The Unauthorized Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion

by Jeff Baham

  Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily, artists who have created hundreds of merchandise items for Disney, hosted a special retrospective sale of their personally owned collectibles in October 2016, providing Haunted Mansion fans the chance to get some items that they had designed that had been long since sold out. Utilizing a showroom at Pop! Comics in their hometown of Anaheim, the popular duo sold many pieces of whiteware (unpainted samples), production samples, and artist’s proofs related to their work for the Disney Company over the past decade. Haunted Mansion fans were able to pick up items from Kevin and Jody’s Haunted Mansion collectibles lines from both Disneyland’s 50th anniversary and the Haunted Mansion’s 40th anniversary, including samples painted by the duo to be photographed for Disney’s printed catalog, samples painted specifically as models for the factory producing the pieces, and unpainted samples used to check the quality of the production. Daily said:

  We’d just gathered so much of this stuff, and we figured it was time. There was so much stuff gathering in our garage that we’d been just kicking these Styrofoam boxes out of the way, and we knew there were people out there that would really appreciate these things. It was time to let it go.

  Disney also produces Halloween-specific items that use Haunted Mansion characters, including shirts, treat boxes – even a plastic popcorn bucket shaped like Mickey Mouse, dressed as the Hat Box Ghost. For Halloween 2016, Disneyland’s “Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar” released a ceramic tiki mug shaped like the three Hitchhiking Ghosts in totem formation, and enormous lines formed in front of the tiny tiki bar at the Disneyland Hotel until the mugs sold out within hours. Walt Disney World also received a very limited supply, which also sold as quickly as Trader Sam’s could stock the shelves.

  This is by no means an exhaustive list of Haunted Mansion collectibles. In fact, we have barely scratched the surface. It is a testament to the enduring fascination that fans have with the attraction to see the resurgence of interest in Haunted Mansion memorabilia. For many collectors, their enthusiasm for the Disney theme parks remains passionate, and Disneyana collectors remain resolute in their hobby. So go start haunting your local flea markets and garage sales…you never know what you might unearth!

  Ghost Post Subscriptions

  In March of 2016, Disneystore.com quietly launched a subscription service called “Ghost Post,” which cost $199 for three monthly deliveries, or approximately $66 per box. Such subscription purchases are becoming commonplace: often, a toy or t-shirt company will offer a “mystery box” of goods for a certain fee per month, and the box is typically guaranteed to contain more than your purchase price in value. This seemed to be what Disneystore.com was doing, with a Haunted Mansion theme. The edition was limited to 999 subscriptions, and they sold out within the first day.

  Produced by Disney’s WDI R&D Department, the subscriptions promised more than simply collectibles. For $66 per month, those mortals fortunate (or “unfortunate,” according to the pitch-perfect, tongue-in-cheek accompanying website) enough to be subscribers would be sent approximately seven items per shipment, plus they would receive communiques via a “phantom radio” (which they created from their iPhones) and a “Grim Gazette” newsletter, which would be included with each shipment.

  Once word of the subscription (and its subsequent sell-out) started to circulate, the subscription boxes became hot collectibles, sometimes re-selling for $500 and up per shipment. Demand did finally settle and prices dipped, but each item contained in the boxes remains a highly desirable piece for Haunted Mansion memorabilia collectors. The very unique items included a china tea cup and saucer (which included secret messages in the design), a set of tarot-style game cards, a music box designed to look like a player piano that only plays small paper rolls via a hand crank, and various cardboard items that could be punched out and assembled into various utilities.

  The most intriguing part of the subscription was the fact that it contained a simplified version of an ARG, or “augmented reality game.” By downloading an iTunes app, users could turn their iPhones into “infernal devices” that could contact the spirit world of the Haunted Mansion. By solving various puzzles and answering various questions, users could scan information into these “phantom radios” and receive audio information which, in association with the newsletter sent with each shipment, would begin to weave a mystery about the Haunted Mansion’s residents and their dilemma, a sudden inexplicable inability for the ghosts to “follow you home,” which is, of course, the Mansion residents sole reason for existing. The ghosts were reaching out to the mortal realm for help to escape their captivity in the Mansion. Steven Stanton and Dee Bradley Baker, two popular Disney voice actors currently involved with animated Star Wars projects, voiced two of the Hitchhiking Ghosts for the project, and Pete Renaday, who was the voice of the Ghost Host for the 1969 Disneyland record, made a full circle back to the Haunted Mansion by reappearing as the third Hitchhiking Ghost for the game’s audio tracks.

  Upping the ante even further, an in-park component was added to the game at Disneyland, so subscribers who brought their “infernal devices” to the park could follow clues and cause mysterious occurrences throughout their visit, often to the amazement of bystanders at the park who had no idea what was happening and marveled at the mysterious lights and knocks coming from behind locked doors, as one example of the spooky goings-on.

  The final coup de grace, upon finishing the Disneyland tasks, was a trip through the Haunted Mansion in a special Doom Buggy that had an alternate soundtrack for part of the ride, allowing the ghosts to communicate with you directly, in person, in the Haunted Mansion itself.

  The “Ghost Post” was quite possibly a trial balloon of sorts, as it is highly unlikely that the costs associated with such an involved undertaking were covered by the $198,801 that the sales brought into Disney’s coffers. By most accounts, the trial was a huge success, and ARG-type experiences are likely a future feature of the landscape of Disney entertainment offerings.

  Appendix

  Dear Old Sandy Claws

  You know the story by now. Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King and ruler of Halloween Town, accidentally discovers Christmas Town and is mesmerized by the lights, the sounds, the snow—the glistening glamour of the holiday season, and he wants to bring it back to his own realm of creeps and shadows… but unfortunately, when the two holidays collide, things get a bit weird. Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas , a stop-motion film by the renowned director that was based on his own concept and short story, was both a heartfelt homage as well as a deconstruction of the classic holiday television genre, which was darkly sweet in a style that could only be a Burton production.

  In 2001, Disneyland unveiled plans to “overlay” “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas” onto the Haunted Mansion for the holiday season. A commercial flop during its release, the Burton film had grown to become a very popular piece of art among the gothic subculture, and that popularity was starting to become mainstream. Jack’s kingdom was finally being realized, and since “Nightmare” was a Disney property, Disneyland finally figured out what to do with it.

  Based on many accounts, Disney’s first moves toward pulling Burton’s characters into its theme parks without his involvement was not without a few hiccups. When the holiday project was first announced, Burton and Danny Elfman, the composer for the film, didn’t want to have anything to do with Disney’s planned use of the characters they had created, despite Disney’s legal right to do so. The overall success of the overlay (perhaps with the realization that by completing and implementing the attraction whether they liked it or not, the “Nightmare” franchise was going to march forward one way or another) encouraged the team to reconsider for year two, and Disneyland allowed the team to insert some creative input.

  However, in the beginning, Burton’s involvement was not too rosy (although to be fair, many observers also noted that this is not an unusual state of mind for the sometime-tortured director.) One artist who was
commissioned to create a work of art for the first of Disneyland’s four “Haunted Mansion Holiday” events at the park, had completed an enormous, colorful painting that was to be used for prints, lithographs, and perhaps other types of merchandise celebrating the overlay. Disneyland was, of course, within their rights to commission and utilize such artwork, but one overly zealous account representative took it upon himself to show the painting to Burton for his approval. As should have been obvious, Burton would have none of it, and to avoid a situation in which Burton might publicly complain about Disneyland’s use of his characters, the painting and associated merchandise plans were scrapped.

  But despite these complications, Disneyland poured an enormous amount of effort into the project. The intricate overlay is so involved that you could almost proclaim the “Haunted Mansion Holiday” (as the overlay is titled) a separate attraction. The storyline is quite different from the original Haunted Mansion, with a completely re-recorded script by Paul Frees sound-alike Corey Burton (no relation to Tim) in the roll of the Ghost Host. In the overlay, Jack and his Halloween Town friends have invaded the Haunted Mansion with the intent of bringing Christmas to all of its 999 happy haunts.

  “The stockings, all hung by the chimney with care, when opened that morning would cause such a scare!” says Corey Burton’s Ghost Host, as guests begin their trek though the holiday-themed Haunted Mansion listening to a twisted bedtime story. “The children nestled all snug in their beds, would have nightmares of monsters and skeleton heads!”

  For the overlay’s first year, soundtrack rights hadn’t been sorted out, so an entirely unique soundtrack was written and conducted by big-band arranger Gordon Goodwin, a Grammy and Emmy-Award winning artist who has worked on numerous film and television scores. This score remains very popular among the Haunted Mansion Holiday fans that were fortunately enough to have heard it in 2001.

  Imagineer Steven Davison at a special event at Disneyland on the opening weekend of the overlay, said:

  The [movie’s] music is so specific to the film, so what we did was take classic carols, and tweak them. They’re in minor keys, they fly all over the place, and a lot of them are performed by characters in the Mansion that get into the ‘spirit’ of the holidays. You’re going to hear “Jolly Dear Ol’ Sandy Claws” in the finale. [1]

  Gordon Goodwin added:

  The concept at the time was to reference Danny’s score in the mood and compositional language, but we would not be using any actual themes from the film. Of course, they would end up reversing their position on that matter a year later.

  From the second year forward, after Tim Burton and Danny Elfman had a change of heart, a new score based on themes by Elfman from the movie was written and arranged by film composer John Debney, and this score comprises most of the current soundtrack, although elements of Goodwin’s original score still remain in the attraction.

  Goodwin said:

  I have learned a great deal from working for Disney over the years. One of my lessons has been the influence of business and politics on art. So, just like that, my score was out and a new one was in. They did subsequently restore some of my music after some guest comments, for which I am thankful. I am well aware of the impact the Walt Disney Company has had on our culture, and am only too happy make my small contribution. [2]

  The overlay project was headed by Davison, who at the time was a Creative Director for Walt Disney Entertainment, and has since won awards for developing the “World of Color” nighttime spectacular at Disney California Adventure. Davison had started development on the project as far back as 1998. It’s a Small World already had a successful Christmas overlay, and it was time for Disneyland to tackle its next big holiday attraction.

  “Originally, it started out as ‘what if Santa landed on the wrong house, and came down the [Haunted Mansion’s] chimney?” Davison said. This concept could have gone any number of directions, from comical to macabre, but a conversation with Imagineer Tony Baxter led Davison to also consider the idea of blending the tale of Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” with the Haunted Mansion, bringing the ghosts of past, present and future to the attraction, a chilling idea with a lot of potential.

  But after a number of meetings about the Haunted Mansion Holiday concept, Davison landed on the current version based on Burton’s film, which was accepted and then immediately went into production. he said:

  Art-direction-wise, Nightmare Before Christmas really, really fit. The Haunted Mansion is so mysterious and so dark, it really took something like Nightmare to come in to really “explode” it to life… this is one of the wildest things we’ve ever done.

  Designer Tim Wollwebber was one of the artists who worked on the attraction, and in a conversation with reporter Jesse Guiher, he recalled some of the many features of the overlay he worked on, like the stretching portraits, the changing portraits, and the giant man-eating wreath in the corridor of doors.

  “The original concept was that you would have to go through its mouth, and the arms would try to grab you,” Wollwebber said. “But when I did the design, I forgot that the Doom Buggies [spin around and] travel backward in that area. So you would never even see it coming.” But with a little redesign, the effect actually works quite well, with the arms of the wreath coming into view around you as you move backward until the big reveal of the face dropping into view behind the Doom Buggies as you scurry away and narrowly escape from the wreath’s monstrous toothy maw. [3]

  “For the changing portraits, we would sit around and talk about what we thought would be fun,” Wollwebber said. “A couple ideas were ‘gimmes’, like Jack turning into the Pumpkin King, because it happened in the film. One of my other ideas was with Sally, where she looks at the tree and it burns up.” Wollwebber also had to find the best tools to use to create the various works of art and props he developed throughout the attraction. They used the common software tools of the trade, but also relied on “good old fashioned pen, paper and markers. It was really difficult to get that really used, worn, and handmade look by going completely through the computer. We tried to make things as natural as possible.”

  From Wollwebber’s point of view, the Haunted Mansion Holiday is a sequel, of sorts, to the movie. “Basically, Jack still loved Christmas, but didn’t want to scare anyone. When he discovered the Mansion, he realized that all the happy haunts loved his idea,” and since they were already spooks, the blend of Halloween and Christmas doesn’t faze them. But this is just his opinion. “They kind of left it a little open, so that you can interpret it yourself.”

  Madame Leota’s séance circle is changed for the holidays as well, as Leota chants about the 13 days of Christmas while holiday-themed tarot cards float around the room. For the Haunted Mansion Holiday, Imagineer Kim Irvine was tapped to play the role of Leota, which is quite fitting since Irvine’s own mother, Leota Toombs, is the face of Madame Leota in the normal Haunted Mansion attraction.

  Originally, Irvine didn’t want to replace her mother’s visage. “I don’t know… I’m shy,” Irvine said. “But I sure didn’t want anyone else to do it, either.” So Irvine submitted to sitting for hours with her head in a vice as she recited each of the 13 incantations over and over again while being filmed for the Haunted Mansion Holiday version of Madame Leota. The Imagineers discovered that Irvine’s new life mask, which was used to create the new blank face in the holiday crystal ball, was close enough to Toombs’s facial bone structure that the new head could be left in the ball for both Irvine’s holiday projection and Toombs’s usual projection, which means that the year ‘round Madame Leota effect today is truly a mother-daughter collaboration. [4]

  Moving into the grand ballroom, the Doom Buggies are filled with the festive piped-in aroma of gingerbread as the party becomes an enormous holiday fête. Snow spills into the room where a hearse pulling a coffin filled with pumpkins has broken through the doors, and a grand celebration is taking place. On top of the formal dining table is a show-stopping (and
authentic) gingerbread house, which is different every year and shows off the incredible talents of some of Disneyland’s culinary stars. Ghostly dancers float through a huge spindly Christmas tree covered in Jack o’ Lanterns and candles, and in the background, the balcony shows a library through open doors which doesn’t exist during the rest of the year. After leaving the balcony, the Doom Buggies quickly move into Santa Jack’s workshop in the attic, where dangerous toys are being built and wrapped in anticipation of the big holiday event that is about to take place.

  The Doom Buggies leave the attic and find themselves in a snowstorm of shimmering animated snowflakes as they make their way down through the trees and toward the graveyard. We finally encounter the star of the show, Jack Skellington, with a larger-than-life Audio-Animatronic body. He appears at the entrance to the graveyard in a full Santa suit, marveling about Christmas to his good ghost dog Zero, and spreading his own brand of Christmas cheer to all of the Doom Buggies streaming by. The Haunted Mansion’s original cemetery band is in place, but “Grim Grinning Ghosts” has been cleverly replaced with a new tune sung with glee by all the graveyard denizens:

  “Jolly dear old Sandy Claws, While the graveyard sleeps,

  Down the chimney dark and damp,

  With your sack of creeps…