The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (91 page)

There are certain attractions at
Disneyland
that have a mystique; Guests consider them pretty nigh “un-missable”.  Like big-game hunters who simply
must
bag a lion or rhino, many
Disneyland
Guests feel they
must
experience
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
,
Fantasmic!
,
Haunted Mansion
,
Indiana Jones Adventure
,
Matterhorn Bobsleds
,
Peter Pan’s Flight
,
Pirates of the Caribbean
,
Space Mountain
, and
Splash Mountain
or their visit will be incomplete.

Even on this rarified list, t
he
Haunted Mansion
gets high marks; it’s ranked as the fourth most popular attraction in
Disneyland Park
and the sixth most popular attraction at the
Disneyland Resort
overall, according to
Zagat Disneyland Resort Insider’s Guide
(2010).

Even though
the
Haunted Mansion
is popular, except on the most crowded summer days and holidays the line moves surprisingly quickly.  On holiday weekends when the line exceeds 30 minutes, you’ll want to get a
FastPass
, but barring that you’ll find that the queue races and you’re seated in your
Doom Buggy
far sooner than expected.

Though not as fast-loading as
Pirates of the Caribbean
, the
Haunted Mansion
, like
Pirates
, has a highly efficient ride system developed by
Imagineers
for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair. 
Pirates
uses the fast-loading, high-capacity boat system developed for the fair’s
“it’s a small world”
.  The
Haunted Mansion
uses (and
Adventure Thru Inner Space
(1967 – 1985) used) the fair’s fast-loading
Omnimover
vehicles. In
Adventure Thru Inner Space
they were called
Atomobiles
.  At the
Haunted Mansion
they were painted black and called
Doom Buggies
.

T
hese transports scoop up Guests and carry them along a set track, programmed to tilt Guests in the direction of the scenes of interest.  The vehicles are able to glide up and down inclines and turn corners.

The
Omnimovers
’ efficient design made it possible to transform the originally planned
Haunted
exhibit from a halting, inefficient haunted-house walk-through, with small groups led on foot by Cast Members, to a smooth, rapidly moving ride through a multi-level mansion of the amusingly macabre.

As
Disney
fans know, while
Walt
and his team prepared their contributions to the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair in the early 1960’s, projects back at
Disneyland
, most notably the
Haunted Mansion
,
Pirates
, and
New Orleans Square
itself, were back-burnered.

While some balked at the delay,
Walt
knew what he was doing.  Designing World’s Fair attractions for corporations gave
Walt
and his
Imagineers
an outside budget to play with; they used the sponsors’ money, and their own brilliance, to create amazing attractions for the World’s Fair, then brought the resulting creative and technological advances home to the park!

The
Haunted Mansion
and
Pirates
certainly benefited from the delay.  Can you imagine either as a walk-through attraction?  Still, one can understand the impatience of the
Imagineers
and Guests back in Southern California, who didn’t know what exciting developments were in store.

The idea for a haunted house had been sketched by
Harper Goff
as early as 1951, and
Walt
officially announced in 1958 that
New Orleans Square
would be created on the western shore of the
Rivers of America
.  Ultimately
New Orleans Square
would include the entire western edge of the park, acreage that had previously hosted
Holidayland
, a vast picnic area that only operated from 1957 until 1961 when it was closed due to light attendance.

In
Walt
’s 1958 announcement, he mentioned that a haunted house would be the new land’s dominant attraction. 
Ken Anderson
drew a magnificent southern mansion in 1958, framing it with a brooding bayou, overgrown grass, and hanging moss.

The structure drawn by
Anderson
would serve as the basis for the mansion’s exterior, particularly the distinctive Greek-revival pediment, the tall columns, the chimneys, tower, weathervane, and wrought iron work, but with one caveat: 
Walt
famously mandated that the mansion, however menacing it might appear,
must
have a pristine appearance on the outside.

It was not to
be the typical crumbling haunted house with peeling paint and an overgrown yard, but a lovely, freshly painted manse with neatly manicured grounds.  The mansion’s exterior might have a brooding aura, but physically it would be clean and fresh; all the dust and mess (and spirits) would be inside.  “We’ll take care of the outside,” said
Walt
in one of his best-known quotes, “and let the ghosts take care of the inside.”

When it came to the haunted interior,
Ken Anderson
stumbled upon a wealth of ideas when he toured the famous Winchester House, a maze of supposedly haunted corridors, rooms, and staircases-to-nowhere built by heiress Sarah Winchester over the course of a lifetime in San José, California.

Beginning in 1959
Ken
was aided and abetted in his ghoulish interior designs by
Imagineers Rolly Crump
and
Yale Gracey
, who were selected by
Walt
for the
Haunted Mansion
project because of their backgrounds in art, sculpture, magic, and mechanical design.  They were strong choices for developing the attraction’s creepy set pieces, special effects, and overall tone.

The shell of the
Haunted Mansion
was completed in 1963, precisely when the
Imagineers
’ focus and energies shifted to the World’s Fair.  The mansion shell would languish for years, a deserted, tantalizing enigma on the western shore of the
Rivers of America
.  Closely resembling the 1958
Anderson
illustration, the mansion was lovely but forlorn.  What was inside it?  What would it be like when it finally opened?  Would it
ever
open?  There’s an entire generation of Southern California kids who stared longingly at that shell of a mansion, asking themselves such questions.

Walt
, ever the storyteller and showman, piqued Guest curiosity even more.  As if a giant, empty mansion weren’t intriguing enough,
Walt
discussed plans for the mansion on his weekly television show, interviewing
Rolly Crump
about the
Museum of the Weird
that was originally expected to be part of the attraction.  (It was never completed.)

Walt
also had a humorous sign posted outside the mansion, recruiting ghosts who wanted to enjoy “active retirement” in the “country club atmosphere” of this “fashionable address”.  Interested ghosts were to write to the “Ghost Relations Dept. Disneyland,” and were told “Do not apply in person.”

Who penned this hilarious notice? 
A young writer named
Marty Sklar
, who went on to enjoy a stellar career of important creative contributions and became
Executive Vice President of Imagineering
and
Imagineering Ambassador
.  Although
Marty
retired in 2009 and received a tribute window in
Disneyland
’s
City Hall
, he continues to be an active presence; he facilitated the presentation
Who Wants to be an Imagineer
at the first
D23 Expo
in September of 2009 and released the book
Dream It!  Do It!
in 2013.

Once the New York World’s Fair was over,
Walt
and his team could return their focus to
New Orleans Square
and its attractions. With the
Omnimover
technology now available, the haunted walk-through became a ride-through attraction, and
Imagineers
were able to give their imagination free reign, adding more—and increasingly elaborate—set pieces to the attraction.

X. Atencio
with his gift for words and lyrics was folded into the
Haunted Mansion
project, as was
Marc Davis
, with his unerring eye for humor and clever visual gags that would register instantly with Guests as their vehicles shot past.

There had been so much talent working on this attraction from its earliest days that there was never any concern about not having enough material.  If anything, they had more material than they could fit
within the confines of the site!  There was no way to cram all the spooky, moody, funny storylines of the
Haunted Mansion
into the planned location.  They realized that, as with
Pirates
, they had to tunnel through the encircling
berm
and host most of the action in an outer show building built on the former site of
Holidayland
.

The
y burrowed under the railroad track.  They installed two elevators in the mansion shell to lower Guests into the depths of the park, to the subterranean tunnel that would lead Guests to the actual show building outside the park
berm
.

As always, the
Imagineers
added story elements to functional elements.  The elevators became the ingenious
Stretching Rooms
, with their darkly comic
Marc Davis
portraits revealed as the rooms stretch.  The tunnel became a spooky entrance corridor lined with paintings that change from charming to disturbing and back again, windows through which dark landscapes flicker with lightning, all presided over by two severe busts, one of a scowling man, one of a severe woman, both of whom seem able to turn their marble heads to follow Guests’ movements.

As the interior took shape, storylines and effects were tightened, t
ested, discarded, or finalized.  The
Hatbox Ghost
, a chilling fellow wearing a top hat and carrying a hatbox, was axed (pardon the pun) for a reason never officially disclosed.  Was he too disturbing?  Or an FX disappointment?  Either way,
Monsieur Hatbox
doesn’t appear in the
Haunted Mansion
, but his indelible image lives on forever on
Haunted Mansion
pins, posters, and T-shirts.  (Do we
want
to know what he carries in that hatbox?  Probably not!)

On August 9, 1969, patient-beyond-reason Guests were
finally
allowed to tour the best haunted house on earth, some six years after the mansion first appeared on the western edge of the
Rivers of America
.

The
Haunted Mansion
was a smash hit from day one.  It was so successful, it was duplicated in
Disney Theme Parks
that were later built around the world.  In each park, the
Haunted Mansion
’s purpose is always to frighten and amuse Guests, but it’s built in varying styles and features different storylines that resonate with each specific location and culture.

The
Haunted Mansion
in
Orlando
, for example, is rendered in brick and crafted in the gothic style of a northeastern manor.  The
Phantom Manor
at
Disneyland Paris
is in
Frontierland
, and has the look of a doleful wooden mansion in the Victorian Western U.S., something a successful prospector or rancher might’ve built, with its tower and its mansard roofs, and not unlike the famous mansion of the California-set “Psycho” films.

Mystic Manor
at
Mystic Point
in
Hong Kong Disneyland
is a very intriguing version, set in a rainforest and featuring an exterior designed with an eclectic blend of architectural traditions, heavily Victorian but with eastern influences evident in a tulip dome and a temple-like tower roof.  Built by world-traveler and Victorian gentleman
Lord Henry Mystic
,
Mystic Manor
’s interiors include Egyptian, Medieval, Mediterranean, Norse, and Tiki influences, bits and pieces from everywhere
Lord Mystic
traveled.