- 6 months ago
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00It is viewers like you that make videos like this possible.
00:06Please support Mickey Mouse Park dot com.
00:23When word got out of Walt Disney's plans for a haunted mansion,
00:27the ghost relations department at WED Enterprises was deluged
00:31with inquiries from assorted ghosts and haunts who were dying to get a look at it.
00:37An expert staff of master illusioneers worked for more than ten years
00:42planning everything down to the minutest detail.
00:46This is the endless hallway.
00:49A misty passage beckoning you to enter, but offering no end.
00:57Of course, a model had to be made for the ghost's approval.
01:01Come along and follow us.
01:03Who knows?
01:04Someday you may want to live here yourself.
01:09No haunted mansion would be complete without a seance room.
01:12This one was designed as a cozy gathering place where the spirits could
01:17practice chain rattling, screeching, and the ever-popular horn blowing.
01:24The imagineers at WED Enterprises, many of whom were formerly animators at the Disney studio,
01:30worked overtime to make these tiny real figures arrive at the haunted mansion as ghosts.
01:36Seems to work well enough, doesn't it?
01:39Suitable sleeping quarters had to be prepared.
01:41You might call this a model apartment.
01:43As the ghost began to arrive, individual problems began to...
01:47Welcome, welcome foolish mortals, to the haunted mansion.
01:53As early as 1958, there's an article attributed to Walt Disney.
02:03It was called My Newest Dream, where he talks about everything coming up at the parks.
02:07And then he's saying that a haunted house would be coming in where a guest to the park
02:11could walk through the haunted rooms and gardens of this spooky house that they brought there.
02:18We're going to bring ghosts from all over the world, and we're making it very attractive to them.
02:22I'm hoping, you know, they'll want to come and stay at Disneyland,
02:24so we're putting in Walt Wild Cobweb and the Gernium Creaky Doors and Creaky Porn.
02:33Walt Disney approached Ken Anderson about designing the haunted house as a walk-through attraction.
02:41Ken did a complete layout blueprint for the attraction at that time,
02:45which would include scenes from Disney films like the ghosts that appear in Fantasia and Night on Bald Mountain,
02:52the lonesome ghosts from the Mickey Mouse short,
02:55and the Heddle's Horseman from The Adventures of Vickabod and Mr. Toad.
03:00Construction actually began on the haunted mansion long before it opened,
03:05and that's part of the great mystique of this attraction.
03:08And this led to just endless rumors about what was inside, what had happened,
03:13and why did the attraction not open for six years?
03:18Everybody has friends and relatives who say they know somebody who went on the ride,
03:24and it's not the ride. It was there now.
03:26It was so scary. It was people who were having heart attacks.
03:30It was a story of a guest falling into a snake pit.
03:33One of the rumors was that Walt Disney really lives there.
03:38That's a second home.
03:40And they just said it was a haunted mansion because they didn't want people to go there
03:43and bother Walt Disney.
03:46But then Walt went to England,
03:48and the reporters asked him what he was doing there,
03:51and he said,
03:52Well, I'm visiting some of the old castles and mansions
03:55and looking for ghosts who want to continue to practice their tricks.
04:00If you were a kid back then,
04:04you went through your whole kidhood waiting for this thing to open.
04:10The house was built in the early 60s
04:12and stood there all alone on the banks of the river with a sign on it
04:16that said,
04:17We're out collecting 999 ghosts.
04:19So as a kid growing up in that time period,
04:22there was a dutiful trek over to the gates
04:24and standing at the gates reading that sign
04:27and wondering what's going to happen here.
04:29In comes the 1964 New York World Fair,
04:33which developed tremendous new technologies.
04:36And one of the technologies became the impetus for a ride system called the Omnimover.
04:41It's the ride system that never stops.
04:43It's a constant chain of ride vehicles all tied together,
04:47just going around in a continuous circle.
04:49And the designers of the haunted mansion realized this is our answer
04:52because not only can we get a tremendous number of people through,
04:56we can surprise them.
04:57We can face them this way
04:59and then spin them suddenly to the left and reveal something exciting.
05:05The Omnimover also has the advantage of it's got speakers right inside the car with you.
05:11So you have a creepy voice right behind you narrating the whole adventure.
05:15Pirates of the Caribbean had Claude Coates and Mark Davis as collaborators.
05:19And after Pirates, the two went on to work on Haunted Mansion.
05:23But in this case, they each had a different idea about what the tone of the attraction should be.
05:27Claude Coates felt that it should be scary and frightening,
05:30and Mark Davis felt that it was Disney and should be more gag and humorous.
05:34And in the end, they sort of each got their day
05:36because the first half of the ride really is Claude Coates's, if you will,
05:40and it's all the environmental, more scary parts of it.
05:43And then the second half of the ride from the ballroom on is really more Mark Davis,
05:47particularly the graveyard where it's lots of gags, lots of funny things.
05:50And so in some ways, it really satisfies both camps
05:53because for those who want the sort of eerie scary, you've got that.
05:56For those who want the classic Disney funny, you've got that.
05:59And in the end, I think it's important to realize that, you know,
06:01Walt was creating a park for parents and children to have fun together.
06:05Mark Davis is the master in charge of our house of illusions,
06:10or what do we call it?
06:13Haunted Mansion.
06:14Can you give a little idea what we're going to have in there?
06:17Yes, well, we're doing a lot of portraits that change right in front of your very eyes.
06:21As a matter of fact, one of our paintings here is based on Greek mythology.
06:26This is Medusa.
06:27She ascended the goddess Athena, and as a result,
06:30Athena turned her into a gorgon.
06:33A coffin clock here that we're working on right now.
06:35We have a gypsy cart that comes to life with ghosts inside of it.
06:39We have a candle lamp.
06:40These are just things that are collected from all over the world.
06:42Just the weirdest things we could find.
06:44Yeah, we're also collecting real ghosts to bring in.
06:46You believe in ghosts, don't you, Jo?
06:48No.
06:48You don't?
06:49Not really.
06:50Well, let me take you over here.
06:52You can shoot that they do.
06:53Yes.
06:54We have two schools of thought here on the Haunted Mansion.
06:56One was to make it scary, and one was to make it funny.
07:00So finally, we decided it should be light, but not really scary.
07:05And the lyrics kind of push me in that direction of prim-grinning ghosts come out to some show line.
07:13It was a dynamic period of development
07:33because this was also the real flowering of audio-animatronics at the same time.
07:39So there were wonderful people who came out of the machine shop at the studio under Roger Brogy,
07:45and they figured out how to make these characters move
07:49with all the hydraulics and all the mechanical systems inside them.
07:55Yale Gracie was probably the father of illusions and magic stuff for the Haunted Mansion.
08:09He and Wethel Rogers had their own little place over here,
08:13and they would do the little magic stuff, and it made it interesting.
08:17Ball told Yale Gracie and Lily Crump to play,
08:21and, you know, to them, that was magic because playing meant they could do anything they wanted,
08:28and, you know, within the confines of what the story idea was.
08:33At that time, there really wasn't much of a story.
08:35It was more how can you create some effects that would create the illusion of ghosts.
08:45They would get something together, and then we'd get called over and say,
08:48okay, here it is, what is it?
08:52And we had to figure out how to make it work day in, day out, 24 hours a day,
08:58to be able to put it into a show at Disney World.
09:04My involvement came when we started doing the actual figures
09:08for the cemetery, which were based on some of Mark Schumer's ideas.
09:21The dog at the cemetery,
09:26and the raven and the pop-up heads,
09:29which were actually close to the department.
09:33Madame Leota was the effect that astonished more people when they went through the ride,
09:46and it used to be very interesting to go on the rides or be in the ride
09:50and listen to the comments of the guests as they come through,
09:53how they thought that that was done.
09:55A lot of visitors to the mansion believe that the ghosts in the ballroom are holograms.
10:15They are not.
10:15It's actually a much older technique called Pepper's Ghost.
10:19When the Imagineers were installing the dancers for the ballroom scene,
10:25they didn't take into account the mirror reflection.
10:28So actually the women are leading the men.
10:34I made a mistake in doing the guys dancing,
10:39not realizing that there was an opposite image or a mirror image in there.
10:44I had the guy dancing as the way I knew about dancing.
10:48When we saw it out there, I said,
10:50uh-oh, a little backwards.
10:55The organ in the Haunted Mansion was actually from 20,000 leaves
10:59in Captain Nemo's office, and it was a beautiful set-up.
11:03It was very difficult for the animators at that time
11:12to control the motion of the figures.
11:15We didn't have what we call today compliance,
11:18where much as I can move my arm and stop it on a dime.
11:21That was impossible in those days.
11:23If a figure did that, the whole figure would move like this.
11:27So they had to create almost a dreamlike catatonic state.
11:31And the natural was to have ghosts that are drinking
11:34because it allows for a motion that's a little bit more fluid.
11:40Walt had such an effect on us prior to completing anything.
11:45I mean, we thought Walt's thoughts as much as possible.
11:50Walt had the ability to orchestrate, you know, talent.
11:53And much like a great orchestra leader,
11:56he could bring a bassoon player and a harpist and, you know, a clarinet.
12:01All these people that were the greatest in their fields,
12:04bring them together and play music.
12:06I go through it with a total appreciation
12:09for how a team can put a thing over.
12:14There's not a one of us that would have had a show worth watching
12:17if it had been done just by any one of us.
12:20It's what everybody did.
12:26I'm just happy to have had a part of it.
12:32Hurry back.
12:34Hurry back.
12:35When word got out of Walt Disney's plans for a haunted mansion,
12:42the ghost relations department at WED Enterprises was deluged
12:45with inquiries from assorted ghosts and haunts
12:48who were dying to get a look at it.
12:51An expert staff of master illusionaries
12:54worked for more than 10 years planning everything
12:57down to the minutest detail.
12:59This is the endless hallway.
13:04A misty passage beckoning you to enter,
13:07but offering no end.
13:12Of course, a model had to be made for the ghost's approval.
13:15Come along and follow us.
13:17Who knows?
13:19Someday you may want to live here yourself.
13:24No haunted mansion would be complete without a seance room.
13:27This one was designed as a cozy gathering place
13:31where the spirits could practice chain rattling,
13:34screeching,
13:35and the ever-popular horn blowing.
13:39The Imagineers at WED Enterprises,
13:41many of whom were formerly animators at the Disney studio,
13:44worked overtime to make these tiny real figures
13:47arrive at the haunted mansion as ghosts.
13:50Seems to work well enough, doesn't it?
14:02Suitable sleeping quarters had to be prepared.
14:04You might call this a model apartment.
14:10As the ghost began to arrive,
14:12individual problems began to pop up.
14:15A skeleton crew of technicians was kept busy full-time,
14:20attending to the peculiar needs of the future inhabitants.
14:23No stone was left unturned.
14:25Some of the ethereal inhabitants
14:33were much too shy to be seen by mortals,
14:36and mechanical substitutes had to be devised to make them visible.
14:42What you are seeing is a man operating a machine
14:45that activates the mechanical features of this head.
14:47Or is it the other way around?
14:56Well, whatever it is,
14:57it seems to work.
15:00At least, I think that's what this fellow is trying to tell us.
15:04With the aid of these banks of electronic equipment,
15:07even the household pets were animated,
15:10including these two friendly creatures.
15:17A system was developed by the people at Disney
15:19to control the movements of the ghostly inhabitants
15:22of the haunted mansion
15:23through the use of scalloped-edged discs.
15:29Roller cams followed the depressions and shoulders
15:32producing realistic movements
15:33that helped to bring our spooky tenants to life.
15:37If you'll excuse the pun.
15:40This system was called audio-animatronics,
15:42which combined three-dimensional animation
15:44and sound through the use of electronics.
15:47By stacking these discs,
15:52a number of functions could be controlled at the same time.
15:56As a matter of fact,
15:58every movement and sound
15:59of all the tenants of the haunted mansion
16:01is directed in this manner.
16:13Is it any wonder that it took more than 10 years
16:16to complete the job?
16:19An interesting phenomenon
16:20that we seem to have no control over
16:23is this old gentleman
16:24who just can't seem to keep his eyes off of you
16:26no matter where you go.
16:27Probably the single most difficult problem
16:32faced by the illusionaires at WED
16:34was that posed by some of the more bashful boarders
16:37who refused to show their faces.
16:40Some of the busts even appeared to be unfinished.
16:43The head was there, but the face was missing.
16:45Ah, but you know how it is.
16:48At Disney's, there's always a couple of faces
16:50left lying around on the floor.
16:53As the moon climbs high over the dead oak tree,
16:58creepy creeps with eerie eyes,
17:01grim grinning ghosts come out to socialize.
17:05Finally, everyone was brought together.
17:11They all seemed to be in good order
17:13and capable of taking care of themselves.
17:17Although some needed a hand
17:19or the latest in haunting hairdos,
17:24everything was finally ready.
17:27Musicians were recruited,
17:28a cast party was held,
17:32and some last-minute repairs were made.
17:36It was so exciting
17:37that this poor fellow lost his head.
17:41The Haunted Mansion was an idea of Walt Disney's.
17:44You see, he began to worry
17:45where ghosts were going to live
17:46after all the old houses were torn down
17:47to make room for freeways.
17:49He decided that if someone
17:50didn't give him a house to live in,
17:51why, they'd just disappear.
17:53So Mr. Disney built a Haunted Mansion.
17:56One of the most eagerly awaited days
17:58in park history
17:59was the debut of the Haunted Mansion.
18:01The public had been hearing
18:02about the attraction since 1961
18:04and had been staring at
18:05its gleaming, unfinished exterior
18:07in New Orleans Square since 1963.
18:10When it finally opened
18:11at the height of the summer tourist season
18:13in 1969,
18:14the exciting new attraction
18:15drew some of Disneyland's
18:17largest crowds ever.
18:18Tentative plans
18:19for some kind of haunted house
18:20had actually preceded those
18:22for Disneyland itself.
18:23The attraction's roots date back
18:25to even before Disneyland was built.
18:27Walt Disney hired
18:28the first of his Imagineers.
18:30The first known illustration
18:31of the park
18:32showed a Main Street setting,
18:33Greenfields,
18:34Western Village,
18:35and a Carnival
18:36in 1951.
18:38Disney legend
18:38Harper Goff
18:39developed a black and white sketch
18:41of a crooked street
18:42leading away from Main Street
18:44by a peaceful church
18:45and graveyard
18:46with a run-down manor
18:48perched high on a hill
18:49that towered over Main Street.
18:51And Marvin Davis'
18:521953 illustration
18:54placed the rickety haunted house
18:56at the end of Main Street.
18:58Two years after Disneyland opened,
18:59Ken Anderson
19:00came up with a basic design
19:02and a story to go with it.
19:03Expecting a New Orleans section
19:05to be built in Disneyland
19:06at some point,
19:07Anderson drew a southern mansion
19:09and invented the plot
19:10including a headless horseman
19:11and a murderous sea captain
19:13who ended up hanging themselves.
19:15Most of this plot
19:16was abandoned in the end.
19:17But some individual elements
19:18endured such as
19:20a hanging corpse
19:21seen early in the attraction.
19:24The attraction's roots
19:26date back to
19:26even before Disney was built
19:28when Walt Disney hired
19:29the first of his Imagineers.
19:31The first known illustration
19:32of the park
19:33showed a Main Street setting,
19:35Greenfields,
19:35Western Village,
19:37and a Carnival
19:37in 1951.
19:39Disney legend
19:39Harper Goff
19:40developed a black and white sketch
19:42of a crooked street
19:43leading away from Main Street
19:45by a peaceful church
19:47and graveyard
19:48with a run-down manor
19:49perched high on a hill
19:51that towered over Main Street.
19:53As building designs evolved,
19:54Walt Disney quickly rejected
19:55any that portrayed
19:56dilapidated mansions
19:58reminiscent of the creepy
19:59haunted houses and films.
20:01Disneyland structures
20:02he decreed
20:03would not look run-down
20:04or neglected.
20:05In 1961,
20:07Disney announced
20:08that the haunted mansion
20:09would open within two years.
20:12And in fact,
20:12an elegant three-story mansion
20:14with four stately columns
20:16was built in 1963
20:17near Adventureland.
20:19Guests were tantalized
20:20and all decade long,
20:22the park's souvenir books
20:23touted the attraction
20:23with an eerie painting
20:25by Sam McKim.
20:26In reality,
20:27work on the haunted mansion
20:28had stopped,
20:29dedicating himself
20:30and his design team
20:31to creating
20:31four new attractions
20:32for the 1964-1965
20:35New York World's Fair.
20:36Walt Disney put
20:37the haunted mansion
20:37on indefinite hold.
20:39He stirred up excitement
20:40such as
20:41a museum of the weird
20:42which was never built
20:43but not until 1967
20:45was real mansion construction
20:47underway
20:47and accelerating.
20:49Once again,
20:49he re-announced it
20:50in 1965
20:51on an episode
20:52of his Wonderful World
20:54of Color TV show
20:55and even mentioned
20:56specific details.
20:58The original story
20:59behind the haunted mansion,
21:01the groom owns
21:01most of Frontierland.
21:03He falls in love
21:03with the bride
21:04and they are engaged.
21:06Before they are married,
21:07though,
21:07she wants to return back east
21:08to visit with her family.
21:10While she is gone,
21:11the groom has a lavish,
21:12extravagant,
21:13beautiful house built
21:14on a hill
21:15at the edge of the rivers
21:16of the far west.
21:18The site overlooked
21:19Frontierland
21:19and can be seen
21:20from all around.
21:21The house is no sooner built
21:23than it is haunted
21:24by the phantom.
21:24When hinges creak
21:27in doorless chambers
21:29and strange
21:30and frightening sounds
21:32echo through the halls,
21:35whenever candlelights flicker
21:37where the air
21:39is deathly still,
21:41that is the time
21:43when ghosts are present
21:45practicing their terror
21:48with ghoulish delight.
21:50All our ghosts
22:09have been dying
22:10to meet you.
22:12This one can hardly
22:13contain himself.
22:15Nervous and spiders,
22:24hail of a rat,
22:26call in the spirits
22:28wherever they're at.
22:30.
22:31.
22:35.
22:38.
22:47.
22:49.
22:53.
22:53.
22:55.
22:55.
22:56Oh, my God.
23:26Oh, my God.
23:56Oh, my God.
24:26Oh, my God.
24:56Oh, my God.
25:26Oh, my God.
25:56Oh, my God.
26:26Oh, my God.
26:56Oh, my God.
27:26Oh, my God.
27:56Oh, my God.
28:26Oh, my God.
28:56Oh, my God.
29:26Oh, my God.
29:56Oh, my God.
30:26Oh, my God.
30:56Oh, my God.
31:26Oh, my God.
31:56Oh, my God.
32:26Oh, my God.
32:56Oh, my God.
33:26Oh, my God.
33:56Oh, my God.
34:26Oh, my God.
34:56Oh, my God.
35:26Oh, my God.
35:56Oh, my God.
36:26Oh, my God.
36:56Oh, my God.
37:26Oh, my God.
37:56Oh, my God.
38:26Oh, my God.
38:56Oh, my God.
39:26Oh, my God.
39:56Oh, my God.
40:26Oh, my God.
40:56Oh, my God.
41:26Oh, my God.
41:56Oh, my God.
42:26Oh, my God.
Comments