Original Disneyland

TP2000

Well-Known Member
I don't mean to bump the thread so to speak but I gotta say I love that last photo and have a question for you since you are very knowledgeable in Disneyland History. So from that last photo I am to understand correctly that the Mansion Facade was built before the facade and show building were for Pirates of the Carribean?? Fascinating. I was lead to believe Pirates came first and as they were finishing up the show building they started working on the facade for Mansion. It is interesting to see the Mansion Facade complete while Pirates is just getting going and neither has a show building yet. Cool @ss pic. Thanks for sharing this. Sorry for the bump if it is against the forum rules.

Wow, what a blast from the past! I asked Jim to move me from the Whiskey Sour he's so good at to just a simple Drambuie served straight up for this one....

The Haunted Mansion facade we know today was built in Disneyland over the winter of 1962 and 1963, so that by the spring of 1963 it looked like this in the park, with nothing of any substance behind it and no operating ride system ready to go.

nwj1p4-webdisnyhunts.jpg


But by early 1963 when this facade was completed the basic plan was still to use the Sam McKim concept of using elevators to lower groups of customers down to a lower level to begin a guided tour by a Haunted Mansion butler or chambermaid. Apparentely at D23 Expo in a few weeks they are going to expand on the late 1950's to early 1960's plans for the "Haunted Mansion" walk-thru attraction at Disneyland.

This facade, the "mansion" we still know today, sat there for six years. They abandoned the development of this ride by the spring of 1963 as Walt directed his Imagineers to focus all their energy and attention on the pavilions for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, since the pavilions were being paid for by deep pocketed companies and governments; Ford, General Electric, State of Illinois, Pepsi-Cola. They also abandoned plans for the walk-thru Pirates wax museum for the same area.

Here's an aerial photo from January, 1964. The completed Haunted Mansion facade is seen here as it was completed almost a year before, plus the basement level excavation for the Pirates wax museum that was also abandoned by this time. All of this sat abandoned until later in 1965 when construction resumed after the wax museum walk-thru became a boat ride-thru based on the Pepsi-Cola Small World boat ride for the World's Fair. And the wax figures became moving animatronics.

By the time construction resumed in 1965, the excavated area shown here that was supposed to be the entire wax museum walk-thru became simply the opening acts of the boat ride as the Blue Bayou, plus all the shops and restaurants of New Orleans Square. The rest of the boat ride we now know as Pirates of the Caribbean was built in a second warehouse beyond the berm later in 1965.

KEkTPBKBC_1_64_N12R.jpg


By the time work got going again on the Haunted Mansion later in the 1960's, WDI had learned all sorts of lesson on moving people through shows. Instead of using maids and butlers to personally lead a few hundred customers per hour on a walking tour of a haunted mansion, WDI had created ride systems like the Omnimover that could move over 2,000 customers per hour through this show. The ride changed, but the exterior facade on the edge of New Orleans Square stayed the same.

Interestingly, when I just Googled this 20th Century Haunted Mansion topic to get that photo above, Google showed me there's a Haunted Mansion CM uniform from the 20th century for sale on Ebay. Those vintage "Disneyland - Anaheim, California - Made In U.S.A." tags on this uniform alone are worth a fortune! Too cool! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Disneyland...582184?hash=item4b689bb568:g:VjsAAOSwzkRdSNTR

I have half a mind to bid on that. I'd ask Jim for his opinion, but he thinks we're all weird to focus so much on Disneyland.

The ride as we know it, The Haunted Mansion, opened on August 12th, 1969. Almost 50 years ago this week. By then the exterior facade seen from inside Disneyland had remained the same since 1963, but the ride system and show inside had been radically changed after the knowledge gained from operating big pavilions at the World's Fair five years earlier.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Haunted Mansion! :)
 
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SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
That '80s costume is awesome. Way higher quality and more detailed than the cheap polyester costumes worn today- though I imagine they're far more comfortable in the Anaheim summer sun now than in the '80s. Super super cool. Very curious to see how high the bidding goes.
 

THE 1HAPPY HAUNT

Well-Known Member
Wow, what a blast from the past! I asked Jim to move me from the Whiskey Sour he's so good at to just a simple Drambuie served straight up for this one....

The Haunted Mansion facade we know today was built in Disneyland over the winter of 1962 and 1963, so that by the spring of 1963 it looked like this in the park, with nothing of any substance behind it and no operating ride system ready to go.

nwj1p4-webdisnyhunts.jpg


But by early 1963 when this facade was completed the basic plan was still to use the Sam McKim concept of using elevators to lower groups of customers down to a lower level to begin a guided tour by a Haunted Mansion butler or chambermaid. Apparentely at D23 Expo in a few weeks they are going to expand on the late 1950's to early 1960's plans for the "Haunted Mansion" walk-thru attraction at Disneyland.

This facade, the "mansion" we still know today, sat there for six years. They abandoned the development of this ride by the spring of 1963 as Walt directed his Imagineers to focus all their energy and attention on the pavilions for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, since the pavilions were being paid for by deep pocketed companies and governments; Ford, General Electric, State of Illinois, Pepsi-Cola. They also abandoned plans for the walk-thru Pirates wax museum for the same area.

Here's an aerial photo from January, 1964. The completed Haunted Mansion facade is seen here as it was completed almost a year before, plus the basement level excavation for the Pirates wax museum that was also abandoned by this time. All of this sat abandoned until later in 1965 when construction resumed after the wax museum walk-thru became a boat ride-thru based on the Pepsi-Cola Small World boat ride for the World's Fair. And the wax figures became moving animatronics.

By the time construction resumed in 1965, the excavated area shown here that was supposed to be the entire wax museum walk-thru became simply the opening acts of the boat ride as the Blue Bayou, plus all the shops and restaurants of New Orleans Square. The rest of the boat ride we now know as Pirates of the Caribbean was built in a second warehouse beyond the berm later in 1965.

KEkTPBKBC_1_64_N12R.jpg


By the time work got going again on the Haunted Mansion later in the 1960's, WDI had learned all sorts of lesson on moving people through shows. Instead of using maids and butlers to personally lead a few hundred customers per hour on a walking tour of a haunted mansion, WDI had created ride systems like the Omnimover that could move over 2,000 customers per hour through this show. The ride changed, but the exterior facade on the edge of New Orleans Square stayed the same.

Interestingly, when I just Googled this 20th Century Haunted Mansion topic to get that photo above, Google showed me there's a Haunted Mansion CM uniform from the 20th century for sale on Ebay. Those vintage "Disneyland - Anaheim, California - Made In U.S.A." tags on this uniform alone are worth a fortune! Too cool! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Disneyland...582184?hash=item4b689bb568:g:VjsAAOSwzkRdSNTR

I have half a mind to bid on that. I'd ask Jim for his opinion, but he thinks we're all weird to focus so much on Disneyland.

The ride as we know it, The Haunted Mansion, opened on August 12th, 1969. Almost 50 years ago this week. By then the exterior facade seen from inside Disneyland had remained the same since 1963, but the ride system and show inside had been radically changed after the knowledge gained from operating big pavilions at the World's Fair five years earlier.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Haunted Mansion! :)
Thank you for taking your time to provide one excellent write up with a great picture and facts and anecdotes and that cool ebay link to the uniform. Thanks for clarifying the time frame for me. Alot of "making of" videos give you the basics but not as good of a break down as that. I do read Forgotten Haunted Mansion and this was right up there with their best work. Thanks!!!!
 
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BubbaQuest

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the great write-up! Maybe one of you know if this is "Disney Myth" or not.

I had heard the reason the mansion was built so early was that imagineering kept coming up with plans that included some kind of decrepit house. Walt didn't want any decrepit buildings inside Disneyland so he forced this nice house to get built before they decided on any final attraction.
 

SuddenStorm

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the great write-up! Maybe one of you know if this is "Disney Myth" or not.

I had heard the reason the mansion was built so early was that imagineering kept coming up with plans that included some kind of decrepit house. Walt didn't want any decrepit buildings inside Disneyland so he forced this nice house to get built before they decided on any final attraction.

This sounds like a distortion of many true events. Yes, Ken Anderson had originally envisioned a decrepit haunted house. Yes, Walt shot that down (the famous "We'll take care of the outside, the ghosts will take care of the inside" line). Walt wasn't planning on dying in '66, so he wouldn't green light anything he wasn't happy with, so he wouldn't rush the nice facade being built to be built to somehow stop something he wasn't okay with.

The facade got built when it did because they were planning on doing the walkthrough soon after the facade was built, before the World's Fair came in and changed everything.

Bob Gurr actually talks about this exact topic here, which further explains why they built the facade before building the actual walkthrough (48 minutes in, but I recommend the whole panel)-

 

Rich T

Well-Known Member
Disneyland was closed Mondays and Tuesdays about eight months of the year from 1955 until 1984. That was one of the first things Eisner changed when he arrived in '84; keep the park open seven days a week.
And—no lie— Knott’s closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays during those periods. Such a win-win, friendly time for the two parks!
 

Phroobar

Well-Known Member
And—no lie— Knott’s closed on Wednesdays and Thursdays during those periods. Such a win-win, friendly time for the two parks!
They have always been fairly friendly until the corporate knuckleheads took over Disneyland. Even Knotts today congratulated Disneyland on GE this year. I doubt Disneyland will even acknowledge Knotts expansion in a couple of years. I'm sure there will be some jokes about GE's crowds at the Hanging this year.

rudWTkB.jpg
 

NobodyElse

Well-Known Member
Wow, what a blast from the past! I asked Jim to move me from the Whiskey Sour he's so good at to just a simple Drambuie served straight up for this one....

The Haunted Mansion facade we know today was built in Disneyland over the winter of 1962 and 1963, so that by the spring of 1963 it looked like this in the park, with nothing of any substance behind it and no operating ride system ready to go.

nwj1p4-webdisnyhunts.jpg


But by early 1963 when this facade was completed the basic plan was still to use the Sam McKim concept of using elevators to lower groups of customers down to a lower level to begin a guided tour by a Haunted Mansion butler or chambermaid. Apparentely at D23 Expo in a few weeks they are going to expand on the late 1950's to early 1960's plans for the "Haunted Mansion" walk-thru attraction at Disneyland.

This facade, the "mansion" we still know today, sat there for six years. They abandoned the development of this ride by the spring of 1963 as Walt directed his Imagineers to focus all their energy and attention on the pavilions for the 1964-65 New York World's Fair, since the pavilions were being paid for by deep pocketed companies and governments; Ford, General Electric, State of Illinois, Pepsi-Cola. They also abandoned plans for the walk-thru Pirates wax museum for the same area.

Here's an aerial photo from January, 1964. The completed Haunted Mansion facade is seen here as it was completed almost a year before, plus the basement level excavation for the Pirates wax museum that was also abandoned by this time. All of this sat abandoned until later in 1965 when construction resumed after the wax museum walk-thru became a boat ride-thru based on the Pepsi-Cola Small World boat ride for the World's Fair. And the wax figures became moving animatronics.

By the time construction resumed in 1965, the excavated area shown here that was supposed to be the entire wax museum walk-thru became simply the opening acts of the boat ride as the Blue Bayou, plus all the shops and restaurants of New Orleans Square. The rest of the boat ride we now know as Pirates of the Caribbean was built in a second warehouse beyond the berm later in 1965.

KEkTPBKBC_1_64_N12R.jpg


By the time work got going again on the Haunted Mansion later in the 1960's, WDI had learned all sorts of lesson on moving people through shows. Instead of using maids and butlers to personally lead a few hundred customers per hour on a walking tour of a haunted mansion, WDI had created ride systems like the Omnimover that could move over 2,000 customers per hour through this show. The ride changed, but the exterior facade on the edge of New Orleans Square stayed the same.

Interestingly, when I just Googled this 20th Century Haunted Mansion topic to get that photo above, Google showed me there's a Haunted Mansion CM uniform from the 20th century for sale on Ebay. Those vintage "Disneyland - Anaheim, California - Made In U.S.A." tags on this uniform alone are worth a fortune! Too cool! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Disneyland...582184?hash=item4b689bb568:g:VjsAAOSwzkRdSNTR

I have half a mind to bid on that. I'd ask Jim for his opinion, but he thinks we're all weird to focus so much on Disneyland.

The ride as we know it, The Haunted Mansion, opened on August 12th, 1969. Almost 50 years ago this week. By then the exterior facade seen from inside Disneyland had remained the same since 1963, but the ride system and show inside had been radically changed after the knowledge gained from operating big pavilions at the World's Fair five years earlier.

Happy 50th Anniversary, Haunted Mansion! :)

Today this fun little photo popped up on Facebook. I don't remember seeing it before.
397243
 

smooch

Well-Known Member
This is so cool, I definitely need to download the high res photo of the concept art and frame it and put it on my wall.
 

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