The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion is an attraction located in Liberty Square

History

Like many of the original Magic Kingdom attractions, the Haunted Mansion began as an idea for Disneyland. Before the park was even built, Walt Disney and artist Harper Goff were working on an idea for a haunted house type attraction. The original sketch by Goff, was titled "Church Graveyard and Haunted House", and featured a Gothic style mansion on top of a hill. The attraction was originally envisioned as a walkthrough attraction in which guests would see various haunted scenes. Some of the original ideas for the attraction included a ghostly sea captain who killed his wife, an unfortunate family living in the mansion, and a ghost wedding which would have featured various Disney ghosts and villains including, Captain Hook, the Lonesome Ghosts, and the Headless Horseman.

The Mansion was going to be located off a crooked alley on Mainstreet USA and then Frontierland, but the project was eventually put on hold. When Disneyland opened in 1955, The Haunted Mansion was nowhere to be found. The project was brought back however when Walt decided in 1958 that he wanted to expand Disneyland with a new land called "New Orleans Square".

Construction on the Haunted Mansion took place in 1962, put problems plagued the new attraction. Story line problems were a constant for the Haunted Mansion, and in 1964 Disney's attention was turned towards the World Fair instead of Disneyland. Another blow to the struggling project came in 1965 when Walt Disney, the driving force behind the project died. With Walt gone, Imageneers were divided about what tone to give the mansion. Imagineer Marc Davis wanted to present the ride in a comical matter, giving the mansion a lighter tone. Another Imagineer, Claude Counts thought the Haunted Mansion should be a real haunted house and wanted to give the ride a darker tone. Eventually, Imagineers decided on a compromise. The beginning of the attraction was given a darker tone, and had scarier ghosts. Later in the attraction the ghosts would become more "silly" and the "swinging wake" would begin. Imagineers also decided to make the attraction a dark ride, with "Doom Buggies" as the attractions vehicles. The change from walkthrough to dark ride helped solve the problem of guest capacity in the Haunted Mansion.

With the story line and tone of the Haunted Mansion finally decided, the attraction opened on August 9, 1969.

Museum of the Weird

When the Haunted Mansion was originally being developed by Walt Disney and the Imagineers, Walt and Imagineer Rolly Grump came up with the idea for a Museum of the Weird. The Museum would have doubled as a restaurant and would have been located near the entrance to the attraction. Rolly Grump came up with various ideas for the museum including coffin clocks, candle men, man-eating plants, tiki busts, a faced mirror and a "living gypsy cart". With the death of Walt Disney and the subsequent uncertainty about the tone of the attraction, the idea for the Museum of the Weird was eventually scrapped.

Although the Museum of the Weird was never built, ideas from the museum can be found within the Haunted Mansion itself. Examples of this include:

• The red chair that appear to have face

• The wallpaper in the "Corridor of Doors" with various faces and eyes.

• The gypsy cart that sells merchandise outside of the Disney World Haunted Mansion. Originally a similar cart would have been located in the Museum of the Weird and would have interacted with guests.

Disney Imagineers

The main Disney Imageneers that worked on the designing and construction of the Haunted Mansion were:

• Harper Goff (original sketches and design)

• Ken Anderson (storyline)

• Yale Gracy & Rolly Grump (special effects)

• Claude Counts (plot/storyline)

• Marc Davis (character design/storyline)

• Blane Gibson (sculpting-many of the ghosts including the hitchhiking ghosts and the singing busts were sculpted by Blane Gibson)

Other Imagineers who contributed to the creation of the Haunted Mansion include Harriet Burns and X Atencio.

Disney World Construction

During the time the Haunted Mansion was being finalized in Disneyland, plans for a identical version in the not yet open Walt Disney World. Props and sets for the Disneyland Haunted Mansion were copied and shipped to Florida. Unlike the Disneyland version however, the Haunted Mansion was set in the American Northeast, not New Orleans (due to the fact that Liberty Square replaced New Orleans Square in Walt Disney World). The change in location is evident in the architecture. Unlike the Gothic feel of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion, the version in Walt Disney World is built with a colonial/Hudson River Valley architecture. In fact, the Harry Peacher Mansion in Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania was the influence for the Disney World Haunted Mansion. The Haunted Mansion opened with the park on October 1, 1971.

Attraction Plot

The Haunted Mansion takes guests through an aging Hudson River Valley mansion where 999 ghosts live and roam about.

The Foyer

The first room that guests see when entering the mansion is the Foyer. The Foyer has orange wall paper, wood finish and is dimly lit by candle chandeliers. Guests may notice a organ playing in the background, although none is seen. On the left side of the Foyer is a fireplace with a potrait of a young man hung above it. If guests watch the portrait they will notice that the man appears to be aging before their eyes. The potrait of the man changes in succession of steps from a young man into a rotting skeletal corps. In the Foyer the Ghost Host greets the guests saying,

"When hinges creak in doorless chambers. When strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls. Whenever candlelights flicker when the air is deathly still... That is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror with ghoulish delight. - The Ghost Host"

The Stretching Room

After the Ghost Host introduces guests to the Haunted Mansion, guests are ushered into an octagonal gallery known as The Stretching Room. The room features verticly stripped wallpaper and menacing green gargoyles. The room also features four seemingly normal portraits of a unknown people. The Ghost host once again speaks to the guests saying:

"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. Which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out!"

As the Ghost Host speaks, the walls begin stretch upwards. The paintings are also elongated to show the true nature of the portraits, a depiction of various Haunted Mansion "residents" deaths. When the room stops stretching the Ghost Host says "there is always my way out!", at which point lighting flashes above to show the corpse of the Ghost Host hanging (having apparently committed suicide).

During the 2007 refurbishment of the Disney World Haunted Mansion, the gargoyles that light the room were given dialog. After the Ghost Host tells guests to "stay together please" the gargoyles whisper "stay together" and then giggle like haunted children.

The Loading Area

After leaving the stretching room the guests enter the loading area. Here guests board their "Doom Buggies" and begin to ride through the mansion. Having guests ride through the attraction in Doom Buggies, allowed Disney Imagineers to control what scenes guest would see at a particular time.

On the walls inside the loading area are nine of the eleven "Sinister Pictures". The Sinister Pictures are the portraits who's eyes seem to follow guests as they move.