The Haunted Mansion

The Haunted Mansion is a well-known attraction at the Magic Kingdom and the Disneyland theme parks at each of the currently existing resorts around the world, except Hong Kong Disneyland. At Disneyland Paris this attraction is called Phantom Manor. The theme of the attraction is a visit to a haunted house in which the ghostly residents have taken full possession of the premises.

Attraction walkthrough

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:

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: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!

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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 body 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 although it is not necessary to lower the guests at the other theme parks, this effect of the stretching room is still used at the other instances of this attraction at the other Disney theme parks, not as an elevator as at Disneyland, but by raising the roof of the room.

Related Topics:
Marc Davis - Boxer shorts - Elevator - Scrim

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When the walls finally do open, guests are ushered into an art gallery with paintings that change from normal to "spooky" every few seconds. A simulated thunderstorm rages outside while the grim busts of a man and woman placed at the end of the hall seem to turn their heads in relationship to the viewer's perspective. The effect, patented by Disney, was achieved by reversing the images, much like a mold. Lighting effects give the illusion of a positive image.

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The next part 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 like one would pan a motion picture camera. The special effects they are shown were groundbreaking for the time. In one scene, the Doom Buggies pass a ballroom where ghosts dance with each other in mid-air through the use of Pepper's ghost; there is an attic with the ghost of a spurned bride, a crypt and a cemetery, halls which appear endless and a mystical fortuneteller named Madame Leota who appears as a disembodied head inside a crystal ball with musical instruments floating in the air around her. Finally, the guests are shown that a "hitchhiking ghost" has hopped into the Doom Buggy with them.

Related Topics:
Omnimover - Pepper's ghost

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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, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. 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.

Related Topics:
Pipe organ - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

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Though the setting is spooky, the mood is kept light by the upbeat 'Grim Grinning Ghosts' music that plays throughout the ride. The music was composed by Buddy Baker and the lyrics written by F. Xavier Atencio. 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.

Related Topics:
Buddy Baker - F. Xavier Atencio - Thurl Ravenscroft - Tony the Tiger

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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 different music, 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.

Related Topics:
Magic Kingdom - Ichabod Crane - Headless Horseman - Fantasyland - Vincent Price

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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 The Haunted Mansion was released, a retrospective of its art was featured in the gallery as well.

Related Topics:
1999 - Pirates of the Caribbean - 2003 - The Haunted Mansion

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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, The Nightmare Before Christmas. In 2004, Tokyo Disneyland received its version "Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare." The Magic Kingdom attraction was rumored to receive it's 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 recieving the temporary overlay less likely.

Related Topics:
2001 - 1993 - Tim Burton - The Nightmare Before Christmas - 2004

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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 Los Angeles Times, 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."

Related Topics:
2004 - EBay - Baton Rouge, Louisiana - Clive Barker

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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.

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Backstory

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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:

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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 spirtualist from Louisiana who hoped to gain great powers by summoning sprits. 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 undoubtably fakes, it is undeniable that she managed to draw in several spirits, and make the already cursed house a magnet for intense spiritual activity.

Related Topics:
1671 - Dutch - Ub Iwerks - Bordello - Pirate - 19th century - Rhode Island - 1890 - Spirtualist - Louisiana - Seances

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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.)

Related Topics:
Trapeze - 1937 - Alligator

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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 body itself was never found.

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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.

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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 consquences 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 the 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.

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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.

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

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• Francis Xavier (An actual member of the staff who created the Haunted Mansion).
• Ludwig Von Baroketch (The piano ghost in the library. Killed by Death itself).
• Victoria Boufout (Master Gracey's great aune. The ghost with the birthday cake).
• Elma Belle Gracey (Master Gracey's aunt. One of the portraits with the watching eyes).
• Mary Gracey (Master Gracey's mother. Woman in the stretching painting on grave).
• Edward Gracey (Master Gracey's uncle. Man in stretching painting on TNT barrel).
• E. Lalauire and A. Germaine (The duellists. Shot each other after Madame Leota tricked them).
• Jamie Padgett (The man in the coffin. Trapped in coffin by Little Leota).
• Wolfgang Furlong (The organist. Killed himself after losing his ability to play the organ, after his fingers were crushed).
• Ballroom Dancers (The six dancing couples. Madame Leota cursed them to dance forever).
• 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.
• Prudence (The reason behind the candelabra. Little Leota killed her).
• Dick O'Dell (The caretaker. Not dead, but petrified from fear).
• The Phantom Five (The five singing busts. They were struck by lightning and killed).
• The Jones Family (The opera singers. All of them were killed by Gus).
• E. Allan, E. Barrett, A. Lord, H. Wadsworth (The busts in the library).
• Asa Gilbert, Eddy Foster, Daniel Patterson (The butler, footman and handyman).
• Bony (The caretaker's skinny dog).
• 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.