The Haunted Mansion Pg. 3

Hatbox Ghost animation Ballroom trivia: During summer 1974 somebody fired off multiple rounds using a firearm within the park. Two confirmed gunshots struck both the Haunted Mansion ballroom glass wall and a snowflake on Adventure Thru Inner Space. A third hole was found in the Primeval World diorama. Later investigtation by Anaheim Police determined the holes to be .22 caliber with bullet fragments matching between the holes. The Haunted Mansion Ballroom glass was so large that the roof of the building would have had to be removed/destroyed to replace them. Instead, Disney covered up the hole in the glass by disguising it as a spider web and placed a fake spider right over the the hole. You can view it just after leaving Madame Leota's seance room.

The Hatbox Ghost was a figure located in the attic that was removed either during the preview stage or shortly after opening. The figure’s head was supposed to disappear and reappear in the hatbox. At the time, the effect did not really work very well and was unconvincing, thus, it was quickly removed. Rumors abounded for years that the Hatbox Ghost was being returned to the Mansion and FINALLY it happened on Saturday, May 9, 2015.

Did You Know?...

Paul Frees, who also voiced Ludwig Von Drake and most of the Pirates of the Caribbean characters, provided the voice of the Ghost Host? The broken singing bust was voiced by Thurl Ravenscroft, best known as the voice of Tony the Tiger. Eleanor Audley, voice of Maleficent and Cinderella's stepmother, was the voice of Madam Leota. Leota's face (as well as both face and voice of "Little Leota" at the attraction's end) was Leota Toombs, a longtime Imagineer whose daughter, Kim Irvine, is a current Art Director with WDI's Disneyland Design Studio.Due to an oversight, the dancers in the ballroom dance BACKWARDS? If you look closely, you'll discover that the women lead!

The human-body-as-architecture elements were originally designed for a never-built part of the Haunted Mansion called "Museum of the Weird"? Some examples are skull-like wainscoting in the changing portrait gallery and door frames, the face-like patterns hidden everywhere, and the bony-arm candelabras in the unload area. And have you ever noticed that the face of the clock striking 13 rests in the mouth of a beast--eyes above, gnarled feet below, and a barbed tail for a pendulum?

The Haunted Mansion is the only attraction to be in a different Land in each of the four classic Disney Theme Parks? It's in New Orleans Square here, in Liberty Square at Walt Disney World, Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland, and Frontierland at Disneyland Paris (where it was also renamed Phantom Manor).

Cuban Sculptor Carves Furniture for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

For Ciro Rolando Santana y Arrite, a soft-spoken, wiry little Cuban sculptor of extraordinary talent, a temporary position at Disneyland has become a springboard to the fulfillment of a longtime dream — to bring his family from an adopted home in Puerto Rico to the United States and continue his career as a sculptor.

Rolando Santana came to this country yearly in 1969. He had been at Disneyland for only a few weeks when the word went out from WED that new projects required the talents of an additional sculptor.

Rolando went to WED for an interview, presented his credentials, and was promptly made a member of the WED Imagineering staff.

The sculptor's work has been exhibited in many countries throughout the Americas and in Spain. For two decades, art and educational publications have featured articles on his works.

Rolando received his formal art training as a student for seven years at Havana's St. Alexander's National School of Fine Arts and two years at the Havana Center of Fine Arts.

Adept in sculpturing all media, Rolando has begun the resumption of his career at WED by carving wooden furniture and ornamentation for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

While one part of Rolando's dream became a reality, the other part came true in May when his wife and three children joined him in their new home in the United States.