Behind the Attraction (2021) s01e02 Episode Script
Haunted Mansion
ANNOUNCER 1: Remain seated, please.
(in Spanish)
Please remain seated.
(lively music)
(elephants trumpeting)
MAN: The love of liberty.
(moans)
(screaming)
MAN 2: KU-6908.
-PAUL: Well, then, let's do this.
-MAN 3: Yeah.
PAUL: You want me to do it
very breathy like that?
-MAN 3: Oh, yeah.
-PAUL: All right.
PAUL: Whenever candle lights flicker,
where the air is deathly still,
that is the time when ghosts are present,
practicing their terror
with ghoulish delight.
(thunder rumbles)
Welcome, foolish mortal
to The Haunted Mansion.
(screams)
NARRATOR: The Haunted Mansion.
One of the world's most beloved
theme park attractions.
Now can I go see The Haunted Mansion?
Packed to the rafters
with world-class illusions,
this house of horrors
has become a timeless classic.
I remember it as a child.
I don't want it to change.
The Haunted Mansion
has changed over the years.
Don't change it.
NARRATOR: Reincarnated at Disney Parks
all around the world.
-In Tokyo
-Paris.
-Hong Kong.
-NARRATOR: Known as
-Mystic Manor.
-Or
Phantom Manor.
NARRATOR: This iconic attraction
has been scaring
the daylights out of guests
(shrieks)
for over 50 years!
-They're all just hilarious.
-NARRATOR: Hilarious?
That's not
what the mansion's supposed to be.
-The mansion's supposed to be
-(screams)
-Scary.
-It could be scary. It could just be
-Foreboding
-But also
Fantastical, but
-It's really quite
-Comical.
-NARRATOR: Even
-Dare we say it Funny.
-Funny?
-Really not all that funny.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: But the real story
of the darkest of Disney's dark rides,
well, the truth
about that might scare you!
(laughs)
And if not the truth?
Then Walt's earlier work probably will.
(laughs)
Walt did mention one day,
he said, "People like to be scared."
NARRATOR: In fact,
much of Walt's work had a dark side.
Even back to "The Skeleton Dance" in 1929.
Well, it was all very crude and primitive.
NARRATOR: Look at 1940's Fantasia.
So when the idea of a theme park came
to Walt, it only made sense that
He always wanted a haunted mansion.
It was in his ideas
from the very beginning.
NARRATOR: But these early ideas,
conceptually at least,
are a pretty long walk
from where The Haunted Mansion ended up.
This was gonna be a walking attraction
in which people would be walking through
the rooms and experiencing it.
NARRATOR: Whatever it was
They couldn't quite get a grip
on what to do with The Haunted Mansion.
So Walt has the animators just do sketches
of what what a haunted mansion
should have in it.
NARRATOR: And it was soon revealed
They were really basically
little cartoons.
That's not what
the mansion's supposed to be.
The mansion's supposed to be scary.
NARRATOR: Well, yeah, didn't Walt say
"People like to be scared."
NARRATOR: But on the other hand,
Walt did admit to one of his
most trusted Imagineers, John Hench
You could have a friendly feeling
about ghosts
if we made such that they were
like retired actors from the stage.
They loved an audience.
NARRATOR: Well, this slight indecision
wouldn't stop them,
because when Disneyland opened
on July 17th, 1955
Welcome.
it wasn't funny or scary,
because there was no Haunted Mansion.
And so, Walt dispatched lead
scary character designer Ken Anderson.
Ken Anderson actually designed some
of the the early concepts
for the attraction.
NARRATOR: Starting with the outside.
Using these Southern
architectural designs as inspiration,
all Ken had to do was just
add a few cobwebs, some broken windows,
a few spiders,
and, just generally, haunted things.
We wanted this haunted house
to be kind of ruined.
JOHN: Shutters would be crooked.
It would be some
kind of house disintegrating.
NARRATOR: But
Walt said, "No."
NARRATOR: Because for as much
as Walt wanted a haunted house
He really wanted The Haunted Mansion
to be as clean
and well-kept as the rest of his park.
NARRATOR: So, instead of the grimy
ghost trains of 1960s carnivals
Walt's vision was that he wanted
the exterior of the mansion
to be pristine,
and the interior
is what would be dilapidated.
And he said, you know,
"We'll take care of the outside
and we'll let the ghosts
take care of the inside."
NARRATOR:
That's all well and good. However
Nothing had been designed
to be inside of it.
So, dusting off the cobwebs,
Walt turned to another Imagineer
for his take.
DANIEL: Yale Gracey worked
at Walt Disney Animation.
And eventually, he was a member
of the Magic Castle in Hollywood,
so he did stage performance magic,
but had never done theme park magic.
-NARRATOR: Who had?
-Nobody had ever done theme park magic.
NARRATOR: Well, there's no hiding
Daniel Joseph's admiration
for this master magician.
Yale Gracey, for me,
was my Michael Jordan.
I mean, I had pictures of Yale Gracey
on the wall,
growing up in my little
bedroom in Delaware.
NARRATOR: But this pinup heartthrob
was already taken.
He was partnered up with Rolly Crump.
NARRATOR: Who has a few fans of his own.
I love Rolly Crump. He's such a great guy.
VANESSA: He designed
the Tower of the Four Winds
at the 1964-'65 New York World's Fair.
-How tall is the real tower, Rolly?
-It's 120 feet.
NARRATOR: But this was a job Rolly knew
he was destined for
ever since he wasn't very tall at all.
I always wanted to work for Disney
from the time I was three,
'cause the first film I saw
was the Three Little Pigs.
ROLLY: I told my mom at the time,
"I wanna work for Disney."
She said, "Well, someday maybe you will."
NARRATOR:
Like most mothers, she wasn't wrong.
My first film was Peter Pan
and then the Lady and the Tramp.
ROLLY: So, that's what I did.
I just worked in animation.
NARRATOR: Rolly did rack up
an impressive credits list,
along with a bit of a reputation
that followed him his whole career.
Rolly, ended up becoming my boss.
He was wild. I mean, he was a wild guy.
NARRATOR: And so, for the wild Rolly
and magical Yale,
Walt's instructions were simple.
Walt just wanted a lot of good ideas.
NARRATOR: And so, the two got to work,
conjuring up things
for Walt's Haunted Mansion.
Yale and I had this big room
filled with weird, scary stuff.
Well, we got a call
from Personnel one day,
and they said, um
ROLLY: "The janitors would like to have
you leave the lights on in that room."
Maybe 'cause when
we turned the lights out,
it was pretty spooky,
'cause a lot of stuff was lit
-with black light.
-(woman shrieks)
Which meant it glowed in the dark.
And so, Yale and I said,
"Oh, okay, uh, if that's the case,
uh, we'll do a little something here."
We rigged the whole room.
And we had the whole thing
on a little timer.
We triggered everything
to take off during the night.
-(bell dings)
-(disembodied voices)
We came back the next day.
Personnel called us the next day and said,
"They're never coming back.
You're gonna have to clean up
your room yourself."
NARRATOR: Flying in the face
of Walt's one clear instruction
The Haunted Mansion should be as clean
and well-kept as the rest of his park.
NARRATOR: Rolly and Yale continued
to develop ideas amidst
the squalor of youthful creativity.
And we were having a great time.
(applause)
NARRATOR: And so was the entire
Disney staff from the looks of it,
because construction work
finally began on Walt's long-sought-after
house of ghosts.
And then the World's Fair came along.
NARRATOR: Ah, yes, the World's Fair.
An immensely important phase
in Disneyland's development,
but also one that would absorb years
of Walt and the Imagineers' time.
As a result, work on The Haunted Mansion
project expired.
For many years, The
The Haunted Mansion, lay dormant here.
(laughs)
The gates were closed.
Guests were wondering,
"Why can't we go in?"
And so, a sign was placed out front.
NARRATOR: A sign of what was to come
for the story of this apparitious abode.
Walt talked about wanting
to build a retirement home
for all these 999 happy ghosts and haunts.
GARY: And so, of course, Disney legend
Marty Sklar had taken his cue from Walt
and written a plaque that spoke to it
being a retirement home
and that guests could apply
to Ghost Relations in order to stay there.
NARRATOR:
There weren't too many takers for that.
But what Disney failed to gain
in ghostly reservations in Anaheim
was more than made up for
for the experience gleaned in New York.
We learned so much at the World's Fair
in terms of new means
of entertaining our guests
through Audio-Animatronics
and the ride systems that came out
of the research and development
of the World's Fair.
NARRATOR: And with this new knowledge,
work began in earnest on a brand-new area
of Disneyland called
WALT: New Orleans Square.
New Orleans Square is not a square.
NARRATOR: Right. But still!
The flagship attraction
for this New Orleans
It it's sort of a trapezoid.
would finally be
the Pirates of the Caribbean?
(laughs)
We moved ahead with the pirates.
Everyone was really
all hepped-up on doing that.
NARRATOR: As well as being
a treasure chest of World's Fair wizardry
unlike Haunted Mansion,
Pirates had a clear artistic direction.
We've always been partial
to pirate stories.
NARRATOR: They still didn't even know
if The Haunted Mansion
was meant to be funny or scary.
The show never was to a point
where I think he was comfortable
with with going ahead with it.
NARRATOR: So for Walt,
Pirates of the Caribbean
became the priority.
And for the empty Haunted Mansion,
that ship had sailed.
Or, you know, ran on a shallow track.
But not for long,
because that empty house over there
was getting a little awkward.
I grew up in the '60s,
so I was one of those kids drooling
at the gate like, "When are when are
they gonna open this thing up?"
And then all the rumors.
"A lady fell in a pit."
"There was a snake pit." Blah, blah, blah.
NARRATOR: Blah, blah, nah.
I always wondered about that.
NARRATOR: But there was
really nothing mysterious afoot.
Rather, Walt wanted to make sure Pirates
was well on its way
before focusing efforts on The Mansion.
And once it became clear
that the Pirates project
was coming to a head
Walt was ready to plunge headlong
into The Mansion.
By plundering legendary
Imagineer Marc Davis
away from working
on Pirates of the Caribbean,
which he lovingly referred to as
The, uh, pirate ride,
which came along there somewhere.
NARRATOR: Well, that was
a pretty clear signal from Walt
that he was leaning more toward taking
The Mansion in a humorous direction,
because while Marc had made
a name for himself
as a master animator
on many of Disney's classic films,
he particularly excelled
at one specific aspect of his craft.
He was known
as the great gag man within animation.
NARRATOR: And they could use the help,
because
We didn't know whether you were
gonna ride through this thing,
walk through it, or what.
with the confidence and proven
track record of Marc Davis
And we did some paintings,
and they were quite fantastic.
now things should be easy,
except for the fact that there were now
Two art directors on Haunted Mansion.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Yeah, one small detail.
It would appear Walt hired Marc's
fellow Imagineer Claude Coats
to share the art director post
on Haunted Mansion, because
Walt knew he mainly got his best results
when he put opposites together.
Claude Coats was more of a theatrical
set designer, if you will.
Claude Coats was a straight arrow.
Straight arrow.
NARRATOR: So, kind of like
the opposite of Marc, then.
But from an equally
prestigious background and reputation.
Claude was a beautiful background artist.
If you look at Pinocchio
and the beautiful street scenes
He was amazing.
Good architect, good designer.
Walt would use him In my eyes
when he saw one of his attractions
starting to fall behind.
NARRATOR: While The Mansion
wasn't quite running behind just yet
"When are they gonna open this thing up?"
it hadn't exactly
hit its stride, either.
So, we have on one side Marc Davis saying,
"I want this funny,
gag-driven haunted house.
These are happy haunts that live here."
DANIEL: And then on the other side,
you have Claude Coats who's saying,
"You should go in and feel
the hot and cold running chills
-(thunder rumbles)
-as you go through this mansion."
So with that, as in any
creative organization, there's tension.
NARRATOR:
Thankfully, there was nothing but harmony.
And mischief shared
between Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump.
And so, I had started
doing sketches of all my scary stuff.
NARRATOR: Because after all,
Walt had said
"People like to be scared."
NARRATOR: But he had also said
He wanted it to go funny.
NARRATOR: So what did Walt want?
It was time to find out.
"Okay, we're gonna have
a meeting with Walt.
Everybody bring their sketches down
and their models."
Then everybody didn't like the idea
that I was doing things that were scary.
In fact, they didn't like that what
anything I was doing.
NARRATOR: So much so that Rolly's stuff
was strategically placed
behind Walt for the meeting.
And they did it on purpose
so he wouldn't see it.
And all of a sudden, he says,
"What is that stuff?"
And they said,
"Well, that's some stuff Rolly did."
And he says,
"Well, what is it that Rolly did?"
And I said, "Well, I just feel
that we need some scary stuff in there."
NARRATOR: The janitors probably disagree.
And so the next morning,
I came to work at seven o'clock.
Walt's sitting in my chair.
And the first thing he said to me was,
-"You son of a"
-(woman shrieks)
And I thought, "Oh, my God."
He says, "I didn't get an ounce
of sleep last night
because what you showed me yesterday
kept me up all night long."
And I said, "Oh, God, I'm sorry."
He says, "No, no.
I know what you're gonna do
with your art. "
I says, "You do?" He says, "Yeah."
He said, "We're gonna do
a Museum of the Weird.
And you can do
all the weirdest stuff you wanna do
and put it in the museum."
Oh, I said, "Oh, God, that was easy."
NARRATOR: But things were about
to get a little bit harder.
Walt Disney never lived
to see The Hunted Mansion completed.
NARRATOR: The impact of losing
their leader was vast,
and the reality of a Walt-less Disneyland
was upon them.
They had lost their leader,
they were a bit directionless,
but they still had to buck up
and get these things done.
NARRATOR: That, they could agree on.
But that was about it.
It didn't really have its final direction
when he passed away.
So that's where it kind of
accelerate this
kind of pitched battle, if you will,
between the forces
of fun and lighthearted
-NARRATOR: or
-dark and sinister.
NARRATOR: So with two teams tasked
with making one attraction
These guys are fighting amongst themselves
and trying to figure out, you know,
what direction it should go in.
NARRATOR:Well, with the opening day
fast approaching,
the gates of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion
would finally swing open,
revealing more than ten years of work
by dozens of Imagineers,
promising 999 ghosts,
with just a few outstanding questions.
Did Claude make it scary?
Or did Marc make it funny?
Did Rolly contribute enough weirdness?
What's inside that mansion?
NARRATOR: Let's find out, shall we?
1969, The Haunted Mansion
finally opened its gates.
TOM: It was one of Disneyland's
highest attendance days ever.
Obviously, with all those years
of waiting
Now can I go see The Haunted Mansion?
NARRATOR: By all means, Donny!
KURT: Come on, the line's moving.
NARRATOR:
And whether you were visiting alongside
The Osmonds and Kurt Russell
in this 1970 TV special,
or visiting today,
as you enter the mansion,
your mood will change
as you stand inside a holding room
and hear the immortal words
PAUL: Welcome, foolish mortals,
to The Haunted Mansion.
NARRATOR: Words uttered
by legendary voice actor, Paul Frees,
also known as the voice
of Ludwig Von Drake.
You don't know.
(screams)
-NARRATOR: But now
-PAUL: I am your host. Your ghost-host.
-Oh, it's wild!
-(ghost laughs)
It's like, okay, everybody's in.
PAUL: There's no turning back now.
NARRATOR: Which is about when you realize
that you're not in a holding room at all.
Suddenly, the room starts stretching.
Oh, the picture's moving!
NARRATOR: Stretching, but also sinking
because you're actually standing
in one of two lifts
designed to take guests six feet under.
Or, you know, maybe it's further.
And to distract you from the fact
that you're just going down an elevator,
this optical illusion sprang
from the brilliance of Rolly and Yale,
then adapted by Marc Davis.
You know, the funny one.
Tell her about this thing here,
will you, Marc?
Oh, this is our, uh, elongating,
stretching room,
and also some stretching portraits.
NARRATOR: So, thanks to those portraits
and the ghost-host,
it's probably one point for funny, right?
(laughs)
We finally displayed the ghost-host
hanging by his neck.
NARRATOR: Ugh! Well, maybe not.
Lights go out with thunder,
and everybody screams.
That whole introductory experience
totally puts you in the mood for,
"What is the show is gonna be about?"
NARRATOR: Well, perhaps
what's at the bottom of that elevator
might offer further clues
as you walk down quite the moody hallway.
(thunder rumbles)
Hey, look at the picture of the man
on the horse.
NARRATOR:
Now, speaking of pictures on the wall,
the next mind-blowing moment
that'll have you asking
What is going on here?
Came from Daniel Joseph's favorite,
Yale Gracey.
A special effects designer
like Yale Gracey
would have all these heads,
these busts sitting around the lab.
DANIEL: And one day,
one of them was sitting in reverse,
and he walks past it
and notices, "That face is following me."
EJ: How do they do that?
And that's a perfect happenstance effect.
(ghost wails)
NARRATOR: Finally escaping the gaze
of Yale Gracey's accidental creations,
you realize that the ride part
of the attraction hasn't even begun.
Turns out you've just been in the line.
Haunted Mansion's experience in the queue
gives you that sense
of foreboding and anxiety
and anticipation for what
you're gonna experience on the ride.
NARRATOR: Speaking of which
Realizing the number of people
that would want to see
The Haunted Mansion
they decided to go
with a spectral carriage, so to speak.
NARRATOR: But guests won't be taking
the reins of this carriage.
PAUL: Do not pull down
on the safety bar, please.
I will lower it for you.
You're used to being the one in control.
Now the doom buggy's in control.
NARRATOR:
That's right, doom buggy, with an "M".
Affectionately known as "doom buggies".
NARRATOR: Well, affections aside,
these doom buggies
are engineering marvels.
You have multiple rails, designing the
different rotation of all the vehicles,
a lot of vehicles
that are all strung together
You have to drive all the vehicles
through a very large layout,
up and down hills.
NARRATOR: Up and down hills?
What sort of house had they built?
So it was extremely complicated.
NARRATOR: Well, in the same way
that New Orleans Square
isn't actually a square,
it turns out that The Haunted Mansion
isn't actually a mansion, either.
In fact, it's really
more of a haunted facade.
Because, aside from the stretching room
where the tour begins,
the attraction
isn't even inside this building.
You're actually travelling
through a tunnel
dug under the house,
under the railroad tracks,
outside of the park border,
and finally,
up into a massively, monstrous
mega-mansion!
And this is where
You head off into the mansion itself.
NARRATOR: Riding your doom buggy
deeper into the mansion,
it's worth noting that
for all the promises of ghosts,
at this point,
we haven't actually seen one.
So to conjure up
what we came for, we enter
The Séance Room.
LEOTA:
Awaken the spirits with your tambourine.
And in this crystal ball,
a lady's head appears.
Send us a message from somewhere beyond.
NARRATOR:
Not just any lady. This is Madame Leota.
Madame Leota is our resident medium
here at The Haunted Mansion.
NARRATOR: But also
a resident Imagineer named
Leota Toombs, a very important
designer here at The Mansion.
Goblins and ghoulies
from last Halloween
We had problems with filming it
because the head had
to be held very still.
XAVIER: And we finally fixed up
a brace for her.
In fact, we nailed her down
so she couldn't do anything
but do her incantations.
NARRATOR: But Leota Toombs
wasn't just an Imagineer
or a floating head.
She was also a mother
who raised another Imagineer.
When I go through there,
when my kids were little
and I'd say,
"There's Grandma. Wave to Grandma."
(Kim chuckles)
I'd hear people behind me go,
"What a weirdo, telling her kids
that Grandma's in The Haunted Mansion."
NARRATOR:
But Grandma was working overtime.
She's summoning the spirits.
NARRATOR: And you can't help but think
Oh, this makes me feel creepy all over!
that Walt's original vision
People like to be scared.
had won out, especially because
This is where we see
the ghosts for the first time.
NARRATOR: But not just one or two.
This is the grand ballroom,
home to a dozen ghosts!
Seeing real ghosts dancing
in the ballroom scene blew my mind.
NARRATOR: This incredible scene utilized
every state-of-the-art trick Disney
had at their disposal,
as well as a really old one.
Well, that was an old magician's technique
called "Pepper's Ghost."
-What do you see?
-An organ.
-WALT: Yes.
-JULIE: A ghost.
A ghost is playing, sure.
It was invented by a guy named Pepper
back in the 1800s.
NARRATOR:
And what John Henry Pepper invented
was a clever technique
to conjure spooks and specters
to the stage for live audiences.
If you've ever looked out of a window
and think you've seen something
outside the window
but it's actually a reflection
from the window
of something in the house,
that's how Pepper's Ghost can work.
So in The Haunted Mansion,
when you see those ghosts,
you're actually seeing a reflection
of real Animatronic dancers.
NARRATOR: A deceptively simple,
yet effective illusion.
But they wouldn't all be so easy.
As Yale Gracey would soon discover
while building the mansion
attic spotlight spook known as
-(laughs)
-the Hatbox Ghost,
who was brought to life
by an equally simple optical illusion.
At least, in theory.
When the light was turned off the face,
it would disappear.
And at the same time,
a light would shine on the inside
of this translucent hatbox.
VICTORIA: And it was, "Ooh, spooky ghost.
His face is on his head,
and then his face is in this box."
-NARRATOR: But
-It never quite worked.
NARRATOR:
Well, to be fair, it did at first.
The lighting conditions were different
between where they had tested it
and where it was installed.
And that difference in lighting condition
ruined the effect.
VICTORIA: You could see
both faces simultaneously.
NARRATOR:
And Imagineers were forced to face facts.
The perfectionist Yale Gracey was,
he really lobbied to have that taken out
because it didn't live up to his vision.
NARRATOR: And so, the Hatbox Ghost
was boxed up after less than a week.
And that adds to the mystery immensely.
NARRATOR: But had this beheaded boogeyman
truly been cast out for good?
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Only time will tell.
But before you can be cast out
of the attic space,
you'll come face to face
with the chilling bride.
Who is a black widow bride,
and we're trying to piece together
all these different husbands
who seem to be somehow losing their heads
in the portraits.
NARRATOR: And you might lose your head
when you learn that this betrothed banshee
is a remnant of a discarded mansion story
from the attraction's early days
of development.
And the story had to do with a bride
who, on her wedding day, was abandoned.
And became a ghost as a result of
NARRATOR:
Something too heinous to speak of!
(female ghost laughs)
NARRATOR: But lest this attic space
become too macabre,
it's at this point that
You leave the mansion and head outside.
NARRATOR: And that's when you get
the biggest shock of all
(screams)
as you're confronted
by a vast cemetery full of fun!
You'll see them all singing and dancing,
playing musical instruments,
engaging in games, riding on bikes.
NARRATOR: As the song
that's been spookily guiding us
through the attraction
cleverly morphs into one
of the catchiest tunes at Disneyland!
The musical score is a sweeping
version of "Grim Grinning Ghost"
that's orchestrated
in many different ways.
NARRATOR: An old-school Imagineer,
Xavier Atencio
Was the best Mickey Mouse artist
that ever worked for Disney Studios.
was relatively new to writing lyrics.
NARRATOR:
But after his successful sea shanty work
on Pirates of the Caribbean,
it was a songwriter's life for him!
Walt assigned him, late in the game,
to pen the words and lyrics
to accompany the music
of famed Disney composer Buddy Baker
for The Haunted Mansion theme.
Writing songs for rides like this,
you can't have a beginning and end.
Each stanza has to have its own meaning.
NARRATOR: And the meaning
of this part of the attraction,
well, that's pretty clear.
It is a full-fledged jamboree.
When the crypt doors creak
And the tombstones quake ♪
And there's these marble busts,
but they're singing to me.
NARRATOR: Another one
of Yale Gracey's special tricks
And they're certainly fan favorites.
the singing busts utilize
clever projection.
As the moon climbs high
o'er the dead oak tree ♪
NARRATOR: And as you stare
into the morbid face of a marble bust,
happily singing about death
Grim grinning ghosts
come out to socialize ♪
it becomes clear that your ride
is about to come to an end.
But before you can get off
your doom buggy,
you look and you see a ghost hitchhike
a ride with you along the way.
I think that made a very nice finish
for that attraction.
There was a ghost sitting on my lap.
I'm like, that is the funniest thing ever.
NARRATOR: It's about then you realize
The Haunted Mansion
has, like, two different vibes.
NARRATOR: Yeah, they just did both.
TOM: Claude had the first half.
NARRATOR:
Yeah, the scary half, and, yeah
TOM: Marc had the second half.
-NARRATOR: The funny half!
-(ghost laughs)
But they made
a beautiful attraction together.
That has helped make The Haunted Mansion
the classic attraction that it is today.
I wanna go again.
NARRATOR:
Word quickly spread about the pristine,
white-columned house in Anaheim.
And it meant that Disney was now firmly
in The Haunted Mansion building business.
And this ghoulish construction venture
quickly expanded eastward,
as Walt Disney World in Florida
planned to open its gates,
along with its own Haunted Mansion,
just two years after Anaheim.
Even though it opened
in 1969 here at Disneyland,
it was about to open in 1971
at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
So Imagineers actually
built two of everything.
Grim grinning ghosts
come out to socialize ♪
NARRATOR: In an almost Pepper's Ghost
reflection of itself
They built duplicates
of all the showpieces
as they were going through the shops
and stored in a warehouse.
this clever planning ensured
that the Florida ghosts could take up
residence inside their mansion
as soon as it was ready.
NARRATOR: But when it came to the outside?
Well, that's where the Imagineers
stopped seeing double.
'Cause we didn't have
a New Orleans Square.
We had Liberty Square.
NARRATOR:
So, to better reflect the location
We were solidly placed
on the Eastern Seaboard.
and time period, they went with
Hudson River Dutch Gothic mansion
sitting up on the hill,
playing into all the ghost stories
that that thing provided for us.
NARRATOR: And they had plans to take
this Haunted Mansion to the next level,
from a practical point of view at least.
Because of the water table here
in Florida,
everything is sitting up higher.
NARRATOR:
Oh, well, no Stretch Room required.
The Stretch Room was so popular out there,
they wanted to replicate that here, so
hence, we still have a Stretch Room,
but it stretches up,
instead of pulling us down.
NARRATOR: Along with several other
relatively subtle differences,
The Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World
was also a screaming success.
And throughout the '70s,
the attraction was becoming
It was one of those sacred shows,
you just don't change it that much.
NARRATOR: Well, the same can't be said
for the decades.
In the early '80s,
plans for Tokyo Disneyland emerged.
And with it, new opportunities
to update Haunted Mansion or not.
The Haunted Mansion in Tokyo
is a lift of Walt Disney World's
Haunted Mansion.
The only difference is that
it's in a different land.
-NARRATOR: Which is understandable.
-(screams)
With Tokyo Disneyland not having
a New Orleans Square like Anaheim
or a Liberty Square like Florida,
it made perfect sense
to put their Haunted Mansion in
Fantasyland.
Right next to Small World.
(laughs)
DANIEL JUE:
And right in the front of Dumbo.
So it fit well in that location
is the only reason
why I think it would go there.
DAVE: Each one is different.
You have to think about where it's going
and how it needs to be tweaked.
NARRATOR: Well, when Disneyland Paris
opened as Eurodisney Resort in 1992,
even more tweaking was necessary.
But this time
The French and the Europeans, you know,
they're used to walking around Paris
and seeing all those rich, rich, rich
detail and history.
NARRATOR: And let's be honest,
it's hard to compete with the catacombs.
That's a wall made out of human bones,
in case you're wondering.
Which Disneyland Paris cast member
Pascale Kaced
doesn't find shocking in the least,
because
(in French)
NARRATOR: Ah! Rolly was right!
People like to be scared.
NARRATOR: Especially the French, it seems!
(woman shrieks)
NARRATOR: And clearly,
The Mansion's funny-slash-scary combo
wasn't going to cut it this time.
But, in a surprising twist
-Hey
-GREG: We certainly thought that
the French audience
would really appreciate
experiencing the Wild West environment
that they really don't get exposed to.
So they put it in Frontierland.
NARRATOR:
Frontierland? Well, that might work.
All of Frontierland is a gold rush town.
GARY: And so, the mansion
is the estate of the gold baron
that has fallen into disrepair.
NARRATOR: Disrepair?
Our Haunted Mansion is the
only one that looks abandoned.
NARRATOR: But what would Walt say?
MAN: It should be neat and clean.
Well, because we're in Frontierland,
it could be abandoned
because that went really well
with the story.
NARRATOR: All right. Fair enough.
It's really a terrific twist.
There was this great earthquake
that happened.
GREG: And in the earthquake,
both the proprietor
and his wife passed away.
NARRATOR:
And did a fresh take on an old favorite
from both Anaheim and Florida.
The daughter who was going to
become married soon was left
to roam the halls of the manor,
bemoaning the loss of her parents.
She, too, eventually passes away
and continues to haunt the home
to this day.
NARRATOR:
Sounds potentially terrifying! Is it?
(in French)
NARRATOR:
And that is how the West was won!
Western Europe anyway.
LANNY: A lot of our work as Imagineers
is to keep the legends,
don't destroy the lore, but make it
better in many ways, clearer, brighter.
NARRATOR: And, obviously,
relevant for the specific park.
And that that's a challenge.
NARRATOR:
A challenge they faced yet again in 2010
when construction began
on a haunted attraction
for Hong Kong Disneyland.
The Western notion of ghosts
and how they're portrayed is different.
So a completely different storyline
was written.
NARRATOR:
About a haunted manor with no ghosts.
This is Mystic Manor.
We have the storyline of Lord Mystic,
who's created this manor house,
um, to house his collection of artifacts.
Hello, there.
NARRATOR:
But mostly, it's about a cheeky monkey.
ERIC: We have been warned
not to touch Pandora's box.
And of course, Albert the monkey
opens the box
and that's really
where the attraction, uh, takes off.
NARRATOR: But you're not taking off
in a doom buggy this time.
GREG:
That ride system is a free-range vehicle.
And you're in a scene, moving around
in ways that you don't even know
which direction you're gonna go next.
ALEX: With the trackless system,
it gives the design team
lots of flexibility.
NARRATOR:
Now, as for that design team, well,
they faced many challenges
for this new attraction.
The trickiest among them
-The music dust.
-NARRATOR: Yeah, music dust
Comes out of the box and it starts
affecting everything that it touches
as you travel through the museum.
NARRATOR: Gee, that sounds complicated.
That is a tough ask.
And we worked for about a year
to figure out a way
to do magical floating dust
that flies around a room.
I think what we came up with,
and what the team came up with,
is is pretty amazing.
NARRATOR: So that's the "dust" part
of "musical dust" figured out.
As for the "music" part?
They went to someone
whose talents are renowned
-far and wide.
-far and wide.
NARRATOR: Danny Elfman
who, among many other things,
wrote the music and lyrics
for Tim Burton's
The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Going to Disneyland, The Haunted Mansion
was my favorite ride.
So being asked to participate
in something like this that could become,
uh, iconic for several generations,
I couldn't imagine not wanting to do it.
Hearing that Danny Elfman
was going to do the soundtrack,
uh, I was very excited about that.
NARRATOR:
Well, if you're excited about that
you should see how both Anaheim
and Tokyo Haunted Mansions
celebrate the magic of the holiday season.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay,
it's really one of the most
popular attractions that we do.
GREG: We had to put FastPass machines
in Japan for Haunted Mansion
because they were having waits
of up to four hours long
because of this enhancement
that we would do
during the Halloween
and Christmas seasons.
NARRATOR: The Haunted Mansion
is an iconic Disneyland attraction,
and "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
overlay is incredibly popular.
But there’s an understanding, and that is,
come January, the Christmas decorations
go back in the cupboard
and random storage boxes.
MAN 4: Out! Let me out of here!
NARRATOR: And the house is returned
to normal for another year because
If they're classic and still effective,
there's no reason at all to update it.
NARRATOR: An idea that, in many ways,
goes against the very promise Walt made
when Disneyland first opened.
There will always be something
new and unusual.
NARRATOR:
And it left today's Imagineers wondering,
what would the greats have done?
How would Yale Gracey update
his illusions for today?
Or, as Walt would say, "Plussed it up."
NARRATOR: Would he improve things?
Create new things?
Wouldn't it be wonderful
if a disembodied Madame Leota
could fly around the Séance Room
in ways that just baffle guests?
You come into the scene,
you go all the way around her.
DANIEL: There's no chance for you to say,
"Well, obviously, they did it this way,
'cause this was hidden."
No, we show you every single thing
that's up our sleeve.
NARRATOR: Or perhaps, finally fix things
that never really quite worked
in the first place.
I kind of had the eureka moment.
NARRATOR:
Daniel Joseph's golden idea was
Bringing back the Hatbox Ghost
to The Haunted Mansion in Anaheim.
NARRATOR: Good idea!
The Hatbox Ghost was something
that I loved since I was, like, ten.
NARRATOR: It was a project Daniel Joseph
seemed destined to complete,
and the funny thing was, he already had
in his spare time!
I built a mock-up prototype
of this thing in my garage.
NARRATOR: Just for fun.
I do it after work.
Sometimes I do it at lunch.
NARRATOR: With the utmost respect
for his idol, Yale Gracey,
Daniel Joseph tinkered.
I took his original design
and concept of how to do it
and pitched it to people
in the office up in Imagineering.
NARRATOR: And so, with
Utmost secrecy
We got moved to this very dark room.
NARRATOR: And under the expert eye
of Daniel Joseph
"Now, watch this."
VICTORIA: Even though I knew
how the mechanism was supposed to work
(laughs)
it completely blew me away.
NARRATOR: Thanks to the admiration
and dedication of Daniel Joseph
Daniel Joseph is a wizard.
the Hatbox Ghost's status
as the great, unfinished work
of the master Imagineer Yale Gracey
was now complete.
Daniel understands
the simplicity of things
and how simple effects are created,
and I know his mentor/idol, Yale Gracey
was of the same meld.
NARRATOR: In a passing of the torch,
or perhaps moving of the head
Daniel Joseph now continues the work
of the great, enigmatic man.
DANIEL: Yale Gracey, I feel like,
is as much of a myth
within the Walt Disney Company,
almost, as the Hatbox Ghost
because he was a man of few words,
uh, extremely humble and passed away
at a very young age.
NARRATOR: We'll never know
what Yale himself would've thought, but
I think Yale, I'd like to say,
he would dig it.
NARRATOR: Well, Daniel Joseph,
hats off to you.
And to all the Imagineers
who played their part in coming together
to create one of the greatest
theme park attractions of all time.
The Haunted Mansion is amazing
for the attraction that it is,
given the number of hands
that were competing
for creative leadership on it.
NARRATOR: Yale Gracey
If you take all the illusions
out of The Haunted Mansion
that Yale designed,
it'd be dead as a post.
NARRATOR: Xavier Atencio
All the credit for the success
of the Haunted Mansion,
story-wise, should go to X.
NARRATOR: Marc Davis
So many of his amazing gags
are seen throughout The Mansion.
and his creative opposite,
Claude Coats.
ORLANDO: Claude was a great artist.
He was very opinionated.
He knew what he had to do,
but he would always listen.
He was amazing.
NARRATOR: And of course,
the prankster himself, Rolly Crump.
Rolly Crump is definitely a fan favorite.
Roland.
He gave us that twisted vibe
for The Haunted Mansion.
When you see a Rolly Crump drawing,
you know that it's a Rolly Crump drawing.
We're gonna have man-eating plants
and we're gonna have a coffin clock here
that we're working on right now.
Museum of the Weird.
NARRATOR: And although Rolly's Museum
of the Weird never actually happened
His style was able
to contribute to that
that weird vibe of The Haunted Mansion.
YOUNG ROLLY: These are just things
I collected from all over the world.
Just the weirdest things we could find.
He was Tim Burton before Tim Burton,
if you will.
NARRATOR: Rolly's unique perspective
led to a long career
as one of the premiere theme park
attraction artists in the world.
DORIS: He was such a great boss,
because if I would be off track,
he wouldn't say, "Well, that was dumb."
He would just say, "Oh, okay,
I didn't think of it that way."
Because I think Walt did that for him,
so he kind of passed that on.
We were a family. And after Walt
had passed away, his brother, Roy,
who I had never met,
came up to me, he said,
"Are you Rolly Crump?"
And I said, "Yes, I am."
He said, "I want you to know
my brother used to talk about you."
That's a part you know. It's hard.
(whimpers)
That's what kind of a guy he was.
He was a sweetheart.
We're also collecting real ghosts
to bring in here.
You believe in ghosts, don't you, Julie?
NARRATOR: As one of the first
major attractions completed
after Walt's death,
the success that these Imagineers
had proved that Disneyland could endure
with Walt's vision at its heart,
-whether it was
-Funny.
-or
-Scary.
I'm not scared. I'm not scared.
(screams)
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Whatever word best describes
Haunted Mansion for you
Dark and sinister.
The funniest thing ever.
NARRATOR: Yep, all those things!
There is no doubt that,
either through sheer luck
or a team of individuals
at the top of their game
It's pretty hard to look at an old movie
from 50 years ago and say,
"I don't know how they did that."
DANIEL: That's what The Mansion
is still doing today.
NARRATOR:
And this Imagineering masterpiece
has been not just a fan favorite,
but an inspiration to all those
who know what's behind the curtain.
And when I'm down at any of our parks,
if I have a break,
I wanna go to Haunted Mansion
and ride Haunted Mansion.
I still love it.
It's still just as magical
as the first time I rode it. I love it.
NARRATOR: Be it the original
or any of the mansions around the world,
The Haunted Mansion is,
without question
It's magic.
GHOST: Beware of hitchhiking ghosts.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: And maybe magic is exactly
how Walt wanted it in the first place.
(laughs)
(spooky music)
(in Spanish)
Please remain seated.
(lively music)
(elephants trumpeting)
MAN: The love of liberty.
(moans)
(screaming)
MAN 2: KU-6908.
-PAUL: Well, then, let's do this.
-MAN 3: Yeah.
PAUL: You want me to do it
very breathy like that?
-MAN 3: Oh, yeah.
-PAUL: All right.
PAUL: Whenever candle lights flicker,
where the air is deathly still,
that is the time when ghosts are present,
practicing their terror
with ghoulish delight.
(thunder rumbles)
Welcome, foolish mortal
to The Haunted Mansion.
(screams)
NARRATOR: The Haunted Mansion.
One of the world's most beloved
theme park attractions.
Now can I go see The Haunted Mansion?
Packed to the rafters
with world-class illusions,
this house of horrors
has become a timeless classic.
I remember it as a child.
I don't want it to change.
The Haunted Mansion
has changed over the years.
Don't change it.
NARRATOR: Reincarnated at Disney Parks
all around the world.
-In Tokyo
-Paris.
-Hong Kong.
-NARRATOR: Known as
-Mystic Manor.
-Or
Phantom Manor.
NARRATOR: This iconic attraction
has been scaring
the daylights out of guests
(shrieks)
for over 50 years!
-They're all just hilarious.
-NARRATOR: Hilarious?
That's not
what the mansion's supposed to be.
-The mansion's supposed to be
-(screams)
-Scary.
-It could be scary. It could just be
-Foreboding
-But also
Fantastical, but
-It's really quite
-Comical.
-NARRATOR: Even
-Dare we say it Funny.
-Funny?
-Really not all that funny.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: But the real story
of the darkest of Disney's dark rides,
well, the truth
about that might scare you!
(laughs)
And if not the truth?
Then Walt's earlier work probably will.
(laughs)
Walt did mention one day,
he said, "People like to be scared."
NARRATOR: In fact,
much of Walt's work had a dark side.
Even back to "The Skeleton Dance" in 1929.
Well, it was all very crude and primitive.
NARRATOR: Look at 1940's Fantasia.
So when the idea of a theme park came
to Walt, it only made sense that
He always wanted a haunted mansion.
It was in his ideas
from the very beginning.
NARRATOR: But these early ideas,
conceptually at least,
are a pretty long walk
from where The Haunted Mansion ended up.
This was gonna be a walking attraction
in which people would be walking through
the rooms and experiencing it.
NARRATOR: Whatever it was
They couldn't quite get a grip
on what to do with The Haunted Mansion.
So Walt has the animators just do sketches
of what what a haunted mansion
should have in it.
NARRATOR: And it was soon revealed
They were really basically
little cartoons.
That's not what
the mansion's supposed to be.
The mansion's supposed to be scary.
NARRATOR: Well, yeah, didn't Walt say
"People like to be scared."
NARRATOR: But on the other hand,
Walt did admit to one of his
most trusted Imagineers, John Hench
You could have a friendly feeling
about ghosts
if we made such that they were
like retired actors from the stage.
They loved an audience.
NARRATOR: Well, this slight indecision
wouldn't stop them,
because when Disneyland opened
on July 17th, 1955
Welcome.
it wasn't funny or scary,
because there was no Haunted Mansion.
And so, Walt dispatched lead
scary character designer Ken Anderson.
Ken Anderson actually designed some
of the the early concepts
for the attraction.
NARRATOR: Starting with the outside.
Using these Southern
architectural designs as inspiration,
all Ken had to do was just
add a few cobwebs, some broken windows,
a few spiders,
and, just generally, haunted things.
We wanted this haunted house
to be kind of ruined.
JOHN: Shutters would be crooked.
It would be some
kind of house disintegrating.
NARRATOR: But
Walt said, "No."
NARRATOR: Because for as much
as Walt wanted a haunted house
He really wanted The Haunted Mansion
to be as clean
and well-kept as the rest of his park.
NARRATOR: So, instead of the grimy
ghost trains of 1960s carnivals
Walt's vision was that he wanted
the exterior of the mansion
to be pristine,
and the interior
is what would be dilapidated.
And he said, you know,
"We'll take care of the outside
and we'll let the ghosts
take care of the inside."
NARRATOR:
That's all well and good. However
Nothing had been designed
to be inside of it.
So, dusting off the cobwebs,
Walt turned to another Imagineer
for his take.
DANIEL: Yale Gracey worked
at Walt Disney Animation.
And eventually, he was a member
of the Magic Castle in Hollywood,
so he did stage performance magic,
but had never done theme park magic.
-NARRATOR: Who had?
-Nobody had ever done theme park magic.
NARRATOR: Well, there's no hiding
Daniel Joseph's admiration
for this master magician.
Yale Gracey, for me,
was my Michael Jordan.
I mean, I had pictures of Yale Gracey
on the wall,
growing up in my little
bedroom in Delaware.
NARRATOR: But this pinup heartthrob
was already taken.
He was partnered up with Rolly Crump.
NARRATOR: Who has a few fans of his own.
I love Rolly Crump. He's such a great guy.
VANESSA: He designed
the Tower of the Four Winds
at the 1964-'65 New York World's Fair.
-How tall is the real tower, Rolly?
-It's 120 feet.
NARRATOR: But this was a job Rolly knew
he was destined for
ever since he wasn't very tall at all.
I always wanted to work for Disney
from the time I was three,
'cause the first film I saw
was the Three Little Pigs.
ROLLY: I told my mom at the time,
"I wanna work for Disney."
She said, "Well, someday maybe you will."
NARRATOR:
Like most mothers, she wasn't wrong.
My first film was Peter Pan
and then the Lady and the Tramp.
ROLLY: So, that's what I did.
I just worked in animation.
NARRATOR: Rolly did rack up
an impressive credits list,
along with a bit of a reputation
that followed him his whole career.
Rolly, ended up becoming my boss.
He was wild. I mean, he was a wild guy.
NARRATOR: And so, for the wild Rolly
and magical Yale,
Walt's instructions were simple.
Walt just wanted a lot of good ideas.
NARRATOR: And so, the two got to work,
conjuring up things
for Walt's Haunted Mansion.
Yale and I had this big room
filled with weird, scary stuff.
Well, we got a call
from Personnel one day,
and they said, um
ROLLY: "The janitors would like to have
you leave the lights on in that room."
Maybe 'cause when
we turned the lights out,
it was pretty spooky,
'cause a lot of stuff was lit
-with black light.
-(woman shrieks)
Which meant it glowed in the dark.
And so, Yale and I said,
"Oh, okay, uh, if that's the case,
uh, we'll do a little something here."
We rigged the whole room.
And we had the whole thing
on a little timer.
We triggered everything
to take off during the night.
-(bell dings)
-(disembodied voices)
We came back the next day.
Personnel called us the next day and said,
"They're never coming back.
You're gonna have to clean up
your room yourself."
NARRATOR: Flying in the face
of Walt's one clear instruction
The Haunted Mansion should be as clean
and well-kept as the rest of his park.
NARRATOR: Rolly and Yale continued
to develop ideas amidst
the squalor of youthful creativity.
And we were having a great time.
(applause)
NARRATOR: And so was the entire
Disney staff from the looks of it,
because construction work
finally began on Walt's long-sought-after
house of ghosts.
And then the World's Fair came along.
NARRATOR: Ah, yes, the World's Fair.
An immensely important phase
in Disneyland's development,
but also one that would absorb years
of Walt and the Imagineers' time.
As a result, work on The Haunted Mansion
project expired.
For many years, The
The Haunted Mansion, lay dormant here.
(laughs)
The gates were closed.
Guests were wondering,
"Why can't we go in?"
And so, a sign was placed out front.
NARRATOR: A sign of what was to come
for the story of this apparitious abode.
Walt talked about wanting
to build a retirement home
for all these 999 happy ghosts and haunts.
GARY: And so, of course, Disney legend
Marty Sklar had taken his cue from Walt
and written a plaque that spoke to it
being a retirement home
and that guests could apply
to Ghost Relations in order to stay there.
NARRATOR:
There weren't too many takers for that.
But what Disney failed to gain
in ghostly reservations in Anaheim
was more than made up for
for the experience gleaned in New York.
We learned so much at the World's Fair
in terms of new means
of entertaining our guests
through Audio-Animatronics
and the ride systems that came out
of the research and development
of the World's Fair.
NARRATOR: And with this new knowledge,
work began in earnest on a brand-new area
of Disneyland called
WALT: New Orleans Square.
New Orleans Square is not a square.
NARRATOR: Right. But still!
The flagship attraction
for this New Orleans
It it's sort of a trapezoid.
would finally be
the Pirates of the Caribbean?
(laughs)
We moved ahead with the pirates.
Everyone was really
all hepped-up on doing that.
NARRATOR: As well as being
a treasure chest of World's Fair wizardry
unlike Haunted Mansion,
Pirates had a clear artistic direction.
We've always been partial
to pirate stories.
NARRATOR: They still didn't even know
if The Haunted Mansion
was meant to be funny or scary.
The show never was to a point
where I think he was comfortable
with with going ahead with it.
NARRATOR: So for Walt,
Pirates of the Caribbean
became the priority.
And for the empty Haunted Mansion,
that ship had sailed.
Or, you know, ran on a shallow track.
But not for long,
because that empty house over there
was getting a little awkward.
I grew up in the '60s,
so I was one of those kids drooling
at the gate like, "When are when are
they gonna open this thing up?"
And then all the rumors.
"A lady fell in a pit."
"There was a snake pit." Blah, blah, blah.
NARRATOR: Blah, blah, nah.
I always wondered about that.
NARRATOR: But there was
really nothing mysterious afoot.
Rather, Walt wanted to make sure Pirates
was well on its way
before focusing efforts on The Mansion.
And once it became clear
that the Pirates project
was coming to a head
Walt was ready to plunge headlong
into The Mansion.
By plundering legendary
Imagineer Marc Davis
away from working
on Pirates of the Caribbean,
which he lovingly referred to as
The, uh, pirate ride,
which came along there somewhere.
NARRATOR: Well, that was
a pretty clear signal from Walt
that he was leaning more toward taking
The Mansion in a humorous direction,
because while Marc had made
a name for himself
as a master animator
on many of Disney's classic films,
he particularly excelled
at one specific aspect of his craft.
He was known
as the great gag man within animation.
NARRATOR: And they could use the help,
because
We didn't know whether you were
gonna ride through this thing,
walk through it, or what.
with the confidence and proven
track record of Marc Davis
And we did some paintings,
and they were quite fantastic.
now things should be easy,
except for the fact that there were now
Two art directors on Haunted Mansion.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Yeah, one small detail.
It would appear Walt hired Marc's
fellow Imagineer Claude Coats
to share the art director post
on Haunted Mansion, because
Walt knew he mainly got his best results
when he put opposites together.
Claude Coats was more of a theatrical
set designer, if you will.
Claude Coats was a straight arrow.
Straight arrow.
NARRATOR: So, kind of like
the opposite of Marc, then.
But from an equally
prestigious background and reputation.
Claude was a beautiful background artist.
If you look at Pinocchio
and the beautiful street scenes
He was amazing.
Good architect, good designer.
Walt would use him In my eyes
when he saw one of his attractions
starting to fall behind.
NARRATOR: While The Mansion
wasn't quite running behind just yet
"When are they gonna open this thing up?"
it hadn't exactly
hit its stride, either.
So, we have on one side Marc Davis saying,
"I want this funny,
gag-driven haunted house.
These are happy haunts that live here."
DANIEL: And then on the other side,
you have Claude Coats who's saying,
"You should go in and feel
the hot and cold running chills
-(thunder rumbles)
-as you go through this mansion."
So with that, as in any
creative organization, there's tension.
NARRATOR:
Thankfully, there was nothing but harmony.
And mischief shared
between Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump.
And so, I had started
doing sketches of all my scary stuff.
NARRATOR: Because after all,
Walt had said
"People like to be scared."
NARRATOR: But he had also said
He wanted it to go funny.
NARRATOR: So what did Walt want?
It was time to find out.
"Okay, we're gonna have
a meeting with Walt.
Everybody bring their sketches down
and their models."
Then everybody didn't like the idea
that I was doing things that were scary.
In fact, they didn't like that what
anything I was doing.
NARRATOR: So much so that Rolly's stuff
was strategically placed
behind Walt for the meeting.
And they did it on purpose
so he wouldn't see it.
And all of a sudden, he says,
"What is that stuff?"
And they said,
"Well, that's some stuff Rolly did."
And he says,
"Well, what is it that Rolly did?"
And I said, "Well, I just feel
that we need some scary stuff in there."
NARRATOR: The janitors probably disagree.
And so the next morning,
I came to work at seven o'clock.
Walt's sitting in my chair.
And the first thing he said to me was,
-"You son of a"
-(woman shrieks)
And I thought, "Oh, my God."
He says, "I didn't get an ounce
of sleep last night
because what you showed me yesterday
kept me up all night long."
And I said, "Oh, God, I'm sorry."
He says, "No, no.
I know what you're gonna do
with your art. "
I says, "You do?" He says, "Yeah."
He said, "We're gonna do
a Museum of the Weird.
And you can do
all the weirdest stuff you wanna do
and put it in the museum."
Oh, I said, "Oh, God, that was easy."
NARRATOR: But things were about
to get a little bit harder.
Walt Disney never lived
to see The Hunted Mansion completed.
NARRATOR: The impact of losing
their leader was vast,
and the reality of a Walt-less Disneyland
was upon them.
They had lost their leader,
they were a bit directionless,
but they still had to buck up
and get these things done.
NARRATOR: That, they could agree on.
But that was about it.
It didn't really have its final direction
when he passed away.
So that's where it kind of
accelerate this
kind of pitched battle, if you will,
between the forces
of fun and lighthearted
-NARRATOR: or
-dark and sinister.
NARRATOR: So with two teams tasked
with making one attraction
These guys are fighting amongst themselves
and trying to figure out, you know,
what direction it should go in.
NARRATOR:Well, with the opening day
fast approaching,
the gates of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion
would finally swing open,
revealing more than ten years of work
by dozens of Imagineers,
promising 999 ghosts,
with just a few outstanding questions.
Did Claude make it scary?
Or did Marc make it funny?
Did Rolly contribute enough weirdness?
What's inside that mansion?
NARRATOR: Let's find out, shall we?
1969, The Haunted Mansion
finally opened its gates.
TOM: It was one of Disneyland's
highest attendance days ever.
Obviously, with all those years
of waiting
Now can I go see The Haunted Mansion?
NARRATOR: By all means, Donny!
KURT: Come on, the line's moving.
NARRATOR:
And whether you were visiting alongside
The Osmonds and Kurt Russell
in this 1970 TV special,
or visiting today,
as you enter the mansion,
your mood will change
as you stand inside a holding room
and hear the immortal words
PAUL: Welcome, foolish mortals,
to The Haunted Mansion.
NARRATOR: Words uttered
by legendary voice actor, Paul Frees,
also known as the voice
of Ludwig Von Drake.
You don't know.
(screams)
-NARRATOR: But now
-PAUL: I am your host. Your ghost-host.
-Oh, it's wild!
-(ghost laughs)
It's like, okay, everybody's in.
PAUL: There's no turning back now.
NARRATOR: Which is about when you realize
that you're not in a holding room at all.
Suddenly, the room starts stretching.
Oh, the picture's moving!
NARRATOR: Stretching, but also sinking
because you're actually standing
in one of two lifts
designed to take guests six feet under.
Or, you know, maybe it's further.
And to distract you from the fact
that you're just going down an elevator,
this optical illusion sprang
from the brilliance of Rolly and Yale,
then adapted by Marc Davis.
You know, the funny one.
Tell her about this thing here,
will you, Marc?
Oh, this is our, uh, elongating,
stretching room,
and also some stretching portraits.
NARRATOR: So, thanks to those portraits
and the ghost-host,
it's probably one point for funny, right?
(laughs)
We finally displayed the ghost-host
hanging by his neck.
NARRATOR: Ugh! Well, maybe not.
Lights go out with thunder,
and everybody screams.
That whole introductory experience
totally puts you in the mood for,
"What is the show is gonna be about?"
NARRATOR: Well, perhaps
what's at the bottom of that elevator
might offer further clues
as you walk down quite the moody hallway.
(thunder rumbles)
Hey, look at the picture of the man
on the horse.
NARRATOR:
Now, speaking of pictures on the wall,
the next mind-blowing moment
that'll have you asking
What is going on here?
Came from Daniel Joseph's favorite,
Yale Gracey.
A special effects designer
like Yale Gracey
would have all these heads,
these busts sitting around the lab.
DANIEL: And one day,
one of them was sitting in reverse,
and he walks past it
and notices, "That face is following me."
EJ: How do they do that?
And that's a perfect happenstance effect.
(ghost wails)
NARRATOR: Finally escaping the gaze
of Yale Gracey's accidental creations,
you realize that the ride part
of the attraction hasn't even begun.
Turns out you've just been in the line.
Haunted Mansion's experience in the queue
gives you that sense
of foreboding and anxiety
and anticipation for what
you're gonna experience on the ride.
NARRATOR: Speaking of which
Realizing the number of people
that would want to see
The Haunted Mansion
they decided to go
with a spectral carriage, so to speak.
NARRATOR: But guests won't be taking
the reins of this carriage.
PAUL: Do not pull down
on the safety bar, please.
I will lower it for you.
You're used to being the one in control.
Now the doom buggy's in control.
NARRATOR:
That's right, doom buggy, with an "M".
Affectionately known as "doom buggies".
NARRATOR: Well, affections aside,
these doom buggies
are engineering marvels.
You have multiple rails, designing the
different rotation of all the vehicles,
a lot of vehicles
that are all strung together
You have to drive all the vehicles
through a very large layout,
up and down hills.
NARRATOR: Up and down hills?
What sort of house had they built?
So it was extremely complicated.
NARRATOR: Well, in the same way
that New Orleans Square
isn't actually a square,
it turns out that The Haunted Mansion
isn't actually a mansion, either.
In fact, it's really
more of a haunted facade.
Because, aside from the stretching room
where the tour begins,
the attraction
isn't even inside this building.
You're actually travelling
through a tunnel
dug under the house,
under the railroad tracks,
outside of the park border,
and finally,
up into a massively, monstrous
mega-mansion!
And this is where
You head off into the mansion itself.
NARRATOR: Riding your doom buggy
deeper into the mansion,
it's worth noting that
for all the promises of ghosts,
at this point,
we haven't actually seen one.
So to conjure up
what we came for, we enter
The Séance Room.
LEOTA:
Awaken the spirits with your tambourine.
And in this crystal ball,
a lady's head appears.
Send us a message from somewhere beyond.
NARRATOR:
Not just any lady. This is Madame Leota.
Madame Leota is our resident medium
here at The Haunted Mansion.
NARRATOR: But also
a resident Imagineer named
Leota Toombs, a very important
designer here at The Mansion.
Goblins and ghoulies
from last Halloween
We had problems with filming it
because the head had
to be held very still.
XAVIER: And we finally fixed up
a brace for her.
In fact, we nailed her down
so she couldn't do anything
but do her incantations.
NARRATOR: But Leota Toombs
wasn't just an Imagineer
or a floating head.
She was also a mother
who raised another Imagineer.
When I go through there,
when my kids were little
and I'd say,
"There's Grandma. Wave to Grandma."
(Kim chuckles)
I'd hear people behind me go,
"What a weirdo, telling her kids
that Grandma's in The Haunted Mansion."
NARRATOR:
But Grandma was working overtime.
She's summoning the spirits.
NARRATOR: And you can't help but think
Oh, this makes me feel creepy all over!
that Walt's original vision
People like to be scared.
had won out, especially because
This is where we see
the ghosts for the first time.
NARRATOR: But not just one or two.
This is the grand ballroom,
home to a dozen ghosts!
Seeing real ghosts dancing
in the ballroom scene blew my mind.
NARRATOR: This incredible scene utilized
every state-of-the-art trick Disney
had at their disposal,
as well as a really old one.
Well, that was an old magician's technique
called "Pepper's Ghost."
-What do you see?
-An organ.
-WALT: Yes.
-JULIE: A ghost.
A ghost is playing, sure.
It was invented by a guy named Pepper
back in the 1800s.
NARRATOR:
And what John Henry Pepper invented
was a clever technique
to conjure spooks and specters
to the stage for live audiences.
If you've ever looked out of a window
and think you've seen something
outside the window
but it's actually a reflection
from the window
of something in the house,
that's how Pepper's Ghost can work.
So in The Haunted Mansion,
when you see those ghosts,
you're actually seeing a reflection
of real Animatronic dancers.
NARRATOR: A deceptively simple,
yet effective illusion.
But they wouldn't all be so easy.
As Yale Gracey would soon discover
while building the mansion
attic spotlight spook known as
-(laughs)
-the Hatbox Ghost,
who was brought to life
by an equally simple optical illusion.
At least, in theory.
When the light was turned off the face,
it would disappear.
And at the same time,
a light would shine on the inside
of this translucent hatbox.
VICTORIA: And it was, "Ooh, spooky ghost.
His face is on his head,
and then his face is in this box."
-NARRATOR: But
-It never quite worked.
NARRATOR:
Well, to be fair, it did at first.
The lighting conditions were different
between where they had tested it
and where it was installed.
And that difference in lighting condition
ruined the effect.
VICTORIA: You could see
both faces simultaneously.
NARRATOR:
And Imagineers were forced to face facts.
The perfectionist Yale Gracey was,
he really lobbied to have that taken out
because it didn't live up to his vision.
NARRATOR: And so, the Hatbox Ghost
was boxed up after less than a week.
And that adds to the mystery immensely.
NARRATOR: But had this beheaded boogeyman
truly been cast out for good?
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Only time will tell.
But before you can be cast out
of the attic space,
you'll come face to face
with the chilling bride.
Who is a black widow bride,
and we're trying to piece together
all these different husbands
who seem to be somehow losing their heads
in the portraits.
NARRATOR: And you might lose your head
when you learn that this betrothed banshee
is a remnant of a discarded mansion story
from the attraction's early days
of development.
And the story had to do with a bride
who, on her wedding day, was abandoned.
And became a ghost as a result of
NARRATOR:
Something too heinous to speak of!
(female ghost laughs)
NARRATOR: But lest this attic space
become too macabre,
it's at this point that
You leave the mansion and head outside.
NARRATOR: And that's when you get
the biggest shock of all
(screams)
as you're confronted
by a vast cemetery full of fun!
You'll see them all singing and dancing,
playing musical instruments,
engaging in games, riding on bikes.
NARRATOR: As the song
that's been spookily guiding us
through the attraction
cleverly morphs into one
of the catchiest tunes at Disneyland!
The musical score is a sweeping
version of "Grim Grinning Ghost"
that's orchestrated
in many different ways.
NARRATOR: An old-school Imagineer,
Xavier Atencio
Was the best Mickey Mouse artist
that ever worked for Disney Studios.
was relatively new to writing lyrics.
NARRATOR:
But after his successful sea shanty work
on Pirates of the Caribbean,
it was a songwriter's life for him!
Walt assigned him, late in the game,
to pen the words and lyrics
to accompany the music
of famed Disney composer Buddy Baker
for The Haunted Mansion theme.
Writing songs for rides like this,
you can't have a beginning and end.
Each stanza has to have its own meaning.
NARRATOR: And the meaning
of this part of the attraction,
well, that's pretty clear.
It is a full-fledged jamboree.
When the crypt doors creak
And the tombstones quake ♪
And there's these marble busts,
but they're singing to me.
NARRATOR: Another one
of Yale Gracey's special tricks
And they're certainly fan favorites.
the singing busts utilize
clever projection.
As the moon climbs high
o'er the dead oak tree ♪
NARRATOR: And as you stare
into the morbid face of a marble bust,
happily singing about death
Grim grinning ghosts
come out to socialize ♪
it becomes clear that your ride
is about to come to an end.
But before you can get off
your doom buggy,
you look and you see a ghost hitchhike
a ride with you along the way.
I think that made a very nice finish
for that attraction.
There was a ghost sitting on my lap.
I'm like, that is the funniest thing ever.
NARRATOR: It's about then you realize
The Haunted Mansion
has, like, two different vibes.
NARRATOR: Yeah, they just did both.
TOM: Claude had the first half.
NARRATOR:
Yeah, the scary half, and, yeah
TOM: Marc had the second half.
-NARRATOR: The funny half!
-(ghost laughs)
But they made
a beautiful attraction together.
That has helped make The Haunted Mansion
the classic attraction that it is today.
I wanna go again.
NARRATOR:
Word quickly spread about the pristine,
white-columned house in Anaheim.
And it meant that Disney was now firmly
in The Haunted Mansion building business.
And this ghoulish construction venture
quickly expanded eastward,
as Walt Disney World in Florida
planned to open its gates,
along with its own Haunted Mansion,
just two years after Anaheim.
Even though it opened
in 1969 here at Disneyland,
it was about to open in 1971
at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
So Imagineers actually
built two of everything.
Grim grinning ghosts
come out to socialize ♪
NARRATOR: In an almost Pepper's Ghost
reflection of itself
They built duplicates
of all the showpieces
as they were going through the shops
and stored in a warehouse.
this clever planning ensured
that the Florida ghosts could take up
residence inside their mansion
as soon as it was ready.
NARRATOR: But when it came to the outside?
Well, that's where the Imagineers
stopped seeing double.
'Cause we didn't have
a New Orleans Square.
We had Liberty Square.
NARRATOR:
So, to better reflect the location
We were solidly placed
on the Eastern Seaboard.
and time period, they went with
Hudson River Dutch Gothic mansion
sitting up on the hill,
playing into all the ghost stories
that that thing provided for us.
NARRATOR: And they had plans to take
this Haunted Mansion to the next level,
from a practical point of view at least.
Because of the water table here
in Florida,
everything is sitting up higher.
NARRATOR:
Oh, well, no Stretch Room required.
The Stretch Room was so popular out there,
they wanted to replicate that here, so
hence, we still have a Stretch Room,
but it stretches up,
instead of pulling us down.
NARRATOR: Along with several other
relatively subtle differences,
The Haunted Mansion in Walt Disney World
was also a screaming success.
And throughout the '70s,
the attraction was becoming
It was one of those sacred shows,
you just don't change it that much.
NARRATOR: Well, the same can't be said
for the decades.
In the early '80s,
plans for Tokyo Disneyland emerged.
And with it, new opportunities
to update Haunted Mansion or not.
The Haunted Mansion in Tokyo
is a lift of Walt Disney World's
Haunted Mansion.
The only difference is that
it's in a different land.
-NARRATOR: Which is understandable.
-(screams)
With Tokyo Disneyland not having
a New Orleans Square like Anaheim
or a Liberty Square like Florida,
it made perfect sense
to put their Haunted Mansion in
Fantasyland.
Right next to Small World.
(laughs)
DANIEL JUE:
And right in the front of Dumbo.
So it fit well in that location
is the only reason
why I think it would go there.
DAVE: Each one is different.
You have to think about where it's going
and how it needs to be tweaked.
NARRATOR: Well, when Disneyland Paris
opened as Eurodisney Resort in 1992,
even more tweaking was necessary.
But this time
The French and the Europeans, you know,
they're used to walking around Paris
and seeing all those rich, rich, rich
detail and history.
NARRATOR: And let's be honest,
it's hard to compete with the catacombs.
That's a wall made out of human bones,
in case you're wondering.
Which Disneyland Paris cast member
Pascale Kaced
doesn't find shocking in the least,
because
(in French)
NARRATOR: Ah! Rolly was right!
People like to be scared.
NARRATOR: Especially the French, it seems!
(woman shrieks)
NARRATOR: And clearly,
The Mansion's funny-slash-scary combo
wasn't going to cut it this time.
But, in a surprising twist
-Hey
-GREG: We certainly thought that
the French audience
would really appreciate
experiencing the Wild West environment
that they really don't get exposed to.
So they put it in Frontierland.
NARRATOR:
Frontierland? Well, that might work.
All of Frontierland is a gold rush town.
GARY: And so, the mansion
is the estate of the gold baron
that has fallen into disrepair.
NARRATOR: Disrepair?
Our Haunted Mansion is the
only one that looks abandoned.
NARRATOR: But what would Walt say?
MAN: It should be neat and clean.
Well, because we're in Frontierland,
it could be abandoned
because that went really well
with the story.
NARRATOR: All right. Fair enough.
It's really a terrific twist.
There was this great earthquake
that happened.
GREG: And in the earthquake,
both the proprietor
and his wife passed away.
NARRATOR:
And did a fresh take on an old favorite
from both Anaheim and Florida.
The daughter who was going to
become married soon was left
to roam the halls of the manor,
bemoaning the loss of her parents.
She, too, eventually passes away
and continues to haunt the home
to this day.
NARRATOR:
Sounds potentially terrifying! Is it?
(in French)
NARRATOR:
And that is how the West was won!
Western Europe anyway.
LANNY: A lot of our work as Imagineers
is to keep the legends,
don't destroy the lore, but make it
better in many ways, clearer, brighter.
NARRATOR: And, obviously,
relevant for the specific park.
And that that's a challenge.
NARRATOR:
A challenge they faced yet again in 2010
when construction began
on a haunted attraction
for Hong Kong Disneyland.
The Western notion of ghosts
and how they're portrayed is different.
So a completely different storyline
was written.
NARRATOR:
About a haunted manor with no ghosts.
This is Mystic Manor.
We have the storyline of Lord Mystic,
who's created this manor house,
um, to house his collection of artifacts.
Hello, there.
NARRATOR:
But mostly, it's about a cheeky monkey.
ERIC: We have been warned
not to touch Pandora's box.
And of course, Albert the monkey
opens the box
and that's really
where the attraction, uh, takes off.
NARRATOR: But you're not taking off
in a doom buggy this time.
GREG:
That ride system is a free-range vehicle.
And you're in a scene, moving around
in ways that you don't even know
which direction you're gonna go next.
ALEX: With the trackless system,
it gives the design team
lots of flexibility.
NARRATOR:
Now, as for that design team, well,
they faced many challenges
for this new attraction.
The trickiest among them
-The music dust.
-NARRATOR: Yeah, music dust
Comes out of the box and it starts
affecting everything that it touches
as you travel through the museum.
NARRATOR: Gee, that sounds complicated.
That is a tough ask.
And we worked for about a year
to figure out a way
to do magical floating dust
that flies around a room.
I think what we came up with,
and what the team came up with,
is is pretty amazing.
NARRATOR: So that's the "dust" part
of "musical dust" figured out.
As for the "music" part?
They went to someone
whose talents are renowned
-far and wide.
-far and wide.
NARRATOR: Danny Elfman
who, among many other things,
wrote the music and lyrics
for Tim Burton's
The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Going to Disneyland, The Haunted Mansion
was my favorite ride.
So being asked to participate
in something like this that could become,
uh, iconic for several generations,
I couldn't imagine not wanting to do it.
Hearing that Danny Elfman
was going to do the soundtrack,
uh, I was very excited about that.
NARRATOR:
Well, if you're excited about that
you should see how both Anaheim
and Tokyo Haunted Mansions
celebrate the magic of the holiday season.
"The Nightmare Before Christmas" overlay,
it's really one of the most
popular attractions that we do.
GREG: We had to put FastPass machines
in Japan for Haunted Mansion
because they were having waits
of up to four hours long
because of this enhancement
that we would do
during the Halloween
and Christmas seasons.
NARRATOR: The Haunted Mansion
is an iconic Disneyland attraction,
and "The Nightmare Before Christmas"
overlay is incredibly popular.
But there’s an understanding, and that is,
come January, the Christmas decorations
go back in the cupboard
and random storage boxes.
MAN 4: Out! Let me out of here!
NARRATOR: And the house is returned
to normal for another year because
If they're classic and still effective,
there's no reason at all to update it.
NARRATOR: An idea that, in many ways,
goes against the very promise Walt made
when Disneyland first opened.
There will always be something
new and unusual.
NARRATOR:
And it left today's Imagineers wondering,
what would the greats have done?
How would Yale Gracey update
his illusions for today?
Or, as Walt would say, "Plussed it up."
NARRATOR: Would he improve things?
Create new things?
Wouldn't it be wonderful
if a disembodied Madame Leota
could fly around the Séance Room
in ways that just baffle guests?
You come into the scene,
you go all the way around her.
DANIEL: There's no chance for you to say,
"Well, obviously, they did it this way,
'cause this was hidden."
No, we show you every single thing
that's up our sleeve.
NARRATOR: Or perhaps, finally fix things
that never really quite worked
in the first place.
I kind of had the eureka moment.
NARRATOR:
Daniel Joseph's golden idea was
Bringing back the Hatbox Ghost
to The Haunted Mansion in Anaheim.
NARRATOR: Good idea!
The Hatbox Ghost was something
that I loved since I was, like, ten.
NARRATOR: It was a project Daniel Joseph
seemed destined to complete,
and the funny thing was, he already had
in his spare time!
I built a mock-up prototype
of this thing in my garage.
NARRATOR: Just for fun.
I do it after work.
Sometimes I do it at lunch.
NARRATOR: With the utmost respect
for his idol, Yale Gracey,
Daniel Joseph tinkered.
I took his original design
and concept of how to do it
and pitched it to people
in the office up in Imagineering.
NARRATOR: And so, with
Utmost secrecy
We got moved to this very dark room.
NARRATOR: And under the expert eye
of Daniel Joseph
"Now, watch this."
VICTORIA: Even though I knew
how the mechanism was supposed to work
(laughs)
it completely blew me away.
NARRATOR: Thanks to the admiration
and dedication of Daniel Joseph
Daniel Joseph is a wizard.
the Hatbox Ghost's status
as the great, unfinished work
of the master Imagineer Yale Gracey
was now complete.
Daniel understands
the simplicity of things
and how simple effects are created,
and I know his mentor/idol, Yale Gracey
was of the same meld.
NARRATOR: In a passing of the torch,
or perhaps moving of the head
Daniel Joseph now continues the work
of the great, enigmatic man.
DANIEL: Yale Gracey, I feel like,
is as much of a myth
within the Walt Disney Company,
almost, as the Hatbox Ghost
because he was a man of few words,
uh, extremely humble and passed away
at a very young age.
NARRATOR: We'll never know
what Yale himself would've thought, but
I think Yale, I'd like to say,
he would dig it.
NARRATOR: Well, Daniel Joseph,
hats off to you.
And to all the Imagineers
who played their part in coming together
to create one of the greatest
theme park attractions of all time.
The Haunted Mansion is amazing
for the attraction that it is,
given the number of hands
that were competing
for creative leadership on it.
NARRATOR: Yale Gracey
If you take all the illusions
out of The Haunted Mansion
that Yale designed,
it'd be dead as a post.
NARRATOR: Xavier Atencio
All the credit for the success
of the Haunted Mansion,
story-wise, should go to X.
NARRATOR: Marc Davis
So many of his amazing gags
are seen throughout The Mansion.
and his creative opposite,
Claude Coats.
ORLANDO: Claude was a great artist.
He was very opinionated.
He knew what he had to do,
but he would always listen.
He was amazing.
NARRATOR: And of course,
the prankster himself, Rolly Crump.
Rolly Crump is definitely a fan favorite.
Roland.
He gave us that twisted vibe
for The Haunted Mansion.
When you see a Rolly Crump drawing,
you know that it's a Rolly Crump drawing.
We're gonna have man-eating plants
and we're gonna have a coffin clock here
that we're working on right now.
Museum of the Weird.
NARRATOR: And although Rolly's Museum
of the Weird never actually happened
His style was able
to contribute to that
that weird vibe of The Haunted Mansion.
YOUNG ROLLY: These are just things
I collected from all over the world.
Just the weirdest things we could find.
He was Tim Burton before Tim Burton,
if you will.
NARRATOR: Rolly's unique perspective
led to a long career
as one of the premiere theme park
attraction artists in the world.
DORIS: He was such a great boss,
because if I would be off track,
he wouldn't say, "Well, that was dumb."
He would just say, "Oh, okay,
I didn't think of it that way."
Because I think Walt did that for him,
so he kind of passed that on.
We were a family. And after Walt
had passed away, his brother, Roy,
who I had never met,
came up to me, he said,
"Are you Rolly Crump?"
And I said, "Yes, I am."
He said, "I want you to know
my brother used to talk about you."
That's a part you know. It's hard.
(whimpers)
That's what kind of a guy he was.
He was a sweetheart.
We're also collecting real ghosts
to bring in here.
You believe in ghosts, don't you, Julie?
NARRATOR: As one of the first
major attractions completed
after Walt's death,
the success that these Imagineers
had proved that Disneyland could endure
with Walt's vision at its heart,
-whether it was
-Funny.
-or
-Scary.
I'm not scared. I'm not scared.
(screams)
(laughs)
NARRATOR: Whatever word best describes
Haunted Mansion for you
Dark and sinister.
The funniest thing ever.
NARRATOR: Yep, all those things!
There is no doubt that,
either through sheer luck
or a team of individuals
at the top of their game
It's pretty hard to look at an old movie
from 50 years ago and say,
"I don't know how they did that."
DANIEL: That's what The Mansion
is still doing today.
NARRATOR:
And this Imagineering masterpiece
has been not just a fan favorite,
but an inspiration to all those
who know what's behind the curtain.
And when I'm down at any of our parks,
if I have a break,
I wanna go to Haunted Mansion
and ride Haunted Mansion.
I still love it.
It's still just as magical
as the first time I rode it. I love it.
NARRATOR: Be it the original
or any of the mansions around the world,
The Haunted Mansion is,
without question
It's magic.
GHOST: Beware of hitchhiking ghosts.
(laughs)
NARRATOR: And maybe magic is exactly
how Walt wanted it in the first place.
(laughs)
(spooky music)