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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE HAUNTED MANSION

Early in the 1950’s, Walt Disney was thinking big. He had a new film studio, and had received a lot of letters from children and adults alike wanting to know if they could come see where Mickey Mouse, Snow White, Pinocchio, Goofy, and all the rest lived.

Being an ambitious man and always wanting to explore and conquer new mediums, Walt soon came up with the idea of a small park behind the Burbank studio for his guests to come and ride a railroad, a Ferris Wheel, have a meal, and doubtless see shows featuring his popular animated creations. As plans with Disney were apt to do, however, his plans expanded beyond the small plot of land available and the search was on for where his ‘Disneyland’ could be built and have room for all possible expansions and attractions he was dreaming up.

So it was that artistic conception and design work was begun in 1953 and 1954 for a plot of orange groves in Anaheim. Guests would visit the world of the future, an old fashioned Main Street, exotic jungles of the world, the frontier and wild west, and the lands of fantasy where Disney characters lived. In these earliest sketches, off Main Street, was a ramshackle abandoned haunted house, church, and run down down cemetery.

The haunted house was a broad enough archetype to capture the imagination of Walt and his creative team, and for years, new takes and concepts buzzed around WDI. Ken Andersen did a progressive series of show treatments, scripts and drawings throughout the late 1950’s, likely as early as the year Disneyland opened. Gradually, the idea of a walking tour, the concept of the house being moved from the actual bayous of Louisiana and being eternally dark inside with any repairs made vanishing, appearances by film and historical figures (Anne Boleyn, Frankenstein’s monster), a climactic appearance by the Headless Horseman, realistic narration by Walt himself, and more fell by the wayside.

Pictured as an addendum to Frontierland at first, taking the plot currently used by New Orleans Square, the old haunted house gradually migrated to the west, near the Indian Village as plans for the park’s Big Easy took shape. Over the years, many a famed Disney designer took a whack at the story, effects, and characters of the Mansion: Dorothea Redmond, Marc Davis, Yale Gracey, Claude Coats, Sam McKim, Collin Campbell, Ken Andersen, X. Attencio, Rolly Crump, and many more. The project was ephemeral, shifting, never quite coming 100 percent into focus: should it be weird, scary, funny? Each artist contributed reams of designs and effects on all sides of the spectrum from morbid and gruesome, to eerie, to lighthearted.

Classic stage, magic and theatrical effects were tested in a special room at the Disney studios, then at a WDI facility in Glendale. Ghosts would vanish, materialize, portraits and statues would talk or change in front of guests, and much more. Full scale mock-ups of scenes from a proposed walk-through of the old ‘Blood family manor house’ were created for Walt Disney to view by Yale Gracey and other imagineers.

And so it was, that the year prior to the 1964 World’s Fair, the familiar exterior Mansion building was constructed and sat empty on the outskirts of Frontierland. It sat, silent, behind locked gates, with a notice inviting displaced ghosts and ghouls to come and stay. Walt himself mentioned in a interview while traveling in Britain his desire to invite ghosts displaced by the bombing in London, or anywhere they felt bored, to come and stay at Disneyland in a new residence built specifically for them. New Orleans Square was barely a concept yet, and its’ centerpiece, Pirates of the Caribbean, was still planned as a wax museum of notorious villains and rogues throughout history.

Unbeknownst to curious guests who peered through the closed iron gates, no one even knew yet quite what the show inside the Haunted Mansion would be. Would it be funny, scary, or both? Would the Museum of the Weird featuring occult and haunted artifacts close or open the show? Would guests walk through the haunted hallways, ride in a vehicle, or perhaps take a boat ride through the sunken bayou underneath? These issues were actually never resolved, beyond the advent of the Omnimover system as a likely ride vehicle, before Walt Disney’s death in 1967. Pirates became a full fledged and planned musical adventure under his watch in the time, while the HM remained vague and not-quite locked in.

Meanwhile, on the outside, the average guest knew none of this struggle as to what should be inside: due to the finished appearance of the building, rumors circulated of a experience so terrifying, a guest had died of fright and the Mansion was closed immediately to be toned down. A record appeared in early 1969, offering a hint of the characters and experience to be had, entitled Story And Song From the Haunted Mansion. It featured elements that never quite crossed over, including the raven as a character speaking to guests directly, and the grim spectre of the Hatbox Ghost, forever enslaved to his eerie ghostly bride in the afterlife. This particular grim grinning ghost never quite functioned right, and was removed mere weeks into the ride’s operation, ensuring he went into lore and history of the attraction and park.

Many scripts and pitches Walt saw and contributed to had included a ghostly wedding party as the climax of the ride, a murdered bride, and a vengeful disembodied sea captain. Elements of these basic elements crossed over into reality in the final Mansion, like artifacts left behind by the sea and vaguely visible among the wreckage of a ship around them. As it was, the remaining imagineers on the project merely went ahead, and a slight dichotomy emerged: there were both menacing environments, eerie noises and seemingly threatening ghosts co-mingling with humorous spectres and a memorable theme song in a party-like finale.

And so it was that the finished Mansion had a layer of thematic depth absent to Pirates, and nearly entirely by accident: the ghosts throughout are alternately frightening and fun, with the barest hints of a larger story visible for those who know where to look or are attuned to detail and ambiance. Ghastly detail is everywhere, and hidden tributes and secrets abound in dark corners of the old manor house by the river.

Over the years, some changes have come: the removal of the shrieking pop up heads from the attic, a few removed lines of dialogue by the Ghost Host being restored and removed prior to the seance scene, a new effect of a likely Hatbox Ghost tribute in form of a shadowy piano player banging out the wedding march in the attic, Madame Leota beginning to float around her seance circle at will inside her crystal ball, and a complete revamp of the attic bride concept from mysterious, eerie, potentially sad lonely wraith to a murderous black widow bride. However, it has been spared the movie overlays and forced story of its’ famous neighbor, the Pirates of the Caribbean, and remains a classic masterpiece of Disney writing, ambiance, imagination and detail.

In fact, the struggle to determine exactly what the Mansion should be strengthened it, in the end: layers of detail, nuance, story and character weave together thanks to the many designers, concepts, and years of trying to crack the simple concept of a haunted house. Walt Disney always wanted one for his Disneyland, and the end result, to me, is simply the gold standard of theme park design. I unabashedly love it, love the experience and feeling of stepping from the elevator into the portrait hall, ready to explore the eerie realm of ghostly darkness once more. It is purely and simply magic, and a huge thank you is owed to all who worked on the project over the years. Next time you visit a Disney castle park, and ride the Mansion…sit back and enjoy. Savor the ambiance, the nuance, the details and layers of effects. Just don’t linger too long….they have 999 happy haunts there, but there’s room for a thousand….

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