted to other Disney parks, space management was much less of a problem. For example, in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, the entire show building is located within the park boundaries. Luckily, the placement of the show building has no bearing on the quality of the experience. Most guests give little thought to whether they are actually inside the mansion they saw while in line.
Haunted Mansion Holiday
Since 2001, the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland is transformed into Haunted Mansion Holiday during Christmas, based on Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. The Haunted Mansion is closed in September for a few weeks as they revamp the attraction, replacing many of the props and Audio-Animatronics with characters and themes from the movie. The attraction is closed again in January when it is returned to the regular Haunted Mansion.
In 2004 a similar overlay was installed for Tokyo Disneyland as "Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare". To date, neither the Walt Disney World nor Disneyland Paris attractions have been fitted with a Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, though the exterior of Phantom Manor is decorated for Halloween along with the rest of Disneyland Paris.
Recent changes
Disneyland
On May 3, 2006, new changes went into effect at the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. The new show scene introduced in the attic portion of the ride follows a ghostly bride named Constance Hatchaway (played by Buffy The Vampire Slayer actress Julia Lee and voiced by Kat Cressida), now described as a "black widow bride," and slowly uncovers her bloody past, which includes the murders and decapitations of all her previous husbands (named Ambrose Harper, Frank Banks, Reginald Caine, the Marquis De Doom, and George Hightower) in an attempt to gain their vast fortunes. The new effects start when visitors first enter the mansion's attic.
When the visitor enters the attic, the pop-up ghosts that shout "I do!" are now gone. This is to make room for the current effects. As the visitor enters the attic, the first new things seen are an amber-glowing glass lamp, various treasures and china, and multiple portraits of different grooms, each with the same bride. An axe-like sound echoes from the pictures throughout the room, and in each portrait the groom's head disappears.
The phantom piano player is still there, but the music is louder than before. Near the end of the attic, an ethereal glow is seen and a sweet but sinister voice is heard. It is Constance in her wedding gown. She repeats her vows in a menacing tone ("I do...I did", "You may now kiss the bride", "And we'll live happily ever after", "As long as we both shall live", "For better or for...worse", "Here comes the bride", "'Till death do us part", "In sickness and in...wealth". Every few sayings, she raises her hand and an axe appears in it.
The bride is basically a white mannequin in a white wedding gown. When the lights go off, a projection illuminates the entire body, showing her as a wispy but realistic spirit. Her face and her entire body are projected, very similar to the Leota effect in the Seance Room and the Little Leota effect at the end of the ride. Constance also floats mysteriously above the floor (made possible by a pole and a fan).
Following the 2007-2008 holiday overlay, Disneyland's mansion's speed ramp that guests step on when boarding their doombuggy, was made to look like an endless carpet, and a new scrim was added in the stretching room.
Walt Disney World
At Walt Disney World Resort, The Haunted Mansion closed for refurbishment on June 8, 2007 and reopened September 13, 2007. Changes to the attraction during the refurbishment included the addition of a new audio system for the Ghost Host that makes it seem as if the spirit is circling above visitors' heads, new red, green, and gold wallpaper (like the paper at Disneyland), and new stretching sound effects for the stretching room. The gargoyles in the stretching room now whisper and emit child like giggles after the stretching room sequence. An exclusive Escher-esque staircase scene replacing the empty dark banister area covered in cobwebs and the giant orange spiders. After the staircase scene, there are all new ghoulish eyes that glow while monstrous sounds echo through the halls. The original Disney World Attic is now replaced with the new Disneyland attic scene including the five changing husband portraits and featuring the new Constance. The Other Major Disneyland enhancements were also implemented at Walt Disney World including the floating Madame Leota with much clearer projection, and The Sinister 11 (the portraits with the following eyes) were replaced with the changing portraits from Disneyland's portrait gallery. Seven of the Sinister 11 are now located in the loading area of the ride while the other four are located in various parts of the mansion. The graveyard ghosts minus the deaf old man, the singing busts, and the mummy audio tracks now seem to come from the singer when near them. The once blue/purple ghosts are now green as well. A sharp-eyed guest will also notice that the Hitch-Hiking Ghosts now have empty sockets for eyes.
The attraction
The Queue
After entering the mansion's ornate gates from either New Orleans Square, Liberty Square, or Fantasyland, guests find themselves walking through the mansion's well-tended gardens and courtyards. At Florida and Tokyo, a family cemetery paying tribute to the Imagineers who designed the attraction is placed in the sprawling lawn next to the mansion's entrance. At California, a pet cemetery rests in the lawn rather than a human cemetery. (Years ago, the cemetery paid tribute to the Imagineers, much like the one at Florida and Tokyo, but was changed when the queue was expanded some time after the mid-80s, to make room for the handicapped entrance) The popular cemetery has since been implanted at Tokyo and Florida.
When plans were being made for a Young Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, Disney bought a hearse for the show, but when plans were scrapped for budget costs, the hearse was given an invisible phantom horse and placed outside the Disneyland mansion. It was such a hit, a black one was purchased and sent to Florida.
One feature unique to the Florida mansion is a tombstone for Madame Leota. On it is a bronze carving of her face that, by way of animatronics, occasionally opens its eyes and looks around.
Foyer and Stretching Room
Guests are led into a small foyer by Cast Members dressed as maids and butlers. At Tokyo and the Magic Kingdom, a portrait of Master Gracey rests above the grand fireplace and slowly changes into a rotting corpse. At the three parks from there, the guests are brought into an octagonal room, and encouraged to stand in the "dead center". The door they entered through then becomes a wall, and the chilling voice of Paul Frees introduces himself as their "Ghost Host" and taunts them:
- Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmm? And consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows, and no doors... which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Of course, there's always my way...
As the voice speaks, the audience's eye is drawn up to four portraits on every other wall of the octagonal shaped room. The walls quietly stretch upwards, elongating the Marc Davis-designed paintings on them to reveal the comedic fates of previous guests:
- A bearded man is seen in the dress of minor nobility... and red and white striped boxer shorts... while standing on a keg of dynamite...with a lit fuse.
- A young demure woman holding a parasol... and calmly balancing on an unraveling tightrope... above the hungry jaws of a waiting crocodile.
- An old lady sits... atop a tall gravestone... which features the bust of a man with an axe through his head and bears the epitaph "Dear departed George".
- A man with sideburns sitting... on a fat, mustachioed man who is sitting... atop a lean, pale-looking gentleman... who is chest-deep in quicksand.
The lights go out, lightning and thunder effects fill the gallery and, in a rare instance of Disney "dark humor," a glimpse of the earthly remains of the Ghost Host is shown hanging from a noose high above in the cupola. The lights go out and a shrill scream shatters the air, followed by shattering bones. The Ghost Host apologizes for frightening the guests so early, and a wall opens into a portrait corridor at Disneyland, or a load area at Florida and Tokyo.
At the attraction in Disneyland, the room is, in fact, an elevator with no ceiling that is being lowered slowly to give the illusion that the room itself is stretching; this brings the guests down to where the ride begins, below ground level. The ceiling above is a piece of fabric called a scrim, which conceals the hanging body until it is lit from above. This elevator effect was necessary to lower the guests below the level of the park-circling railroad at Disneyland. The actual ride building of this attraction is located outside of the berm surrounding the park, and the Disney Imagineers developed this mechanism to lower the guests to the gallery leading to the actual ride building.
This stretching room effect is duplicated at the three Mansions at other Disney theme parks, but only one of these requires guests being moved beyond the railroad tracks. The Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland attractions have stretching rooms with ascending ceilings, rather than descending floors. Only Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris uses the same descending floor as Disneyland, to transport guests toward the structure containing the major portion of the ride.
When the attic scene was refurbished in early 2006, new elements were designed to tie in with the portrait of the woman atop the tombstone. In one attic-wedding portrait, the bride Constance is shown much younger, holding a rose in the same manner as the woman in the portrait. The groom's name is on the wedding portrait frame, and is the same as the name on the tombstone: George. Also, the groom has a distinctive handlebar mustache just like the bust on the tombstone does. All of the other male characters in the paintings bear striking resemblances to Constance's other grooms as well. At Walt Disney World the sound became more chilling like the Ghost Host is whispering in your ear. Another effect was that the gargoyles say "Stay Together," after the host says the same.
Portrait Corridor (Disneyland)
When the walls finally do open, guests are ushered into a portrait corridor with paintings that depict seemingly innocent scenes. Windows on the left give guests a peek at the thunderstorm raging outside. With every flash of lightning, the paintings flicker with ghastly images (including a demure young woman sprouting snakes from her scalp (a la Medusa), a magnificent sailing ship at sea becoming a tattered and ghostly version thereof in a storm, and others). The grim busts of a man and woman placed at the end of the hall seem to turn their heads, glaring at the guests as they walk past. The effect, patented by Disney, was achieved by creating inverted busts: they actually recede into the wall. A combination of dim lighting and optical illusion makes the busts appear to stare at the passing guests. The effect is unnerving and extremely convincing. (A similar effect is used in the Hollywood Backlot section of Disney's California Adventure.)
The Load Area (Disneyland)
After escaping the portrait corridor, the guests walk through an ethereal void, where an eerie green, glowing fog floats endlessly, and cobweb-wrapped candelabras dimly illuminate the area. The Ghost Host points out that the house has 999 spirits with room for one more (any volunteers?). Stepping on an endless moving carpet synched to the motion of the Doom Buggies, guests are seated and ascend a pitch-black staircase to the next scene.
The Load Area (Florida and Tokyo)
At both Florida and Tokyo mansions guests, instead walking out into a corridor of portraits. they walk out into a loading hall where Doombuggies send guests into the rest of the mansion.
Portrait Corridor, Library, Music Room (Florida and Tokyo)
At Florida and Tokyo, the doom buggies take guests down a long portrait corridor. At Florida, guests move through the same scene as Disneyland's only in ride through format. At Tokyo, doombuggies move through a two-sided corridor with portraits of eerie "family" members that stare at the guests constantly. The moving eye corridor was at Florida too, before the refurbishment of 2007.
Passing under an archway guests enter a library with staring busts, moving ladders, flying books, and an unseen ghost rocking in a chair reading a book by candlelight. After this is a music room where a shadow plays a mellow version of Grim Grinning Ghosts on a rundown piano. A stormy forest is shown in the window behind the piano.
Grand Staircase (Florida)
at Florida, the doombuggies ascend a room full of staircases that defy physics (like the art of M.C. Escher). Green footsteps stomp across the upside down and sideway stairs, which creates a very disturbing sense. At the top of the stairs thousands of blinking eyes look around and morph into demon-faced wallpaper.
Spiders (Tokyo)
At Tokyo, instead of staircases, the scene is a pitch black room full of giant spiders in webs. This scene was also in place at Florida until a 2007 refurbishment.
The Endless Hallway
The Doombuggies point guests down a hallway that seems to be endless. A lone candelabrum floats down the hallway, a suit of armor (which moves) and a chair (in which an unseen ghost rocks) lines the hallway's entrance.
The Conservatory
Turning away from the endless hall, guest peek into the Consevatory where a long forgotten funeral is taking place . A large raven perches next to a dead plant-adorned coffin, with a corpse trying to break free, and calling for help.
The Corridor of Doors
The ghosts become more restless and try to break free from their hiding places, which results in a corridor full of shaking, knocking, moving, and breathing doors. Demon-faced wallpaper adorns the walls as well as black and white photos of goblins and ghouls nailed into the cursed walls. At Tokyo a painting of an old man grows a three-dimensional face that presses forward. A demonic grandfather clock chimes 13 as the hands spin wildly backwards, the shadow of an avian-like claw passing over it.
Séance Circle
Guests enter a dark séance room full of floating musical instruments, and other things. Madame Leota, a medium appearing within a crystal ball, summons the mansion's spirits. In the Anaheim and Orlando mansions she floats gracefully around the table. The Leota effect is accomplished through digital projection of an actress's face onto a head sculpture with features of the actress. The movement of the cable-suspended sphere is synced to the projection via computer-control. In the Tokyo mansion, Phantom Manor, in Anaheim during Haunted Mansion Holiday and in both Anaheim and Florida when the projection is not lining up correctly with the bust, Leota's crystal ball rests in a cradle on the table. If one looks relatively closely, the cable suspending Leota's crystal ball can be seen quite easily, therefore ruining the effect of the floating crystal ball.
The Ballroom
Next, guests pass onto the balcony of the magnificent ballroom where the happy haunts begin to materialize. Translucent couples waltz to the music of a macabre organist, while a ghostly birthday party appears to be taking place at the dining table (a dinner plate and two saucers on the left side of the table combine to make a "Hidden Mickey"). Some spirits sit on the chandeliers, gorging themselves on wine, other ghosts enter the hall from an open coffin in a hearse, and a ghost wraps his arm around a woman bust. Two portraits of men with guns come two life every once and a while, shooting each other with their pistols. All the ghosts in this scene are created using the Pepper's Ghost effect. An important part of Disney history is located in the grand hall scene of the original Anaheim attraction: the pipe organ on the far left of the scene is the original prop from the studio's 1954 release, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Prior to the construction of the Haunted Mansion, the organ had been on display in a shop in the "Main Street, U.S.A." area of the park. The organs in the other parks are replicas of the prop. This scene was mostly designed by Marc Davis who designed all the humanoid spooks and portraits.
At the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, there is a circular hole (rumored to be a bullet hole from a pellet gun) in one of the floor-to-ceiling panes of glass used to create the Pepper's Ghost effect. The damaged area has been disguised by a fake spider web (with a Fake Spider). Because of the size of these panes of glass, they cannot be replaced without removing the roof of the show building.
The Attic
The attic is an irregularly-shaped room that the Doom buggies enter immediately after the ballroom scene. It features a collection of wedding gifts, personal items, mementos, and wedding portraits . In each portrait, a common bride (Constance Hatchaway) is featured with a different groom (Ambrose Harper, Frank Banks, Reginald Caine, The Marquis De Doom, and George Hightower), whose heads disappear to the accompaniment of a hatchet sound. Just before the Doom Buggies leave the attic, the same ghostly bride from the pictures is seen floating in the air, intoning wedding-related vows. As she raises her arms, a hatchet appears in her hands.
The Graveyard
The Doom Buggies fall out of the attic through a window in the windy night. Stars twinkle overhead in the cold black sky. Ahead, guests can see ghosts rise up from the ground as a mysterious fog covers the graveyard below. The Doom Buggies turn around and plunge backwards down a fifteen percent grade, surrounded by dark, ghoulish trees with knotted expressions. On a branch overhead, a raven caws at the guests. (This gag is a from an earlier idea, which was to have the raven narrate the tour.)
The Doom Buggies reach the ground, and turn towards the graveyard's gate. A caretaker stands there, the only living person in the entire attraction, his knees shaking in fright and an expression of terror on his face. Beside him is his emaciated dog, whining and whimpering. Around the corner, a ghostly band of minstrels plays a jazzy rendition of "Grim Grinning Ghosts". Ghosts pop up from behind tomb stones, a king and queen balance on a teeter-totter, while a young princess swings back and forth from a tree branch, and a hellhound behind them. The Doom Buggies travel down a hill and turn to see five singing busts continuing the song of "Grim Grinning Ghosts". Next, guests encounter a tea party of sorts, where ghosts are having a "swinging wake" and singing along too. An arm protrudes out of a crypt with a tea cup in its hand. Ghouls ride bikes behind them. Next, guests see a mummy and an old man. The old man tries to listen to what the mummy is saying through an earphone, but the mummy is just too hard to understand underneath its bandages.
Before the Doom Buggies turn to face the two opera singers to the right, inside of a tomb there is a phantom-like ghost dressed in a robe-like outfit and in his left hand (at the Magic Kingdom) his cloak forms a "Hidden Mickey". The Doom Buggies turn to face two opera singers, blasting their voices up into the night. Beside them are three other ghosts — a headless knight, a prisoner, and an executioner — who also join in the song. A brick tomb can be seen at the graveyard's exit, and a cadaverous arm protrudes from an opening in the wall where a couple of bricks are missing. A trowel is in the unknown spook's hand, implying that he is actually walling himself in.
The Crypt
At last, guests pass into a crypt where they encounter the attraction's unofficial mascots, three hitchhiking ghosts. For those into Disney Trivia, they have been assigned official names. They are Gus (the small bearded ghost with the ball and chain), Ezra (the tall and skeletal ghost) and Phineas (the larger ghost, with the top hat). (These names were used in the Virtual Magic Kingdom as NPCs inside the Haunted Mansion themed rooms.) Passing by three large mirrors, guests discover that one of the trio has hitched a ride in their Doom Buggy. (Just after the 1969 Disneyland opening, the three hitchhikers were not present. Instead, the large mirrors were filled with small, whispy phantoms that kept pace with the Doom Buggies.) Guests disembark and are encouraged to "hurry back," and not to forget "to bring your death certificate" by a tiny woman in a bridal gown (though referred to as the Ghostess in early versions of the attraction script, this character is commonly known as "Little Leota" because her voice and face are those of Leota Toombs, who also provided the face of Madame Leota) before returning to the outside world. This effect is produced in the same manner as Madame Leota, Constance, and the graveyard's singing busts, by projection of a face onto a featureless figurine.
Behind the scenes
The original Disneyland Haunted Mansion required clever space management in a theme park that has always contended with a lack of space. When the New Orleans Square area was added in the early 1960s, there was no more room in that quarter of the park for large attractions. The Imagineers therefore placed the bulk of the two major attractions — Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion — outside the park's earthen berm. The famed "stretching rooms" were implemented simply so guests could be moved underground and outside of the park without them knowing. Most guests do not realize that the portrait hall is actually an underground passage leading under the berm behind the mansion facade. As they enter the loading area, they pass beneath the Disneyland Railroad's tracks and into a vast, approximately , soundstage-like show building located outside the park boundaries. Painted dull green like most Disneyland show buildings, this -tall facility is roughly rectangular, with a front section that is covered by the berm and through which the train tunnel passes. Guests may catch a very brief glimpse of the building while riding the tram from the Mickey and Friends parking structure, or by boarding the Disneyland Railroad at the New Orleans Square station and facing backwards in the train. However, the show building has no visible above-ground connection to the themed façade within the park.
The show building extends an additional below the backstage ground level, though much of the attraction takes place around ground level. The layout of the track is convoluted, but it's essentially a clockwise loop that runs through the outer areas of the building. Smaller scenes such as the conservatory and parts of the attic lay outside the loop formed by the track, but most of the major scenes take place on the inside of this loop. This leads to some interesting spatial relationships between them. For example, the organ in the ballroom is back-to-back with a number of crypts in the graveyard, and the back of the loading area shares a wall with the endless corridor.
The show building also houses a number of backstage areas unseen by guests. One of the easiest ways for cast members to enter these parts of the attraction is by entering a small, shed-like protrusion behind the façade. Inside this shed is the entrance to a cast member break-room and a staircase that leads down below the berm, making a left turn into the attraction's control tower. This small room (about the size of the conservatory) is hidden between the unloading and loading areas, seen only by handicapped guests who must ride all the way through to the loading area. Another way into the show building from within the park is through a door in one of the queue's crypts. This leads down several staircases into the portrait hall.
Near the tower, a pair of stairways leads beneath the Doom Buggy track and into a passageway that travels between the loading area and the graveyard, below the endless hallway, and behind the ballroom. On the other side of the ballroom, several large maintenance and equipment rooms can be found.
The show scenes themselves are only convincing when viewed from the path of the ride; exploring these areas quickly reveals the fact that they are built much like movie sets in a sound stage. For instance, the wood that the ballroom walls are built of is easily seen from backstage. The back of tombstones also shows plastic, spray paint, etc.
The top or so of the building are separated from the larger area below containing the ride. Numerous air conditioning ducts pass through this attic of sorts, which can be accessed via a caged ladder on the north side of the building. The tops of the large, squarish indentations in the sides of the building mark the floor level of this attic space.
It is worth noting that at Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain show buildings are very close to each other. When the Doom Buggies face the back of the graveyard, adjacent to the ghostly band, guests are looking at the building's northwest corner. Just a few yards beyond the back wall is a similar but smaller building housing Splash Mountain. Guests evacuated from Splash Mountain during a breakdown will verify that the Haunted Mansion show building is virtually indistinguishable from the Splash Mountain building, and that the two have only a few yards of pavement between them.
Because of the Magic Kingdom's different layout, the Haunted Mansion show building is instead located next to the one that houses "It's a Small World". This version of the ride takes place within a similar building, though this one is larger and entirely enclosed by other areas of the park. This attraction differs from the original in that the ride takes place at the same level as the mansion itself. In addition, no berm separates the façade from the show building; the back of the mansion has a visible, above-ground connection to the main warehouse. To avoid exposing backstage to the guests, WDI uses trees and other rides to hide the building from view.
Leota Toomb's daughter Kim Ivrine, now working at WED, created a rarely seen pet cemetery, once clearly visible to those entering the foyer through the side door reserved for handicapped guests and their parties. Since a wheelchair ramp was added to the front of the mansion, guests rarely see this area. This pet cemetery was popular with the few who saw it, so WDI created a larger one in the normal queue around the time the new ramp was installed. Kim Ivrine also played Madame Leota for Haunted Mansion Holiday.
People also may think that during the Seance scene, the Doombuggies are traveling on ground level. In fact, they are suspended roughly in the air, in order to compensate for the "floating table" effect, which no longer exists in any of the mansions. The Doombuggies are held stable by the use of rail suspensions and hydraulic arms, like those used to make the dumbo cars fly up and down on the Dumbo ride.
On the Tokyo Mansion, in the attic, where the bride sits, there is a face that can be seen in the mirror she is sitting next to. That face was meant to be her husband. This face was to be used for a caretaker animatroinic later in the ride.
Soundtrack
Narration
The foyer, stretching room, and ride's narration was performed by Paul Frees as the Ghost Host. Between the Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom versions of the ride, different recording sessions were used in some places. The Magic Kingdom version of the ride includes the library scene, in which a unique piece of narration is used. At Tokyo Disneyland, whose mansion is a carbon copy of the one in Florida, both inside and out, the narration is provided by Teichiro Hori, a movie producer from Toho Studios (Hori also provides the voice of the talking skull in Tokyo's version of Pirates of the Caribbean). In 2002, an imitation of Paul Frees could be heard in the Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom versions instead of the original safety spiel, giving a more detailed warning in the load area, followed by a Spanish spiel. In Tokyo, the safety spiel is done by the Ghost Host himself.
Phantom Manor
An opening narration by Vincent Price was recorded, and initially was used. However, due to a deal with French officials that attraction audio had to stay primarily in French, the narration was replaced with a different track by Gerard Chevalier, who, interestingly enough, had been a French dub voice for Price in some of his movies. Price's narration is available on the CD The Haunted Mansion - 30th Anniversary (1999 CD). It also features a full-orchestrated score by John Debney.
Theme song
Grim Grinning Ghosts was composed by Buddy Baker and the lyrics were written by X Atencio. It can be heard in nearly every area of the ride, with various instrumentations and tempos. Contrary to popular belief, "Grim Grinning Ghosts" is not performed by the Mellomen, but rather by a pickup group. The only member of the Mellomen heard is that of the deep bass voice of Thurl Ravenscroft (best known for voicing Tony the Tiger in television commercials), who sings as part of a quintet of singing busts in the graveyard scene. Ravenscroft's face is used as well, projected onto the bust. His face is sometimes confused with that of Walt Disney himself.
Releases
- The Music of Disneyland, Walt Disney World and Epcot Center "Grim Grinning Ghosts"
- A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion "Grim Grinning Ghosts"
- The Haunted Mansion - 30th Anniversary 22 minute ride through & many elements of the ride
- Walt Disney World Resort: The Official Album (1999 CD) Foyer, Ballroom, Graveyard, & Exit
- Walt Disney World Resort: Official Album (2000 CD) Foyer, Ballroom, Graveyard, & Exit
- Official Album: Walt Disney World Resort Celebrating 100 Years of Magic (2001 CD) Foyer, Ballroom, Graveyard, & Exit
- A Musical History of Disneyland 13 minute ride through
"Grim Grinning Ghosts" has also been used in various other shows in Disney theme parks such as:
A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion
Disneyland Records released The Story and Song From The Haunted Mansion as a record album in 1969. It featured the story of two teenagers, Mike (Ron Howard) and Karen (Robie Lester), who get trapped inside the Haunted Mansion, with Thurl Ravenscroft as the Narrator, Pete Renoudet as the Ghost Host, and Eleanor Audley as Madame Leota. Some of the effects and ideas that were planned but never permanently made it to the attraction are mentioned here: the Raven speaks in the Stretching Room, and the Hatbox Ghost is mentioned during the Attic scene. It was reissued in 1998 as a cassette tape titled A Spooky Night in Disney's Haunted Mansion.
Previously, as the Haunted Mansion attraction was in its planning stages and still known as "The Haunted House," Disneyland Records released the album Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House (1964), a collection of sound effects and brief "stories in sound" introduced by a narrator, Laura Olsher. Many of the sound effects, originally created for the vintage Disney cartoons, were later used in the Haunted Mansion ride. Disneyland Records used the same title in 1979 for a new album of sound effects and story situations.
Attraction facts
Disneyland
- Grand opening: August 9, 1969
- Designer: WED Enterprises
- Show length: 10:00
- Required ticket: "E" (discontinued)
- Ride system: Omnimover
- Number of Vehicles (a.k.a.: "Doombuggies"): 131, buggies seven through ten made especially to accommodate wheelchair/service animal guests that need the attraction to stop in order to transfer.
Magic Kingdom
- Grand opening: October 1, 1971 (Opened with the Magic Kingdom)
- Number of Vehicles (a.k.a.: "Doombuggies"): 160
Recently The Haunted Mansion at Magic Kingdom was closed for refurbishments. The ride re-opened for guests on September 13th, 2007. The attraction was given a new scene unique to Orlando's Mansion: a surreal, M. C. Escher-esque room of upside-down staircases with ghostly footsteps walking up and down them. In addition, new audio and visual effects were added throughout the Mansion, and many rooms were given paint and lighting touch-ups as well as new carpeting and ceiling. Also, several elements were duplicated from Disneyland's Mansion, including the changing portraits, the floating Madame Leota and the revised attic scene with Constance. Every morning a cast member digs up fresh soil and places it in front of Master Gracey's headstone, as well as placing a fresh-cut rose on top of the grave.
Tokyo Disneyland
- Grand opening: April 15, 1983 (Opened with Tokyo Disneyland)
- Number of Vehicles: 160
Disneyland Paris
- Grand opening: April 12, 1992 (Opened with Disneyland Paris)
Phantom Manor (version of Haunted Mansion in Frontierland)
- Number of Vehicles (a.k.a.: "Doombuggies"): 131
In popular culture
- In the Disney Sing Along Songs video Disneyland Fun, during the song "Grim Grinning Ghosts", two of the kids go over to the ride and the girl wonders what happens there at night and in her thoughts we see Disney villains (the Evil Queen in her old hag form, Captain Hook, the Big Bad Wolf, and Maleficent), Donald in a ghost costume and dancing trees dancing in front of the Haunted Mansion. Then at the end of the song the boy taps the girl and they get in line. This was also in Let's Go to Disneyland Paris at Phantom Manor only they used Jafar instead of Captain Hook. Also in Happy Haunting the kids and the Disney characters have the party in the Haunted Mansion.
- The Haunted Mansion was parodied in Timon and Pumbaa's Virtual Safari 1.5 on The Lion King 1½.
- The former Disney's California Adventure attraction Superstar Limo spoofed the Haunted Mansion by having a seance room in the Malibu section of the ride, where an Audio-Animatronic head of Melissa Joan Hart from the Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series) in a crystal ball (similar to Madame Leota) recites, "Agents, execs, producers beyond, give us a sign the green light is on."
- Cory Doctorow's 2003 science fiction novel Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom involves a refurbishment of the Haunted Mansion in a distant future.
- The Hitchhiking Ghosts are parodied in the pilot episode of Clerks: The Animated Series.
- The mansion was parodied in My Life as a Teenage Robot, when Brad and Tuck go to "Wizzly World" and ride a haunted house attraction strongly similar to the Haunted Mansion. The segment even includes pop-up ghosts in a graveyard, extraordinarily similar to the graveyard sequence of the ride.
- In an episode of south park, Eric Cartman buys an amusement park with a ride called "The Haunted Manor"
- The Haunted Mansion is also parodied in the survival-horror video game Silent Hill 3, when Heather enters the "Borely Haunted Mansion", complete with a narrator not unlike the Disney Narrator.
- Referenced in the 2007 film "1408"
- In the video game Gex: Enter the Gecko, there is a level called 'Smellraiser' (a reference to Hellraiser. Late in the level, Gex must enter a 'Haunted Elevator' that has three portraits in it. The room itself expands and the portraits stretch to reveal grim fates for the people portrayed in the portrait.
- In the Nintendo Gamecube launch title Luigi's Mansion, one of the gallery ghosts, Shivers, carries an unlit candelabra around the first-floor hallway, and is exposed when the candelabra is lit.
- In the House of Mouse episode "House Ghosts", the ghosts from the Haunted Mansion make an appearance and sing Grim Grinning Ghosts.
- Ickybod Clay's level in the Nintendo 64 game ClayFighter 63? has many aspects of the Haunted Mansion, including the stretching room.
Trivia
- If the Living Caretaker in the graveyard seems familiar, it is because he uses the same face as one of the Explorers from the Jungle Cruise Attraction. On that attraction, He is the one on the bottom of the Totem Pole being chased by the Rhinoceros and "getting the point in the End."
- It was rumored that the second (from left to right) Singing Bust, the one with his head broken off and sideways, is the face of the legendary park Creator, Walt Disney. The face is actually Thurl Ravenscroft, the lead singer.
- The Haunted Mansion, in its various incarnations, is in each Disney park, located in a different themed land, New Orleans Square at Disneyland, Liberty Square at Magic Kingdom, Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland, and Frontierland (as Phantom Manor) at Disneyland Paris. Hong Kong Disneyland has no Haunted Mansion attraction; however, it has an expansive Adventureland area where the possibility exists of this tradition being maintained in the future.
- When the lights go out in the stretching room, the sound effect of the thunderclaps heard sounds very much like the "Castle Thunder" sound effect. This is the case for the Disneyland version, and was also the same for the Disney World version until 2007, when new thunder sound effects replaced it as part of the renovation. However, Castle Thunder can still be heard in the haunted ballroom section of the ride.
- Tourists have sometimes scattered cremated ashes into Haunted Mansion, even though Disney prohibits this practice. Officials say that this is not a health concern; however, ashes found scattered in the Mansion are quickly disposed of by Custodial "Cast Members".
- The Haunted Mansions are also rumored to be haunted by real ghosts.
See also
External links
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- – Fan site with very detailed information on the history, special effects, layout, etc.
- - 35 Photos from 2008 of the mansion at Disneyland (Anaheim).
- – Detailed Phantom Manor fan site
- – Fan site with over 80 Haunted Mansion blueprints from Disneyland, Walt Disney World and the movie.
- . Includes schematic/blueprint of ride layout and demonstrates the ride operation from the viewpoint of a cast member operating the ride.
- – Complete ride through of the Mansion after the 2007 refurbishment.
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