The Quick 10: Disney's Haunted Mansion

Those of you who read my blog already know that I am a rather obsessive Haunted Mansion/Disney fan. In fact, as you read this, there's a chance that I'm at the Haunted Mansion right now"¦ I'm actually on vacation all this week and prepared the Q10s ahead of time. The Disney part is in my genetics "“ my mom is a pretty rabid fan and I grew up with pretty much all of the Mickey I could handle. I'm sure she questions where she went wrong with why I prefer 999 Happy Haunts to Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Anyway, I have lots of Haunted Mansion factoids buried in my brain, so I figured it's time to dig some of it up just in time for Halloween.

1. Museum of the Weird. The original plans called for the Mansion to be a walk-through attraction and would include a section called The Museum of the Weird. Guests would wander through the spooky house and enjoy oddities such as this one: a magic cart that would roll to life all on its own at random intervals. The Museum was the pet project of Imagineer and Disney Legend Rolly Crump, but sadly, most of his ideas never made it to fruition because they wouldn't work if the ride wasn't a walk-through. He did reveal that the famous Haunted Mansion hidden faces wallpaper was based on one of his designs for the Museum, however. Photo: DoomBuggies.com

3. Tombstones with a Purpose. While you're waiting in line for the big show at the Magic Kingdom, you can entertain yourself by reading the epitaphs on the tombstones. They're funny all on their own, but when you know that each one is tied to an Imagineer, they are even more interesting. X Atencio, who wrote the lyrics for "Grim Grinning Ghosts" (and had a hand in lots of other Disney awesomeness), also wrote the inscriptions, including his own.

There are quite a few stones, so I'll just give you a smattering of them. "Dear departed Brother Dave" is Dave Burkhart, who built the model of the Mansion; "Brother Claude" is Claude Coats, designer of the track layout; "Grandpa Marc" is Marc Davis, one of the main concept designers; "Dear sweet Leota" is Leota Toombs (seriously, Toombs), a Disney artist who was also the model for the head in the crystal ball.

4. Pepper's Ghost is an illusion used in magic tricks and theater. Basically, it's using plate glass and specific lighting to make objects appear to disappear and reappear, or morph into something else (it's more complicated than that, but you get the idea). The Haunted Mansion contains the world's largest case of the Pepper's Ghost technique "“ it's the entire ballroom scene. The reflections in the glass is what causes the appearance of ghosts in the room. If you're someone who likes to spot the inconsistencies in movies and the typos in my posts, you'll enjoy this: the Imagineers screwed up when designing the scene. They forgot to flip the ghosts to account for the reflection, so if you look at the dancing ghouls, you'll see that the ladies are actually leading the men instead of the other way around.

6. Is the Haunted Mansion really Haunted? Maybe. Personally, I think the atmosphere probably just lends itself to freaking out cast members who are there late at night closing by themselves. Then again, I've never worked there and experienced these things, so it's not really for me to say. One such ghost story is "The Man with the Cane". He makes his home at the Orlando manse and several cast members have reported seeing him. It always happens late at night to the person working at the part of the ride where people are loaded. One second, the Doom Buggies are flowing through, empty, and the next second, there's a thin, old man with a cane sitting in a buggy, staring straight ahead. The cast member attempts to say hello or make some sort of conversation, but the man doesn't acknowledge him or her "“ he just continues his journey through the room and on into the Mansion. Understandably freaked out, the cast member calls his or her supervisor and they wait for the man to come out at the end of the ride "“ but he never comes. Some say it was the ghost of Yale Gracey, one of the main Imagineers who worked on the project (Master Gracey, the man of the house, is named after him). You can find more stories about Haunted Mansion haunts at The Shadowlands (a great place if you have a few hours to waste).

7. A Real Final Resting Place. People dump ashes in the Haunted Mansion all of the time, Which lends some real credence to those haunting stories. You can read about one such instance here. Ash dumping happens so often that Disneyland had to purchase a special HEPA vacuum that can pick up ashes, but also little tiny bone fragments that are often left behind after a cremation. If you ever hear a Haunted Mansion cast member calling for a "HEPA clean-up," maybe you want to check out another attraction for a while and come back when the crew has tidied up a little.

8. Grim Grinning Ghosts. It's an undeniably catchy song with some really vivid imagery invoked in the lyrics. There might be a reason for that "“ the phrase "Grim Grinning Ghosts" first showed up in Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis. A sampling:

"Hard favour'd tyrant, ugly, meager, lean, hateful divorce of love," - thus chudes she Death - "Grim-grinning ghost, Earth's worm, What dost thou mean to stifle beauty and to steal his breath,"

But X Atencio swears he didn't rip the phrase off from Shakespeare. I was at a Haunted Mansion event in Disneyland in February (told you I was a Haunted Mansion geek) and X was in attendance, along with Harriet Burns, Blaine Gibson and Bob Gurr. Someone asked him where the phrase came from, and he grinned and replied, "It came from X Atencio!" But that's a pretty distinctive phrase"¦ my guess is that he probably read it somewhere a long time ago and absorbed it into his brain without even realizing.

9. The Knight in Shining Armor. If you've been on the ride, you probably remember the knight standing all by his lonesome in the hallway. And if you're paranoid, like me, you probably thought, "That would make a great place for a person to hide"¦" and then nervously wonder if it was going to come chasing after you. Well, you wouldn't be too far off the mark. It's not done anymore, but when the Mansion was newer, the Knight really did house a cast member who would run after Doom Buggies. It really freaked people out, and the knight constantly had to stop the ride when he was punched or spit on. One cast member who played the knight for a summer recalls that one of his co-workers had his nose broken. He also tells the story of having to tell a girl to put her top back on because she was in the middle of a steamy make out session with her boyfriend.

And, if you're a Disney fan and a BoingBoing fan, here's a treat: Haunted Mansion fan, BoingBoing founder and sci-fi author Cory Doctorow recounts his first Haunted Mansion experience for DoomBuggies.com. Oh, you know who else is a Haunted Mansion fan? NPH (Neil Patrick Harris). He was at the event I was at in February, which makes me like him even more than I already did.