HM unused elevators?

[fantasmicsyd]

Hey y’all, I just saw a tiktok that piqued my curiosity but, being a tiktok, I want to fact check it. This user claimed that WDW’s Haunted Mansion originally had plans for the Stretching rooms to be actual elevators similarly to DL’s but this was changed when it was discovered that DL was having water leakage issues. The user then went on to say that the two Otis elevators had already been ordered and produced and were reused as lifts in two other locations at the MK- the now-demolished Fantasy Faire stage, and Sonny Eclipse at Cosmic Ray’s. This is the first I’ve ever heard of this and would love some more insight!

 

[marni1971]

That’s a stretch.

 

[danlb_2000]

Hey y’all, I just saw a tiktok that piqued my curiosity but, being a tiktok, I want to fact check it. This user claimed that WDW’s Haunted Mansion originally had plans for the Stretching rooms to be actual elevators similarly to DL’s but this was changed when it was discovered that DL was having water leakage issues. The user then went on to say that the two Otis elevators had already been ordered and produced and were reused as lifts in two other locations at the MK- the now-demolished Fantasy Faire stage, and Sonny Eclipse at Cosmic Ray’s. This is the first I’ve ever heard of this and would love some more insight!

I thought the whole point was that Disneyland needed elevators because you needed to go under the tracks to get to the show building, but this wasn't needed in WDW, so no point in building actual elevators.

 

[Gillyanne]

That’s a stretch.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Hey y’all, I just saw a tiktok that piqued my curiosity but, being a tiktok, I want to fact check it. This user claimed that WDW’s Haunted Mansion originally had plans for the Stretching rooms to be actual elevators similarly to DL’s but this was changed when it was discovered that DL was having water leakage issues. The user then went on to say that the two Otis elevators had already been ordered and produced and were reused as lifts in two other locations at the MK- the now-demolished Fantasy Faire stage, and Sonny Eclipse at Cosmic Ray’s. This is the first I’ve ever heard of this and would love some more insight!

The link below doesn't have an exact answer with regards to the question of repurposed elevators, but it has a lot of information about the decision to do away with the elevators in the WDW Stretch Room. By the time the axe was dropped on them the show building had been going vertical for almost a year, so it seems possible that the elevators could have been ordered already. The idea that they were used at Cosmic Rays and Fantasy Faire instead feels sort of like conjecture on someone's part, but I suppose it's not impossible. I don't know how custom those elevators are relative to those used in the Disneyland Mansion, but I imagine clarity on that point might be telling.

Either way, I suspect you'll find this article fascinating:

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2013/10/raising-or-lowering-dead.html

 

[WDWJenn09]

This is interesting to me because as I kid, I remember vividly a stage that moved up and down like an elevator in Tomorrowland. It was 1977 and I thought it was the coolest thing on earth! The floor of the stage would move up with an act on it, then down again with the first act disappearing and another act rising into view. They were live acts. I don't have any pictures. It left such an impression on me that I tried to find this stage several years ago when I revisited the MK and I am sure it is the Tomorrowland Terrace where Sonny now sits. I am pretty sure that stage can move up and down like an elevator. It just doesn't anymore. So it makes complete sense that an elevator from HM was repurposed there. It would be great if someone had pictures of that stage in the 70's or could confirm this memory.

 

[marni1971]

This is interesting to me because as I kid, I remember vividly a stage that moved up and down like an elevator in Tomorrowland. It was 1977 and I thought it was the coolest thing on earth! The floor of the stage would move up with an act on it, then down again with the first act disappearing and another act rising into view. They were live acts. I don't have any pictures. It left such an impression on me that I tried to find this stage several years ago when I revisited the MK and I am sure it is the Tomorrowland Terrace where Sonny now sits. I am pretty sure that stage can move up and down like an elevator. It just doesn't anymore. So it makes complete sense that an elevator from HM was repurposed there. It would be great if someone had pictures of that stage in the 70's or could confirm this memory.

Correct (not the HM part) although one act at a time.

The lifting stage is still there today. Sonny sits on its roof.

 

[WDWJenn09]

Thanks for confirming the Tomorrowland Terrace part for me. It would be so great to see that move again!

 

[SteveAZee]

That’s a stretch.

Martin's here to lift our spirits.

 

[Minthorne]

My bus driver told me the HM elevators were later moved to Living Seas and used as Hydrolators (mind your eardrums folks!) and a very little know fact - they now have been repurposed to lift you to Space 220!

It's not lying mom, it's imagination!

 

[vikescaper]

At least the person on TikTok didn’t say that there used to be a scene with King Louie in the HM.

 

[castlecake2.0]

Thanks for confirming the Tomorrowland Terrace part for me. It would be so great to see that move again!

I think they still do from time to time when they use the area as a dance party at special events that’s where the DJ goes.

 

[tl77]

The original 1968 design for the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion probably would have used the elevators, it was a "full size" building like the version in Disneyland, and it also could have need the elevators to hide show-building like in DL, but it's position in Magic Kingdom park would have needed the elevators to get guests down 15 feet from "Park Level" to the "Utilidor level"

The original entrance to the 1968 Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion would have been closer to where the Skyway Station was, or where the Rapunzel bathrooms are today, which is above the Utilidor level... but in 1969/1970 the backstage roadway got re-routed, and Small World which was originally directly behind Cinderella Castle, and behind The Pinocchio Restaurant, got moved West, or "next to" the Pinocchio Restaurant. Which meant the Skyway Station also had to move further West and the Haunted Mansion got scaled down from a Full Sized building like the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, to the "forced perspective" version that was built, at the bottom of the hill, with the entrance "around the back" of the facade building.

The 1971 Version of the building was built "into the ground" and didn't need the elevators

The "exit" crypts in the bottom corner of this next photo are actually a retaining wall the holds back the dirt/earth around the sunken Mansion

The final layout, didn't need the Stretching Room Elevators, and it also didn't really need the Staircase Scene either. The MK Doom Buggy goes down a slope near the Library scene in the beginning of the ride, and come up another slope as you go under Little Leota at the end, which is why she's "in the ride" in Magic Kingdom, they also didn't need the Speed ramps at the end like Disneylan'd Haunted Mansion.

The 1968 model doesn't show the Fantasyland or Cosmic Ray's stages, so it seems possible they recycled them for those locations, but Disneyland had the same type of "rising stages' in late 1960's redo of their Tomorrowland

 

[CelebrationFL]

Hey y’all, I just saw a tiktok that piqued my curiosity but, being a tiktok, I want to fact check it.

Everything on social media, especially tiktok, should be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[bhg469]

Everything on social media, especially tiktok, should be taken with a grain of salt.

Blows my mind hearing tiktokers and youtubers stating things as facts and being 100% incorrect. Imagine having a following of 800k+ people and straight up misleading them because you THINK you're correct.

 

[marni1971]

That’ll be a no then.

 

[WDWJenn09]

I think they still do from time to time when they use the area as a dance party at special events that’s where the DJ goes.

That is so awesome! Thanks for finding that and sharing its. It’s such a great memory I had as a kid and now i know I wasn’t imagining things!

 

[MisterPenguin]

DL should have just incorporated the train into the attraction. Put a bunch of green spotlights on it as it passes and bill it as a "Ghost Train"!

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

DL should have just incorporated the train into the attraction. Put a bunch of green spotlights on it as it passes and bill it as a "Ghost Train"!

Phantom Manor could have nearly gotten away with it - they have a Ghost Train moment in their Phantom Canyon scene, and the Railroad runs directly behind the Phantom Manor showbuilding. However, the orientation of the scene and the Railroad are not really sympathetic to each other. And truthfully, the staging of the EDRR entrance into Frontierland from their Grand Canyon diorama is so stunning it would be a shame for that to be interuppted by anything else. But fun to imagine the Railroad looking down into that scene a la Splash Mountain or DLP's Pirates.

 

[Br0ckford]

That’s a stretch.