The Haunted Mansion's Hat Box Ghost...?

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Yea, but technically the placement of Splash is wrong in the LS to FL timeline...

But that's getting really picky.:lol:

Yes, but people don't complain about it because they like the attraction. If the attraction was bad, that chronology would be brought up.
 

Kath-n-me

New Member
EPCOT Explorer;3929545 The attraction? Yeah. The placement? Not really. We go from the West with BTTMR to The South with one path?! It's a little odd.[/QUOTE said:
It's a Small World After All!! :) (Sorry I couldn't help myself) BTW the movie takes place in Georgia
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
It's a Small World After All!! :) (Sorry I couldn't help myself) BTW the movie takes place in Georgia

Perhaps Goofy and I should explain what we're talking about. Starting in Liberty Square, and walking towards Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the buildings appear in chronological order. There are "dates" on each building to indicate when they came into existence per the backstory of the two lands. I don't know the exact dates as you move along that path, but Splash Mountain does not fit in chronologically, as it takes place after Big Thunder Mountain.
 

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Fantasmic is kind of on Pirates Lair/Tom Sawyer's Island - it's an odd placement for it, but they needed a body of water so the New Orleans Square/Frontierland area seems to work.

But yes, much like Splash Mountain - if the attraction is good, and is somewhat out of place thematically, people are less likely to complain.

If we were to have gotten Ride and Go Seek in Tomorrowland instead of MILF, the complaints of it's placement would be far less.
 

HBG2

Member
HBG info

Well, HMF asked me to swing by and address the never-ending controversy about whether or not the HBG was seen by the public. I saw him on Thursday, August 14, 1969. I was 14 years old and remember it clearly. Some months ago I made contact with another old fart (uh, I mean "seasoned DL veteran"), and the chronology is much clearer now.

So here's the deal.

HBG was there for the CM soft openings on Thursday and Friday nights, Aug 7 and 8. That's when Tony B saw him. He didn't work right because his face was supposed to disappear when the head in the hatbox lit up. They simply painted his face with black-light luminous paint and had a black light spotlight tightly focused on his face. When they turned it off, his face would simply disappear. Unfortunately, there was too much ambient black light in the attic for the face to fully vanish, so the effect failed. This was immediately obvious, and they pulled HBG out after the second CM soft opening.

Next, you have to know that the official grand opening of the HM was set for Monday night (the 11th) going into Tuesday the 12th. They had a midnight "sneak preview" press preview scheduled for then. But before this, Marc Davis (and others perhaps) thought the public had waited long enough, and they simply decided to open it on Saturday the 9th. It was open Sunday the 10th as well. They actually ran ads in the LA Times on those days announcing that the HM was "now open." They went ahead with the Tuesday the 12th "grand opening" / press preview anyway, just as if nothing had happened. You can say that the HM had an advertised soft opening (huh?) or that it had two official grand openings (huh??). Either way, it's a freak.

They didn't give up on HBG so easily. Why would they? They tinkered and fiddled with it, trying to get the effect to work. Consequently, he was installed and pulled out intermittently over the next week at least, and possibly several weeks, before they gave up. When they did, they moved the bride to his spot. (Originally, she was about where the piano now is in the DL attic.) So the public did see him, depending on the luck of the draw. I now realize how lucky I was.

It's absolutely false that they re-used HBG parts for Sam the Eagle. There was nothing to the HBG frame but some thin metal tubing covered with wads of plastic wrap, and he had no animation beyond a shaking hand on top of his cane, produced by a small electric motor below the floor. Other than the heads, there was nothing there to recycle, period. That story comes from a source that Jim Hill is reluctant to contradict, for personal reasons. He knows full well that it's pure BS.

They built a second HBG, intended for WDW, but it was never used. No one knows what became of it, to this day.

If you are able to do the "magic eye" 3D viewing trick, you may be able to read this right off the screen. It's a 3D reproduction of the original HBG that I created with photoshop and the one existing photo of HBG as it was installed in the ride. He was in the corner, to the right as you were about to exit the attic.

HatboxGhost3d.jpg
 

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
Original Poster
Well, HMF asked me to swing by and address the never-ending controversy about whether or not the HBG was seen by the public. I saw him on Thursday, August 14, 1969. I was 14 years old and remember it clearly. Some months ago I made contact with another old fart (uh, I mean "seasoned DL veteran"), and the chronology is much clearer now.

So here's the deal.

HBG was there for the CM soft openings on Thursday and Friday nights, Aug 7 and 8. That's when Tony B saw him. He didn't work right because his face was supposed to disappear when the head in the hatbox lit up. They simply painted his face with black-light luminous paint and had a black light spotlight tightly focused on his face. When they turned it off, his face would simply disappear. Unfortunately, there was too much ambient black light in the attic for the face to fully vanish, so the effect failed. This was immediately obvious, and they pulled HBG out after the second CM soft opening.

Next, you have to know that the official grand opening of the HM was set for Monday night (the 11th) going into Tuesday the 12th. They had a midnight "sneak preview" press preview scheduled for then. But before this, Marc Davis (and others perhaps) thought the public had waited long enough, and they simply decided to open it on Saturday the 9th. It was open Sunday the 10th as well. They actually ran ads in the LA Times on those days announcing that the HM was "now open." They went ahead with the Tuesday the 12th "grand opening" / press preview anyway, just as if nothing had happened. You can say that the HM had an advertised soft opening (huh?) or that it had two official grand openings (huh??). Either way, it's a freak.

They didn't give up on HBG so easily. Why would they? They tinkered and fiddled with it, trying to get the effect to work. Consequently, he was installed and pulled out intermittently over the next week at least, and possibly several weeks, before they gave up. When they did, they moved the bride to his spot. (Originally, she was about where the piano now is in the DL attic.) So the public did see him, depending on the luck of the draw. I now realize how lucky I was.

It's absolutely false that they re-used HBG parts for Sam the Eagle. There was nothing to the HBG frame but some thin metal tubing covered with wads of plastic wrap, and he had no animation beyond a shaking hand on top of his cane, produced by a small electric motor below the floor. Other than the heads, there was nothing there to recycle, period. That story comes from a source that Jim Hill is reluctant to contradict, for personal reasons. He knows full well that it's pure BS.

They built a second HBG, intended for WDW, but it was never used. No one knows what became of it, to this day.

If you are able to do the "magic eye" 3D viewing trick, you may be able to read this right off the screen. It's a 3D reproduction of the original HBG that I created with photoshop and the one existing photo of HBG as it was installed in the ride. He was in the corner, to the right as you were about to exit the attic.

HatboxGhost3d.jpg
Awesome, awesome, awesome information! Thank you so much for bringing it to our boards. :) Hope you enjoy your time here.

I find it so interesting how he was consistently tinkered with and reworked. Shame they never really got him right.

Would be so cool if they were to finally make a 21st Century version of him...They certainly could.

Thanks again! :sohappy:
 

Brian_WDW74

Member
It's absolutely false that they re-used HBG parts for Sam the Eagle. There was nothing to the HBG frame but some thin metal tubing covered with wads of plastic wrap, and he had no animation beyond a shaking hand on top of his cane, produced by a small electric motor below the floor. Other than the heads, there was nothing there to recycle, period. That story comes from a source that Jim Hill is reluctant to contradict, for personal reasons. He knows full well that it's pure BS.

Which is why I always put an "if you choose to believe him" disclaimer when I link to Jim. Thanks for setting the record straight! :wave:
 

gerryu21220

Member
Now that there's gonna be a new HM movie featuring the Hatbox Ghost as the main character, he will almost certainly be restored to his rightful place in the Mansion(s).

And with any luck Constance will be ousted for good...
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
Now that there's gonna be a new HM movie featuring the Hatbox Ghost as the main character, he will almost certainly be restored to his rightful place in the Mansion(s).

And with any luck Constance will be ousted for good...
Doubt it. Constance and the Hatbox Ghost fit each other like a glove.
 

gerryu21220

Member
Doubt it. Constance and the Hatbox Ghost fit each other like a glove.

How so? She's nothing like the original Bride that he was paired with. Where's the red glowing beating heart?

"With each beat of his bride's heart, his head disappeared from from his body - and appeared in the hatbox..."

So how does Connie fit in with that??? I don't see any beating heart to go with the sound effect (which makes me wonder why the sound effect is still used).
 

adv.bluedude

Active Member
How so? She's nothing like the original Bride that he was paired with. Where's the red glowing beating heart?

"With each beat of his bride's heart, his head disappeared from from his body - and appeared in the hatbox..."

So how does Connie fit in with that??? I don't see any beating heart to go with the sound effect (which makes me wonder why the sound effect is still used).

The sound effect is still used because every time her heart beats, the men in the portrait's heads disappear which is also probably as close to the hatbox ghost as we're gonna get(for now)
 

Figment1986

Well-Known Member
How so? She's nothing like the original Bride that he was paired with. Where's the red glowing beating heart?

"With each beat of his bride's heart, his head disappeared from from his body - and appeared in the hatbox..."

So how does Connie fit in with that??? I don't see any beating heart to go with the sound effect (which makes me wonder why the sound effect is still used).

The sound of the axe / knife cutting perhaps since Constance does have that axe she shows after each phrase... and if he is disembodied it would explain it :zipit:
 

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