by Jeff Baham
In 1969, when Disneyland premiered the Haunted Mansion, the effect was accomplished using regular looped film projection, shining Leota’s face onto a static neutral-colored head inside of a large crystal ball. Wild white hair surrounded the head and filled the rest of the ball, and purple backlighting gave the set an otherworldly glow. The projector would leave a tiny highlight reflected in the glass ball, but that didn’t keep people from being mystified by the effect. The trick was first devised by Yale Gracey when he was working on the Haunted Mansion with Rolly Crump in the early 1960s. Gracey simply dreamed up the idea one day, went to find an old film reel of a talking head (and ended up using some television footage that Hans Conried had done for the studio), and started shining it on various items and props until he found an old bust of Beethoven. When he projected the film onto the bust and turned out the lights, Beethoven sprang to life. Walt loved it, and it became the basis for the Madame Leota effect. [1]
Leota Toombs actually enjoyed a measure of celebrity due to her role in the Haunted Mansion. “Mom said they tied her hair to the chair,” said Imagineer Kim Irvine, Toombs’s daughter, talking about the process Toombs went through to be filmed for the attraction. “She was kind of surprised that out of her whole career at WED, she would be so famous for being Madame Leota. She said that one day she was walking through the park, and a young attraction hostess ran up to her and said ‘You are her—you’re her, aren’t you? My friends tell me you’re Madame Leota!’ Mom was flattered and said, ‘Well yes, that is me,’” Irvine recalled. “Then [the hostess] said, ‘I just have to ask you one question—don’t you get tired of sitting there with your head under that ball?’” [2]
Leota Toombs as Madame Leota. Photograph from the collection of Jeff Baham.
In the 1990s, the system was replaced with a new technology patented by WDI, in which the film (since transferred to a digital format) was projected (via fiber optics, carried into the head through the neck) onto the backside of an opaque static face from inside the middle of the head. A tiny lens was used to project an extremely wide angle, allowing the projection to cover the entire inside of the front of the head. The benefit to this technology was mobility; the head could now be moved about, as the lens remained constantly fixed inside, only needing to be tethered through a fiber optics cable. In fact, this allowed the scene to be altered slightly, in which the table itself could be moved up and down as if it were floating along with the rest of the objects in the room. The small reflection in front of the crystal ball was also eliminated, since the projection was from within.
However, this system had its problems as well. The opaque head that allowed the projection to show through from within necessarily allowed for a dimmer, more muted image than the bright incandescent projection from outside. The image was also more distorted when viewed from the sides, a result of the wider angle of projection. When the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay was installed at Disneyland in 2001, Madame Leota returned to her former externally-projected glory, her table again firmly planted in place, with four new lit candles surrounding the ball, their highlights reflected by the crystal to distract viewers from the projector’s reflection.
Still not content with the scene, the Imagineers turned back to Disneyland’s seance circle in 2004 and gave even more life to Madame Leota by causing her crystal ball to levitate and fly around the table. Practical technology to create a mechanical means to synchronize a projection with the “flying” crystal ball didn’t exist until recently, but with the advent of brilliant, high-definition video projection technology, a solution was designed. The entire field of space which contained the path of the floating crystal ball became a virtual “screen” for the high definition projection. A computer had the predefined path which the ball would follow programmed into its memory, and the face of Leota (still the original, menacing Leota Toombs) followed that path, much like a bouncing ball on a computer screensaver. This functioned for a brief time, until newer, crisper technology allowed for Leota’s projection to again come from within the head itself, projected onto the front of the face from behind, which is where the technology stands—at least as of this writing. The rear-projection also allowed the Imagineers to use a full high-resolution image for Madame Leota’s face, as opposed to Disneyland’s projected “bouncing ball” image, which is essentially a very small portion of the full high-resolution projection that covered the full moving path of the crystal ball.
The set was also redressed as part of the 2004 update, and now there are many new candles on the table (with more new technology—amazingly realistic flickering electric flames), and a new spell book that sets next to the seance table, inevitably turned to page 1313, which “spells” out Leota’s incantation designed to “bring to your eyes and ears one who is bound in limbo.”
Leaving the seance circle, the Doom Buggies move through a dark hallway toward a large balcony overlooking a grand hall. Crazy, discordant pipe organ music fills the hallway as the Doom Buggies turn to peer over the balcony rail. Referring to the seance the patrons just left behind, the Ghost Host resumes his narration:
The happy haunts have received your sympathetic vibrations, and are beginning to materialize. They’re assembling for a swinging wake, and they’ll be expecting me. I’ll see you all a little later…
The Magic Castle Display
The Academy of Magical Arts (The Magic Castle), located in Southern California, has the original working miniature model of Pepper’s Ghost which Yale Gracey used to demonstrate the ballroom effects to Walt Disney himself. Academy member Dave Lewis describes the effect:
This is the original working model of the ballroom special effects, featuring the Pepper’s Ghost technology, which was presented to Walt Disney during the preliminary designing of the Mansion…and it still works. Seeing this little bit of history is really wonderful. The box is cube-like and only about three feet square. You peer through a slot at the top of the front side. You push a button and the lights come on and the ghosts sweep through the abbreviated scale model of what ended up being a grander version of the ballroom. It is amazing. It’s only a novelty for “civilians,” but we Haunted Mansion fans get a real kick out of it. And it’s kind of beat-up on the outside, which adds to the authenticity.
Photograph courtesy of The Academy of Magical Arts.
The grand ballroom below the balcony is the centerpiece of the Haunted Mansion’s most perplexing illusions, and is also one of the most talked-about scenes in all of Disneyland. Activity abounds in all corners of the room, and the few seconds that it takes the Doom Buggies to pass over the balcony make it impossible to take in all of the detail in a single trip. The entire ornate scene is coated with dust, and each prop seems to suffer from decades of rot and decay. In one corner of the room, transparent ghostly “visitors” float into the hall through a doorway opened to the stormy elements, next to a parked hearse, in a humorous vignette designed by Marc Davis. These ghostly party guests enter the ballroom and disappear into thin air. Near the doorway, there is a large fireplace (burning with a ghastly green flame) with an ornate mantle, supporting an eerie marble bust and an eerier transparent apparition. An elderly lady rocks in an antique rocking chair, as she disappears and reappears with each rock back and forth.
In the center of the room sits a huge musty banquet table, set with rotting food and long-dried floral arrangements. At the head of the table, a huge putrefied birthday cake sits alone. Above the table hangs a massive crystal chandelier, coated edge to edge with muck and cobwebs. Suddenly, the table springs to life as a ghostly birthday party appears, the guests seated around the table—apparently from many historical eras—appearing out of thin air. At the head of the table, the birthday ghost also suddenly appears, blowing out all thirteen candles and causing each of the party guests to vanish as well, all in an instant. More party ghosts hang from the chandelier, appearing and disappearing at will. The large windows above the grand ballroom allow more wandering wraiths and banshees to fly into the
room, while the large curtains rustle in the stormy wind.
Two large portraits of dueling gentlemen hang above the hall, each holding an antique pistol, with his back to the other. In an instant, the ghosts of the two duelists emerge from the two portraits, turn, and fire away, reenacting their tragic fate before fading back into the paintings. Below, six transparent ghostly couples dance a waltz, circling the ballroom floor as they spin in unison to the twisted refrains from the organist. Next to the dancers, at the end of the ballroom, a ghostly organist sits at the dusty pipe organ. An evil grimace forms at his lips as he pounds away, with wispy skull-faced spirits swooshing out of the pipes along with his crazed rendition of the Haunted Mansion’s theme song. The ballroom rendition is a remarkable cacophony of organ pipes in an amazing dissonant version of the haunting refrain, which was improvised by William K. Sabransky from the familiar Buddy Baker theme for the ride .
The manifesting and disappearing ghosts in the grand ballroom set are based on a large-scale version of a popular sideshow staple effect known as Pepper’s Ghost, which was developed for the Haunted Mansion by Gracey and Crump from a ninteenth century technique as noted earlier. Incidentally, the Pepper’s Ghost effect was also made popular by magician Harry Kellar, who created a routine called the Blue Room illusion based on the same principles. But until the Haunted Mansion was constructed, the effect had never been used on such a grand scale.
The Pepper’s Ghost effect essentially combines two scenes into one by forcing the viewer to see a superimposed image through reflection. In the case of the Haunted Mansion ballroom, the Doom Buggy track runs directly between the two sets. The carriages face a giant sheet of plate glass, through which guests view the scenery and props from above, peering down into the set. Below and behind the Doom Buggies, the appearing and disappearing “ghosts” are placed into a second blackened set in a mirrored position relative to where they are to appear interspersed with the scenery and props. As they are illuminated, their reflections in the glass seem to interact with the scenery in the ballroom set.
Illusion alone cannot make a mundane set convincing. So the Haunted Mansion is packed to the brim with detail, atmosphere, and Audio-Animatronics. Veteran Imagineer Bill Justice, another Disney animator pulled into WED, was charged with bringing the robotics to life. “Bill could be considered the conjurer of the group,” said Imagineer David Mumford. “He programmed all the lively ‘corpses’ that inhabit the ghostly Mansion.” [3]
Richard Tremblay, a veteran Disney technician who has worked on the Haunted Mansion attraction for years, offered an overview of the Disney robotics:
The design of many animated figures begins with what is called the base frame. It is the foundation upon which the visible figure is mounted, and it’s also a location for various working parts that bring the figure alive, including hydraulic and pneumatic distribution hardware, actuators, and other hardware that contributes to the working of the animatronic figure.
This type of figure is mounted in place, and is more or less limited to movement that does not involve leaving the base. But there are many figures in the ballroom that move, fly, and even dance. This is accomplished with a series of turntables to which the (generally static) figures are attached. Tremblay continued:
There are four large rotating turntables in the banquet hall, and another one in the graveyard. There are two turntables in the banquet scene, with three dancing couples on each turntable. There is also the “visitors” turntable with the figures horizontally rotating in a circle. From the ride, these all reflect off the glass to make it look like they are floating in and out of the door that is open with the hearse in it. The overhead “banshee” turntable has several horizontal figures rotating on it, and it gives the effect of ghosts floating in and out of the blowing curtains window. There is also a “skull wheel” that rotates over the organist, and this, too, is a motor driven mechanism.
The Screaming Man in the Spider’s Web
Early in the days of the Haunted Mansion, rumor has it that there was a scene somewhere near the loading area at Walt Disney World’s attraction that featured a man trapped in a giant spider’s web. While no one has yet discovered indisputable proof of this claim, Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion cast member Shawn Potts remembered tales of the webbed man being passed around from Haunted Mansion trainers to trainees, some of which may sounded something like this:
“Long ago when the Magic Kingdom first opened, there was a man trapped in the spider web to the right of the Doom Buggy path, near the Grand Staircase. However, it was felt that this effect was too scary...so the man’s figure was stashed under an Omnimover motor in the graveyard, and was often used to scare maintenance men. By the way...scaring each other was a very common pastime for Cast Members at the Haunted Mansion...”
Potts has since decided that the figure stashed under the motor likely wasn't the webbed man, and other cast members tell tales of numerous unrelated figures and props stored off-stage at the Haunted Mansion. Informed conjecture by FoxxFur of the "Passport2Dreams" blog suggests that Dick Nunis, who by then was the executive vice president of Walt Disney World, may have decided the gag wasn't working, and was too silly to kick off an adventure inside of a grand Haunted Mansion. However, there is evidence on schematics in a maintenance manual that the prop did exist. And like Disneyland's Hat Box Ghost, the webbed man's disappearance has a certain sinister aura of mystery. Dan Olson of the "Long Forgotten" blog has the last word, until further evidence surfaces: "With the crass commercialization and nauseating overexposure of the Hatbox Ghost that we've seen in recent years, I take comfort in knowing that there is still a genuinely mysterious haunt far back in the mists of Mansion history, an unsolved riddle, a ghost known today only to a few." [4]
After passing over the ballroom’s balcony, the Doom Buggies carry the patrons through a dark doorway into a musty, neglected attic. When the Haunted Mansion first opened, early riders report that thread-like “cobwebs” hung from the ceiling, brushing against guests’ faces, though this effect has long been lost to history.
Disney animator Floyd Norman, who was working on the studio lot in the 1960s as WED was developing and testing the Haunted Mansion effects at the studio, recalled touring through the sets of proposed scenes and tricks:
WED had a special wing on the first floor of the animation building. I remember the early days. They grabbed a couple rooms on the second floor of animation, and were playing with ideas and effects, and I remember going upstairs and walking through what was going to become the Haunted Mansion. They were trying all kinds of crazy things. They had threads hanging from the ceiling, so that they felt like cobwebs. You’d walk through the room totally in the dark, and you’d feel this stuff on your face. It would sort of freak people out. [5]
In the attic, dust covers all sorts of old remnants of the Haunted Mansion’s mortal owners’ previous lives. Trunks, statues, paintings, and lamps are strewn about, and the Doom Buggies spin their way through the clutter.
Prior to 2005, the attic scene could be described as follows: Permeating the darkness, a human-sounding heartbeat throbs through the dusty air. Meanwhile, ghastly spooks pop up from behind trunks and out of chests with screeches and shrieks, frightening the occasional patron caught unaware. Finally rounding a corner that will lead the Doom Buggy out a window and to freedom from the Haunted Mansion’s spooks, patrons are brought face-to-face with the source of the rhythmic beating: a plaintive bride, her pale hand clutching a flickering candle, and her face hidden in the shadows except for the glowing embers of her eyes. Slowly holding up her candle, she balefully watches as the Doom Buggy passes her by and heads toward the open attic window.
In 1969, when the Disneyland Haunted Mansion first opened, there was an additional character in the attic: a spooky old Hat Box Ghost who stood across and down the track from the bride, near the attic window. The Hat Box Ghost was an ambitious, close-up special effect that was supposed to make the bony, elderly ghost’s skull-like hea
d disappear and then reappear in the hat box he was toting in one claw-like hand, while the other hand quivered on an old cane. Designed by Yale Gracey (with character concepts contributed by Marc Davis), the effect relied on lighting to illuminate the “real” head, and then extinguish as another light illuminated the “hat box” head, creating the illusion that the head was vanishing from the first position and reappearing in the second. While the concept was inspired, the execution wasn’t as effective as the WED engineers had hoped, and Marc Davis himself made the call to pull the effect from the attraction, according to Imagineer Wayne Jackson, who both built the figure and then had to remove it. In the short term, the ride was better without a misfiring effect, despite the fact that the character has since taken on a cult following. But, as Davis would like to say, “Do you want the truth, or do you want to feel good?” [6] “Unfortunately, this ghost had some troubles with his hocus pocus,” quipped Imagineer David Mumford. [7] Though the effect wasn’t in place for long, some veteran Haunted Mansion fans remember seeing it in place in the first days of the Haunted Mansion’s operation back in 1969, and both a grainy home movie and a snapshot photograph have been discovered of the animatronic, proving that it did exist, though quite briefly. [8]
This rare snapshot captured the Hat Box Ghost in position in the attic during his brief stay in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. Photograph courtesy of Paul Clemens.
The original Hat Box Ghost used a head sculpted by WED artist Blaine Gibson. The iconic asymmetrical face was also used for one of the Hitchhiking Ghosts, as well as various family portraits. Photograph by Jeff Baham.
