Haunted Mansion

The **Haunted Mansion** is a omnimover dark ride at the Disney Parks. One of the most famous attractions ever built by Disney, it is located at New Orleans Square in Disneyland, Liberty Square in the Magic Kingdom, and Fantasyland in Tokyo Disneyland.

At Disneyland Paris, this attraction is called **Phantom Manor**. A trackless attraction known as **Mystic Manor** can be found at Hong Kong Disneyland.

## Backstory

No one truly knows how the Haunted Mansion came to be. It was owned by a great number of families over the years, all who met a tragic fate. As the years passed, it was left abandoned by the living world at the dark end of town. However, it became a home for retired ghosts over the years. 999 happy haunts live within its halls, with their own backgrounds and histories. For any mortals who manage to wander into the doors, they’ll meet many of them.

### Disneyland

Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is an antebellum mansion located in the French Quarters of New Orleans, Louisiana. While never explicitly stated it is frequently inferred that the mansion's original owner was a sea-captain, likely a pirate who built the manor with his blood money in the late-18th/early-19th century. The manor is probably better affiliated with a wealthy New Orleans family which owned it that is often assumed to be named the Gracey family though again, explicit sources are scarce and dubious. The Gracey family suffered many tragedies during their ownership the the mansion, all dying violent and sudden deaths before being buried on the house's grounds.

At unspecified points in time the manor would also play host to different dark individuals. One was a deformed transatlantic man referred to as, "The Hatchet Man" who was likely an owner or head of staff to the mansion but who wound up committing suicide in the house's cupola by hanging himself. He would go on to become the Haunted Mansion's disembodied, "Ghost Host" and seem to be the head-most authority of the manor. The other figure was a Romani clairvoyant woman called Madame Leota who might have been affiliated with the Gracey Family and who operated out of a vardo which would come to make stop in New Orleans Square. In death she became the mansion's resident clairvoyant who summoned ghosts to the estate and seemed to have some relation to another ghost known as, "The Ghostess" or, "Little Leota" as they looked identical and are frequently put forth to be relatives. Given her moniker, Little Leota might also have some connection to the Ghost Host as-well.

By 1877, the mansion would come into the ownership of a wealthy California man named George Hightower. Hightower was engaged to a beautiful woman named Constance Hatchaway, unknowing that she was a serial-killer who aimed to murder him to inherit his wealth and property. Constance's plot proved successful and she would use the attic's mansion to hide all evidence and twisted souvenirs of her serial-killings. Constance had some affiliation with another Victorian man who she might have also killed who would become, "The Hatbox Ghost" and who resided in the attic with Constance, keeping the hatboxes which she used to stuff her victims' heads. This man would come to be murdered (presumably by Constance) and be decapitated with his own head being put in a hatbox.

Constance would live into her old-age with her assumed wealth, dying in 1927 before becoming a ghostly bride that would terrorize the Haunted Mansion's attic in search of new blood to spill. At some point in time the mansion established the Ghost Relations Department which appeared to include the likes of Little Leota and three hitchhiking ghosts named Phineas, Ezra and Gus who would go about bringing new spirits to the mansion be it by inviting in outside apparitions or turning mortals into ghosts. By the time of the ride's setting, the house is home to 999 happily hedonistic haunts.

### Magic Kingdom/Tokyo

These versions of the manor are a Dutch-Gothic mansion set in a sleepy village in the Hudson River Valley of upstate New York. According to some sources, the manor was built on an Indigenous burial ground which was stolen by the colonists. The mansion was owned by the wealthy Gracey family who c. 1692 the mansion became affiliated with one Madame Leota, a witch from Salem who fled to New York to escape persecution and established a shop near the manor known as *Memento Mori*. By the time of Leota's death, she would be buried within the mansion's Gracey family-plot.

At some point in time (likely in the 18th and/or 19th centuries) , the mansion became home to a deformed madman known as the, "Hatchet Man". He is presumed to have killed certain individuals before committing suicide in the cupola of the manor using a noose. In death the Hatchet Man became the mansion's, "Ghost Host" and had an apparent connection to, "Little Leota" who was an apparent relative of Madame Leota's. Little Leota would go on to posthumously serve as the mansion's, "Ghostess". By the 1870s the manor was owned by the wealthy George Hightower and in 1877 would also become home to his bride Constance Hatchaway. Constance was however a serial-killer who murdered George with an axe, decapitated him, and placed his head in a hatbox within the attic as a souvenir amongst the belongings of her four other late-grooms. Constance went on to live a life of wealth and comfort, dying in her old age around the 1920s. Following her death, Constance's ghost haunted the manor's attic as a murderous bride spirit.

At some point in the late-19th/early-20th century the mansion became owned by the wealthy Dread family. The Dreads were run by wealthy patriarch Jacob Dread who was murdered with poison by relative Bertie Dread. Bertie was killed by Jacob's widow Florence who herself was killed by the twins Wellington and Forsythia Dread when they suffocated her in birdseed. The twins were later murdered by Maude who was a nanny and/or cousin for the Dread family and bashed the twins' heads in with a hammer as they slept for their inheritance. After killing the twins she went to sleep but inadvertently set the house on fire due to her usage of matches as hairpins, setting the manor ablaze with her inside.

## Summary

### Disneyland

Guests enter the grounds of the stately mansion from New Orleans Square and pass through its front features. Throughout the exterior queue are the tombstones of the manor's late residing family with rhyming and humorous epitaphs, crypts with pun names written on them, a white hearse pulled by an invisible hearse advertising the, "Ghost Relations Department" and a small pet cemetery. Guests are lead through the mansion's front-doors by its servants into the funeral parlour-like foyer. In the foyer the guests are first met by their invisible, "Ghost Host" who goes on to begin their tour through the Haunted Mansion.

The tour begins within a portrait-gallery decorated with four portraits of the manor's residents: an elderly Constance Hatchaway, a beautiful maiden named Sally Slater, a dignified gentleman named Alexander Nitrokoff, and another man in a bowler-hat. As the host continues his dialogue, the room begins stretching and expands the contents of the portraits to highlight all of their grizzly fates. Constance is sitting atop the tombstone of her groom George Hightower who she desecrated the tomb of with an axe, Sally is standing on a frayed tightrope over the gaping jaws of an alligator, Nitrokoff is revealed to be in his undergarments standing atop a keg of lit explosives, and the man in the bowler hat is sitting on the shoulders of two other men with all being stuck in a pit of quicksand. The Host goes on to make the observation that the stretching room has no windows and no doors which leaves the mortals to find a way out, before instead decided to take his way. The lights black out and the ceiling vanishes to show the Ghost Host's skeletal remains hanging by a noose from the cupola of the manor, when the lights go back on there is a door for the guests.

The doors lead into a hallway decorated with more portraits on one side and windows on the other, revealing a dark storm raging outside. At the end of the hallway are two marble busts which turn their heads to stare guests dead-on regardless of where they stand. As the lightning flashes it causes the portraits to change their forms such as: a young maiden on a lounge sofa transforming into a were-tiger holding a human bone, a portrait of Sir Edward of Woodstock turning into a skeletal knight on a cadaverous horse, a young Master Gracey transforming into skeletal corpse, a ship at sea turning into a ghost vessel in a storm, and a beautiful greek woman revealing herself to be Medusa. This corridor leads into a chamber of darkness and decay which seems to personify the limbo of which the manor's 999 residents inhabit. Here guests board a black, "Doom Buggy" which begins traveling up stairs to the manor's second-floor.

The Doom Buggies pass by an endless hallway with a floating candelabra passing down it and at the hall's landing a red armchair with a human-like appearance across from a suit of armour making subtle movements. The buggies then pass by the manor's conservatory where a raven with red eyes caw at the guests meanwhile a corpse desperately attempts to escape from an ebony coffin in the centre of the room. The guests go on to exit into the corridor of doors which is lined with a wallpaper covered in eyes, photographs of corpse-like residents and a portrait of the Ghost Host as he appeared in his own corruptible mortal state. The doors each have spirits on the other sides of them, attempting to make their ways through with one door even seemingly breathing as if it were alive. At the end of the hall is a demonic grandfather-clock with hands spinning wildly over the hour 13 as the shadow of a claw passes over it.

At the Ghost Host's behest the guests go to see the manor's resident medium Madame Leota to assist the happy haunts in breaking through into the material plain. Leota is a woman's head in a crystal ball which floats over a table of candles making her incantations as the red-eyed raven caws nearby. A great number of musical-instruments and other objects float through the air making sounds in response to Madame Leota's ritual to assist in calling forth the spirits from regions beyond. The ritual is shown to be a success as guests exit onto a balcony for the manor's ballroom which is flooded with ghosts. At this point the Ghost Host says that the residents are throwing a, "Swinging wake" for the mortals and that he must leave them on their own as he attends to house matters but that he will see them all a little later.

Wraiths fly overhead of the Great Hall as a crystal-chandelier hosts a Roman soldier and Egyptian woman enjoying a drink together nearby a jovial Dickensian ghost named, "Pickwick" sipping from a wine glass while spinning from the chandelier with his cane. On ground level there is an old woman in a rocking chair sitting by the fireplace where a ghost atop it cradles one of the staring busts seen earlier. A hearse is parked in the outside doors of the ballroom with several ghosts rushing through its gates into the manor. In the centre of the room is a dining-room table with Great Caesar's Ghost at one head and at the other a ginger woman blowing out 13 candles on a birthday cake in futility as they re-light themselves. Also at the table are a diminutive hairy spirit, a king dressed in his undergarments, a bearded ghost enjoying his wine, and a spirit under the table passed-out drunk. Nearby twelve ballroom dancers fade in and out of sight while engaged in their danse macabre, the women leading of-course; all are dancing to the music of a ghostly organist who plays a grand pipe-organ which banshees emerge from the pipes of while. In the back of the room are the hung portraits of two gentlemen back-to-back in a duel before their ghosts emerge and fire at one another, revealing how they both died at one another's hands.

The doom buggies then ascend into the mansion's attic which is dark and in shambles while in the background are the sounds of a harpsichord playing a wedding march and a disembodied beating heart. The attic is stuffed with many mementos and five wedding photos of one Constance Hatchaway and her five grooms-turned-victims: Ambrose Harper, Frank Banks, the Marquis de Doome, Reginald Caine and George Hightower. The photographs show Constance grinning as the heads of the men disappear from their shoulders before encountering the ghost of the Black Widow Bride herself. Constance's spirit torments guests by making maniacal quotes about her weddings and murders before materializing an axe. Guests narrowly escape through a door to the back balcony littered with hatboxes where they are met by the Hatbox Ghost who chuckles before having his head disappear and reappear in his box.

The doom buggies descend backwards off the balcony where they are met by several large trees with human-like wailing appearances and claws as the raven caws at them from above. In the horizon are a swarm of ghosts flying overtop of the graveyard as the mansion's living caretaker stands at the gates of the cemetery with his dog, frozen in horror. The guests enter the graveyard where ghosts are partaking in a swinging wake with: a band of minstrels playing alongside animals, a hellhound howling at the moon, a royal family using the cemetery as a playground, five singing marble busts performing, "Grim Grinning Ghosts", a mad tea party of spirits held from a hearse sinking in mud, an Egyptian tomb where a mummy struggles to converse with an old deaf ghost, two opera singing phantoms and a trio of a decapitated knight, executioner brandishing an axe and small prisoner, "Gus" in chains singing together in harmony. The guests are then reunited with the Ghost Host as they enter a large mausoleum with the raven perched overhead.

The host mentions that he forgot to mention before that guests should beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts right as they encounter them to the host's clear enjoyment and plans from the start. The Ghost Host elaborates that to assist in filling the manor's quota the hitchhikers will follow guests home until they posthumously return to the Haunted Mansion. This is exemplified when the buggies pass in-front of mirrors where the hitchhikers are shown sitting beside the guests in their vehicles before the host ends the tour and lets guests out. The mortals navigate the flooded mausoleum and before returning to the living world are met by the diminutive spirit of, "Little Leota" encouraging them to return and to bring their death-certificate.

### Magic Kingdom

This Haunted Mansion is entered from a sleepy village in the Hudson River Valley of New York. Guests traverse the ruins of the manor's features including a derelict bird-bath and a black hearse pulled by a phantom steed. They then enter the front cemetery of the manor which holds the remains of its late residents and families. First are the busts and tombs of the Dread family which are decorated with hidden clues to the events of the Dread family murders. After this guests enter the riverside family-plot of the Haunted Mansion where among other things is the wedding-ring of Constance Hatchaway embedded in the pavement. Many of the tombstones and crypts have rhyming and humorous epitaphs, most notably that of Master Gracey whose tombstone has a private plot and fresh rose planted upon it every morning by the servants.

Also in this plot are the crypts of three residents: the mansion's organist and resident composer, "Ravenscroft". One side of the crypt is covered in designs of musical instruments which play music when touched, the other is covered in twisted artifacts that make morbid sounds when touched likewise. At the head of the crypt is a mould of a pipe-organ with a raven statue looking down and steam that emerges from the pipes when played. The next crypt is of the manor's librarian the poetess Prudence Pock who died ('tis said) of writer's block where the sides of her crypt are lined with a cipher code and stone books pushing out from its sides. Within the crypt is a lectern with a book being written in by Prudence's ghost who communicates with mortals via a patented, "Spectrecom" machine. The final crypt belongs to mariner Captain Culpepper Clyne who was buried in brine due to having had a potent dirt allergy. Water springs from cracks in his tomb as the captain's ghost can be heard singing sea-shanties and occasionally sneezing causing water and bubbles to fall from the top of the crypt.

Eventually mortals find their way to the doors entering the manor's first floor from the family-plot, not the front gates. Nearby the gates is a tombstone for one, Madame Leota decorated with a bronze mould of her head which occasionally opens its eyes to spy on guests. The house servants go on to open the doors and lead guests into the foyer where over the fire-place is a portrait of one Master Gracey, a handsome young man. The guests are first met by their invisible, "Ghost Host" who goes on to begin their tour through the Haunted Mansion as the portrait of Gracey degrades turning him into an elderly man, then a rotting corpse and then a skeleton. The Ghost Host and the servants then lead guests into a room next to the foyer though certain guests who require special assistance might be taken for a short-cut through the servants quarters which contains keys and bells for the different rooms along with a piece of wood from the antebellum New Orleans mansion.

The tour begins within a portrait-gallery decorated with four portraits of the manor's residents: an elderly Constance Hatchaway, a beautiful maiden named Sally Slater, a dignified gentleman named Alexander Nitrokoff, and another man in a bowler-hat. As the host continues his dialogue, the room begins stretching and expands the contents of the portraits to highlight all of their grizzly fates. Constance is sitting atop the tombstone of her groom George Hightower who she desecrated the tomb of with an axe, Sally is standing on a frayed tightrope over the gaping jaws of an alligator, Nitrokoff is revealed to be in his undergarments standing atop a keg of lit explosives, and the man in the bowler hat is sitting on the shoulders of two other men with all being stuck in a pit of quicksand. The Host goes on to make the observation that the stretching room has no windows and no doors which leaves the mortals to find a way out, before instead decided to take his way. The lights black out and the ceiling vanishes to show the Ghost Host's skeletal remains hanging by a noose from the cupola of the manor, when the lights go back on there is a door for the guests.

Guests exit the chamber into a larger but darker gallery filled with large pots containing dead flora and portraits of several of the manor's residents including literary characters such as Count Dracula, historic figures like Jack the Ripper, and figures from the manor's own history such as the Ghost Host and Culpepper Clyne. Guests board their, "Doom Buggies" and start their passage through the boundless realm of the supernatural by passing under a darkened staircase with a floating candelabra overhead. The Doom Buggies pass through a corridor of more portraits on one side and windows on the other showing a raging storm. As the lightning flashes it causes the portraits to change their forms such as: a young maiden on a lounge sofa transforming into a were-tiger holding a human bone, a portrait of Sir Edward of Woodstock turning into a skeletal knight on a cadaverous horse, a ship at sea turning into a ghost vessel in a storm, and a beautiful greek woman revealing herself to be Medusa.

After this the Doom Buggies enter the manor's library which is supposedly filled with priceless first editions of ghost stories and marble busts of several great ghost story writers. These marble busts turn their heads to stare guests dead-on regardless of where they move while the library's books and ladders move on their own. After this the guests are taken to the mansion's music-room where a piano is positioned in-front of a large window overlooking a scene of dead trees. The piano is revealed to be played by an undead shadow pianist, identified by some sources as being the Ghost Host himself. The Doom Buggies then make for the second floor of the mansion through the estate's Grand Staircase which is a massive labyrinth of seemingly logic-defying stairways and doors passing in every direction. Many ghostly footprints can be seen walking on the staircase around guests as they make their ascent to the second story of the Haunted Mansion.

After entering a new passage the guests are surrounded by darkness filled with glowing eyes staring at them and many whispering voices. These eyes are eventually revealed to be part of the wallpaper as the house itself is watching them. The Doom Buggies pass by an endless hallway with a floating candelabra passing down it and at the hall's landing a red armchair with a human-like appearance across from a suit of armour making subtle movements. The buggies then pass by the manor's conservatory where a raven with red eyes caw at the guests meanwhile a corpse desperately attempts to escape from an ebony coffin in the centre of the room. The guests go on to exit into the corridor of doors which is lined with photographs of corpse-like residents and a portrait of the Ghost Host as he appeared in his own corruptible mortal state. The doors each have spirits on the other sides of them, attempting to make their ways through with one door even seemingly breathing as if it were alive. At the end of the hall is a demonic grandfather-clock with hands spinning wildly over the hour 13 as the shadow of a claw passes over it.

At the Ghost Host's behest the guests go to see the manor's resident medium Madame Leota to assist the happy haunts in breaking through into the material plain. Leota is a woman's head in a crystal ball which floats over a table of candles making her incantations as the red-eyed raven caws nearby. A great number of musical-instruments and other objects float through the air making sounds in response to Madame Leota's ritual to assist in calling forth the spirits from regions beyond. The ritual is shown to be a success as guests exit onto a balcony for the manor's ballroom which is flooded with ghosts. At this point the Ghost Host says that the residents are throwing a, "Swinging wake" for the mortals and that he must leave them on their own as he attends to house matters but that he will see them all a little later.

Wraiths fly overhead of the Great Hall as a crystal-chandelier hosts a Roman soldier and Egyptian woman enjoying a drink together nearby a jovial Dickensian ghost named, "Pickwick" sipping from a wine glass while spinning from the chandelier with his cane. On ground level there is an old woman in a rocking chair sitting by the fireplace where a ghost atop it cradles one of the staring busts seen earlier. A hearse is parked in the outside doors of the ballroom with several ghosts rushing through its gates into the manor. In the centre of the room is a dining-room table with Great Caesar's Ghost at one head and at the other a ginger woman blowing out 13 candles on a birthday cake in futility as they re-light themselves. Also at the table are a diminutive hairy spirit, a king dressed in his undergarments, a bearded ghost enjoying his wine, and a spirit under the table passed-out drunk. Nearby twelve ballroom dancers fade in and out of sight while engaged in their danse macabre, the women leading of-course; all are dancing to the music of a ghostly organist who plays a grand pipe-organ which banshees emerge from the pipes of while. In the back of the room are the hung portraits of two gentlemen back-to-back in a duel before their ghosts emerge and fire at one another, revealing how they both died at one another's hands.

The doom buggies then ascend into the mansion's attic which is dark and in shambles while in the background are the sounds of a harpsichord playing a wedding march and a disembodied beating heart. The attic is stuffed with many mementos and five wedding photos of one Constance Hatchaway and her five grooms-turned-victims: Ambrose Harper, Frank Banks, the Marquis de Doome, Reginald Caine and George Hightower. The photographs show Constance grinning as the heads of the men disappear from their shoulders before encountering the ghost of the Black Widow Bride herself. Constance's spirit torments guests by making maniacal quotes about her weddings and murders before materializing an axe while across from her is a stack of hatboxes, inferred to possess the heads of her late-grooms.

The doom buggies descend backwards off the balcony where they are met by the raven cawing at them a tree it is perched upon. In the horizon are a swarm of ghosts flying overtop of the graveyard as the mansion's living caretaker stands at the gates of the cemetery with his dog, frozen in horror. The guests enter the graveyard where ghosts are partaking in a swinging wake with: a band of minstrels playing alongside animals, a hellhound howling at the moon, a royal family using the cemetery as a playground, five singing marble busts performing, "Grim Grinning Ghosts", a mad tea party of spirits held from a hearse sinking in mud, an Egyptian tomb where a mummy struggles to converse with an old deaf ghost, two opera singing phantoms and a trio of a decapitated knight, executioner brandishing an axe and small prisoner, "Gus" in chains singing together in harmony. The guests are then reunited with the Ghost Host as they enter a large mausoleum with the raven perched overhead.

The host mentions that he forgot to mention before that guests should beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts right as they encounter them to the host's clear enjoyment and plans from the start. The Ghost Host elaborates that to assist in filling the manor's quota the hitchhikers will follow guests home until they posthumously return to the Haunted Mansion. This is exemplified when the buggies pass in-front of mirrors where the hitchhikers are shown sitting beside the guests in their vehicles before the host ends the tour and lets guests out. Before exiting the mausoleum the Doom Buggies pass under the diminutive spirit of, "Little Leota" encouraging them to return and to bring their death-certificate. Guests are assisted in their dismount by servants and upon exiting the mausoleum find three crypts with two being home to individuals with pun names and one being for the fairy-tale villain of Bluebeard and his seven wives, six of whom he murdered before having been killed by the seventh. Before leaving the mansion's grounds, guests also pass by an overgrown pet cemetery built into the mansion's berm.

### Tokyo Disneyland

This Haunted Mansion is entered through large gates mounted with the mould of a wailing skull, bats and griffin statues that stare down at mortals as they enter the manor. Several humorous tombstones are passed by, most notably being for one Mister West and the adjacent tomb of his deceased dog, "Digger". Much of the queue takes place within an unfinished wing for the mansion left in a state of decay as with the rest of the mansion, a spear even being seen smashed through one of the windows. Guests eventually enter the manor through the unfinished wing and into the foyer where they are met by servants where over the fire-place is a portrait of one Master Gracey, a handsome young man. The guests are first met by their invisible, "Ghost Host" who goes on to begin their tour through the Haunted Mansion as the portrait of Gracey degrades turning him into an elderly man, then a rotting corpse and then a skeleton.

The tour begins within a portrait-gallery decorated with four portraits of the manor's residents: an elderly Constance Hatchaway, a beautiful maiden named Sally Slater, a dignified gentleman named Alexander Nitrokoff, and another man in a bowler-hat. As the host continues his dialogue, the room begins stretching and expands the contents of the portraits to highlight all of their grizzly fates. Constance is sitting atop the tombstone of her groom George Hightower who she desecrated the tomb of with an axe, Sally is standing on a frayed tightrope over the gaping jaws of an alligator, Nitrokoff is revealed to be in his undergarments standing atop a keg of lit explosives, and the man in the bowler hat is sitting on the shoulders of two other men with all being stuck in a pit of quicksand. The Host goes on to make the observation that the stretching room has no windows and no doors which leaves the mortals to find a way out, before instead decided to take his way. The lights black out and the ceiling vanishes to show the Ghost Host's skeletal remains hanging by a noose from the cupola of the manor, when the lights go back on there is a door for the guests.

Guests exit the chamber into a larger but darker gallery filled with large pots containing dead flora. Guests board their, "Doom Buggies" and start their passage through the boundless realm of the supernatural by passing under a darkened staircase with a floating candelabra overhead. The Doom Buggies pass through a corridor of eleven portraits on all sides which have green glowing eyes which stare as the guests as they pass by. The portraits depict several of the manor's residents including literary characters such as Count Dracula and Medusa, historic figures like Jack the Ripper and Grigori Rasputin, along with figures from the manor's own history such as the Ghost Host and mariner Culpepper Clyne. After this the Doom Buggies enter the manor's library which is supposedly filled with priceless first editions of ghost stories and marble busts of several great ghost story writers. These marble busts turn their heads to stare guests dead-on regardless of where they move while the library's books and ladders move on their own. After this the guests are taken to the mansion's music-room where a piano is positioned in-front of a large window overlooking a scene of dead trees. The piano is revealed to be played by an undead shadow pianist, identified by some sources as being the Ghost Host himself. The Doom Buggies then make for the second floor of the mansion through the estate's menagerie which is filled with a large number of giant, man-eating spiders.

After entering a new passage the guests are surrounded by darkness filled with glowing eyes staring at them and many whispering voices. These eyes are eventually revealed to be part of the wallpaper as the house itself is watching them. The Doom Buggies pass by an endless hallway with a floating candelabra passing down it and at the hall's landing a red armchair with a human-like appearance across from a suit of armour making subtle movements. The buggies then pass by the manor's conservatory where a raven with red eyes caw at the guests meanwhile a corpse desperately attempts to escape from an ebony coffin in the centre of the room. The guests go on to exit into the corridor of doors which is lined with photographs of corpse-like residents and a portrait of the Ghost Host as he appeared in his own corruptible mortal state. The doors each have spirits on the other sides of them, attempting to make their ways through with one door even seemingly breathing as if it were alive. At the end of the hall is a demonic grandfather-clock with hands spinning wildly over the hour 13 as the shadow of a claw passes over it.

At the Ghost Host's behest the guests go to see the manor's resident medium Madame Leota to assist the happy haunts in breaking through into the material plain. Leota is a woman's head in a crystal ball sits upon a table of candles making her incantations as the red-eyed raven caws nearby. A great number of musical-instruments and other objects float through the air making sounds in response to Madame Leota's ritual to assist in calling forth the spirits from regions beyond. The ritual is shown to be a success as guests exit onto a balcony for the manor's ballroom which is flooded with ghosts. At this point the Ghost Host says that the residents are throwing a, "Swinging wake" for the mortals and that he must leave them on their own as he attends to house matters but that he will see them all a little later.

Wraiths fly overhead of the Great Hall as a crystal-chandelier hosts a Roman soldier and Egyptian woman enjoying a drink together nearby a jovial Dickensian ghost named, "Pickwick" sipping from a wine glass while spinning from the chandelier with his cane. On ground level there is an old woman in a rocking chair sitting by the fireplace where a ghost atop it cradles one of the staring busts seen earlier. A hearse is parked in the outside doors of the ballroom with several ghosts rushing through its gates into the manor. In the centre of the room is a dining-room table with Great Caesar's Ghost at one head and at the other a ginger woman blowing out 13 candles on a birthday cake in futility as they re-light themselves. Also at the table are a diminutive hairy spirit, a king dressed in his undergarments, a bearded ghost enjoying his wine, and a spirit under the table passed-out drunk. Nearby twelve ballroom dancers fade in and out of sight while engaged in their danse macabre, the women leading of-course; all are dancing to the music of a ghostly organist who plays a grand pipe-organ which banshees emerge from the pipes of while. In the back of the room are the hung portraits of two gentlemen back-to-back in a duel before their ghosts emerge and fire at one another, revealing how they both died at one another's hands.

The Doom Buggies then ascend into the attic of the Haunted Mansion which is filled with the sound of a beating heart. Throughout the manor are chests and hatboxes which undead spirits pop out from, wailing wedding-vows as they do so. The guests then encounter the manor's bride who has purple flesh, glowing green evil eyes and a red heart beating within her chest. The doom buggies descend backwards off the balcony where they are met by the raven cawing at them a tree it is perched upon. In the horizon are a swarm of ghosts flying overtop of the graveyard as the mansion's living caretaker stands at the gates of the cemetery with his dog, frozen in horror. The guests enter the graveyard where ghosts are partaking in a swinging wake with: a band of minstrels playing alongside animals, a hellhound howling at the moon, a royal family using the cemetery as a playground, five singing marble busts performing, "Grim Grinning Ghosts", a mad tea party of spirits held from a hearse sinking in mud, an Egyptian tomb where a mummy struggles to converse with an old deaf ghost, two opera singing phantoms and a trio of a decapitated knight, executioner brandishing an axe and small prisoner, "Gus" in chains singing together in harmony. The guests are then reunited with the Ghost Host as they enter a large mausoleum with the raven perched overhead.

The host mentions that he forgot to mention before that guests should beware of Hitchhiking Ghosts right as they encounter them to the host's clear enjoyment and plans from the start. The Ghost Host elaborates that to assist in filling the manor's quota the hitchhikers will follow guests home until they posthumously return to the Haunted Mansion. This is exemplified when the buggies pass in-front of mirrors where the hitchhikers are shown sitting beside the guests in their vehicles before the host ends the tour and lets guests out. Before exiting the mausoleum the Doom Buggies pass under the diminutive spirit of, "Little Leota" encouraging them to return and to bring their death-certificate. Guests are assisted in their dismount by servants and upon exiting the mausoleum find three crypts with two being home to individuals with pun names and one being for the fairy-tale villain of Bluebeard and his seven wives, six of whom he murdered before having been killed by the seventh. Before leaving the mansion's grounds, guests also pass by an overgrown pet cemetery built into the mansion's berm.

## Spin-offs

### Attractions

#### Phantom Manor

Aside from the similar layout, similar scenes, similar ride vehicles, and similar soundtracks, several characters from the Haunted Mansion can be seen in Phantom Manor, such as Madame Leota and the singing busts.

In Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted Mansion, a picture of Ravenswood Manor can be seen hanging in the Ghostly Materials Gallery, alongside other mansions, which are all connected by way of the Endless Staircase. The Hatbox Ghost, who is one of the few that can navigate the stairs, has visited many haunted mansions all over the world, including the manor, believing that they're reminders of the inevitability of death to celebrate life.

#### Museum of the Weird

The Museum was designed to go with the Haunted Mansion - an alternative path at the end of the queue would have led to the museum, instead of the mansion. Many of the concepts can be seen at the mansion, today.

* The talking chair evolved into the chair next to the endless hallway.
* The arm scones, borrowed from Jean Coqteau’s Beauty and the Beast, are in the exit crypt.
* The haunted vardo cart became a merchandise cart at the Magic Kingdom owned by Madame Leota.
* Marble busts from his Seance Room became the staring busts in the library and loading zone.

The Disney Kingdoms incarnation of the Museum would later appear in the Haunted Mansion miniseries in one of the pictures in the Ghostly Materials Gallery showing various haunted places linked to the Mansion by a supernatural portal network within the Endless Staircase

#### Mystic Manor

In addition to being inspired by the Haunted Mansion in the general sense, many of the manor’s gags and visuals were lifted from the mansion, as well.

* A changing portrait of a woman during into a gorgon - here a fresco instead of a painting.
* Living suits of armor that sing the ride’s theme song, an amalgamation of the living armor and the singing busts.
* The staring busts in the library can be seen in the Mediterranean Hall.

### Overlays

#### Haunted Mansion Holiday

In the story behind the Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay of the Haunted Mansion, Jack Skellington of Halloween Town comes to the manor during the holiday season to assist its 999 spectral residents in a macabre celebration of the holidays. He makes several appearances throughout the attraction.

### Printed-materials

#### Ghost Gallery

The Ghost Gallery is a non-canonical backstory for the Haunted Mansion which was created by cast-members of the attraction in Walt Disney World. While not in the attraction's main continuity it has been responsible for many elements of the Haunted Mansion's lore in official materials and spin-offs.

#### Tales from the Haunted Mansion

Tales from the Haunted Mansion is a series of semi-anthological books within the Haunted Mansion's mythology. They are largely framed through the character of Amicus Arcane, the librarian of the Haunted Mansion.

## Connections

### Adventurers Club

In Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, one Madame Zarkov is identified as running the Museum of the Weird. Madame Zarkov is a character coming from Pleasure Island's Adventurers Club where she was portrayed as a mystic member of its titular organization. Said attraction takes place in late 1937 however and the club was founded in the early 20th century, approximately twenty years after Chandler contacted Zarkov.

### Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

In the 1880s, Society of Explorers and Adventurers president Jason Chandler consulted Zarkov at the museum about the goings-on at Big Thunder Mountain. Based on her guidance, he urged Big Thunder Mining Company owner Barnabas T. Bullion to stop the mining operations in a letter to his headquarters in Tumbleweed.

### Camp Discovery

The Disneyland Mansion is referenced in a newspaper displayed on a bulletin board in Adventure Isle. The article published on September 22, 1930 makes reference to the Johnson family, who have been forced to flee the mansion due to the appearance of ghosts dancing in the ballroom. A spectral dog and a skeleton were also seen around the mansion during the holiday season, which is an allusion to Haunted Mansion Holiday.

### Fantasyland

In addition to the Tokyo Haunted Mansion being located in Fantasyland, the Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion has a tomb in the pet cemetery dedicated to one J. Thaddeus Toad from the attraction *Mr. Toad's Wild Ride*. In the *Beauty and the Beast* themed gift-shop *Bonjour! Gifts* is a portrait depicting a man representing a fictionalized version of *Magic Kingdom* president Phil Holmes. In the man's possession is a roll of wallpaper from the Haunted Mansion.

### Marvel Comics

In the pre-show video for Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT!, the Collector is shown to have a miniature figure depicting the Hellhound of the Haunted Mansion.

### Pirates of the Caribbean

The wax museum that eventually evolved into Pirates would have been centered on the pirate Captain Bartholomew Roberts. When developing the ghost house project, Ken Anderson took inspiration from a sketch of Roberts by Marc Davis and made the mansion’s owner a bloodthirsty pirate, as well. Anderson didn’t think the name had enough gravitas, so he renamed him, dubbing him Captain Bartholomew Gore. The character later took on a life of his own, not connected with the historical figure of Roberts.

In the late 1990s, Imagineer Eddie Sotto had the idea to retheme Tom Sawyer Island, as a way to combine Pirates and the Mansion into one story. Historical pirate Jean Lafitte would have been the owner of the Haunted Mansion and the central figure of the retheme. The transformation never happened, but some remnants remain in New Orleans Square, such as the 1764 archway and the Pirate’s Lair attraction.

### Skipper Canteen

One of the books in the library is Myths of the Supernatural by Gracey. The Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom and in other media is semi-officially known as Gracey Manor. Another book is called, "Ghosts of New Orleans" as a reference to the setting of the original ride.

### Star Tours

Madame Leota makes a cameo in the queue for *Star Tours: The Adventures Continue*. Here, she is seen in her crystal-ball being smuggled through a Star Tours base along with several books from the Haunted Mansion.

### Tower of Terror

The last husband of Constance Hatchaway and one of the owners of the mansion was called George Hightower. Given his name and class, he is likely a relative of Society of Explorers and Adventurers member Harrison Hightower III. Harrison would have been 42, when Constance and George were married.

## Cast

* **Ghost Host** - Paul Frees
* **Coffin Occupant** - X. Atencio
* **Madame Leota** - Eleanor Audley (voice), Leota Toombs (face)
* **Constance Hatchaway** - Kat Cressida (voice) Julia Lee (appearance)
* **Singing Busts** - The Mellomen
* **Opera Singers** - Loulie Jean Norman and Bill Reeve
* **Ghostess** - Leota Toombs

## Trivia

* The organ in the ballroom at Disneyland was the same prop that was used in *20,000 Leagues Under the Se*a, played by Captain Nemo in the Nautilus.
* Between the Tokyo Disneyland, Magic Kingdom and Disneyland versions of the ride, the Disneyland version appears to be the only one which is cannon in the S.E.A. mythos due to Camp Discovery and frequent references to New Orleans rather than New York or Fantasyland.

## References

1. ↑ http://doombuggies.com/history7.html
2. ↑ http://ultimateorlando.blogspot.com/2012/10/magic-kingdom-president-has-tribute-in.html
3. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j58mw6xxWI
4. ↑ https://jungleskipper.com/sea/attractions/skipper-canteen#&gid=1&pid=center-shelf-2nd-shelf-c59
5. ↑ https://jungleskipper.com/sea/attractions/skipper-canteen#&gid=1&pid=center-shelf-4th-shelf-c57
6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf7HMyW49XI&list=ULsS8WZcuSFhk&index=4390