In honor of the Haunted Mansion’s 42nd anniversary at Disneyland, enjoy this article from the August 13, 1969 issue of the Pasadena Star News.
Disneyland In Spirit Of Things
By Keith Murray
Staff Writer
Southern California’s spooks have a new home.
After more than 10 years of planning and development, Disneyland opened its Haunted Mansion Tuesday. And the long wait has paid off.
The sign outside warns that those failing to tear out an “E” coupon will face a cruel fate when they meet the ghosts inside, but the destiny of even the obedient mortals is terrifying enough.
So far, 999 spirits have signed leases in the mansion, and they need one more to make an even thousand. Everyone entering is eligible to become that unlucky thousandth.
After walking in the front door of the big house on the river, the voice of the “ghost host” greets you, and then you suddenly sense something strange: you’re sinking!
The ghost host’s voice challenges you to find a way out, then the room goes black for a second and… (if we told you everything, we’d spoil the fun!)
Anyway, somehow you find your way into a spooky art gallery (normal portraits every few seconds turn into pictures of horrifying phantoms) and then onto a two passenger black carriage which carries you through the rest of the mansion.
Once on the carriage, the ghost’s voice greets you again. As you ride past a coffin with hands from the inside struggling to push off the cover, the voice says “We’ve all been DYING to see you, some of us could hardly contain ourselves.”
For the next several minutes, the carriages proceed through the many dark halls of the mansion with every passenger hoping he won’t be condemned as the thousandth ghost and have to stay there forever. After all, it’s a nice place to visit, but…
Other highlights of the carriage tour include ghostly couples dancing on the ballroom floor, and through some miracle from Walt Disney Enterprises, they look only half-there. There are also cobweb-type strings that hang down and rub against your forehead.
And just at the end, after you’ve seen the 999 ghosts, through another Disney miracle you peer into the fog and see still another ghost. This must be the thousandth ghost, they’ve finally caught him, you think. But wait a minute! This ghost looks, this ghost looks like YOU!
The new mansion, like seven other Disneyland attractions, features Audio-Animatronics, a Disney-developed electronic technique combining three-dimensional animation and sound.
The new ride, Disneyland’s 53rd major attraction, can handle as many as 2,616 mortals every hour. The mansion was created at a cost of the $7 million, and brings Disneyland’s capital investment to more than $126 million.
For the past 10 years, children visiting the Magic Kingdom have been saying, “Mommie, when’s the haunted house gonna open?” Now it’s open, and after the youngsters have seen it, it’s bound to be, “Mommie, can I have another ‘E’ ticket?” For it’s terrifying, but fun, for all ages.
PHOTO: BACK IN OLD HAUNTS - Bony hands lift a coffin lid and ‘smoke’ balloons up in the new Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. But that isn’t smoke, son, that’s ectoplasm - ghost stuff, probably a protest against overcrowded haunting quarters.
(End article.)
A few notes of interest: note that the author states that the Mansion opened the day before the article appeared in print, which would be August 12. There was a large press celebration on the 11th, which was likely the date that the reporter toured the attraction. Disneyland officially recognizes the opening date as the 9th, which was the day following the cast member previews, and was likely the date that the attraction first opened its doors to the public. But most press from 1969 places the announced opening date as August 12.
Notice the fun claim of cobwebs hanging in your face, a carnival spook-house staple. While this may have been a feature from the early days of the Mansion, it was more likely a special feature added to “plus” the midnight ride given to the press on August 11.
And the reporter also gives an intriguing description of the mirrors at the end of the ride, with no mention of the hitchhiking ghosts. The mysterious, foggy “ghost” effect seems to echo the recollection of Mansion historian Dan Olson’s first ride through the Mansion, pre-hitchhikers, which were apparently added to the attraction soon after it opened. Visit http://bit.ly/oIUnxz to learn more.
