With Jason Surrell’s The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic and Chef Mayhem’s fantastic DoomBuggies.com as a reference guide and an inspiration for the writings to come, join me now for a tour through the boundless realm of the supernatural - a glimpse into my all-time favorite Disney Attraction: The Haunted Mansion.
This being “Mirror Disneyland,” the changes from the Disneyland original are more than evident. Best be on the lookout!
Now, as they say, “look alive,” and we’ll continue our little tour…
The Haunted Mansion
Have you ever seen a haunted house? You know the kind I mean…
That old dark house that’s usually at the end of a dimly lit street. The owners haven’t been seen for years; no one really knows why. The windows are dark and silent, yet an ornate candelabra creeps past, veiled in shadow. The gardens and grounds are groomed and maintained, though there’s nary a groundskeeper in sight. There’s a high vine-covered fence around the property. Is it there to keep somebody out, or is it there to keep something inside?
It’s a house that people avoid walking past at night. Strange sounds come from within the walls, and it’s said that eerie lights have been seen both in the attic windows and in the graveyard at the side of the house… Our story revolves around this mysterious Mansion…
Our adventure begins in New Orleans Square, a picturesque relic of the Delta City as it appeared well over a century ago. Before us: twin brick columns kept beneath the watchful eye of snarling, stone lions. On either column: a bronze shield in which the title, “The Haunted Mansion,” is engraved. Atop either shield, we see the horned head of a phantom frozen in a scream amidst writhing hair and ribbon, all carved from bronze. The ethereal melody of an antique music box calls for us to travel across the threshold and into the lonesome yet meticulously landscaped estate of this old “house on the hill.”
The old antebellum plantation house has been left as spectacular as it was before the untimely deaths of its mysterious owners. Devoted groundskeepers abide by a distant relative’s wish to “Take care of the outside, and let the ghosts take care of the inside.” The walls of this mansion hold within them a treasure trove of acquired antiquities, rare artifacts, priceless paintings, and other valuable, cherished works of art, most commonly of a macabre design or descent.
One reporter wrote in 1969, “New Orleans Square takes you and the kids back to when cotton was king and pirates lurked in the bayous. The river beyond is like a time machine; it takes you back in history to sternwheelers and the planters who owned the big plantations.... Up on the hill above the river is a Haunted Mansion inhabited by long-dead New Orleans witches and vampires and headless medieval knights - and 999 other ghoulish citizens.” In 1961, a handbill passed out at Disneyland’s Main Entrance announced New Orleans Square and the Haunted Mansion would open two years later in 1963. According to the handbill, “Gathering the world’s greatest collection of ghosts is no easy task. Most people are kind of reluctant to admit they know any! But Walt Disney has had his talent scouts searching for several years...and in 1963 the Haunted Mansion will be filled with famous and infamous residents.”
1963 materialized on schedule, but the Mansion was unopened. Pulled this way and that over the decade, the Imagineers were forced to let the Mansion sit vacant along the banks of the Rivers of America in Frontierland for six years.
After eighteen years of on-again, off-again development and six years of anticipation created by the empty house on the hill, the Haunted Mansion’s doors finally creaked open on August 9, 1969. The attraction was an instant hit and has remained a Disneyland favorite for more than fifty years. The Haunted Mansion became the first major attraction designed by the Imagineers after Walt’s passing. Today it is a classic attraction in almost every Magic Kingdom park around the world. Millions of guests have been thrilled and chilled by Walt’s foreboding concept of a retirement home for 999 happy haunts. Yet, as our Ghost Host will soon remind us, “there’s room for a thousand… Any volunteers? Hmm...?”
THE GROUNDS
A chill runs down our spine as we draw near the entrance to the eerie estate.
The dramatic Grecian columns on the front of the house hearken to a distant time and memory - at any moment, a fair maiden might come running out onto the veranda and between the columns, awaiting the embrace of her beloved. But no one comes.
The melody of the music box draws near. We look to the second-floor balcony and find a lone rocking chair gently tilting on its own. An ornate music box on an adjacent table comes to a grinding halt. An invisible someone rises from the chair and loudly walks over to the table. The music box cranks, seemingly on its own, and the music resumes. The invisible force returns to the rocking chair, even humming along here and there.
In his book Designing Disney, Imagineer John Hench wrote of the Mansion's benign picture of Southern gentility: “We wanted to create an imposing Southern-style house that would look old, but not in ruins. So we painted it an off-white color with dark, cold blue-grey accents in shadowed areas such as the porch ceilings and wrought iron details. To accentuate the eerie, deserted feeling, I had the underside of exterior details painted in the same dark color, creating exaggerated, unnaturally deep cast shadows. Since we associate shadows with things hidden or half-hidden, the shadow treatment enhanced the structure's otherworldliness." Hanging plants and 19th-century furniture fill the length of the wrought-iron balcony. A telescope looks out onto the Rivers of America. The weather vane atop the cupola is a sailing ship in reference to Bartholomew Gore, a murderous sea captain who is rumored to have built the Mansion. Carefully groomed plants and vegetation maintain a proper, well-tended appearance, though still offering a hint of sorrow. A manicured lawn sets in front of the Mansion, adorned with sections of Mondo Grass, offering a loose, overgrown effect around the planters and lawn decor. “Urns” of Medusa’s Head, Weeping Mulberry, Pumpkin Leaves, and Weeping Juniper exemplify a mournful appearance, as if the plant-life itself is in mourning. A walkway wanders through the lawn, from the front gate to the porch of the Mansion, with a fork heading off along the side of the house.
“Our house had a tragic and bloody history of unlucky owners who died sudden and violent deaths, which resulted in their unhappy ghosts remaining behind to fulfill the uncompleted missions of their lives. We started the work of restoration as soon as it arrived at Disneyland, but strangely enough, the work of each day was destroyed during the night. It mysteriously remains always night within the house. So we recommend you stay close together during your visit, and please, above all, obey your guide’s instructions…”
- Ken Anderson Creative Treatment, March 1957
What many thought was an urban legend is actually true - there was, indeed, a secret pet cemetery hidden in an enclosed garden at the side of the house. The original was located on the right side, near what is now Splash Mountain. This hidden gem proved to be such a hit that the original was removed, reproduced and expanded to the main queue, creating a permanent pet cemetery in 1993. The Mansion’s dear departed animals include…
FREDDIE THE BAT
1847
WE’LL MISS YOU
(A Bullfrog)
OL’ FLYBAIT
HE CROAKED
AUGUST 9, 1969
ROSIE
SHE WAS A POOR LITTLE PIG
BUT SHE BOUGHT THE FARM
1849
(A Dog)
BUDDY
OUR FRIEND
UNTIL THE END
(A Skunk)
BELOVED LILAC
LONG ON CURIOSITY…
SHORT ON COMMON SCENTS
1847
(A Poodle)
FIFI
(An Unnamed Cat & Several Birds)
(An Unnamed Goldfish)
(An Unnamed, Cymbal-Crashing Monkey)
IN MEMORY OF MY RAT
WHOM I LOVED
NOW HE RESIDES IN
THE REALMS UP ABOVE
HERE LIES
LONG LEGGED JEB
GOT TANGLED UP IN
HIS VERY OWN WEB
HERE LIES MY SNAKE
WHOSE FATAL MISTAKE
WAS FRIGHTENING
THE GARDENER
WHO CARRIED A RAKE
OUR DUCK
“SKIMMER”
SHOULDN’T HAVE VISITED
THE NEIGHBORS
AT DINNER
BELOVED RAVEN LENORE,
WITH US “NEVERMORE.”
JANUARY 29, 1845
The Grounds & Gardens wander through a sizable graveyard at the side of the house. Originally, a much smaller collection of tombstones made up a “family plot,” X. Atencio’s macabre salute to the Imagineers who built the Mansion. The frightfully funny epitaphs and headstones were enlarged in number and the queue was expanded over time to meet demand, with new headstones and walkways added in 1971, 1993, 2002, 2005, 2011, and 2016, respectively. An ethereal wind howls through this ancient boneyard, oft-broken by the omnipresent "orchestra" of nocturnal creatures - wolves, crickets, owls, bats - you name it, you hear it.
There isn’t a soul in sight - only the buried inhabitants of this bizarre, sacred ground. The crypts and monuments contrast with the pristine, otherwise benign facade of the adjacent manor house. No music - just the wind and the creatures.
First we encounter the dysfunctional and sinister Dread Family: big-game hunter Bertie, honorable Aunt Florence, greedy Uncle Jacob, conniving Cousin Maude, and the spookiest twins since The Shining, Wellington and Forsythia. Each killed off one of the others in a plot to inherit the family fortune, and each monument - a bust in their comic likeness - features an epitaph and a cryptogram that offer a clue as to who killed whom.
BERTIE
Avid hunter and expert shot,
In the end that’s what he got.
(Shot by Aunt Florence)
AUNT FLORENCE
Never did a dishonorable
Deed, yet found face down
In canary seed.
(Killed by the Twins)
UNCLE JACOB
Greed was the poison he
Had swallowed. He went
First; the others followed.
His killer’s face he surely
Knew; now try to discover
Who killed who.
(Poisoned by Bertie)
THE TWINS
FORSYTHIA & WELLINGTON
Departed life while in their
Beds, with identical bumps
On identical heads.
(Killed by Cousin Maude)
COUSIN MAUDE
Our sleeping beauty,
Who never awoke, the night her
Dreams went up in smoke.
(Killed by Uncle Jacob)
A vast collection of stone coffins and large tombstones dot the manicured gardens. Each morning, a fresh rose is placed on the tombstone of “Master Gracey.” A stone angel weeps at the plot of “Priscilla Gore,” taken from this life far too soon.
MASTER GRACEY
LAID TO REST
NO MOURNING
PLEASE
AT HIS REQUEST
FAREWELL!
PRISCILLA GORE
“AS LONG AS WE
BOTH SHALL LIVE”
1809 - 1835
JASPER JONES
Loyal Manservant, Died 1883
“Kept the Master Happy”
ANNA JONES
Faithful Chambermaid, Died 1884
“Kept the Master Happier”
Mary Murphy, 1901 - 1929, “Til Death…
Frank Ballard, 1888 - 1929, ...Do Us Part.”
Ma Ballard, 1850 - 1929, “Over My Dead Body”
IN MEMORY OF
OUR PATRIARCH
DEAR DEPARTED
Grandpa Marc
At Peaceful Rest Lies
BROTHER CLAUDE
PLANTED HERE
BENEATH THIS SOD
DEAR DEPARTED
BROTHER DAVE
HE CHASED A BEAR
INTO A CAVE
HERE RESTS
WATHEL R. BENDER
HE RODE TO GLORY
ON A FENDER
Peaceful Rest
REQUIESCA
Francis Xavier
NO TIME OFF
FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR
RIP
FIRST LADY OF THE OPERA
OUR HAUNTING
Harriet
SEARCHED FOR A TUNE
BUT NEVER COULD CARRY IT
DRINK A TOAST TO
OUR FRIEND
Ken
FILL YOUR GLASS
AND DON’T SAY “WHEN”
A TRAIN
MADE A STAIN
OF ABSENT-MINDED
UNCLE BLAINE
REST IN PIECES
FAREWELL FOREVER,
Mister Frees
YOUR VOICE WILL CARRY
ON THE BREEZE
Hanged October 1, 1871
LORD ANTONIO BAXTER
Died April 12, 1892
A GLORIOUS MUSTACHE
HEAVEN BLESSED
NOW DEAD & ROTTEN,
STILL WELL DRESSED
December 2, 1893
“I Told You I Was Sick”
BROTHER CRUMP
Hanged October 13, 1897
Shot December 10, 1898
Stabbed June 28, 1899
Poisoned March 6, 1900
He’ll Be Back
JACQUES “BAKER” SHRILLMAN
LYNCHED BY A MOB
OF MUSIC LOVERS
“A Wrong Note Was His End”
Here Lies
LEADFOOT FRED
“Danced Too Slow
And Now He’s Dead”
And on one end of the cemetery, at the border of a distant swampland, we find the makeshift, wooden grave markers of a circus tiger and his three victims:
November 13, 1895 - Breakfast Time
(A Sad Clown)
November 13, 1895 - Lunch Time
(The Frightened Ringmaster)
November 13, 1895 - Dinner Time
(A Clumsy Elephant)
November 13, 1915 - Striped with Happiness
After Years of Happy Hunting
(The Grinning Tiger)
One headstone, which bears the sculpted face of a beautiful young woman, reads:
DEAR SWEET LEOTA, BELOVED BY ALL,
IN REGIONS BEYOND NOW, BUT HAVING A BALL
Not entirely at peace, the sculpture frequently opens her eyes, watching passers-by as they proceed through the cemetery. She then closes her eyes, returning once more to her eternal sleep.
The Foyer
“When hinges creak in doorless chambers and strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls… Whenever candle lights flicker… Where the air is deathly still… That is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight.”
Having briefly traversed the elegant, but lonesome front porch, a macabre servant of the manor welcomes us inside through a creaking set of front doors…
A short hallway leads into the cold Foyer, a dark chamber dimly illuminated by a cobweb-covered chandelier and a smoldering, dying flame in the lavish fireplace. The wood molding is stained and varnished, giving the room a lush, rich appearance. The elegant wallpaper glows warm with muted color. The Ghost Host, the unseen presence that will escort our tour of the Mansion, begins his ominous narration in this musky Foyer, underscored by “Grim Grinning Ghosts” arranged as a melancholy funeral dirge. The Ghost Host is voiced by Disney regular Paul Frees.
Our attention is drawn to a formal portrait of the master of the house hanging on the wall above the fireplace. As the Ghost Host delivers his infamous narration, the image in the portrait transforms. In an echo of The Picture of Dorian Gray, the subject goes from that of a handsome young man to that of a rotting corpse. The room’s lighting is dramatically sapped of “life” at the conclusion of his transformation - even the wallpaper loses its color. It is a chilling premonition of the Ghost Host’s fate, which we are about to witness firsthand in the coming Portrait Chamber… Contrary to popular belief, the Ghost Host is not the master of the house - Gracey or otherwise - but merely one of the 999 happy haunts.
At the conclusion of the transformation, a panel in the Foyer wall slides open to reveal one of two identical Portrait Chambers.
The Portrait Chamber
(The Stretching Room)
In the Portrait Chamber, we see four large paintings of former guests of the Mansion, or at least as they appeared in their “corruptible, mortal state,” which are all Marc Davis originals. Grinning gargoyles wait above each wall panel, holding onto flickering candles, designed to seem as if they are staring at each occupant in this claustrophobic gallery. The portraits are cast in a deep purple and faintly yellow light upon the vertically striped wallpaper. Our Ghost Host continues…
“Welcome, foolish mortals, to the Haunted Mansion. I am your Host, your Ghost Host. Our tour begins here… Where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state. Kindly step all the way in please, and make room for everyone. There’s no turning back now…”
A macabre servant of the house bids one final word of friendly warning… “Kindly drag your bodies away from the walls and into the dead center of the room…”
Suddenly, the panel slides shut, sealing us inside the octagonal space. The lighting shifts. Without warning, the entire room begins to “stretch,” and the portraits elongate to reveal the comically grim fate of their subjects. The walls creak and groan as the building moves. The Ghost Host’s voice seems to dart and float fluidly around the room with phantasmic echoes and unsettling ambiance.
“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… (Chuckles) Which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! (Laughs) Of course, there’s always my way…”
Lightning flashes to reveal a decayed corpse, our Ghost Host, dangling from a hangman’s noose in the cupola high above. The lights wink out. We hear the disquieting fluttering of bats’ wings accompanying a shrill, descending scream - as though the supernatural commotion has disturbed their peaceful slumber.
At the scene’s conclusion, a panel in the wall of each of the two Portrait Chambers slides open to reveal one long, dimly lit corridor. If one listens closely, they might hear the playful, childlike whispers and giggles of the gargoyles urging them to “stay together” and, ultimately, “get out!”
The room that stretches was a creative solution to an operational problem. In order to meet the park’s capacity requirements, the attraction was housed in an enormous show building outside Disneyland’s berm. Imagineers needed to move guests below ground to the show building “outside” the park. So, in the Stretching Room, the ceiling remains in place while the floor lowers, taking guests fifteen feet underground to a corridor that transports them under the railroad tracks and into the show building itself. The four “stretching” portraits unfurl to reach their full dimensions, extending from three to eight feet, as the elevator makes its descent. The four portraits, all in which were conceptualized by Marc Davis, “stretch” to reveal a beautiful woman with a parasol on a frayed tightrope above the jaws of an alligator; a middle-aged man holding a document standing on a lit barrel of dynamite in boxer shorts; a smiling elderly woman holding a rose sitting on the tombstone of her (murdered) husband; a confident man in a bowler hat sitting on the shoulders of two frightened men waist-deep in quicksand.
The ceiling is a theatrical scrim, a piece of fabric that is opaque when lit from the front (and painted to look like the chamber’s ceiling) and translucent when lit from behind, in this case by “lightning,” revealing the long-since decayed corpse of the Ghost Host hanging from the previously unseen rafters.
Imagineers, in 2011, implemented a state-of-the-art three-dimensional audio system for the Portrait Chamber to create the illusion that the Ghost Host is gliding around the room as he delivers his infamous narration. The entire room is now a “sweet spot” for digital surround sound. When the room begins to stretch, a low rumbling emanates from the floor, and the walls begin to moan and groan as guests actually hear and feel the chamber elongating around them. The fluttering bats and whispering gargoyles were added in this same refurbishment.
“Oh, I didn’t mean to frighten you prematurely. The real chills come later. Now, as they say, ‘look alive,’ and we’ll continue our little tour. And let’s all stay together, please.”
The Portrait Corridor & Grand Staircase
“There are several prominent ghosts who have retired here from creepy old crypts all over the world. Actually, we have 999 happy haunts here - but there’s room for a thousand. Any volunteers? (Laughs) If you insist on lagging behind, you may not need to volunteer.
And now, a carriage approaches to take you into the boundless realm of the supernatural. Take your loved ones by the hand, please, and kindly watch your step. Oh yes, and no flash pictures, please. We spirits are frightfully sensitive to bright lights.”
The Portrait Chamber exits into a long, dimly lit hallway filled with portraits of “prominent” denizens of the Haunted Mansion. The left side of the corridor is lined with windows that overlook a moonlit landscape in a rainstorm, intermittently illuminated by violent flashes of lightning. Portraits hang on the wall to the right, the subject of each transforming into a nightmarish image with each flash of lightning - the beautiful Medusa turns into a hideous Gorgon; a proud galleon devolves into a ghost ship; a gallant knight and his steed both become skeletons; a peaceful farm is ravished by a sandstorm; and a beautiful young woman reclining on a couch is transformed into a white tiger. At the far end of the hallway, an ominous-looking taxidermy mount of a red-eyed grizzly bear stands against the wall, joined on either side by the ferocious mounted heads of a wolf and a mountain lion. Is this haunted bear actually growling, or is it your imagination? Hmm?
From 1969 - 1992, guests would proceed into a “limbo of boundless mist and decay,” at least according to The Story and Song from The Haunted Mansion, a record album released in 1969. This strange, cloud-shrouded room was the Doom Buggy Load Area and featured little more but audible screams, lighting fixtures and rubber spiders in giant webs. Guests stepped onto a moving walkway and climbed into their Doom Buggy, where the Ghost Host was waiting to escort them on their tour of these happy haunting grounds.
This, however, changed in 1993 following the success of Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris.
In 1992, Imagineers began looking for ways to "plus" existing Disneyland attractions with some of the more contemporary ideas and technological advancements found at Disneyland Paris. Phantom Manor, “Euro” Disneyland's darker version of the Haunted Mansion, had introduced a number of improvements and additions that considerably perfected the classic Mansion. One scene from the Parisian attraction was destined for Disneyland - The Grand Staircase effectively replaced the original "boundless mist and decay" in 1993.
An enormous picture window at the top of the staircase looks onto a sinister, moonlit landscape illuminated by flashes of lightning. As the lightning flashes, the scene is drained of all color, becoming a melancholy, monochromatic grey landscape. Lavish furniture and cobwebs surround the winding path to our Doom Buggy. A supernatural wind blows to the tune of “Grim Grinning Ghosts,” interspersed by rolling thunder and the baying of a solitary wolf. The sculpted bats that top the stanchions throughout the Portrait Corridor and Grand Staircase are original designs, another testament to the Imagineers' attention to detail. There are three styles of bat - two-winged, right-winged, and left-winged - to accommodate the various turns and switchbacks.
We board our black, clamshell-like Doom Buggy at the foot of the Grand Staircase.
“Do not pull down on the safety bar, please. I will lower it for you. And heed this warning: The spirits will materialize only if you remain safely seated with your hands, arms, feet, and legs inside. And watch your children, please.”
A pair of carved griffins bid our farewell, or our "bone voyage," as we round the corner and head beneath a mysterious landing where a number of floating objects hover above us in inky blackness - a rocking chair, a candelabra, a vanity table, and an occupied bed - a limp skeletal arm hangs off the edge of the mattress.
Hall of Infamy
Ever feel like you’re being watched?
The musical wind howls well into a dark corridor before us, a rather sinister collection of macabre portraits and cobwebs galore. The portraits, however, the "Sinister 11," steal the show with their eerie, glowing eyes that follow our every move…
The axe-wielding Ghost Host cut free of his noose.
Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn holding her removed head.
A nasty, mean-eyed miser at his favorite chair.
The haggardly, once beautiful "December" in a formal pose.
Ivan the Terrible
A spectral Mariner lost at sea.
Guy Fawkes with his favorite keg of gunpowder.
A stern middle-aged couple.
Jack the Ripper.
The fanged Count Dracula.
The solemn Witch of Walpurgis and her trusted cat.
The Sinister 11 are based on unused designs by Marc Davis for changing or "talking" portraits. The eyes are cut out of the original portraits and the "half-eyeballs" are set behind the portrait and back-lit, giving the impression that they are following the viewer. The subjects often allude to the one-time idea of having the Haunted Mansion house fictional and historical villains alike, a concept heavily realized here.
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MORE TO COME
