At LTUE I went to a presentation called "Disney's Haunted House." I am a DIE hard--no pun intended--Haunted Mansion fan, so naturally I had to go, and IT WAS AWESOME. I mean, anything to do with The Haunted Mansion always is.
I'm the kind of person who scours the internet looking for interesting facts about the Haunted Mansion so that I can tell my husband and he'll think I'm cool (yep, he's obsessed with it too).
Seriously, I would love to move into the Haunted Mansion and be the 1,000th happy haunt.
So I decided to compile a list of *some of the coolest, creepiest, and strangest things I've learned about The Haunted Mansion. Here you go!
- The organ in the ballroom is from Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.
- The knight in the hallway used to be an actual cast member. He was later replaced with an animatronic knight because too many problems arose from having a live cast member scare people.
- The Haunted Mansion is the only place in Disneyland where the cast members do not smile.
- Madame Leota's voice is also Maleficent's voice from Sleeping Beauty, and the wicked stepmother in Cinderella.
- The air conditioner is so effective in the Haunted Mansion that every year employees go through and re-scatter dust.
- Master Gracey (pictured below) was a character named after the imagineer Yale Gracey who worked on the ride for years.
- Many of the ghosts share the same face as pirates in Pirates of The Carribean (example: the ghost woman blowing out the candles on the birthday cake has the same face as the whistling pirate in jail).
- A mother once spread her son's ashes throughout the ride because he had loved The Haunted Mansion so much.
- All of the gravestones are tributes to imagineers who worked on the ride.
- The Haunted Mansion is narrated by Paul Frees. He also voices most of the pirates in Pirates of the Carribean.
- The Haunted Mansion was originally going to be a walk through attraction.
- The Hidden Mickey made of plates on the dining room table is not an "official" Hidden Mickey. It was made by cast members.
*I have more fun facts to share, but I might have to save them for another blog post. I'll do a part II. MWAHAHA!
P.S. My obsession may have started when I was younger and my mom played this movie called Disneyland Fun. I watched the Haunted Mansion "Grim Grinning Ghosts" sing a long part over and over. Which is funny because my husband watched it when he was younger too! We are creepy soul mates.
Anyone else watch this growing up?
