Haunted Mansion, October 1981
The Spookiest Day of the Year approaches, and Lou and Sue have come through (again) with some photos of the Haunted Mansion. To be clear, these are NOT Snoozles™!
I'm assuming that Lou was mighty impressed by that wrought iron, which was bent into shape by "Abe Lincoln"; he'd walk over to New Orleans Square at night and bend the metal with his bare hands (all the while whistling "Aura Lee" - you know the melody from Elvis' "Love Me Tender"). This is a true fact and everybody should believe it.
We need more homes with columns. Nice, stately columns. No, Abe Lincoln didn't make these, he had his hands full (literally) with all that wrought iron.
Yes, this is a different photo from the first one! How dare you question my sobriety!
The 999 ghosts knew a good thing when they saw it, and this mansion was just the place to haunt. I've heard there's room for one more.
Thank you, Lou and Sue!
18 comments:
Major-
It's so hard to tell from the outside this mansion is haunted. It just looks so stately, well-manicured and inviting - how can it be-?
Thanks to Lou and Sue.
In the 1st and 3rd pictures, I notice the fern hanging basket on the 2nd-floor balcony. I wonder who had to water it everyday? At first I was thinking that maybe it was fake, but you can see some dead fronds, so I'm assuming it's real.
Seeing those dead fern fronds reminded me of what happened to one of my co-workers, many years ago. She got in a fight with her mother-in-law and later felt bad about it, so she sent her mother-in-law a dozen long-stemmed roses. The flower delivery person went to the house but, since no one answered the door, he left the box of roses in the opened garage. The MIL discovered those roses a couple weeks later in the garage and assumed her DIL purposely sent DEAD roses. Needless to say, the fighting continued. ;oP
Hey, Bu, didn't you mention on GDB, a while back, about there being classrooms upstairs in the HM? Or did I dream that?
Thanks, Major.
Major, you expect us to believe your "true fact" that Honest Abe bent the wrought iron with his bare hands? I think not!... He used his bareteeth! He could also tie cherry stems into knots using only his tongue. A man of unique talents!
Yes, I do believe Lou was enamored with the Mansion's ironwork, which seems to be the focus of the first picture. Perhaps he wanted to get both, the foreground iron fencing together with the HM's wrought iron?
In the second pic, we can see how the Mansion looks especially mysterious when it's partially hidden by trees. Also, especially beautiful.
#3: Again, partially hidden; peeking out from behind the trees. The sunlit greenery in the urn is the crowning glory here. It brings everything into balance. I think this is my favorite today.
The last image is also really nice; a "you are there" photo showing the HM as one strolls by out front.
Sue, nice mother-in-law story. ;-)
Nice photos, Mr. Perry. Thank you, Sue and Major.
Boomer kid memory: Buying a 5¢ pack of Disneyland trading cards with the pink shingle of gum. One of the cards was a photo of the Haunted Mansion exterior, with caption saying it would open soon. I'm sure this was at least a few years before they unveiled it on "World of Color", with the Cowsills or some such running around the park lip syncing and finally going on the newly opened ride.
I think it was another year or so before we loaded up the station wagon and made one of our pilgrimages. By then I was brave enough for the scary rides, like Mr. Toad. On a previous trip I was afraid of the Mark Twain, fretting the whole voyage was burning cabins and hostile Indians. Likewise the Babes in Toyland exhibit, because I just KNEW those creepy trees would be there, maybe even lurching about among terrified kiddies. Yes, I knew it was make believe and Uncle Walt and all that. But placing one's self where people would intentionally scare one always seemed a bad idea, like eating what a classmate dared one to eat.
A detail: One of the Haunted Mansion souvenirs was a piece of cardboard with glow in the dark paint. It was haunted, because when you held your hand over it the cardboard captured the shadow for a few moments.
Sue : I mentioned some time ago there were meeting rooms above River Belle Terrace …. The biggest was right over the columned portico … the interior was decorated with framed photographs of Bear Country …. At some point it had been the office for the Bear Country manager …. Why it was way over there I do not know.
All of New Orleans Square once had beautiful ferns hanging from the balconies …. I’m sure landscaping kept very busy tending to them.
There is a break room right off the first floor of the Haunted Mansion the rest of the building really is facade and support structures for the stretching rooms … unfinished lumber walls line the narrow service walkways in the second and 3rd “floors” . The lace curtains and window shades are all staple gunned to the inner window frames . “Closet” like mini rooms used to feature plastic cylinders with a narrow opening in it . In the center a lightbulb …. The cylinders were all in synchronized timers and would rotate in sequence…. The way a lighthouse lamp rotates…. This gave the impression someone or something was passing the mansion’s windows with a lamp or candle …. Moving their way to the upper floors … an effect Fantastic put an end to.
By the way : the mansion’s upper breakroom and stairway used to be lined with old mansion closed and rehab signs from the past … but had to be removed because they were now too rare …… and very valuable!
These are all wonderfully composed photos of the Mansion....but I guess we should expect nothing less, from Lou!
In that last pic, we can see the brick planter (with azaleas?), up against the brick wall surrounding the HM. That is the planter that they removed for the hordes of people who would be coming to see Wookie World, upon it's opening. Now I'm wondering what they did with the bricks? Maybe they crushed them and put the powder inside those trading pins with the little glass bubbles. I think they call that series of pins, "A Piece of Disneyland History." I saw one for the French Market restaurant, which contained a tiny piece of one of the restaurant's seat cushions. They HAVE to be kidding. Don't they?
Thank you Lou, Sue, and Major, too!
Hooray - more Lou photos!
In the last two, you can see some sort of fern growing in the pots on top of the brick fence columns. By 1995, they had been replaced by some sort of cactus. Interesting to note how plantings change over the years, sometimes in very subtle ways. Not sure that the cacti are what you would see growing along a fence in front of a spotlessly-maintained mid-19th-Century mansion in New Orleans, but it does add a barely perceptible sense that something isn’t quite right here, much more subtle than a hearse with an invisible horse parked out front…or the wilting funerary bouquets I saw in November of 2022.
Thanks again, Lou & Sue!
Lou and Sue never disappoint!
I read somewhere that the manufacturer with the patent on Abe Lincoln’s ironwork still has this pattern in their catalog, and they have increased the minimum order to some huge amount because Mansion fans would order just a little piece for their collections. Don’t know if that’s true or not.
Interesting to hear about the ancillary spaces in the upper floors, I thought all big attractions had to have basketball courts in there.
Mike, I do remember that wandering candle effect from long ago. Little things make a big difference, and often, big things (looking at Fantasmic here) make little difference at all.
Tokyo, I’m surprised they would put French Market cushions for sale as souvenirs, we know only the yellow cushions float.
Thanks Major!
JG
Where is my Snoozle Sunday? Will there be a Moozle Monday? In any case, what a very perfect and sunny day in New Orleans Square with the stately Haunted Mansion. As well all know it was designed to be unassuming intentionally from the view outside. I'm not sure what a haunted mansion has to do with Christmas nightmares...but it does these days, and I quite don't understand it. I am not the target audience, so I perhaps am rather jolly about not understanding it. This looks like quite the quiet day...with guests going directly from the front walk up the steps into the elevator room. If you saw this...it was a wonderful day. I'm not sure what mayhem ensues in present day, with the lighting lanes, and VIP entrances, and mouse mazes....but these photos look way better I'm sure. The landscape of guests looks also serene...not a bubble maker or a crystal embedded Mickey veil in sight. The classroom Sue speaks of was Donny Osmond's experience working on "that show", with chanteuse PJ...or JP...or JB...whatever her name is....and a small room in the Haunted Mansion was used as a school room for his lawfully required education. I do remember seeing a break room of sorts...but it was only for Mansion people...and a bathroom (?) am I remembering correctly? At one point in the mid to late 80's they put a live person in a suit of armor in the "wallpaper" hallway...who would lunge at you...I DID NOT like that at all....I do not like to be publicly startled. So, as we approached "the spot"...I would look around the Doom Buggy going backwards to see if he was there are not...so I could react very "non-plussed"....it was random if he was there or not. I don't think it was very popular and did not last a long time. I only rode the Haunted Mansion when I was on VIP tours, or being naughty when Pirates was in rehab. "Regular" tours were NEVER allowed to go on HM. EVER! Since there was no male VIP costume at the time to distinguish who I was that day, I thought it was worth the risk of not being ratted on. Even on VIP tours, I will STILL be ratted on....GR Lead to HM attraction host/ess : "He's on a VIP tour, but thanks for calling"....then we would counter-rat and go to our management, which would go to their ADV/FRNT management ("stop spending time on ratting")...which would trickle down to the trenches of ADV/FRT/NOS....and now they hated us more...so totally ridiculous. It's a freaking ride people...had to do with taking capacity away from the "other guests" or something (? lies)..."DID YOU GO ON THE HAUNTED MANSION ON YOUR TOURR!!!!!!??????"....they made it sound like I was streaking through the Haunted Mansion...it was dumb then, and dumber now that I am recounting the story....Thanks Lou and Sue for the lovely photos...they are keepers!
Lou's and Sue'sles
Are never Snoozles
These are all postcardworthy. Postcardworthy, I say!
My high school Sweet Adelines group used to sing "Aura Lee," and like the sophisticated wits we were, we always joked about "singing orally."
The last thing I expected was to get up today and learn even more backstage Haunted Mansion lore.
Were the upper floors of the HM and NOS also at 5/8 scale, or was the exclusive to Main Street?
Nanook, I love the way the Anaheim Mansion looks, but part of me wishes it was a little bit spookier! I know, heresy.
Lou and Sue, interesting, I would have just assumed that the fern was a fake, but I think you are right about it being real. I’m jealous of whoever gets to walk along that upper veranda! I totally believe the story about the unfortunate flower delivery; years ago, my dad’s garage was open, and the UPS guy put a box on the ground behind my dad’s car instead of bringing it to the front porch. Of course my dad backed over it! Wow, I’ve never heard of classrooms being upstairs at the Mansion, I’ll be curious to hear about this one.
JB, there are all sorts of legends about Honest Abe, sometimes it’s hard to know which ones are true. I figure that by 1981, Lou had seen the Haunted Mansion many times, but he did what a good photographer does… looks at something familiar and looks for something he hasn’t really paid attention to before. I think #4 is my favorite today, but there is no wrong answer!
DBenson, hmmm, now I’m wondering about those trading cards you mentioned! I posted my entire series of Donruss “blue back” cards years ago, where they mention that it is a “future attraction”, maybe that’s what you are talking about. Also… funny, it was the Osmonds running around the park in that TV show, but I like the idea of it being the Cowsills! I know what you mean about the scary rides (when you were little), but part of the thrill of Disneyland was getting the courage to do a scary ride, and realizing that it was fun. Wow, what in the world, I’ve never heard of that HM souvenir, now I want one!
Mike Cozart, like Sue, I’m always fascinated by the idea of “boring old offices” being right above the wonderful rides and restaurants that we’ve all been to. I remember seeing a woman in New Orleans Square, up on one of the balconies, now I wonder if she was at Club 33? At the time I remember exclaiming, “There’s a lady up there!”. I’d sure love to see those weird unfinished hallways and rooms inside the HM!
TokyoMagic!, I’m glad that planter was removed, it was freeloading and didn’t earn its keep. I think they should remove all benches, grass, and trees, hopefully I will be hired by Disney soon. I would pay $5,000 for a pin with a tiny piece of crushed-up brick from the Haunted Mansion, and I would store it in a popcorn bucket with my pressed pennies. Meanwhile, I’ve seen people selling tiny chunks of concrete on eBay, claiming that they are from the Matterhorn. Seems fishy to me!
Chuck, I agree, cacti don’t seem to be quite as “on theme” as a fern would be, but they sure are easier to maintain. Fake ferns are so realistic now, why not just put artificial plants up there? Dust them once in a while if necessary. Maybe they would fade too quickly in the SoCal sunshine.
JG, we all know now that the iron-bending Abe was the precursor to the “Bender” style robots seen in “Futurama”. I never realized how much stuff needed to be bent until I had a Bender robot! Now that pickleball is the trendy sport, they need to install pickleball courts in all rides. Close the Matterhorn for two years for the change. I never saw that wandering candle effect (I probably just didn’t notice it), but it sounds so cool, I wish they’d bring it back.
Bu, even after all these years, the exterior of the Anaheim HM impresses a LOT. It’s just so beautiful, and they used just the right amount of land for the yard (and cemeteries). Until the Mansion was built, I don’t know if there had ever been anything like it. I’ve said before that I don’t mind the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay, and in fact the exterior looks neat with all of the lit-up jack o’lanterns at night. But I don’t like that the overlay is there from August to February. That’s WAY too long. I wonder if there are problems with kids firing up their bubble makers inside rides such as “Pirates”? I wish I got to go to class in a stuffy little room inside the Haunted Mansion, just to say that I did it. The story about that knight inside the ride is that some dude got mad and punched him, but that might be one of those many apocryphal stories. Why were tours not supposed to go on the HM? You’d think that it would be the “big finish”, or something like that. It’s kind of disheartening to hear that cast members ratted on each other. I get it if it’s a supervisor catching you in a “crime”, but ordinary CMs should be looking out for each other.
Melissa, the “Sweet Adelines”, were they an a capella group? My dad was in a barbershop quartet when he was in high school, we have a photo of him wearing big fake sideburns, it’s hilarious.
Dean Finder, good question!!
The Haunted Mansion’s wrought iron railing ( BIRD OF PARADISE) and the spiked fence finial spheres are currently distributed by KING ARCHITECTURAL METALS . They have a locating in Los Angeles as well as Dallas and Baltimore. They have a 700 page catalog . Keep in mind Disney purchase the scroll elements and created the railing using those pieces … so you’ll need a skilled metal worker to create “Haunted Mansion” railing …. And you’ll need a big checkbook as well.
I can’t image a worse place to school a young Donny Osmond than either of the two Haunted Mansion break rooms … especially during the attraction’s opening months … the rooms are very small … And besides cast members using it … there withdrew be lots of imagineers and technical staff running all over the place getting things in order …. The main break room … off the door towards the back of the house closest to the railroad embankment, would be a accessed by having to bring little Donny Osmond up the path , all of the porch passed hundreds of guests in front of Disneyland’s record breaking crowds …. The other break room is really intended for mechanical maintenance crews …but is acess able thru a long maze of passages ways - entered from behind the exit Speedramp or …. Quickly by entering tge transomed door to the very right of the stretching too
- (lower lever ) just before the changing portrait wall. Either way Mr. Gridly is going to have to bring Donny infront of lots fans.
If anyone is purchasing metal work from KING … keep in mind they fabricate everything with rust inhibitors…. So if you want to “rusticate” any of their items you need to have the items treated with another chemical that reverses the rust prevention treatment. OR you can create a faux rust with paint and alcohol …. Keeping real rust at bay.
Spears not spheres regarding the wrought iron estate fencing ….
“Are you keeping someone out? …… or someone IN??”
@ Melissa-
And then there's the Allan Sherman lyrics...
"Every time you take vaccine
take it 'Aura-Lee'.
As you know the other way
is more pain-fully".
Mike Cozart, I think that “The E-Ticket” magazine mentioned that the wrought iron in New Orleans Square was still available. Which is pretty cool! All I need is to win the lottery so that I can use the same patterns on my mansion. Any day now! It does seem hard to believe that they wouldn’t have a comfortable, well-lit place for Donny Osmond to study. Even somebody of lesser fame would warrant a pleasant room. How about someplace up in Club 33? Anyway, I wonder what they use to inhibit rust on wrought iron? My guess is a mixture of butter and WD-40.
Mike Cozart, I knew what you meant!
Nanook, all I’ve ever heard from him was the famous “Hello mudda” song. I guess he probably had whole albums of routines!
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