The Haunted Mansion
| The Haunted Mansion | |
| |
| The exterior of the Haunted Mansion | |
| Magic Kingdom | |
| Land | Liberty Square |
|---|---|
| Opening date | October 1st, 1971 |
| Vehicle type | Doom Buggies |
| Number of vehicles | 160 |
| Ride duration | 11 minutes |
| Audio-Animatronics | 109 |
| FastPass + | Yes |
|
| |
The Haunted Mansion is an attraction located in Liberty Square
History
Origin in Disneyland
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 [1]. The original haunted house attraction was originally envisioned as a walkthrough attraction, in which guests would see various haunted scenes [2]. 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 villains including, Captain Hook, the Lonesome Ghosts, and the Headless Horseman [3].
When the addition of the Haunted Mansion was being planned for Disneyland, the Mansion was to be located off a crooked alley on Main Street [3]. Soon however, plans for the Mansion were put on hold and when Disneyland opened in 1955, The Haunted Mansion was nowhere to be found. Soon after Disneyland opened however, the Haunted Mansion project was brought back into the spotlight. In 1958, Walt Disney decided that he wanted to create an expansion for Disneyland called “New Orleans Square”. The Haunted Mansion was chosen as one of the attractions for the new area [3], and construction began in 1962 [4]. From the beginning however problems began to plaque the Haunted Mansion. Story line problems were a constant for the Haunted Mansion, and in 1964 Disney's attention was turned towards the New York World’s Fair. Another blow to the struggling project came in 1965 when Walt Disney, the driving force behind the project died [5]. With Walt gone, Imagineers were divided about what tone to give the Haunted Mansion. Imagineer Marc Davis wanted to present the ride in a comical matter (giving the attraction a lighter tone) while Claude Coats thought the Haunted Mansion should be a real haunted house with a dark and ominous tone. Eventually, Imagineers decided on a compromise. The beginning of the attraction was given a darker tone while the latter half would be more "silly" and feature a "swinging wake" [6]. Imagineers also decided to make the Haunted Mansion a dark ride, with "Doom Buggies" as the attractions vehicles (the change from walkthrough to dark ride helped solve the problems- guest capacity) [7].
With the story line and tone finally decided, the attraction officially opened on August 9, 1969 in Disneyland.
Museum of the Weird
One of the other ideas for the Haunted Mansion that Rolly and Walt explored, was the Museum of the Weird. The museum was to be a part of the entrance and queue to the Haunted Mansion. Showing guests various oddities "discovered" around the world, the Museum of the Weird would also have doubled as a restaurant (similar to Disneyland's Blue Bayou restaurant, which is connected to Disneyland's Pirates of the Caribbean [8]. Rolly Crump came up with various ideas for the museum including: coffin clocks, candle men, man-eating plants, tiki busts, a mirror with a face, and a "living gypsy cart". With the death of Walt Disney and the subsequent uncertainty about the tone of the attraction however, the Museum of the Weird portion of the attraction 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 appears 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}. Cite error: Closing
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