by Nate Naversen
Introduction Disneyland opened on July 17th, 1955. It was the
world's first theme park, the unique idea of famous animator Walt
Disney. At the time, traditional amusement parks were typically
dirty places where P.T. Barnum's motto "A sucker is born
every minute" was the conventional wisdom for success. In
contrast, Disneyland was conceived as a clean, family oriented
park. Disneyland did not attempt to provide guests with typical
"thrill" rides like roller coasters or to make a quick
buck. Instead, it sought to entertain by seemingly transporting
a guest to a different place and time. Disneyland was broken up
into themed lands; areas where everything down to the finest details
(even the garbage receptacles) are styled, or themed to look a
particular way. Today there are eight themed lands in Disneyland:
Adventureland, Frontierland, Main Street U.S.A., Fantasyland,
Critter Country, Tomorrowland, Mickey's Toon Town, and New Orleans
Square. Disneyland attractions are themed in several ways: First,
the architecture is created to reflect a certain style, and often
to tell a story. Second, storylines are reinforced through the
use of props and audio-animatronic figures. Third, employees (known
as cast members) are costumed to the theme. And last, sounds are
broadcast to make the environment seem genuine. New Orleans Square
and the Haunted Mansion New Orleans Square is themed to look like
the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana around the turn of
the century. New Orleans Square is one of the most popular lands
in Disneyland, as it is home to two of the most popular attractions
in Disneyland history, the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted
Mansion. The Haunted Mansion is themed to look like a Victorian
era southern mansion, typical of the New Orleans area. Unlike
many Disneyland attractions, the Haunted Mansion uses little or
no storyline in its theming. Its only claim is that it is "the
home of 999 Happy Haunts -- and they are just dying to have you
join them". Considering the success of the Haunted Mansion
since its opening in 1969, little storyline is actually needed.
Haunted houses are so deeply rooted in the American psyche that
the mere mention of the name "haunted mansion" is enough
to make the attraction successful. Cast members assigned to work
in the Haunted Mansion are dressed in dark green butler tuxedos
and maids' blouses as if they were the staff of a "phantom
of the manor". What makes the Haunted Mansion so successful
is the way the interior of the attraction is themed. The simple
lighting and special effects tricks used throughout the ride is
the true key to the success of the attraction. In a later segment,
these effects will be described in detail. The Show Sequence The
Haunted Mansion's show actually starts in the queue area. After
one enters the line, two things are apparent: the first is the
facade of the mansion itself, which looks mysterious, to say the
least. Second, immediately behind the mansion on a hill are a
large number of tombstones. These tombstones are meant to be more
humorous than grizzly (these are happy haunts, after
all), as one will see.
Here is a list of some of the epitaphs and inscriptions on the
tombstones:
R.I.P. GOOD FRIEND GORDAN now you've crossed the river JordanR.I.P MEMORIUM UNCLE MYALL here you'll rest quite a while
REST IN PEACE COUSIN HUET we all know you didn't do it
HERE RESTS WATHEL R. BENDER he rode to glory on a fender
R.I.P MR. SEWELL the victim of a dirty duel
DEAR DEPARTED BROTHER DAVE he chased a bear into a cave
I. L. BEBACK
The queue ends as one enters the mansion. One is greeted by a cast member and shown into a waiting room, the foyer. Here one waits for several minutes before being shown into the stretch room. Pipe organ music plays for several minutes until a voice (presumably a ghost) speaks:
"When hinges creak in doorless chamber and strange and
frightening sounds echo through the halls, whenever candlelights
flicker where the air is deathly still, that is the time when
ghosts are present, practicing their terror in ghoulish delight.
Welcome, foolish mortals to the Haunted Mansion. I am your host,
your Ghost Host. Kindly step in all the way, please, and make
room for everyone. There's no turning back now." One immediately
enters the stretch room with 40-60 other guests. The stretch room
was not part of the original ride concept for Haunted Mansion,
it was added as a way to get the attraction underneath and behind
the Disneyland railroad, which circumscribes the park. As one
might expect, the stretch room is actually a huge elevator. But
while the floor of the room descends the ceiling stays in one
place, which makes the room seem to stretch as the elevator lowers.
The Ghost Host says the following spiel while stretch room is
stretching. "Our tour begins in this gallery, where you see
paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible,
mortal state. Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding,
almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this
haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination? And
consider this dismaying observation: this chamber has no windows,
and no doors. Which offers you this chilling challenge: to find
a way out! Of course, there's always my way. " At that point
the room lights go out. Immediately the room above the ceiling
is illuminated and one can see a hanging corpse! The lighting
effects used in the stretch room will be discussed further in
the next section. One is then led into the Hallway. The hallway
is where one actually walks underneath the Disneyland railroad
tracks. In the hallway one notices a stormy night outside the
windows, pictures that seem to change, and three busts whose heads
appear to look in your direction no matter where you are in the
room. The hallway is the end of the walk-though portion of the
attraction. The next room is the loading zone for the "doom
buggies". The doom buggy is a show name for Disney's Omnimover
system. The Omnimover system was initially developed for the old
"Adventures in Innerspace" attraction. The doom buggy
seats 2-3 people, and it is configured so that one sits with one's
back to a curved, shell-like arch. Each car can be rotated 180
degrees from forward facing to rearward facing. This rotation,
combined with the scallop design of the car allowed the designers
to control what guests see at any given time. The Second Hallway
is the first room the doom buggies pass through. In it is a grandfather
clock and an enchanted suit of armor. One can also briefly see
down a corridor where a candelabra hovers past, as if it is carried
by a ghost. Upon entering this room, one can hear the Ghost Host
say: "We find it delightfully unlivable here in this ghostly
retreat. Every room has wall to wall creeps and hot and cold running
chills."
The second room one enters is Madame Leota's chamber. Madame Leota is the image of a woman's head inside a crystal ball. The crystal ball sits on a table with nothing under it! Also, a tambourine, a trumpet and a bell float about the room above the doom buggies. Madame Leota's spiel is as follows:
"Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat, call in the spirits wherever they're at. Rap on a table, it's time to respond, send us a message from somewhere beyond. (Rapping sound is heard) Goblins and ghoulies from last Halloween awaken the spirits with your tambourine (floating tambourine plays) Creepies and crawlies, toads in a pond let there be music from regions beyond (floating trumpet plays) Wizards and witches wherever you dwell give us a hint by ringing a bell (floating bell rings)" Before one enters the ballroom the Ghost Host is heard again:
"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 Ballroom may be the Haunted Mansion's most famous scene because of its tremendous lighting effects. In it one sees many ghosts at a large party -- some dancing, some seated at a table, and some hanging on the chandelier. The ghosts are semi-transparent, but the room is real! Next, one enters the Attic. In the attic are many miscellaneous items lying around (just like a real attic, I suppose). At one point in the attic there is an organ, playing itself. Recently Imagineers have added a feature to the "organ scene" as one can now see the shadow of the ghost playing the organ. From the attic one transitions outside, to the Graveyard. In the graveyard one sees many things. Ghost shapes are flying all around, goblins leap from behind tombstones, a buried arm builds a home for itself with bricks and a trowel, a frightened man stands with his frightened dog, and three heads sing "Grim Grinning Ghosts Come Out to Socialize." The song can be heard throughout the graveyard. Immediately after the graveyard, your Ghost Host once again speaks and says: "Ah, there you are. And just in time. There's a little matter I forgot to mention: beware of hitchhiking ghosts. They have selected you to fill our quota, and they'll haunt you until you return. Now I will raise your safety bar, and a ghost will follow you home! " The hitchhiking ghosts' room is the last part of the ride before disembarkment. In it, the doom buggies face a large mirror (which runs the length of the wall in the room). One can see one's own reflection in the mirror as well as a ghost sitting in the doom buggy with you. Instinctually, one looks inside one's own doom buggy to see if there is actually anything in the buggy -- but there is nothing! One then dismounts and steps on an inclined exit ramp. On one side of the ramp one sees Little Leota. Little Leota is similar to the first Madame Leota, except you can see her full body this time. She recites the following spiel as one exits. "Hurry back, hurry back. Be sure to bring your death certificate if you decide to join us. Make final arrangements now. We've been dying to have you. " The tricks revealed! The following is a scene by scene description of the lighting and special effects used in the Haunted Mansion. Without these "tricks", the ride would not be nearly as successful as it has been in recent years. The stretch room is the first place where lighting special effects are used. When the elevator reaches the bottom (i.e. the room has finished stretching), the Ghost Host challenges you to find a way out. The hanging corpse can be seen suddenly because the ceiling is made of painted silk scrim, which under normal light looks like an ornamented ceiling (opaque). But when the area above the silk is lit and the viewing area is dark, the silk scrim becomes quite transparent! The next significant special effect comes in the hallway. Three busts are mounted on a wall in front of the viewer as the corridor turns. As one moves, each bust appears to stare with the person because the busts are actually inverted. They are made of a thin material, cast from a mold of a face. This thin material lets light (shined from the backside) illuminate the face. Because the inverted face looks the same as a normal face to the eye (all the shapes are the same, but the angles are exactly reversed) the eye assumes it to be a normal bust. Without getting into a complex mathematical discussion about why it happens, suffice it to say the eye is fooled enough to make the bust appear to follow the viewer wherever he or she stands. The hovering candelabra in the second hallway is accomplished with a scrim shrouded string -- a rather simple but effective invention. The scrim is nearly transparent white screen that shrouds the string just enough to make the effect work. The scrim has the effect of making the hall look like it is slightly fog or smoke filled. A second trick in the hallway is that of a hand-like shadow that passes over the front of the Grandfather clock. The hand looks as much like a real hand as a clock hand, and is accomplished with a simple theatrical gobo-like device on a rotating wheel.
Incidentally, the word "gobo" is a theatrical lighting term short for "go-between". A gobo is a small metal sheet that "goes in between" the light source and what is being lit. The sheet has patterns cut out of it, which can create some very interesting shadows on the wall when lit. When attached to a rotating wheel, even more visual effects are possible with a gobo. It is a very versatile and powerful tool. Madame Leota's Chamber has two simple yet interesting tricks to pull off its magic. The face inside the crystal ball is not a hologram as commonly thought. It is in fact, a projection on the glass from behind. The light is transported into the back of the ball through fiber-optic tubing. The hovering objects and musical instruments are suspended on black strings. The background is black, and the instruments are lit with blacklight, making the strings virtually invisible. The ballroom has possibly the cleverest lighting trick in the attraction. This trick is known as "Pepper's Ghost", and has been popular since the turn of the century. In it, the guests see a reflection in the clear windows that cover the entire balcony. Both above and below the room (where the doom buggies are) there is an exact reproduction of the room one looks forward into, which is where the audio-animatronic ghosts are actually located. Since the space you are in is dark, you can see both what is lit through the window (the ballroom) and what is reflected in the window (the audio-animatronic ghosts). As an example, when you walk toward a sliding glass door at night, you see yourself as well as what is outside. Because a guest does not realize that there is actually an "anti-ballroom" where the audio-animatronic ghosts are, one's mind superimposes the two images together -- and one is fooled into thinking that there are actually ghosts in the ballroom. Like the second hallway, the attic scene also uses a gobo to project the image of the ghost organ player onto a wall. There is no need to explain any further -- it's simple and cheap! The Graveyard also utilizes two simple yet effective lighting effects. First, there are hundreds of ghosts that fly across the room. These ghosts are stereotypical "sheet" ghosts. They are created through the use of a Gobo-wheel, like before. The white light is projected onto a white silk scrim to make the ghosts appear. The scrim is invisible in the dark, high ceiling room and is only visible where a ghost (light) is projected onto it. Second, the three singing heads are actually laser disc projections of singing men's faces onto plaster head shapes. The head shapes are white, so the additive color of the projected faces look almost like real talking heads. The hitchhiking ghosts in the next scene are seen in the mirror, but not inside the doom buggy because of the type of mirrors used on the wall. The mirrors are half-silvered mirrors, so that one can see one's reflection and what is behind the mirror, assuming that what is behind the mirror is lit. A single ghost is synchronized to travel across the room with a single doom buggy. So when the audio-animatronic ghosts behind the mirror is lit with a green light, the combined reflected/image makes it look like a ghost is riding in the doom buggy reflection. After one disembarks the doom buggies, one sees Little Leota. The Little Leota trick is accomplished the same way that the Madame Leota trick is. Fiber optic cables once again project light onto a glass image from the rear, to give Leota her semi-transparent image.
Haunted Mansion Statistics and Facts!
--FAQ, Haunted Mansion Disneyland, World Wide Web