Welcome, foolish mortals to today’s blog all about the Haunted Mansion attraction. There’s no turning back now. Oh! I didn’t mean to frighten you prematurely! Let’s talk about some fun facts about the beloved Haunted Mansion ride which opened on this day, August 9th in 1969 at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California.
A movie was made in 2003 staring Eddie Murphy which didn't do so well. Another movie is set to hit theaters in March 2023 which already has Owen Wilson, Tiffany Haddish, Jared Leto, Danny DeVito, and Jamie Lee Curtis signed on to the film.
Sadly, Walt Disney never got to see the Disneyland attraction as he passed away in December of 1966 a few years before the ride was completed.
It was supposed to be a walk-through attraction instead of a ride. The same plans were made for Pirates of the Caribbean, however by making it a ride, they could ensure that so many people could see the attraction and keep moving guests along.
In Dave Smith’s book, Disney Trivia From The Vault he talks about how there have been live people (cast members) added to the ride to scare guests. One was in a suit of armor and these cast members would scare even the most jaded guests who knew the ride so well and thought they knew all the special effects.
The hitchhiking ghosts have names. Ezra (tall ghost with the hat), Phineas (ghost with the bag) and Gus (ghost with ball and chain).
The pipe organ in Disneyland’s attraction is from 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
There’s a pet cemetery on the side of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.
The Haunted Mansion ride is in a different land in each Disney park. In Disneyland it sits in New Orleans Square. In Disneyland Paris (known as Phantom Manor) it’s in Frontierland. It’s in Liberty Square in Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and in Tokyo, it’s in Fantasyland. Though Hong Kong Disney has an attraction similar to the Haunted Mansion (called Mystic Manor) it isn’t really part of the Haunted Mansion family.
Each version of the ride looks different from the outside.
At the Magic Kingdom, the elevator doesn’t actually move whereas the elevator at Disneyland in Anaheim does. Sorry if that is a spoiler alert. In other words in one park the floor moves down and in the other the ceiling moves upward giving the illusion you’re riding an elevator.
The voice of Madame Leota is none other than Eleanor Audley the voice of Lady Tremaine (Cinderella’s evil stepmother) and Maleficent (Sleeping Beauty).
In the 1970’s a guest fired a gun in the ballroom shooting a hole though the glass. You can still see where it is today. Towards the end of the ballroom look for a spider which covers the bullet hole. It’s never been replaced because the piece of glass is so large it had to be lowered in through the roof by helicopter. So, replacing the glass would mean removing the roof and while I’m no mathematician I do believe it’s much cheaper to cover the hole with a giant spider.
You can hear the voice of Tony the Tiger in the graveyard. Thurl Ravenscroft’s deep voice is hard to miss! You hear him each Christmas as well when he sings “You’re A Mean One Mr. Grinch!”
You can always spot a Hidden Mickey on the dining room table in the banquet scene.
It cost about $7 million dollars to make the Haunted Mansion back in the 1960s which, thanks to inflation, is equivalent to $65,846,888.89 today. YIKES!
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