The Ghostly Château, August 1970
Wulp, it's that time of year - HALLOWEENTIME! Where ghosts, goblins, and ninja turtles come out to frighten and amuse us. And because the BIG DAY is on Friday, it seemed like a good time to share two vintage photos of the exterior of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. The attraction opened a year before (on August 12, 1969), so the place wasn't as cobwebbed as we might have liked, and the smell of decay was barely noticeable.
There it is, behind a wrought-iron fence. Nice and pointy, too! No teenager is going to climb it without getting what he deserves. I've said it before, but I love the Anaheim mansion the best, it just does it for me. All of the beautiful details, the magnolia trees, the weathervane, and the manicured grounds - chef's kiss! Don't get me wrong, the Florida mansion is awesome, I just don't have the same visceral reaction to it. Your mileage may vary.
I'd haunt this mansion happily!
21 comments:
Yeah, there's nothing like that 'old coffin smell' to get one in the mood for Halloween.
Definitely a couple of postcard-worthy photos today!
In the first one, looks like there was a funeral in the Mansion that day; people are slowly making their way in to pay their respects.
In the second photo, there is a kid on crutches. One of the ghosts must have pushed him down a flight of stairs. Those wacky ghosts! This is a truly beautiful photo!
A couple of nice (early) treats, Major. Thanks.
*Thursday.*
These two photos are wonderful. The Anaheim mansion building is the best in my opinion. It's well kept, but still gives that eerie vibe and aura.
These two photos bring back memories of happy times growing up with Disneyland. Thanks, Major.
Halloween was on a Friday in 1969, less than 3 months after the Haunted Mansion opened. I've never forgotten because some Westchester neighborhood teens put on a HM- inspired extravaganza on their front lawn: homemade fluorescent tombstones, jack-o-lanterns in the trees, Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash" playing on a loop, the works. I had to remove my Topstone Mummy mask to take in all the detail. The next year they outdid themselves with an added walkthrough from the sidewalk to the garage, spooky peek-in scenes with much audio from "The Story and Song From The Haunted Mansion". Guys, wherever you are now, you were among my childhood heroes.
Another thing to love about the California HM exterior is the ability to see it in its stand- alone compactness. Once inside it seems to go on forever, as Shirley Jackson described the atmosphere in "The Haunting of Hill House". The movie version of this novel would be a key influence on The HM ,as related over at the "Long Forgotten" website.
Many thanks Major, some sympathetic vibrations here ...
Painting the undersides of the balcony and its ceiling a darker color than the rest of the building to enhance the shadow effect: Pure genius.
STEVE: the undersides of the balcony ( technically called a gallery on the first level) is painted a medium/sky blue because in the late 1700’s , 1800’s and into the early 1900’s Americans believed that the brighter color would prevent spiders and more importantly wasps and hornets from building webs and nest. Most accurately restored structures from this period with porches , colonnades , galleries and porticos will have this historically accurate blue color.
Mike,
The color never seemed blue to me, always a darker gray. And the actual story of blue gallery ceilings is a bit more apropos of the upcoming All Hallows Eve:
"The painted blue porch ceiling started in the American South around 200 years ago. The practice traces back to the Gullah Geechee, enslaved people living in the low country of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Gullah folklore explains that ghosts, also referred to as “haints,” were not able to cross water. In order to repel evil spirits from plantations, porch ceilings were painted a soft blue. The color was meant to mimic water in an effort to keep any haints or spirits at bay. The Gullah people made sure to cover all their bases—windows, doors and shutters were often painted the same color of “haint blue.” Even bottle trees in the front yard used cobalt blue bottles."
Mike,
You can see in the photos at this link (near the bottom) that the ceilings are definitely not any shade of blue.
https://thedesignersassistant.com/2024/03/26/my-night-at-the-haunted-mansion/
While I'm the first person to be skeptical of Disney-generated "lore," the story has always been that the darker ceilings are meant to enhance the shadow effect. And with the color used, that is indeed the result.
I think that’s probably a regional myth story … having a degree in architecture rural graphics and Environmental design - emphasis in architecture , we learned it was started by the Dutch in America in the 1600’s ( who also developed THE PORCH/VERANDAH) but became common by the Late 1700’s throughout North America / for the insect / pest reason …. Which seem more likely than spirits. The color varies in actual use to a sky blue , a bluish grey to a robins egg blue . The WED imagineers used a plochere blue architectural color when the attraction facade was first built …the same color was used on several of the balconies in New Orleans Square - a similar color now produced by PPG ( architectural coatings series ) is used .. I don’t have the actual color names of either off hand.
Being active with several historical societies there are a few companies that produced restoration actuate colors for specifically these porch blues … in 2010 the 1850’s brick mansion THE WHALEY HOUSE in San Diego had an extreme accurate restoration - and this exact 1856 porch blue was replicated from vintage paint “ archaeology”
The slave origin story is interesting - again probably a regional one.
Architectural Graphics ( my phone added rural) !???
JB, there’s nothing wrong with keeping one of those little pine tree air fresheners in your coffin, so just go ahead and do it! I guess the Mansion has reopened at Disneyland after some serious work done to the grounds, I need to look into what they did, I’m sure I won’t like it, ha ha. Kids on crutches should avoid haunted mansions, he’s just asking for it.
Steve DeGaetano - ???
K. Martinez, I totally understand if other people love the Florida mansion the best, but I have to be true to myself! I’ve always found the Anaheim mansion to be so beautifully done.
Stefano, wow, it sounds like you had some cool neighbors! That was before the days when so many houses decorate like crazy for Halloween. I love the idea of the fluorescent tombstones, etc! When I lived in Huntington Beach, there was one house that had the coolest stuff, when the door opened (for trick or treating), there was a coffin covered by a shroud. The shroud moved by itself, sliding off, and then the coffin would open. Dracula would ask “Vould you like ot have some candy?”. It was so awesome. “The Story and Song From The Haunted Mansion”, I owned two copies of that. My younger brother “borrowed” one and took it to his friend’s house for Halloween, and didn’t return it. Then he did it again the next year. So… no copies of that album are in my collection. I agree with everything you said about the Anaheim mansion!
Steve DeGaetano, now that you mention that, I do seem to remember reading about the “shadow effect” on the Long Forgotten blog.
Mike Cozart, wow, I have never heard that folks thought that certain colors would keep wasps and spiders away! That’s a new one for me. I remember going to an old house in Pennsylvania, I immediately noticed the blue color above us on the porch, and somebody had even painted little gold stars, which I liked a lot.
Steve DeGaetano, I love all that spooky lore! Amazing that some of these practices go back centuries. “Haints” makes me think of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, though I am actually not even positive the word was used in that book. I think so! “Haint blue” now THAT’S a car color I want!
Steve DeGaetano, thanks for the link to The Designer’s Assistant, I was hoping there would be multiple posts relating to the Haunted Mansion, but it looks like there is just the one. I also want to go to the “Long Forgotten” blog and see if I can find his mention of the paint tricks that they used. Later when I’m less busy!
Postcard worthy and proper all around. Hope they replace those cypress trees (we had never really seen this side of the mansion until they cut those down last year. They always added a lot of mood and scale).
MS
Halloween is on Thursday this year, Major...not Friday, as your post states.
… these images show the mansion in its original intended glory …. It was sad when the original gate planters were demolished to force in GALAXYS EDGE …… and now with the current changes there is almost nothing left of original haunted mansion grounds …. Most of the exterior was replaced during the the massive renovation of the facade in 1995/96 …. More foams and extruded architectural elements replaced the 1963 wood and plaster composition details . I remember the discarded original composition and the rotted fiberglass replacement corbel brackets strewn all over the grounds as workers pried them off to add the new foam filled plastic replacements. …. A handful of originals were “saved” - stuffed in our camera bags and under our coats!!
Great pics - I love the DL HM.
Steve D. and Mike, thanks for all the porch paint info—interesting stuff!
Thanks, Major Ghost Host.
MS, did they cut the Italian cypresses down as part of the big “refurb” that has been going on and on?
Steve DeGaetano, oh, ha ha - here I’ve been whining about Halloween being on a Thursday for months, and then I go and do this. Argh.
Mike Cozart, were those old architectural elements weathered and worn? If not, I don’t understand why they would want to replace or change them. I suppose the foam and extruded plastic elements will look basically the same to guests, but it’s sort of the principle that counts. I’m glad you saved some of the cast-offs!
Lou and Sue, stay tuned for more HM tomorrow! Pix taken by somebody you know.
Add me to the list of those who love this building. I hate to hear of its design being compromised in the name of progress - too much of that going around already.
As for the color blue, I have visited old historic barns in Europe that were blue inside, apparently, as Mike said, to keep insects away. But then Steve's "Haint" blue story is very cool and much more interesting!
Going back to my extended family vacation to Disneyland in 1970, my cousin thought the Haunted Mansion was too way dark inside. Never mind that she forgot to take her sunglasses off while inside. :o)
I like the organization of the Florida Haunted Mansion ride. I think it works better as a tour of a haunted house. But entering through the basement rather than through the door makes the DL version superior overall.
Omnispace, I’m very curious to see the new Haunted Mansion queue for myself, though, from what I’ve seen on YouTube, it isn’t great. Hard to improve on perfection (i.e. the early Mansion). So interesting about the idea that blue keeps insects away, I wonder if there is anything to it in reality? Ha ha, your cousin and her dark glasses - my grandma had a habit of forgetting to take of her dark glasses in the theater, she’d complain about how dark it was!
Dean Finder, I’ve read other accounts of the improved layout of the Florida mansion, as well as the nice added scenes like the Library and the “Escher stairs” (or whatever it’s called). Entering through the basement is interesting, I could see how that would be creepy.
Old enough to remember a World of Color episode featuring the Osmonds (or the Cowsills or another family band). They ran around the park, eluding a schedule-obsessed studio employee (kin to pest who guides Robert Benchley in "The Reluctant Dragon") and finally ended on the ride. The episode closed with a shot of the mansion at night with ghosts flying towards it, courtesy of a film effect.
Always felt just a little put off when they "cheated" in shows about the park, as when they added an actual explosion to the end of Pirates of the Caribbean, or inserted footage of real sea life into the submarine voyage (in the "Disneyland '59" special), or used a camera trick to have Ed Wynn and Slue Foot Sue magically change costumes during a supposedly live Golden Horseshoe Revue. I'm funny that way.
Entering the basement at WDW keeps the mansion itself looking properly spooky and abandoned (how haunted can a place be with a noisy flow of tourists stomping through the front door?). The dark brickwork and gothic detail offset the lack of actual decrepitality. If memory serves, that lower entry way feels less a basement than a second entrance for guests, perhaps those arriving in a carriage or muddy from the hunt or something.
Speaking as an example of decrepitude myself, I love the HM and deplore all changes, especially the grotesque “Nightmare” overlay, which is like drawing a mustache on the Mona Lisa.
Fascinating thread, I’m sorry I’m late. Busy day yesterday.
Thanks Major!
JG
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