Disney
World’s Haunted Mansion: Three Grim Grinning Decades
Jeff
Baham
Hinges have been creaking in door-less chambers for nearly
three decades at the Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World Resort’s Magic Kingdom. The 999 “happy haunts”
that are continually partying their afterlives away are soon to enjoy their 30th
anniversary at the Orlando, Florida theme park (while their cousins, at a
similar attraction in a little-known theme park in Anaheim, California,
celebrated their 30th anniversary of providing “hot and cold running
chills” last year.) “Thirty years -- and this old house still kicks Bob Vila’s pasty white butt,” sums up Geoff Carter of the Las Vegas Sun.
Even after more than a quarter-century of haunting, this
classic attraction still amazes young and old alike. To this day, the average
patron of the Haunted Mansion has no idea how those ghosts appear and disappear
right before their eyes (as they have since the day the attraction opened) or
how those singing busts can vocalize with such lifelike expressions. Even
Disney’s own Bill Nye, “the Science
Guy,” writing for a column that appeared in a ZDNet feature about Walt Disney World’s 25th Anniversary, chalked
the disappearing effect up to “holograms.” The truth is that the Haunted
Mansion owes its most spectacular effects to a combination of turn-of-the
century stage effects and good theming. Holograms, while not unknown in 1969,
would have been quite a remarkable technical feat to pull off in a theme park
attraction 30 years ago, even by the high standards set by WDW’s “Imagineers,”
the engineering and design team formed by Walt
Disney to create the magic behind his theme parks.
Disney’s Haunted Mansion attraction owes its enduring appeal
to more than just special effects. Dave
Collier, a movie effects-industry professional working with Hunter/Gratzner, has also spent nearly
20 years in the field of Halloween events. “Atmosphere is the key to any
successful Haunted Attraction. Disney’s Haunted Mansion surpasses this
expectation because they meet every single key element to make the experience
one that will be remembered for years to come,” explains Collier. From tiny
architectural animistic details almost imperceptible in the shadows, to a
remarkably versatile theme song that can transform itself chameleon-like from a
mournful funeral dirge to an insane ballroom waltz to a jazzy graveyard
jamboree without losing the melody, the Disney attraction stops at nothing to
establish a perfectly kooky (and even occasionally spooky) atmosphere.
The Concept
Walt Disney had planned to have a Haunted Attraction in his
theme parks from the beginning. The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland was the first to open, and the original neat and trimmed
plantation-style façade was built in the Anaheim park in the early sixties, where
it sat, unoccupied, for six years. Many different concepts were bandied about
during that time for the attraction’s innards, as the building sat alone,
deserted but clean as a whistle. While some designers questioned the tidy
appearance for a manse rumored to be haunted, Walt did not want the theme park
sullied with ‘uglified,’ ramshackle construction.
“We’ll take care of the outside, and the
ghosts will take care of the inside!” Walt Disney, 1962
On the other hand, the Walt Disney World version of the
attraction neatly sidesteps this issue by utilizing a powerful brick Mansion;
neither tidy nor ramshackle, yet completely foreboding.
Checkmate
One interesting aspect of the façade on the Disney World
Haunted Mansion is the use of chess pieces rather than spires for the parapet
finials. There are six possible shapes on a chessboard, Rook, Knight, Bishop,
King, Queen, and Pawn. Did the Disney Imagineers use them all? How many
different pieces can you find?
Many ideas for the original ride were considered and
discarded, including a colonial-style encounter with the headless horseman, a
museum of oddities and the supernatural, and a walk-through attraction similar
to a fun house. “Generally, people working on this were trying to do something
with telling a story,” recalled late Disney legend Marc Davis, speaking at a 30th
anniversary celebration for the Haunted Mansion in 1999. “But Walt Disney did
not want to tell a story, or to do it like any of the [other park] attractions.
So we tried different things.” Because of this, the Mansion evolved into a
collection of vignettes, without an emphasis on storytelling, and the result is
a delightfully dreary selection of set pieces. The simple “official” story
holding it all together is “999 happy
haunts have come out to socialize… but there’s room for a thousand. Any
volunteers?”
Of course, an
attraction as popular and oft visited as Disney’s Haunted Mansion almost always
attracts intense curiosity, and a wealth of rumors and supposed “official”
back-stories have evolved over the past 30 years. This includes a few with some
merit, and most with none. Apparently, there are a few truths that may be gleaned from stories considered by the
designers at WED Enterprises. (The company name Walt used for outside projects
like the amusement parks. WED is short for Walter Elias Disney). One of these
goes something like this: There may have been an evil sea captain (Cap’n Blood,
by some accounts) who met a self-inflicted doom, possibly after murdering his
new bride, who haunts the manse in the attic to this day. The gruesome nature
of this story seems to run counter to the quirky fun of the attraction as it
exists today, so we can assume that this back-story did not play a large role
in the final design of the Mansion (though in an oddly black and un-Disney-like
moment, while patrons are in the room with the stretching portraits there is
reference to the host’s suicide, as lightning flashes illuminate his body,
hanging from a noose tied to the rafters above.) Over the years, employees at
the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion (called “Cast Members” by the Disney
Company) still went on to create an intricate, involved history of every
person, ghost, pictured character and inhabitant of the Mansion. This
unofficial history has recently enjoyed wide circulation on the Internet, so
the myths continue to grow. To this day, certain Cast Members at the Walt
Disney World Haunted Mansion might even show you the imprint in the ground that
the young bride’s wedding ring made when she was thrown out of the attic window
by the Cap’n in a murderous rage.
The
following is a sample of the highly detailed history contained in the
“unofficial” biography of the Haunted Mansion and its residents, as concocted
over many years by the Cast Members of the Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion. You
can find a link to the complete collection of biographies at www.Doombuggies.com.
“The
Mansion was built in 1671 by Ub van der Iwerks, a Dutch burgermeister. He chose
the site on a hill overlooking the river despite warnings from the town elders
that he was desecrating a sacred Indian burial ground. Construction was plagued
by freak accidents, causing laborers to become scarce. The burgermeister
finished the bricklaying himself, stubbornly seeing the project through to
completion. He moved his family in on October 31, 1671. Details of what
happened next are sketchy. Apparently Ub went mad and sealed himself in a tomb
in the adjacent graveyard. What is clear is that the van der Iwerks family
abandoned the house.
“In
the decades that followed, the Mansion served as a pirate’s hangout, a brothel,
and as army barracks. Those buried in the Mansion’s graveyard are only a sample
of the many that died on the premises.
“In
1871, the deed passed to Colonel Ronald Stevens, a wealthy publisher, in the
winnings from a riverboat card game. The Colonel began an extensive renovation
of the Mansion, which was as ill-fated as its original construction had been.
When Fred, a stonemason, was killed by a falling rock, Colonel Stevens took
over the stone cutting himself. He moved his family in on October 31, 1871.
Shortly thereafter, the Colonel lost his mind. Neglecting his lithography
business, Colonel Ronald Stevens spent his last days carving his name backwards
on tombstones. He finally died in a boiler explosion. The remaining bits of him
were buried under each of the grave markers inscribed “SNEVETS NOR.”
The
Stevens family sold the Mansion to the American Spiritualist Society, which
used it as a retreat. The Society converted one of the rooms into a seance
circle, which was used nightly to summon departed spirits from far and wide.
They had logged over 900 contacts by the time the Society was disbanded in
1914. The trustees then sold the Mansion to Master Gracey’s father.
George
Gracey, Sr., bought the Mansion for use as the Graceys’ winter home. After
George was murdered, his widow sold the Gracey estate, except for the Mansion,
which Master Gracey inherited…”
The Attraction
Unlike the white plantation mansion of Disneyland’s New
Orleans Square, the imposing brick mansion of the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty
Square invokes a formal colonial solitude. Although both Mansions were planned
as the Disneyland version neared completion, the Orlando version (which opened
in 1971, a few years after the Anaheim premiere) differs from its counterpart
most markedly in the architecture.
Along the rooftop of the Orlando mansion, observant patrons may note
that the spires take the forms of chess pieces. In fact, if one were to take
note of all the spires, all the chess pieces would be accounted for, except for
the knight.
The cold brick façade is a near-exact replica of the Harry Packer Mansion in Jim Thorpe,
Pennsylvania, which currently plays host to weekend “murder mysteries,”
Victorian ballroom dancing, and romantic getaways. This real-life mansion was
visited by Disney’s WED Imagineers as they decided which type of building would
best suit the planned attraction in the Liberty Square section of the Magic
Kingdom. While Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is supposed to exist in the land of
Dixie, the Walt Disney World version is intended to invoke memories of colonial
New England, and the architecture and queue area reflects those impressions.
Once inside the façade, patrons find themselves immersed in
a world populated by prankster ghosts. The entire experience is narrated by an
invisible “Ghost Host” (voiced by veteran voice talent Paul Frees, who is also recognizable as the evil Boris Badenov from the TV classic The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle.)
Your Ghost Host sets the mood, leading patrons through a supernatural portrait
gallery and eerie netherworld, where the guests board “Doombuggies,” another
name for a Disney innovation known as the Omnimover system. This is an
ingenious way of transporting patrons in the vein of the classic ‘ghost train’
(or dark ride), while directing their focus by spinning the vehicle on its
axis. This gives the WED Imagineers a nearly cinematic control of the
attraction, with built-in digital surround sound to boot. Patrons have
virtually no choice as to where to direct their attention, allowing the
attraction’s designers greater flexibility and use of misdirection.
Once safely seated in their “Doombuggy,” patrons are ushered
through a library with stern-looking statues that follow you, staring directly
into your eyes as you travel the full length of the room (through an effect
that is, quite literally, simply a trick of the light.) Books float in and out
of the bookshelves as the visitors continue onward. The majority of the library
is actually a detailed mural, but highly effective lighting makes the “real”
books nearly indistinguishable from the painted shelves and book stacks.
Leaving a piano being played by unseen hands and some evil
family portraits behind, patrons continue on past a conservatory containing a
coffin and some moldering funeral wreaths (and is that muffled voice and
knocking coming from inside the
coffin?) Also appearing in the conservatory is an imposing raven, which appears
again in various scenes throughout the ride. In early design stages, there was
some thought to making the raven the being through which the Ghost Host’s voice
materialized, though that idea was deemed unnecessary and discarded. Nevertheless,
the large black raven remains a reappearing character throughout the
attraction.
Passing through a narrow corridor of shaking and rattling
doors, the patrons emerge into a séance, led by Madame Leota, a glowing, disembodied head speaking from within a
misty crystal ball. In response to her supplications, various objects and
ectoplasmic lights are dancing overhead. Madame Leota is named after Leota Toombs, a veteran Cast Member who
had worked at both Disneyland and, later, Walt Disney World, maintaining the
audioanimatronic characters’ cosmetic appearances. For the effect, a projection
of a real actress (Toombs) performing as Madame Leota is projected from a 16mm
projector onto a static head form, creating a startlingly realistic and eerie
effect.
Andy Fielding, a
Cast Member who played the piano at Walt Disney World, remembers speaking with
Toombs about the experience of being the disembodied psychic: “On a couple of
occasions, I got to hang out with Leota Toombs at the employee cafeteria under WDW's
Magic Kingdom. What a nice lady. She told me how funny it was when they did her
lip-synch sessions for the crystal ball. She couldn’t keep from moving her
head, so they ended up tying her hair to a chair. Takes a bit of the romance
out of it, eh? She never mentioned that she auditioned the dialogue, too [which
she did, though the final voice used for Madame Leota is Eleanor Audley, another veteran Disney voice talent. –JB] Maybe she was embarrassed that it wasn’t
used. I think she just wasn’t cranky enough to carry it off. No matter who
ended up doing it, I’m sure it would’ve been recorded separately. You usually
can’t give your best delivery when your hair is tied to furniture.”
Leaving Leota’s chamber, the patrons are swept into a huge
dining hall, where they witness a massive birthday ball in the Haunted
Mansion’s special effects showcase. Everywhere they turn, a ghost is
disappearing or rematerializing. Waltzing ghosts fade in and out of reality,
and with each exhalation a birthday ghost vanishes her guests along with the
flames as she blows out the candles on her birthday cake. Dueling portraits
that have come to life turn and fire, as two other ghosts unload coffins from a
horse drawn hearse backed up to the French doors. Partying ghosts hang from the
chandelier, and ghostly skulls fly from the organ pipes while an insane
organist plays a discordant variation of the attraction’s musical theme.
Pepper’s Ghost
Based on a new technology in 1863 known as plate glass,
Pepper’s Ghost Illusion uses the reflection of a solid object, lit in a way to
make it appear translucent, or ghost-like, to the viewer. A large sheet of
glass is positioned at an angle between the audience, and a backdrop or set.
The prop or actor that is to appear as the ghost is positioned out of view in a
darkened area. When the lighting is dimmed up on the object, its reflection in
the glass is seen, the more intense the light, the more solid the apparition
appears. Another famous use of this effect is the transformation illusion known
as “the Girl to the Gorilla.”
While
this effect is the most grandiose (often bringing the aforementioned claims of
“holograms,”) it is also one of the simplest effects to achieve. It is simply
an application of the popular “Pepper’s Ghost” (or “Blue Room”) effect, on an
enormous scale. Pepper’s Ghost is named for John Henry Pepper, a professor of chemistry at the London Polytechnic Institute, who in
1862 made the effect popular on the theatrical stage. All that is needed for
this illusion is a piece of glass and a light source. At its simplest, this
effect works because the viewer sees what is reflected off of the glass and
what is behind the glass at the same time. Everyone has experienced this effect
in action (in fact, many might rather call it “Pepper’s Curse” when trying to
drive at night and the spouse decides to turn on the overhead map light.) By
traveling elevated in front of a second hidden ballroom containing the
animatronic spooks, the patrons of the Haunted Mansion see the “ghosts” only
when they are illuminated enough to reflect off of a large piece of glass,
separating the two ballrooms. Simply by controlling the lighting, this
140-year-old effect continues to amaze guests at Disney’s Haunted Mansion to
this day.
The piece of glass used at the Haunted Mansion for the
Ballroom effect was placed in the building before the roof was installed, and
is so large that if it was ever to break, it could not be replaced. In fact,
the same effect appears in the Mansion at Disneyland, and the glass there has a
hole made by a BB gun (shot by an
errant guest.) The Mansion’s staff has hidden the hole by applying a spider web
carefully around it, making it appear to be part of the décor. See if you can
find it next time you are there!
Before the crazed waltz has faded into the distance, a
heartbeat takes its place as patrons are carried into the Mansion’s attic.
Surrounded by derelict furnishings and antiques, guests may be startled by the
occasional “pop-up ghost,” a Haunted Attraction mainstay. Near the exit of the
attic, an eerie, floating bride waits, her heart glowing red with each beat.
Then it’s out the attic window, as the Doombuggies carry patrons down the side
of the Mansion between strange, gnarled trees into the cemetery.
The cemetery provides the attraction’s strongest “Disney
identification” by consisting of numerous highly detailed audioanimatronic
characters. In order to maintain a ghostly appearance, the Doombuggy track is
separated from the ghosts and props by scrim (a translucent screen material)
stretched ceiling-to-floor that the patrons look through while viewing the
scenery. This material gives everything a slightly hazy appearance, as if being
viewed through a perfectly still fog. Props meant to appear more distant, are
placed further back from the track behind another scrim, and further out there
is a third layer of scrim, providing an enormous, apparent, depth of field. In
addition, bicycling and flying ghosts are projected onto some of the higher
scrims, making the graveyard come “alive” (so to speak) via the time-honored “Magic Lantern” effect, which is a
stage effect made popular in 1798 by Belgian magician Etienne-Gaspard Robertson in displays in which he would project
ghosts onto gauze which was thin enough to see through and masked by smoke.
Here, the musical theme by Disney veteran Buddy Baker with lyrics by Xavier Atencio (known as ‘X’) undergoes
another variation, and is portrayed as being played by a funky colonial
graveyard band. Some misplaced statuary joins along, providing the tune’s lead
vocals (with the bass lead voiced by Thurl
Ravenscroft, who is probably best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger.) Once again, these
static statues speak due to projections of filmed live actors, in another
startlingly lifelike effect. “Grim grinning ghosts, come out to socialize,”
commands the lyric, and the ghosts obey, coming from all points in history and
all walks of afterlife. The graveyard jamboree is full of Marc Davis’ vignettes. A typical example: a befuddled mutt sniffs
warily at the foot of a spilled sarcophagus, from which a mummy has emerged to
engage in a spot of tea with a Victorian-era English woman. Each character is
dressed in translucent clothing, which adds to the ethereal nature of the
scenery and gives each character a transparent, skeletal effect. In fact, many
of the characters were left without bodies placed over their robotics, and if a
patron were to look carefully through the clear costuming, he or she might be
able to see the metal armature of the bare audioanimatronic figure beneath.
Each character also sings along with the jangling tune, in his or her own
particular dialect.
Return
to the Living
Finally, the Doombuggies head toward a crypt to exit the
cacophony of the cemetery, and pass a trio of glowing, hitchhiking ghosts
(another Davis creation.) Just as the Ghost Host warns that “they may try to
follow you home,” the Doombuggies pass in front of a series of mirrors, in
which it appears that one of the hitchhikers has found his way into your carriage! A cute gag, the mirrors
are ‘two-way’ and hide the fluorescent ghost props, which are lit with UV
(black) lights. This crypt area represents the final leg of the patron’s
journey, but as they are leaving, a small projected mannequin beckons to the departing
guests. While commonly thought to be a miniature version of Madame Leota, this
last spook is actually officially known as the “Ghost Hostess.” Her voice, as
recorded by Leota Toombs, is heard to call out “Hurry back, hurry back! Be sure
you bring your death certificate, if you decide to join us. Make final
arrangements now. We’ve been dying to
have you!” The patron’s carriage comes to a moving walkway that will carry them
out of the crypt and back, squinting, into a Magic Kingdom of light and popcorn.
Jeff “Chef Mayhem”
Baham is the Webmaster of Doombuggies.com, an unofficial tribute to Disney’s
Haunted Mansion attractions. Visit www.Doombuggies.com for extended in-depth
information on the Mansion, including rare video and audio clips, secrets, myths,
downloads, and more. He can be reached at chefmayhem@aol.com.
