Boo tube: Imagineering series scares up Haunted Mansion facts

[Disney4me]

It takes a lot to make those grim, grinning ghosts come out to socialize. The latest installment of “We Call It Imagineering,” the Disney-produced YouTube series, dives into details of Haunted Mansion, the longtime spooky attraction at Magic Kingdom, Disneyland and other theme parks.

We’re talking down to the eyeballed wallpaper and the pitch of the windy sound effects. The 28-minute production talks with current and former Imagineers, including one who worked with Walt Disney himself. The show goes overseas and onto the Disney Cruise Line, where the Treasure ship features a Haunted Mansion Parlor.

But here are five of the shared factoids about the attraction on dry land.

Scratch that

The disembodied Ghost Host narrator, heard throughout the ride, was not in the early  plans for Haunted Mansion.

“Originally the narrator was going to be a cat that then morphed into a raven. They weren’t able to get the raven to work as the narrator so it became just the Ghost Host voice,” Tom Fitzgerald, portfolio executive creative director for Walt Disney Imagineering, said in the episode, which is titled “Foolish Mortals.”

Ravens still are seen inside the attraction. Other characters that didn’t make the cut includes witches surrounding a cauldron and a more sheet-like ghostly hitchhiker. One iteration had Constance, the bride in the attic, being faceless.

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Breezy and eerie

There’s something spooky in the wind at Haunted Mansion.

“The composer for Haunted Mansion was Buddy Baker, a Disney Legend, and he created these amazing musical melodies that are woven into the sound design of the wind as well as the graveyard in the music,” said Greg Lhotka, manager-audio media design with WDI.

“A lot of the sound design was performed with actual physical props built by legendary sound artist Jimmy Macdonald.” Lhotka said. “He worked very closely with Buddy Baker and they were able to weave the music and sound effects together so you can get the theme of the Haunted Mansion playing through wind.”

Also featured in the YouTube program: outtakes from the recording session of Paul Frees, the voice of your Ghost Host.

Eye catching

Haunted Mansion’s famed looking-back-at-you wallpaper came from former Imagineer Tania McKnight Norris, who also supplied drapery and furniture to fill out the scenes.

“I couldn’t find a spooky wallpaper, and I can remember sitting at my desk doodling the eyes and then working with the wallpaper company to get it precise,” Norris said.

She has bragging rights that are impossible to emulate.

“I’m one of the very few people left who knew Walt Disney,” she said.

(Courtesy photo)

Rolly Crump (left) shows Walt Disney (right) and a Disney ambassador haunted-attraction designs in a mid-1960s episode of the 'Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.' (Walt Disney Co.)

Melting away

Another Disney co-worker was Rolly Crump, who came up with creatures just a little to bizarre for Walt’s Mansion plans. Instead they dreamed up a possible Museum of the Weird attraction, which never happened.

After Crump died in 2023, a miniature version of his melting Candle Man character was placed in the attic scene of the Magic Kingdom ride. A melting bust and other Weird notions also are featured in the Haunted Mansion Parlor on the ship.

Light club

The exterior lighting of Haunted Mansion is designed to draw folks in and play off the foggy atmosphere.

“We started to talk about angle, shadows, color, and how that evokes different emotions, how the greens can make you feel a little bit uncomfortable,” said Ralphie Weisbecker, manager-lighting design with Disney Live Entertainment.

“The blues can be a little darker and spookier, trying to take the story that the Imagineers created inside and draw it outside,” he said.

One more: One little spark

Haunted Mansion character do get out sometimes, notably during Mickey’s Boo to You Halloween Parade, one of the centerpieces of Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom.  Among the memorable actions are the choreographed gravediggers, who hit the pavement to use their shovels for a special effect.

“We were rehearsing, and someone was a little tired and dragged their shovel behind them,” remembers Tara Anderson, show director with Disney Live Entertainment. “And there was a spark. And that’s all I needed. We’re going to play with that. … You get the sound of it, you get the clang, and then you get the scrape and you get the spark.”

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