Quicknation    The Haunted Mansion

Images of: The Haunted MansionG Y AOL AV MSN Desc of: The Haunted Mansion IMDb  Y! DVD: DVD

The Haunted Mansion This article relates to the theme-park attraction. For the film of the same name, see The Haunted Mansion (film) is a well-known attraction located in Disneyland. It has been reproduced in Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris. (In the latter case, the attraction is called Phantom Manor.) This attraction takes the concept of the midway dark ride to a whole new level, with ghoulish special effects and spectral audio-animatronics that remain effective to this day. These ghostly residents have taken full possession of the premises. There are "nine hundred and ninety-nine happy haunts here, but there's room for a thousand. Any volunteers?"

table

Originally conceived in the mid-1950s by Walt Disney as a walk-through ghost house, artist Harper Goff was tapped to conceptually design the attraction. The house originally had a rural American design and was intended to be at the end of a crooked path that led away from Disneyland's Main Street area. Eventually the decision was made to place it in the New Orleans Square section of the park, and thus the attraction was themed as a haunted antebellum mansion. The Haunted Mansion's design went through many changes before its facade was completed in 1963, six years before it would open to the public, delayed by Disney's involvement in the New York World's Fair in 1964 and 1965. At one point Disney's concept was to be entirely walk-through and empty out at a restaurant with a theme of "The Museum of the Weird" - this would be similar to other attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean which is paired with the Blue Bayou restaurant. Plans were designed for this concept, but then abandoned.

In what might be considered to be an odd twist to a supposedly abandoned structure, the exterior appears new and the surrounding grounds meticulously maintained. Designers wanted to make the exterior of The Haunted Mansion look like the stereotypical haunted house but Disney himself overrode the idea, claiming "we'll let the ghosts take care of the inside. We'll take care of the outside."

On August 9, 1969, the Disneyland version of the attraction was completed and has remained essentially unchanged, with the exception of the yearly conversion to the "Haunted Mansion Holiday" discussed below. The attraction opened at the Magic Kingdom in 1971 when the park opened, and has also never been remodeled since the ride's debut.

At Hong Kong Disneyland, so far the only Disneyland not to receive the attraction, plans for the attraction in Phase Two of the park include a voodoo theme placing the attraction in Adventureland. The park opened on September 12, 2005, and if it is successful Phase Two will begin in late 2006. The Haunted Mansion, in any of its forms, has not yet been confirmed as part of Phase Two, or if it is going to be a part of the park at all.

Guests stand in line outside the mansion, and are led into a spooky parlor by Cast Members dressed as maids and butlers. From there, the guests are brought into an octagonal room, where the door they entered by becomes a wall, and the chilling voice of Paul Frees taunts them:

dlYour 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. Which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out! Of course, there's always my way...

As the voice speaks, the walls quietly seem to stretch upwards, elongating the Marc Davis-designed paintings on them to reveal the comedic fates of previous guests. For instance, one man is seen in the dress of minor nobility...and red and white striped boxer shorts...while standing on a keg of dynamite with a lit fuse. Another portrait shows a demure young woman holding a parasol and calmly balancing on an unraveling tightrope above the hungry jaws of a waiting crocodile (see the backstory section below). The lights go out, lightning and thunder effects fill the gallery and, in a rare instance of Disneyland "dark humor," a glimpse of the earthly remains of the "Ghost Host" is shown dangling by a noose from the ceiling rafters above. At the attraction in Disneyland, the room is, in fact, an elevator with no roof that is being lowered slowly to give the illusion that the room itself is stretching; this brings the guests down to where the ride begins, below ground level. The ceiling above is a piece of fabric called a scrim, which conceals the hanging until it is lit from above. This elevator effect was necessary to lower the guests below the level of the park-circling railroad at Disneyland. The actual ride building of this attraction is located outside of the berm surrounding the park, and the Disney Imagineers developed this mechanism to lower the guests to the gallery leading to the actual ride building. It is interesting to note that this stretching room effect is duplicated at the other three other Mansions at other Disney theme parks, but none of these versions require guests being moved outside the berm. The Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland attractions have stretching rooms with ascending ceilings, rather than descending floors. The Phantom Manor, in Disneyland Paris, uses the familiar descending floor used in Disneyland. This time, the room is used to lower guests beneath a hill behind the manor, so they can reach the show building on the other side of the hill.

When the walls finally do open, guests are ushered into an art gallery with paintings that depict seemingly innocent scenes. Windows on the left give guests a peek at the thunderstorm raging outside. With every flash of lightning, the paintings flicker with ghastly images--a demure woman sprouts snakes from her scalp, and a magnificent sailing ship becomes tattered and ghostly. The grim busts of a man and woman placed at the end of the hall seem to turn their heads, glaring at the guests as they walk past. The effect, patented by Disney, was achieved by creating inverted busts: they actually recede into the wall. A combination of dim lighting, optical illusion, and wishful thinking make the busts appear to stare at the passing guests. The effect is unnerving and extremely convincing.

The main stretch of the attraction consists of a continuous track of "Doom Buggies" in which the guests sit as they are brought through the mansion. The "Doom Buggies" are actually Disney's Omnimover system which "pan" the riders to focus their attention on specific scenes, much as a cinematographer would pan a motion picture camera. The special effects throughout the ride were groundbreaking when the mansion first opened. After ascending a dark staircase, guests embark on an eerie journey through the mansion. A dimly-lit corridor extends into oblivion while a candelabra floats through the air. But guests continue along a different hallway, past an assortment of scenes. A conservatory of decaying flora boasts a coffin with decomposing hands pushing upwards from within. Locked doors line the hall, knobs and knockers rattling with paranormal activity. One door even appears to be breathing. A clock that resembles a demon strikes 13 o'clock as a shadowy claw rakes across its face.

Guests enter a dark séance room full of floating musical instruments. Madame Leota, a gypsy trapped within a crystal ball, summons the mansion's spirits. As guests pass into the magnificent grand ballroom, the happy haunts begin to materialize. Translucent couples waltz to the musical rantings of macabre organist, while a ghostly birthday party appears to be taking place at the dining table. Some spirits sit on the chandeliers, engorging themselves with wine. All the ghosts in this scene are created using the Pepper's Ghost effect. An important part of Disney history is located in the ballroom scene of the original Anaheim attraction. The pipe organ on the far left of the scene is the original prop from the studio's 1954 release, . Prior to the construction of the Haunted Mansion, the organ had been on display in a shop in the "Main Street, U.S.A." area of the park.

After leaving the ballroom, guests work their way through the mansion's eerie attic; a ghostly bride's dead heart sends a throbbing red glow through the room while a phantom pianist pounds out a twisted rendition of the Wedding March. The Doom Buggies suddenly plunge down the side of the mansion and into the mansion's graveyard, where a musical scene awaits them. An ephemeral band of minstrels belts out the attraction's theme song, Grim Grinning Ghosts, while a ghostly host joins in the revelry. Stone busts, animated by the spirits of those they honor, sing along with the others. Spirits pour out of the graves and swoop into the night sky.

At last, guests pass into a crypt where they encounter the attraction's unofficial mascots, the three Hitchhiking Ghosts. Passing by three large mirrors, they realize that one ghost has hitched a ride in each Doom Buggy. Guests disembark and are bid farewell by a tiny woman, nicknamed "Little Leota" by fans and Disney Imagineers (as this is the second appearance of Leota Toomes, who also provided the face of Madame Leota), before returning to the outside world.

Though the setting is delightfully creepy throughout, the mood progresses from downright eerie to morbidly light-hearted. Imagineer Claude Coats was mainly responsible for the dimly-lit, mysterious interiors of the first half of the ride. In these areas, the happy haunts are never directly seen, leaving the real scares to the guests' imagination. After the seance room, the mansion's inhabitants begin materializing, and the influence of animator Marc Davis becomes apparent. The characters become comical and zany, although the circumstances are quite morbid. The final scenes in the graveyard are kept light by the morbidly kooky song "Grim Grinning Ghosts". This 'theme song' for the ride was composed by Buddy Baker and the lyrics written by F. Xavier Atencio. It can be heard in nearly every area of the ride, with various instrumentations and tempos. The deep voice of Thurl Ravenscroft (best known for voicing Tony the Tiger in television commercials) sings as part of a quartet of singing busts in the graveyard scene. Ravenscroft's face is used as well as it is projected onto one of the busts, specifically one with a detached head.

"Just prior to Halloween, the Haunted Mansion closes for its conversion to Haunted Mansion Holiday."

The other incarnations of the ride are very similar, but have their differences. The Haunted Mansion is the only ride to appear in each of the Disney theme parks in a different location in the park. The Magic Kingdom's version of the ride is located in Liberty Square and has a New England facade, likely because the intention there was to base the attraction around the story of Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman. The Disneyland version is located in New Orleans Square. Tokyo Disneyland placed the Mansion in Fantasyland. The version at Disneyland Paris is in Frontierland and is named The Phantom Manor and features a full orchestral score, an Old West theme, and a more cohesive storyline than the other three Mansions (an opening narration by Vincent Price was recorded but not used, and is available on the Haunted Mansion soundtrack). The versions in Florida, Paris, and Tokyo all still have a stretching octagonal room to greet their guests, though in these three the ceiling actually raises instead of the floor moving; there was no need to use an elevator in those Mansions.

In 1999, a retrospective of the art of the Haunted Mansion was featured at the Disney Gallery above the entrance to The Pirates of the Caribbean. When the 2003 film was released, a retrospective of its art was featured in the gallery as well.

Beginning in 2001, the Disneyland attraction is changed for about three months just prior to Halloween until just after the new year into "Haunted Mansion Holiday," a theme based on the 1993 Tim Burton stop-motion animation feature, . In 2004, Tokyo Disneyland received its version "Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare." The Magic Kingdom attraction was rumored to receive its own version of the overlay for the first time in 2005, but the differences between Disneyland and Walt Disney World's visitors (more locals at the former versus occasional vacationers at the latter) have made the possibility of the Magic Kingdom receiving the temporary overlay less likely.

On October 21, 2004, a bidder on a Disney-sponsored auction on eBay won the right to be the first non-Disneyland employee to have his name added to an attraction. Cary Sharp, a doctor and health-care attorney from Baton Rouge, Louisiana placed a winning bid of US$37,400 to become Disneyland's "1000th ghost" with the addition of his nickname, a joke epitaph and the signatures of Disney "Imagineers" on a tombstone to be displayed in the attraction. Its placement was guaranteed for ten years and will remain as a permanent exhibit. According to the the opening bid of $750 was placed by horror novelist Clive Barker. Sharp, who had only visited Disneyland once before, placed the bid in good faith as a way to entertain his friends and never expected to win. The tombstone is located in the finale and can be seen just as the "Doom Buggy" enters the graveyard gates. The name on the tombstone is "Jay."

The money has been donated to the Boys and Girls Club. Half went to the local Anaheim chapter of the main charity while the other half went to the Baton Rouge chapter.

In October 2005, Slave Labor Graphics began publishing a bimonthly comic book anthology giving the Disneyland Mansion a backstory (woth the main recurring story of Master Gracey recalling the old sea captain storyline)

The story behind the ghosts of the Haunted Mansion, while having many theories, as well as even some names, has never been completely set in stone. However, one common story, according to the writers of at least one fan site, goes as follows(applying to the Florida version, the Disneyland version recieving one from the comic book series being published by Slave Labor Graphics):

The Mansion was built in 1671, on the site of an Indian burial ground, by a Dutch patrician named Ubbe van der Iwerks, a play on the name of animator Ub Iwerks. It seemed to possess a strange nature throughout its history, as even he reported eerie goings-on. Van der Iwerks' family eventually lost control of the Mansion, and over the next two centuries it served as a bordello and pirate retreat. Then in the late 19th century, it was bought by the Graceys, a wealthy Rhode Island family. Master William Gracey, Jr., the scion (b. 1890), fell under the spell (perhaps literally) of Madame Leota, an evil amateur spiritualist from Louisiana who hoped to gain great powers by summoning spirits. She became the young Master's advisor (as well as an illicit lover), taking up residence in the Mansion and attracting people from far and wide with her seances. While many of them were undoubtedly fakes, it is undeniable that she managed to draw in several spirits, and make the already cursed house a magnet for intense spiritual activity.

Gracey eventually married Lillian O'Malley, a Georgia trapeze artist; however, he likely had several affairs with Leota after his marriage, much to Lillian's detriment. Leota grew violently jealous and in 1937 convinced Lillian to perform her trapeze act once more; she then magically undid the rope as Lillian was crossing an alligator-infested river, whereupon she fell in and was devoured. (This scene, of course, is depicted in the "stretching" portrait in the entrance room.)

Distraught, Gracey was shortly thereafter introduced to Emily Cavanagh, his second cousin, who had recently lost her parents. The 16-year-old girl was quite taken with him, and fell head over heels in love. But on their honeymoon in 1941, she and her new husband played hide and seek. She hid in a large trunk in the attic. But Leota snuck in, and pulled the lock. Panicked, Emily suffocated. Her ghost is the eerie bride in the attic. As if to add injury to insult, during her funeral, Leota made the horses drawing the hearse panic, rushing off into the Florida swampland and driving Emily's wedding ring, knocked from her coffin, deep into the front walk, where it could never be moved. Emily's itself was never found.

In early 1943, when Leota tried to use the Mansion to conjure up more powerful spirits, Gracey refused. In the ensuing discussion, Leota told him that she had killed his ex-wives. Finally realizing her danger, he tried to escape, but found all escape routes cut off, as Leota was controlling all the servants. She then began a spell which would imprison him in her crystal ball. Trapped, Gracey hung himself in the Mansion's attic rather than be imprisoned by Leota. As a result, the spell reversed, trapping Leota herself in her own ball, where she remains to this day.

Leota also had a daughter, commonly known as "Little Leota". Her father's identity was never disclosed, but at social functions, whenever she gestured toward Master Gracey, he would blush and remain silent. She was quite a practical joker, with an extremely macabre sense of humor, always enjoying scaring people. (One of the other ghosts, the housekeeper, was actually scared to death by her.) She would often stand outside the property gates, telling guests leaving her mother's seances to "hurry back" and "Bring your death certificate." She was also quite a flirt, and seduced many men who stayed at the Mansion. Three men whom she was never able to reach were the Graceys' butler, footman, and handyman, who were understandably frightened of the consequences of any affair. Finally, one day she had had enough. She lured the men out into the nearby swamp with Hellhound, the Graceys' bloodhound, where they eventually blundered into a patch of quicksand. The three stood on each others' shoulders to try and reach a tree branch, but to no avail. (This scene too is depicted in the "stretching room".) Meanwhile, Little Leota sat in a nearby tree, laughing. But then the branch snapped under her weight and she too fell in.

The biggest death that took place in the Haunted Mansion was in the cemetery. The Graceys had an Halloween party in their cemetery for the towns folk. Victoria Boufout, Master Gracey's great aunt (the ghost in the ballroom with the birthday cake) hosted the party and gave all of the guests name tags with names like "Dustin T. Dust" and "M.T. Tomb". The party was in full swing during the course of the evening, with a musical band, a see-saw made out of a gravestone and a plank of wood and even a crashed hearse. But near the end of the party everyone except the Graceys died, thanks to contaminated water used to make the tea everyone was drinking. Most of the ghosts can be seen in the graveyard scene of the ride.

Below are some of the other ghosts of the mansion, who have been named and their backstories created by members of a fansite.

Wolfgang Furlong (The organist. Killed himself after losing his ability to play the organ, after his fingers were crushed).The Hitchhiking Ghosts: Phineas, Ezra and Gus (All escaped from prison and became the hitchhikers they are today. Gus is Master Gracey's uncle, who fell down a well. Ezra was crushed by a fat woman sitting on him, and Phineas died from lead poisoning.The Raven (Elma's pet raven that may have possibly killed her). In the movie version of the Haunted Mansion, the Raven is named Fonzy.

With few exceptions, the Disneyland attraction has remained largely unchanged since its 1969 opening. When the 2004–05 "Haunted Mansion Holiday" overlay was removed, two significant changes were made at the same time. The first was to the portraits in the gallery scene. The portraits were originally backlit and "morphed" from normal to haunted scenes. Today, they are darkened and the morphing occurs in stroboscopic synchronization with the simulated thunderstorm outside. One portrait, that of a young woman who morphs into an old hag, has been replaced by that of an aristocratic gentleman—rumored to be the mansion's owner, Master Gracey—who morphs into a zombie, arguably a more frightening change.

The other change is to the séance room. The disembodied head of fortune teller Madame Leota which spoke from within a crystal ball mounted to the table now hovers and moves around the table still within its ball. The effect was one of the attraction's most sophisticated from the onset and involved a complicated projection system invented and patented by Disney specifically for the Haunted Mansion.

The original Haunted Mansion is an impressive feat of space management. Disneyland, the home of the original Mansion, has always contended with a lack of space. When the New Orleans Square area was added in the early 1960's, there was no more room in that quarter of the park for large attractions. The Imagineers therefore placed the bulk of the two major attractions——Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted Mansion——outside the park's earthen berm. The infamous "stretching room" was implemented simply so guests could be moved underground and outside of the park without them knowing. Most guests do not realize that the portrait hall is actually an underground passage leading under the Disneyland Railroad's tracks. At this point, guests are actually entering a vast (approximately 37,000 square feet) warehouse-like building located outside the park boundaries. Guests may catch a glimpse of the dull green building while riding the tram from the Mickey and Friends parking structure, or by boarding the Disneyland Railroad at the New Orleans Square station and facing backwards in the train.

Inside the show building, the scenes are set up much like sets in a movie. Areas unseen by guests consist mostly of wooden supports and cramped control rooms. The layout of the track leads to some interesting spatial relationships; the organ in the ballroom is located right behind a crypt in the graveyard, and the ballroom also runs parallel to the "endless corridor."

It is worth noting that at Disneyland, the Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain show buildings are very close to each other. When the Doom Buggies face the back of the graveyard, adjacent to the ghostly band, guests are looking at the building's northwest corner. Just a few yards beyond the back wall is a similar but smaller building housing Splash Mountain. Guests evacuated from Splash Mountain during a breakdown will verify that the Haunted Mansion show building is virtually indistinguishable from the Splash Mountain building, and that the two have only a few yards of pavement between them.

When the Haunted Mansion was transplanted to other Disney parks, space management became much less of a problem. For example, in Orlando's Magic Kingdom, the entire show building is located within the park boundaries. Luckily, the placement of the show building has no bearing on the quality of the experience. Most guests give little thought to whether they are actually inside the mansion they saw while in line.

This is the Fall 2004 issue of the magazine The "E" Ticket that was dedicated to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.Eastman, Tish. (1997). "Haunting Melodies: The Story Behind Buddy Baker's Score for the Haunted Mansion". is an irregularly published magazine "celebrating the creative legacy of Walt Disney." Back issues can be found at The Book Palace and its home page can be found here.A book published by Disney giving a comprehensive history of the Haunted Mansion from early inception, in which it was a walk-through attraction, to its current form. It includes information on The Haunted Mansion movie.DoomBuggies.com – Fan site with very detailed information on the history, special effects, layout, etc.Haunted Mansion’s Ghost Gallery – Collection of fan-written biographies on the major spirits of the Mansion.