The influence and importance of the Haunted Mansion is
impossible to underestimate. It is to Dark Attractions what Psycho
is to horror film: has there been a single haunted attraction since its opening
that has not tried to emulate it in some way? How may attractions have since
been called a “Haunted Mansion”? More tellingly, how many words have been
dedicated to it, especially since the coming of the internet (how many times
I’ve been up late at night trying to come up with another way to describe
the ballroom for a Virtual Tour rewrite!)? It, along with Pirates of the
Caribbean, command enormous respect at Walt Disney Imagineering: here, for
once and for all, all of the best talents were brought together to make a
classic attraction.
But the Haunted Mansion is just one in a line of the classic “Laff in the Dark” attractions which became popular through the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company, founded by Leon Cassidy, on boardwalks and amusement parks throughout America in the early half of the 20th Century. After all, those ghoulish heads which rocket up throughout the Attic and Graveyard are only a half-step away from the ghastly, day-glo devils that populated all those classic boardwalk attractions.
Although they may be phasing out of popularity now, be rest assured that the 50’s and 60’s were the end of a Dark Ride renaissance and were ultimately important in the formulation of the attraction. Remember that the Fantasyland classics Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Snow White’s Scary Adventures are in the exact same vein!
(For more information on these important pieces of Americana visit Laff In The Dark)
There are other, more apparent influences. The publication of Shirley Jackson’s
The Haunting of Hill House in 1959 contributed enormously to the
tone of the attraction. Note how exactly the first paragraph of the novel
summons up the exterior of the attraction, especially the Walt Disney World
incarnation:
”No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydid are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself amongst its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for
eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright,
bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence
lay steadily against the wood and stone of hill house, and whatever walked
there, walked alone.”
An even more direct correlation exists between Robert Wise’s 1963 filming of the novel under the title The Haunting and the attraction: too, in the film, a whole corridor of doors erupt in deafening knocks, including one that distorts grotesquely, as if breathing. This was, of course, long before it was ruined in 1999 by Jan deBont and Industrial Light & Magic’s remake.
But perhaps one of the most revelatory connections can be traced to Jean Cocteau’s 1946 adaptation of the Beauty & the Beast fairy tale, called La Belle et la Bête. Besides providing much of the inspiration for the 1991 animated Disney version, this version too offers an enchanted castle; statuary that springs to life, following guests with their gaze; arms that extend from beyond the wall, supporting flickering candelabrums; a corridor of doors and windows; and a small forest of dead vegetation that rings the castle.
And as for Crump’s assertions that he and Walt Disney saw something called “the seven ghosts”, there are two film from the time period which neatly fit the bill, perfectly capturing the Mansion’s tonality of goofy, spooky fun: 1958’s The House on Haunted Hill and 1960’s 13 Ghosts, both directed by William Castle. Both have been since, poorly, remade into modern-type “thrills-n-spills” horror films, but lack the “cheesy and proud” quality of their much more fun originals.
Both films were released in theatres to some infamy due to the gimmicks devised by Castle to sell the films to an audience. The House on Haunted Hill featured “Emerge-O”, a plastic skeleton rigged to sail over the audience just as, on film, Vincent Price’s skeleton emerges from a vat of acid. 13 Ghosts featured “Illusion-O”, where audiences could either “see” or “remove” the offending ghosts due to special color tinting.
13 Ghosts, in particular, has a lowering bed canopy...
But the Haunted Mansion is just one in a line of the classic “Laff in the Dark” attractions which became popular through the Pretzel Amusement Ride Company, founded by Leon Cassidy, on boardwalks and amusement parks throughout America in the early half of the 20th Century. After all, those ghoulish heads which rocket up throughout the Attic and Graveyard are only a half-step away from the ghastly, day-glo devils that populated all those classic boardwalk attractions.
Although they may be phasing out of popularity now, be rest assured that the 50’s and 60’s were the end of a Dark Ride renaissance and were ultimately important in the formulation of the attraction. Remember that the Fantasyland classics Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Snow White’s Scary Adventures are in the exact same vein!
(For more information on these important pieces of Americana visit Laff In The Dark)
There are other, more apparent influences. The publication of Shirley Jackson’s
The Haunting of Hill House in 1959 contributed enormously to the
tone of the attraction. Note how exactly the first paragraph of the novel
summons up the exterior of the attraction, especially the Walt Disney World
incarnation:”No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydid are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by itself amongst its hills, holding darkness within; it had stood so for
eighty years and might stand for eighty more. Within, walls continued upright,
bricks met neatly, floors were firm, and doors were sensibly shut; silence
lay steadily against the wood and stone of hill house, and whatever walked
there, walked alone.”An even more direct correlation exists between Robert Wise’s 1963 filming of the novel under the title The Haunting and the attraction: too, in the film, a whole corridor of doors erupt in deafening knocks, including one that distorts grotesquely, as if breathing. This was, of course, long before it was ruined in 1999 by Jan deBont and Industrial Light & Magic’s remake.
But perhaps one of the most revelatory connections can be traced to Jean Cocteau’s 1946 adaptation of the Beauty & the Beast fairy tale, called La Belle et la Bête. Besides providing much of the inspiration for the 1991 animated Disney version, this version too offers an enchanted castle; statuary that springs to life, following guests with their gaze; arms that extend from beyond the wall, supporting flickering candelabrums; a corridor of doors and windows; and a small forest of dead vegetation that rings the castle.
And as for Crump’s assertions that he and Walt Disney saw something called “the seven ghosts”, there are two film from the time period which neatly fit the bill, perfectly capturing the Mansion’s tonality of goofy, spooky fun: 1958’s The House on Haunted Hill and 1960’s 13 Ghosts, both directed by William Castle. Both have been since, poorly, remade into modern-type “thrills-n-spills” horror films, but lack the “cheesy and proud” quality of their much more fun originals.
Both films were released in theatres to some infamy due to the gimmicks devised by Castle to sell the films to an audience. The House on Haunted Hill featured “Emerge-O”, a plastic skeleton rigged to sail over the audience just as, on film, Vincent Price’s skeleton emerges from a vat of acid. 13 Ghosts featured “Illusion-O”, where audiences could either “see” or “remove” the offending ghosts due to special color tinting.
13 Ghosts, in particular, has a lowering bed canopy...
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