POSTERAMA 12

Happy Halloween everybody! I never know what to post on this spooky day, so I decided to fall back on the good old Haunted Mansion. It's the 40th anniverary year after all, and this is the first tribute I've made to that venerable attraction.

Let's start with the beautiful POSTER! We've all seen it, since it's been reproduced over and over. But there's something about having the real McCoy from 1969! It features the three famous "hitchhiking ghosts" (Phineas, Ezra, and Gus); behind them looms the mansion itself, bathed in eerie green light, with bats circling the sailing ship weather vane. And of course there is that typography that has become so famous. This was the last of the regular silk screened posters; the laborious process had become too expensive, and lithography was used after that.


This flyer from 1970 was a fun find for me; my family lived in Huntington Beach back then, and my dad was in the navy; of course I anxiously looked forward to "navy nights" as one of the highlights of the year! It seemed so strange to arrive at Disneyland at night... in my memories it was never very crowded, and even though ticket books were normally still in use, you didn't need them on navy nights. Like today, you rode whatever you wanted as much as you wanted, but it somehow seemed a whole lot cooler back then. So, I was at Disneyland on October 24 1970, and rode the Haunted Mansion (notice how prominently it is featured in this simple flyer!) for my very first time. Over the years every detail has become familiar, but on that night, it was one of the most amazing things I had ever experienced. And yes, I was totally scared to even walk through the front door!