The Unauthorized Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion

by Jeff Baham

  For over 45 years, the Hat Box Ghost remained a mysterious shadow from the past, a mythic character who remained a fan favorite primarily due to his illustrated appearance in the popular Story and Song record album put out by Disneyland Records when the attraction first opened. In recent years, the Disney Company started to hint at a possible return of the character to his original home, primarily by releasing statuettes, pins, t-shirts, and other memorabilia for sale in Disneyland that featured the character. What most fans didn't know was that over the past decade or so, fans of the character inside Imagineering had been attempting to resurrect ol' Hattie themselves.

  Daniel Joseph, an Imagineer who worked on bringing the character back to the attic, said:

  It started out purely as a passion project. It wasn't on anyone's radar, and we were doing it just for fun. We tried so many times over the years—we're probably the third or fourth group from Imagineering that has tried to do something like this. [9]

  Finally, in January of 2015, after the rumor mill had reached a fever pitch, things changed. After the Haunted Mansion reopened on January 23 after having been closed a few weeks for the annual removal of the “Nightmare Before Christmas” props from the “Haunted Mansion Holiday” overlay, the far corner of the attic adjacent to where the Doom Buggies leave the room was changed, and a new wall with a window frame in the center was installed in front of the Doom Buggy track. As the Doom Buggies passed it and spun around to head out of the attic toward the graveyard, passengers could catch a quick glimpse through the window, which contained a lenticular image of one of the gargoyle bat stanchions that are used to maintain order in the queue in the changing portrait gallery—except this particular brass bat appeared to lift his wings and fly off of his pole, due to the lenticular animation.

  Being an obvious placeholder, speculation about the new wall ran rampant. Did this mean something was being installed behind the wall? Was the wall a decoy? Would the effect be viewed through the small window frame?

  As fan websites and social media started to break the story due to apparent leaks at Imagineering, Disney's official blog finally made the official announcement that fans had been waiting to hear for years: The Hat Box Ghost was “re-materializing” in the Haunted Mansion on May 9, 2015, as an early feature of Disneyland's 60th anniversary celebration. The last remaining mystery was a doozy, though - what would fans actually see on May 9? Would the Imagineers’ new creation refer back to the classic Marc Davis character, or would they use digital technology to create something new and different?

  Joseph continued:

  We tried to do things smarter, and not necessarily more complicated. Two of our earliest champions at WDI, Tom Fitzgerald and Scott Trowbridge, emphasized that we needed to deliver what might have been, but couldn't be, delivered in 1969. So that meant it couldn’t have any novelty of interactivity that couldn’t have been done back then, and that means aesthetically as well as theme-wise.

  The team working on the Hat Box Ghost stayed true to Marc Davis original design for the character, adding a bit of digital wizardry to give the face and disappearing head effect a little magic. “The Haunted Mansion uses all pneumatic figures, so they have a certain feeling to them,” Joseph explained. So the new Hat Box Ghost was built in a way that would replicate that jerky pneumatic movement. “The biggest thing was the iconic face, so we got the original mold, and 3D scanned it, and used that as our face rig,” Joseph said. “So it's digital, but analog at the same time. There are literally fingerprints [of the original sculptor] captured on the 3D scan.”

  Haunted Mansion fans began to line up hours before Disneyland opened on May 9. The park allowed people to enter Main Street a little early, holding back the line at the entrance to Frontierland. Hundreds of people crammed at the entryway waiting for the rope to drop, spilling into Disneyland's hub and all the way back down Main Street. When the attraction finally opened on that Saturday morning, the acclaim for the careful work the Imagineers had done was nearly unanimous. A bit of dark Disney magic was accomplished that day, and Marc Davis's effect as he had originally designed it was finally successfully realized.

  Today, just before the Doom Buggies are about to escape from the attic, guests encounter a hunched, skull-faced apparition hunkered in front of a doorway that leads back into the Mansion. The figure is glowing blue, and wears a heavy cloak and a large top hat. Surrounded by hat boxes, he hoists one into the air while he subtly twists and crouches as the Doom Buggies float by. With a low ominous chuckle and a ghostly shimmer, his head seems to dissolve into his rib cage and then suddenly pop up inside of the hat box he holds in his knobby grip. While leaning on an old gnarled shillelagh, his eyes dart around in the hat box, glancing back up to his empty neck, and then with another ghostly swoosh, his head mysteriously reappears on top of his neck, leaving the hat box empty again. The combination of digital and mechanical effects is so convincing that it leaves most viewers completely bewildered.

  Fans of the character can be grateful that Imagineering went the extra yard this time, to really make an effect that would stand the test of time. “We went beyond just ideas and a storyline—we actually built a working prototype to show conceptually how it would work. We showed it to lots of people [in Imagineering] and got some momentum,” Joseph said. That momentum paid off, and the Mansion's original mascot has finally re-planted himself back in his attic, after dematerializing and haunting the house as nothing more than a nebulous memory for the prior 45-plus years.

  But to tell the Bride's tale, let's rewind to 1995. During a “ride rehab,” a process that takes place every few years in which a Disney theme park attraction is closed for a period of time and reviewed with a fine-toothed comb, the Disneyland attic scene was updated to tell more of a story. A piano was added to the attic, with a projected animated shadow of a cloaked pianist pounding the keys, which are playing themselves. The invisible pianist played the Bridal Chorus in a minor key. The entire set was re-themed to make the bride more of a centerpiece. The pop-up ghosts were re-dressed in top hats and black bow ties, and instead of screeching, they began to shout “I do!” in ominous tones. The bride herself was spruced up as well, with her face painted to show a little more detail, her gown gussied up with fancier lace, her hair lengthened, and, at Walt Disney World, expanded to form a crazy, wavy halo of spectral style.

  Both Walt Disney World’s and Disneyland’s brides received make-overs, to mixed reviews. Fans positioned behind and below the animatronics made the brides’ gowns and hair billow in the darkness. A hydraulic support was also added underneath the figure, making the bride appear to be floating. Whirling bats across from the bride added even more motion to the scene. Despite the variety of ways the attic has changed over the years, the bride has remained the mysterious heart of the Haunted Mansion attraction, partly due to her confounding presence, and partly due to Ken Anderson’s tales that have existed since the attraction was on the drawing board back in the 1950s.

  In Storyboard Magazine , X. Atencio makes the point: “The storyline was supposed to be about a bride who died, so they have an illusion of a bride in a bridal costume, her heart thumping away. The bride beckons with a flickering candle as her heart pounds loudly, glowing the color of blood.” [10]

  In 2006, the attic scene was revisited again, and revised significantly. The bride was given a name, a sharp-witted new persona—and a sharp-edged weapon, as well. Now named Constance, the bride seems to have taken up residence in the attic, displaying souvenirs from her numerous trips down the altar—all of which seem to have ended in tragedy.

  The bride was removed from her perch near the attic window (which itself was the perch originally assigned to the short-lived Hatbox Ghost), and she now appears in the opposite corner of the attic; a glowing spectral form with her veil and draping gown billowing in a ghostly breeze. Rather than being a 1960s-era Audio-Animatronic as was the original bride, Constance takes after Madame Leota and the singing busts from the graveyard by showing her
lively side via projected footage. This new bride—by turns comical and menacing—offers pithy comments to guests as they pass through the attic, such as “In sickness, and in wealth,” or “‘Til death do us part,” as she raises and lowers a gleaming hatchet that appears out of thin air, then disappears again.

  While much of Constance’s story is left to the imagination, there are some hints in the newly-packed attic that give guests insight into the character. A series of wedding portraits are displayed among the various wedding gifts and ceremonial trappings scattered throughout the attic—and as guests pass each photo, the heads of Constance’s former grooms disappear from each portrait, and then reappear again. In one photograph, Constance holds a rose while posing next to a groom named George, echoing one of the stretching portraits at the beginning of the ride that portrays a widow holding a rose as she stands over the grave of her dearly departed husband George, whose headstone has been hacked at with a hatchet.

  In 2007, the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion underwent a major rehab, and Constance was added to the attic scene there as well. The voice and visage of Constance (who is also known by Imagineering as the "Black Widow Bride") was performed by an actress, whose slyly sinister taped performance became the foundation of the projected image, with some ghastly elements added through digital special effects to create the final character. A high-definition video projection onto a static form with practical blowing veils completes the effect, which adds a new layer of menace to the story of the Haunted Mansion.

  A different actress portrays Constance in her earlier days as a young bride in the various wedding portraits positioned throughout the attic.

  And now that the Hat Box Ghost has returned to the attic balcony across which the Doom Buggies make their escape, it appears that the bride has also been reunited with her long lost mate. While the two current characters share little in common apart from being located across the attic from each other, the first ghost bride and the original Marc Davis Hat Box Ghost were clearly designed to resemble each other—both with disturbing skeletal visages, and both with translucent draping costumes. Perhaps the original Hat Box Ghost was the groom, a suitor, or even a ghastly milliner tending to the bride… we will probably never know. But we do know that the duo has finally been reunited, and should remain that way for an eternity of dreaded bliss.

  Chapter Ten

  Act Three—Out to Socialize

  The Doom Buggies escape Constance’s threats and leave the Haunted Mansion through a broken attic window, at which point they spin around and “fall” toward the ground off of the roof, with their riders leaning backward while peering out over an amazing tableau of ghostly grandeur. The carriages turn toward the horizon, overlooking a “lively” graveyard adjacent to the Haunted Mansion. In the distance, scores of wispy spirits rush up from their graves to disappear into the cloudy skies. Lightning flashes and thunder crashes while owls hoot and cats howl. The Doom Buggies quickly descend from the roof level down to the ground between a malignant grove of dead trees, their branches reaching out toward the fleeing carriages. The raven that you had passed in the Mansion makes another appearance, cawing madly at you from one of the dead branches overhead while watching you with blazing red eyes.

  The trees through which you escape have branches that stretch toward you like arms, creating a comparison with other menacing forests of history. While both Rolly Crump and X. Atencio worked on the Disney film Babes in Toyland , which also featured a spooky Forest of No Return, the most frightening forest in Disney filmdom is the Dark Forest which threatens poor Snow White. Claude Coats had worked on the Snow White’s Adventures ride for Disneyland, which is one of the scariest attractions in the park. That dark ride also contains some monstrous trees, so the idea couldn’t have been too far from the minds of the Imagineers as they envisioned the Doom Buggies’ escape through this new grove of graveyard guardians. A look at the Haunted Mansion schematics for the trees shows that they are clearly labeled “Mechanical Trees” which were to be designed with leering eyes and branches that would grasp at you. Though the movement has not (to date) been added to the trees, they have been sculpted with eyes and outstretched arms, and make for an eerie exit from the Mansion’s attic. [1]

  Reaching the ground, the Doom Buggies turn back around and head toward the cemetery’s gates, passing a caretaker, his knees knocking and mouth agape, too frightened to speak. The caretaker’s bony dog stands next to his master, whimpering with fear. Upon entering the gates of the graveyard, a mysterious haze seems to fall over the entire landscape as the carriages spin back and forth between the tombstones. Patrons will recognize the familiar strains of “Grim Grinning Ghosts” as they pass a ghostly band of medieval minstrels performing the tune with a ghoulish jazz groove. Owls hoot along with the music and wolves howl in the distance, as tombstones shake to the beat, and every grave in the entire graveyard seems to have turned its occupant loose to join the jamboree. “Once a grave place, the spooks have now claimed it as their playground and private park,” wrote WED documentarian Frank Allnutt, describing the scene. [2]

  Spinning around, the Doom Buggies pass a quintet of singing marble busts, which sing along in haunting harmony to the groovy ghost band:

  When the crypt doors creak and the tombstones quake, spooks come out for a swinging wake! Happy haunts materialize, and begin to vocalize; Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to socialize!

  Now don’t close your eyes and don’t try to hide, or a silly spook may sit by your side…shrouded in a daft disguise, they pretend to terrorize; Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to socialize!

  As the moon climbs high o’er the dead oak tree, spooks arrive for the midnight spree. Creepy creeps with eerie eyes start to shriek and harmonize; Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to socialize!

  When you hear the knell of a requiem bell, weird glows gleam where spirits dwell…restless bones etherealize; rise as spooks of every size…ha ha ha HA HA!

  Passing the busts, the Doom Buggies turn to and fro, allowing patrons glimpses of ghosts from many historical eras. Playful spooks ride bicycles around and through the tombstones, while a Victorian tea party takes place among the open graves. A king and queen balance on a teeter-totter over a gravestone, while other ghosts call out from within their loosened caskets. All around, specters sing along and play merrily as they “socialize” throughout the cemetery. Among some unlocked crypts, an unearthly operatic duo sing a mad melody, while an executioner sings a duet with his victim—a knight, who holds his singing, decapitated head in his arms.

  The graveyard set is the largest and most whimsical of all the Haunted Mansion’s scenes. Largely the work of Marc Davis (who designed the gags, skits, and sketches) with the help of Imagineer Dave Schweninger (who brought Davis’s characters to robotic life), the graveyard presents a series of vignettes with more details than a patron could absorb in multiple rides through the set. Davis’s situations create a wonderfully zany world, and Schweninger built them in three dimensions with uncanny realism, utilizing sculpted characters created by Blaine Gibson, based on Davis’s designs.

  Many show elements combine in the graveyard to create the appropriate effects and mood for the attraction. A hazy mist seems to coat each scene, which is the simple result of layers of wall-to-wall scrim that surround the Doom Buggy path. Multiple pieces of scrim are placed in various locations, adding to the perception of depth in the showroom. Lighting is key to this scene (as it is to most every scene in the Haunted Mansion). Richard Tremblay, our Haunted Mansion technician, shared some insight into the illumination of the attraction:

  “In the Haunted Mansion, black light illumination is the main show lighting key, especially in the graveyard, seance circle and attic scenes.” Referring specifically to the graveyard, he explains: “‘Back-lighting’ of props, trees, buildings, etcetera, is done with fluorescent black lighting. Black light blue fluorescent lamps are used for these effects, generally to give a bluish, moonlit tint to those elements.”

 
; Once the atmosphere is established with backlighting, other methods are used to light specific characters or scenes. “On the ghost figures, there can be a combination of one or more lamps used to illuminate them,” Tremblay explains. “The pop-up figures in the graveyard and the attic are illuminated with spotlight lamps, while other ghostly figures are lit with floodlight lamps, to illuminate a larger area.”

  Lighting is also key to helping patrons differentiate between the quick and the dead, albeit subliminally. “Other lamps are used on ‘still alive’ beings such as the caretaker, the cats, the owls, the dog near the mummy, and the ravens. These lamps are dim, white lights used to ‘give life’ to the living,” Tremblay explains. “So as you can see, in the Haunted Mansion, show lighting is as important, if not more so, than the animation within.” And these lighting schemes can be attributed to the initial designs of Claude Coats.

  The singing marble busts are another of the Haunted Mansion’s showcase effects, and are again created by projecting filmed faces onto static busts, in an effect similar to that in Madame Leota’s seance circle. The five busts, singing along to X. Atencio’s lyrics for Buddy Baker’s tune, are portrayed by vocalists Thurl Ravenscroft (the lead vocalist, who is famous for his “Grrrrrr-REAT!” portrayal of Tony the Tiger), Jay Meyer, Verne Rowe, Bob Ebright, and Chuck Schroeder. Each of the vocalists that were filmed also sang their own part in the attraction’s soundtrack recording. Dick Ebright, son of Bob Ebright, recalled his father’s work:

  I remember Dad telling me that one day when he was working at Disney, he was approached by someone and asked if he would consider having a plaster bust made of his face and head for use at Disneyland. According to Dad, they were looking for singers that had interesting looking faces, and Bob sure fit. The bust of him at the park is a “dead” ringer! [3]