40 years and there's always room for more

Welcome, foolish mortals, to this weeks blog post.
I am your blogger, you're GHOST blogger...

Anyway, curious friends, the Haunted Mansion celebrated it's fortieth anniversary this week!



The Mansion was one of the last things Walt Disney worked on before he died, unfortunately it wasn't finished when he did die.

It went through 4 story revisions before deciding that it would work best with no story at all. The story of the ghost host being a sea captain still has some hints in the ride. Disneyland has a weathervane on the roof, in the shape of a ship. Also, there is a painting of a ship becoming haunted. (Disney world had the captain as one of the sinister 11, the paintings that watched you)

It has been hinted, that when you escape from the attic, you have now "died" in the ride, and that is why the groundskeeper is scared looking at you and why the ghosts are much closer after that.

NONE of the ghosts are conjured using any kind of digital hologram stuff. In fact, most of the gags are either typical animatronics or very old theater tricks. (I won't go into detail)

Except Madam Leota, but then they simply took the next step in what they had been doing already.

Phantom Manor (the Curious Friends bit) is Haunted Mansion in france, and to date is the only HM that is very different from the Disneyland one. Disney world only swapped out the changing portraits for the sinister 11, added a staircase and the library. Japan followed Disneyworld.

The Ghost Host is played by Paul Frees.

Gracey is the fan name for the mansion. It comes from the tombstones on the outside of the mansion (it's film credits, if you will) and a Gracey is mentioned there. That is Yale Gracey's stone.

Loeta Toombs was the only tombstone added to the mansion on the outside. She is the face for Madam Leota, and the face and voice for Little Leota. She was also an imagineer and volunteered to help test the equipment and recording used. She did such a bang up job it has been kept as the official piece.


In case you couldn't tell, I'm a Haunted Mansion Phan (Also, Phantom Manor) so I'll leave you all with this.