Marc Davis' Burning Miser

[FettFan]

An unused effect omitted from the original Haunted Mansion (and, theoretically the WDW Mansion), "The Burning Miser" was created by imagineer Marc Davis to be a multi-panel changing portrait that showed an elderly Mansion resident who sold his soul to the Devil....and spontaneously bursting into flames when the Devil comes to to collect.

But...part of the Burning Miser may have made it into the final Mansion....notice the pattern on his chair, and compare it to Granny's rocking chair in the ballroom:

Source: http://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-burning-miser.html

 

[JIMINYCR]

Great effect. Too bad it didnt make it completely into the mansion. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Bairstow]

An unused effect omitted from the original Haunted Mansion (and, theoretically the WDW Mansion), "The Burning Miser" was created by imagineer Marc Davis to be a multi-panel changing portrait that showed an elderly Mansion resident who sold his soul to the Devil....and spontaneously bursting into flames when the Devil comes to to collect.

But...part of the Burning Miser may have made it into the final Mansion....notice the pattern on his chair, and compare it to Granny's rocking chair in the ballroom:

Source: http://longforgottenhauntedmansion.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-burning-miser.html

I love Long Forgotten, but I think he's wrong about the chair connection.
Granny's chair almost certainly traces its design to the Rolly Crump drawings, not this Davis work.

 

[FettFan]

I love Long Forgotten, but I think he's wrong about the chair connection.
Granny's chair almost certainly traces its design to the Rolly Crump drawings, not this Davis work.

If anything, I think the chairs in their final forms would be a mixture, taking Rolly Crump's concept of a talking chair with a face, and then redesigning it completely so that nobody would know Crump was involved.
In "It's Kind of a Cute Story", Crump's version of events was that Walt was championing the inclusion of his designs into the Mansion, mostly in the "Museum of the Weird" post show area....but it was all unceremoniously scrapped after Walt's death during a falling out with one of the suits who hated the MotW idea. (for the life of me, I'm trying to remember the name of the guy who scrapped it all....but I just can't. "Cute Story" is on my Nook right now...will have to charge it up before I can get to it though.)

Some of RC's influence survived, though....the grandfather clock with the monster face and skeletal fingers for hands is Crump's, as is the infamous "Medusa-and-Venus-flytrap" wallpaper.

As for the chair itself....I don't know. Crump's original design tends to favor the Library chair more than Granny's rocker...but even then, you can see a marked difference. In all honesty, Crump's design looks better suited to appear in Beauty and the Beast than the Mansion.

 

[Sonconato]

Thanks, everyone! This is my favorite kind of stuff: the history, behind-the-scenes stories, and secrets. I also am an avid Rolly Crump fan, so this specifically is up my alley.

 

[Matt_Black]

Those chairs really aren't all that similar. Neat picture with the Miser, though.