The Haunted Mansion is the most magical of Disneyland rides in the most literal way: The 50-year-old attraction is an optical illusion that constantly changes depending on your point of view.
How do I love the Haunted Mansion? Let me count the ways from many different angles as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the venerable dark ride on Friday, Aug. 9.
The Haunted Mansion is a big series of magic tricks that delivers on the promise of Disney “magic”, unlike any other Disney attraction. Add to that a curious blend of mystery and weirdness and you have an enduring classic ride that’s beloved by generations of fans.
The Haunted Mansion is many things to many people. It changes based on your perspective, your mood, who you’re riding with, what you’re thinking about and how you approach the ride.
The Haunted Mansion is like an onion. The more you peel back the layers, the more you learn. The deeper you go, the more you discover. The further you get, the more you want to find out.
It’s an optical illusion. You want to view it from many different angles. To figure out how it works. And when you do, you’re still amazed. Even more so than when you started.
Magic, mystery and weirdness were built into the haunted house from the very beginning.
Walt Disney Imagineering developed special effects for the Haunted Mansion borrowed from 19th-century illusionists. Other haunted house effects were cribbed from a series of “Popular Mechanics” books for ingenious boys.
I’ve been inside the ballroom scene and looked behind the curtain at the magic tricks employed. I’m not going to spoil anything, I promise. If you want to know how it works, a simple Google search will spill the beans in an instant. Typing in “Pepper’s Ghost” will explain how Imagineers pulled off the most magical illusions in the ballroom. But after seeing how it works in person, I left even more amazed. At the simplicity of the magic tricks. And the lengths the Imagineers went to pull off the dancing ghosts illusions.
The Haunted Mansion is more about mysteries and riddles than scares and fears. The Winchester Mystery House was a big influence on the Imagineers who worked on Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. The bizarre San Jose home is a labyrinth of architectural oddities, including doors that lead to brick walls, staircases that go nowhere and windows that look into other rooms. During the Haunted Mansion’s extended Blue Sky phase of development, Imagineer Ken Anderson traveled to the Winchester Mystery House in search of ideas and inspiration.
The birth of the Haunted Mansion wasn’t easy. It took nearly two decades from the initial inspiration in 1951 until the eventual grand opening of the ride in 1969. There were many cooks with many competing ideas on the perfect recipe for the Haunted Mansion. But that long gestation period meant that pieces of each recipe ended up in the delicious stew that is the Haunted Mansion. And bits of those competing stories can still be found in the Haunted Mansion today.
My favorite scary story that didn’t make the final cut for the Haunted Mansion involved a sea pirate named Captain Blood who murdered his bride in Bloodmere Manor and buried her in the fireplace. The sight gag that the Imagineers demonstrated involved the ghostly bride bursting out of the fireplace. It frightened Walt Disney, who wanted a scary Haunted Mansion.
You can still see elements of the Bloodmere story today in the mansion, from the bride in the attic to the ship on the weather vane.
The spooky vs. silly fight was one of many creative disputes that caused the innumerable delays in bringing the Haunted Mansion to life. Some Imagineers wanted the haunted house to be fun and lighthearted so the kids wouldn’t wet their pants. Walt and his like-minded compatriots wanted a more terrifying experience worthy of the Haunted Mansion name. And in a perfect compromise, we got both. A dark mood with a light touch. Depending on your disposition and perspective, you can have a dark and gothic experience or a funny and silly ride. The Haunted Mansion can be almost anything you want it to be depending on your point of view. That’s the magic of the ride: The Haunted Mansion is different things to different people.
The Haunted Mansion keeps alive the memory of my favorite unbuilt Disney attraction: The Museum of the Weird. During a 1965 episode of the “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color” television show, Imagineer Rolly Crump laid out his vision for the “Museum of the Weird” that included a coffin clock and a melting candle man among other oddities.
Crump looked at the world through a different lens than most people. He wanted a Haunted Mansion that broke the mold. Walt Disney envisioned the Museum of the Weird serving as the entry and exit experiences for the Haunted Mansion.
Disney died before the Haunted Mansion was finished and plans for the ghost house changed and evolved. But elements of the Museum of the Weird still exist today in the wallpaper, furnishings and paintings of the Haunted Mansion. You just have to know where to look.
Like all the best Disney attractions, the more you ride the Haunted Mansion the better it gets. The more you know, the more you want to know. The depth and breadth of Haunted Mansion information and knowledge is nearly boundless. Each string you pull reveals many more to tug on. When it comes to the Haunted Mansion, the rabbit holes are endless. And as any Disney fan knows, rabbit holes are where the fun begins. Just ask Alice.
Walt Disney never saw his Haunted Mansion finished, but the legacy of this epic attraction continues to scare guests silly 50 years later. This Kurt Russell video tribute to the Mansion is just the right amount of Disney corny.
Are you a Haunted Mansion fan? There seem to be many of you out there. Is there a specific reason this attraction is important to you? Did the early Imagineers get the attraction’s complex mix of scary and silly right? Has the attraction stood the test of time?
Let us know your thoughts!
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