The Backstories and Magical Secrets of Walt Disney World

by Christopher E Smith

  THE ATTIC SCENE

  The Doom Buggies next ascend into the attic, where a variety of wedding pictures depict Constance Hatchaway. Her name is very appropriate and descriptive, as the attic is filled with portraits showing how this murderous bride constantly hatched away her husbands’ heads, with those heads mysteriously disappearing and reappearing in the portraits.

  Ambrose Harper

  The first wedding portrait is that of Constance and Ambrose Harper. Ambrose is the humble, naive son of successful farmers. Objects such as china and a music box, presumably all wedding gifts, surround the portrait. Ambrose wears a conservative wool suit and a distinctive bowler hat. The bride is wearing a wedding gown and, importantly, a single strand of pearls. A wedding album near the portrait reads:

  OUR WEDDING DAY

  Ambrose and Constance

  1869

  Frank Banks

  The next wedding picture depicts Constance and her second husband, Frank Banks. Banks is, not surprisingly, a banker (and a successful one). Like Ambrose, Banks wears distinctive headwear, in this case a stovepipe hat. A broken ceramic box in the shape of a heart can be seen in a nearby cabinet. Constance wears the same dress as before. This time, however, she is wearing two strands of pearls. A banner near the portrait reads:

  True Lover Forever

  1872

  Frank and Constance

  Marquis de Doom

  The third picture in the attic shows Constance with her next husband, the Marquis de Doom, an apparent foreign dignitary. The marquis wears perhaps the most distinctive outfit of any of Constance’s husbands, a military uniform adorned with many medals. He also wears a sash and a formal plumed hat. Constance again wears the same wedding address, but this time dons three strands of pearls. A nearby wedding album reads:

  The Marquis Constance

  1874

  Reginald Caine

  Reginald Caine, a successful railroad tycoon, is the fourth husband. Caine has a stocky physique and boasts a distinctive ring on his pinky finger. Numerous exotic and expensive relics surround the portrait. Caine’s suit and hat appear to be more expensive than the previous grooms, including a dark top hat. Constance wears her familiar wedding dress, this time with four strands of pearls. A nearby picture frame reads:

  Reginald & Constance

  1875

  George Hightower

  The fifth wedding portrait depicts Constance and her last husband, George Hightower. In this particular portrait, Constance appears noticeably happier, no doubt a nod to her ever-increasing wealth. According to some rumors, Hightower actually owned the mansion at the time of his marriage to Constance. Believe it or not, this is not the first time that we have seen George. In the Stretching Room, one of the portraits includes a marble bust of George with an axe stuck therein.

  More exotic wedding gifts surround this portrait, including a harp and a suit of armor. A four-tier wedding cake sits nearby. If you examine this area closely, you will notice a hatchet lying on the floor. A nearby coat rack includes the hats of Constance’s decapitated husbands that were displayed in the previous five portraits. As you probably guessed, Constance wears her same wedding dress, though now with five strands of pearls around her neck. The elaborate (and presumably expensive) frame that holds the wedding portrait reads:

  George & Constance

  1877

  Standing near the exit of the attic is a captivating and ghostly Constance. As she moves her hands toward her chest, an axe suddenly appears. The ghostly widow then voices a number of different wedding phrases, each of which carries a sinister tone:

  “In sickness and in wealth.”

  “As long as we both shall live.”

  “We’ll live happily ever after.”

  “Till death do us part.”

  “For better or for worse.”

  “Here comes the bride.”

  Julia Lee, who starred in the popular 1990s television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, portrays Constance Hatchaway. Kat Cressida, who also voiced Dee Dee in the animated series Dexter’s Laboratory, voices the bride.

  THE GRAVEYARD SCENE

  You depart the attic onto a balcony before falling backwards into a very boisterous graveyard scene. It is at this point that you see the famous caretaker and his dog, observing the ghostly sights in utter dismay. As was the case with the Grand Hall scene, there is so much detail in the graveyard that it is almost impossible to see everything. Some of the more entertaining sights are:

  The iron gateway at the entrance of the graveyard forms the face of a monster.

  You pass by five singing busts, affectionately known as the Phantom Five. These busts are voiced by a famous quartet from the 1940s and 1950s known as the Mellomen. The most famous Melloman, Thurl Ravenscroft, has many ties to the Disney company, and was honored in the organ in the Musician’s Crypt seen earlier in the queue. The busts are known as Rollo Rumpkin, Uncle Theodore, Cousin Algernon, Ned Nub, and Phineas P. Pock.

  A ghostly band plays “Grim Grinning Ghosts.” The band consists of a flutist exiting his crypt, a drummer using bones as drumsticks, a soldier playing a harp, a kilt-wearing ghost playing a bagpipe, and a pajama-wearing ghoul playing a trumpet.

  A king and queen ride a makeshift seesaw that consists of a board balanced atop a tombstone. A princess swings from a nearby tree branch. Another royal couple, this time a duke and duchess, sit at a candle-lit table.

  A hearse is stuck in the mud. The driver talks to a ghostly woman who is sitting atop the hearse. As with the hearse in the Great Hall, a coffin has also fallen out of this hearse as well. A ghost sits up in the coffin.

  A dog sniffs an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus as its mummy mumbles unintelligibly. An old man with a horn to his ear leans toward the mummy and asks, “What’s that? Louder! I can’t hear you! Eh?”

  No graveyard would be complete without a grim reaper, and the Haunted Mansion is no exception. This reaper stares at guests with glowing eyes peering out from his dark hood.

  A decapitated knight holds his own head and stands near an executioner who happily sings with a small prisoner, while a pair of opera performers in Viking attire, a slim male and a hefty female, loudly sing nearby.

  Near the end of the graveyard, a lone arm stretches through a brick wall, appearing to literally trowel itself inside a crypt. This scene was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe’s 1846 short story “The Cask of Amontillado,” which tells the story of a bricklayer who likewise traps an enemy in a crypt.

  You once again see a black raven as you exit the graveyard. Poe’s 1845 poem “The Raven” inspired the many raven references used throughout the Haunted Mansion.

  THE MAUSOLEUM

  After the graveyard, with the ride nearly over, you encounter three hitchhiking ghosts. Each ghost has his own unique appearance:

  Gus is a prisoner, complete with his own ball and chain.

  Ezra is a very thin, well-dressed skeleton.

  Phineas Pock is a hunch-backed carpetbagger.

  Thanks to a 2011 refurbishment and update, these comical apparitions now interact with guests, with each appearing in a series of reflections that make it seem as though the ghosts are actually riding in your Doom Buggy. As a part of these interactive effects, the ghosts may place a hat on your head, stretch your face, turn your head into a balloon, or switch heads with you. No matter how many times I experience this effect, it always puts a smile on my face.

  The ride ends with a very small, spooky “Little Leota” speaking from a ledge above the Doom Buggies:

  Hurry back! Hurry back! Be sure to bring your death certificate, if you decide to join us. Make final arrangements now! We’ve been dying to have you.

  If you look closely, you’ll see that Little Leota is holding a bouquet of dead flowers.

  The Exit Path, Crypts, and Pet Cemetery

  After exiting your Doom Buggy, you step onto a moving walkway that is imprinted with yellow silhouettes of bats. You will see sconces that are eerily held by
what appear to be outstretched arms.

  Outside the mansion, you pass by a wall of burial crypts. The humorous names on these crypts are filled with puns:

  C.U. Later

  Manny Festation

  Wee G. Board

  Asher T. Ashes

  Bea Witch

  Clare Voince

  Dustin T. Dust

  Hap A. Ritition

  Rustin Peece

  Pearl E. Gates

  Metta Fisiks

  Paul Tergyst

  M.T. Tomb

  Love U. Trudy

  I. Trudy Dew

  I. Emma Spook

  I.M. Ready

  Hail N. Hardy

  Hal Lusinashun

  Next to the crypts is a large tomb for “Bluebeard” dated “1440.” The inscription on the tomb reads:

  Here lyeth his loving wives:

  Penelope died 1434

  Abigail 1435

  Anastasia 1436

  Prudence 1437

  Phoebe 1438

  Eugenia1439

  Lucretia

  Seven winsome wives

  Some fat, some thin

  Six of them were faithful

  But the seventh did him in

  Don’t miss the pet cemetery perched on a hill to the left of the exit walkway, and the tombstone of its most famous resident, James Thaddeus Toad, Esq. This tombstone is located to the far back left of the cemetery, and is in the shape of Toad himself. The story behind this hidden tribute dates back to Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, a classic Disney dark ride that debuted in the Magic Kingdom on October 1, 1971. Based on Kenneth Grahame’s 1908 novel The Wind in the Willows and Disney’s 1949 package film The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride was a classic Disney dark ride that transported guests in motorcars past a series of zany scenes through London.

  In October 1997, the Orlando Sentinel ran an article revealing that Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride would be closed in favor of a Winnie the Pooh-based attraction. When word began to spread of plans to close Toad, Disney received a backlash of negative feedback from Toad loyalists. In addition to over a thousand complaint letters, fans also silently protested by sitting outside the attraction in what famously became known as “Toad-Ins.” Despite these protests, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride closed on September 7, 1998. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh opened in its place in Fantasyland on June 4, 1999, and continues to entertain guests of all ages.

  Although Mr. Toad was evicted from his Fantasyland home, observant guests can still enjoy a tribute to the eccentric amphibian in the mansion’s Pet Cemetery. Other residents include:

  A poodle named Little Maisy: “So Prim and Proper And Never Lazy. All You Do Now Is Push Up Daisies.”

  A dog named Rover: “Every Dog Has His Day. Too Bad Today Was Your Last.” Rover apparently died in 1898.

  A snake named Eric: “Met His Fate At The Hands Of A Garden Rake.”

  A cat named Whiskers: “Nine Lives Always Go Too Fast. Poor Whiskers Couldn’t Make Them Last.” A small plaque below the tombstone lists (1) bad catnip, (2) a shoe at two, (3) sour milk, (4) hairball, (5) one bad year, (6) same year, (7) local dog, and (8) fell off limb as different causes of death. A large number “9” is in the center of the plaque.

  A duck named Little Waddle: “Little Waddle Saw The Truck. But Little Waddle Didn’t Duck.”

  More Magical Secrets of the Haunted Mansion

  The Haunted Mansion was the first attraction completed for Walt Disney World.

  Disney Imagineers use a material known as Fuller’s Earth to create the dust and cobwebs used throughout the Mansion. Fuller’s Earth is also a key ingredient used in making kitty litter.

  While the façade of the Haunted Mansion is breathtaking, the actual attraction takes place in a nondescript warehouse located just behind the Dutch Gothic manor house, out of view of guests.

  There are Haunted Mansion-like attractions in all five of Disney’s theme parks across the globe. Interestingly, these are all located in different “lands.” As you know, Walt Disney World’s Haunted Mansion is located in Liberty Square. The original Haunted Mansion in Disneyland is located in New Orleans Square. In Tokyo Disneyland, it’s found in Fantasyland. In Hong Kong Disneyland, the attraction is known as Mystic Manor and is located in the Mystic Point area of the park. In Disneyland Paris, it’s known as Phantom Manor and is located in Frontierland.

  Real History

  Original Ideas and Imagineering Royalty

  Plans for a “haunted house” experience in the Disney theme parks date back to 1951, when Walt Disney assigned Harper Goff, perhaps best known for his role as art director on the 1954 Disney film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, to work on ideas for a proposed Mickey Mouse Park. One of Goff’s earliest sketches for the park depicted a haunted Victorian house sitting on a hill overlooking a cemetery.

  As we all know, Walt Disney’s amusement park plans grew and evolved in the years that followed into what would become known as Disneyland, which opened on July 17, 1955. In 1957, Walt assigned his “haunted house” project to Imagineer Ken Anderson. Anderson had already performed work on existing Disneyland attractions including the popular Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. The “haunted house” project would be incorporated into an all-new land for Disneyland to be known as New Orleans Square, which was first announced in 1958 by virtue of Disneyland souvenir maps.

  During his design research, Anderson studied plantation houses found in the Old South, including New Orleans. Strangely enough, Anderson’s primary inspiration for the exterior design for Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion came from a house in Baltimore, Maryland: the Victorian Shipley-Lydecker House.

  Anderson’s work resulted in a design that centered on a rotting, decaying antebellum mansion. Everyone seemed happy with this design except for the person who mattered the most…Walt Disney. Walt did not like the idea of a decaying home sitting in the middle of his otherwise pristine park. As such, Walt issued an ultimatum: “We’ll take care of the outside and let the ghosts take care of the inside.” Translation: the inside of the attraction could be dusty and decaying, but the outside needed to be beautiful. It should come as no surprise that Anderson took Walt’s advice and altered his design.

  During the 1950s and 1960s, the proposed Haunted Mansion project was repeatedly delayed due to a number of factors. During this time, the concept continued to evolve, change, and morph extensively through the work of Disney Imagineers such as Yale Gracey, Rolly Crump, Marc Davis, and Claude Coats. Gracey and Crump spent the better part of 1959 brainstorming on a variety of special effects techniques that would eventually be used in both the Disneyland and Disney World versions of the Haunted Mansion, including use of the Pepper’s Ghost effect. Crump described the fun he had working with Gracey:

  We weren’t really given too much direction on the project. At the time, they still didn’t really know what they wanted it to be, so they just kind of set us loose. This was a lot of fun for both of us, especially me, because we were getting paid to have fun.

  I think out of everything Yale and I designed together, only about 25% made it into the final attraction. That was mostly because of the change to the storyline, and the fact that the mansion was changed into a ride rather than a walk through. You have to remember that this was the first attraction to be designed without Walt’s full guidance. Unfortunately, he passed away before any final decisions about it could be made, so it turned into sort of a mess.

  The creative minds at Disney could not decide on a definitive storyline or how to stage the numerous effects planned for the attraction in an operationally efficient manner. Nevertheless, construction on Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion commenced in 1961, notwithstanding the fact that park maps as far back as 1958 included a “Haunted House” listing. Two years later in 1963, the stately exterior of the Haunted Mansion was complete, but the interior was still just a shell.

  Even after the 1964-1965 New York’s World’s Fair, the conceptual plans for the Haunted Mansion still cont
emplated it as a walk-through experience, and proposed storylines continued to flow in from all sides. Eventually, Walt settled on a “museum of the weird” concept proposed by Rolly Crump (who had submitted up to one hundred different Haunted Mansion ideas to Walt) that would have included a “gypsy wagon” and “a séance room with talking furniture, floating chandeliers, marble busts that followed guests’ every move, and old family paintings that changed right before viewers’ eyes.” Although the Museum of the Weird concept was dropped when Disney decided to make the Haunted Mansion a ride-through experience as opposed to a walk-through, many of the concepts proposed by Crump did eventually make it into the attraction.

  Following Walt’s death, the continued development of the Haunted Mansion fell largely to Imagineers Marc Davis and Claude Coats. The pair had worked together years earlier to complete what had become the most popular attraction in all of Disneyland, Pirates of the Caribbean. The work of Davis and Coats is particularly famous in Disney circles because of their stark contrast in styles. Coats favored a scarier, more ominous style for the Haunted Mansion. Davis, as he did with so many other attractions that he worked on, favored silly gags, jokes, and comical characters that provided a sense of humor in the storytelling process. While this legendary Imagineering duo found a way to reconcile their creative differences to create a masterpiece with Pirates, their relationship on the Haunted Mansion project was even more tenuous. The result of this creative conflict is an attraction that has two distinct personalities. The first half of the Haunted Mansion is much more sinister and scary in tone, exhibiting the influence of Coats. The second half of the attraction is more light-hearted and funny in nature, the calling cards of Marc Davis. These seemingly divergent viewpoints were finally merged, in large part by virtue of the attraction’s script written by X. Atencio.