Calling All Haunted Mansion Lovers!

[Twende]

Hey Mike.....Stop spoiling my fun! I just know it is a ring!

I know from a man point of view it has to be a pipe but gosh this is Disney and the house is not really haunted.... ...or is it?

 

[mmorizio]

I just said that the ring looks like a pipe. I think the mansion is really haunted.

 

[snorlax42]

BUMP :thewave:

 

[Maridw]

My DH & I are HM fans. So much so my DH bought a CD that had the HM theme on it. When we put out decorations for Halloween the next year, we made up a cd with different halloween sounds and such and the Haunted mansion theme was the first thing to go on. We had that playing in the background while we gave out candy. Everyone thought it was great.

The CD also had different voice tests on it. They even considered Vincent Price for the original HM in DL, but up using Thurl Ravenscroft.

 

[ShadowWind]

Actually Vincent Price was recorded for the voice of the Ghost Host of Phantom Manor. It's not clear on whether that was actually used or not in the final attraction, but Disneyland Paris went through a big de-Americanizing process that got rid of a lot of the english narrations, including that one. Paul Frees, who plays the ghost host in the other 3 mansions, is still heard later as the Mayor of Phantom Canyon. Thurl Ravenscroft plays one of the singing busts in the Cemetary I believe in all 4 versions and he is featured in the movie as well.

Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump were the first assigned to the HM project when Walt Disney said he wanted a Haunted House attraction, along with designer Ken Anderson. Work on the DL Mansion could not be done during the World's Fair because imagineering was tied up during that time. When work did begin again, Marc Davis and Claude Coats took over the attraction and created what we know today.

Someone mentioned why they had Bluebeard on the tombs. It might have something to do with original designer Ken Anderson's concept of the mansion being that of an old sea captain that murdered his wife.

Leota Toombs (the face of Madame Leota and voice/face of Little Leota) is dead now, but her daughter, Kim Irvine, works for Disneyland as an Imagineer and due to her resemblence to her mother, plays Madame Leota in the Nightmare Before Christmas version of the HM. The Haunted Mansion's original voice of Madame Leota is none other than Mailificent's voice Eleanor Audrey from the film Sleeping Beauty.

John Henry Pepper created Pepper's Ghost, a theatre effect created in 1962. This effect is one of the most popular in the HM, seen in the Ballroom and Hitchhiking Ghost scenes, and is done with strictly glass and light effects, no holograms or lasers. Yale Gracey and partner Rolly Crump worked on getting this effect into a large scale showcase, the largest one around. The glass is such that people can not only see through it, but see reflections in the glass of objects that are lit against a black background. The glass creates the illusion that they are ghosts. I adapted this technique to several 3D programs in my artwork to allow me to do the same effect. I found that it has to be very careful to place the objects at the same depth on one side of the glass as the props are in the empty room to get the right look. In the HM's case, there is a mistake in which the women lead the men because Imagineers had forgotten that it was a reflection that the people would see. The organist is an amazing example of this technique.

Haunted Mansion was completed at WDW in April 1971 ahead of schedule and ahead of the opening of the MK. After the World's Fair, Disney had already begun work on WDW and the land was purchased. It had been decided early that the new park would have a Haunted Mansion, so Claude Coates and imagineers built both attraction sets at the same time. Since the DL HM would open in 1969, the other sets for Florida were put into storage until construction could be completed on the show building. When it was, it was a matter of assembling the pieces and swapping around a few details.

The mansion is a combination of two ideals, one of horror and one of comedy. Claude Coates and Marc Davis took over the Mansion's design after the World's Fair. Claude wanted a scary attraction, while Marc wanted a funny one. They fought apparently for quite sometime, until they compromised. That is why the start is more the horror (the hanging man, the creepy ghosts) and the end is more the light hearted frights (the graveyard, the hitchhiking ghosts) etc.

The chess pieces are strictly coincidental and were not planned to be such. They were just decorations reminiscent of the architecture on which the WDW mansion is based on, which is the Harry Packer Mansion. It was strictly inspired by this building though and is not an almost exact replica. The exterior is purposely creepier than it's Disneyland counterpart, because Imagineers had run into parents complaining that the DL ride's exterior looked too friendly and didn't indicate that the ride may not be suitable for small children. So they were determined to make sure the building had the suitable fear factor outside to indicate the ride inside.

The doombuggies tipping backward into the graveyard is symbolic of being thrown out of the window of the attic. In Phantom Manor, the backwards tipping is symbolic of being lowered into a grave through the wormy skeletons of Boot Hill Cemetary before reaching Phantom Canyon.

I've seen the ring and the pole. I think the diamond part of the ring was a notch to keep the pole from twisting. The story does go better though than the reality.

Haunted Mansion is the only attraction that is in 4 different lands of the 4 different parks:
Disneyland - New Orleans Square
WDW - Liberty Square
Tokyo Disneyland - Fantasyland (which I find kinda odd).
Disneyland Paris - Frontierland

Just some odds and ends I've picked up about the Mansion. I am fascinated by this attraction probably more than any other. From an artistic point of view, it is the most amazing of Disney's ride creations IMO. I also love the movie, not so much for the plot, but for the chance to see an updated mansion and the many, many references there is to the ride from the obvious to the subtle (like Eddie Murphy being thrown out the window of the attic, just as the doombuggies do to the guests).