Singing Busts

The Singing Busts as they appear in Phantom Manor

**The Singing Busts** or **Mellomen** are five ghosts found in the Haunted Mansion and Phantom Manor.

## History

These five men lived at some point in the 19th and possibly 20th century. At-least two members might have had some affiliation with the family which owned the Haunted Mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana. One member Phineas P. Pock was a member of the Pock family which had many affiliations to the mansion and its history as-well.

At some point they died and were laid to rest in the graveyard behind the Haunted Mansion with each of them being memorialized by a marble-bust. At-least four of them would have their marble-busts located to the town of Thunder Mesa in the Big Thunder region by the 1880s.

### Alternate versions

#### Ghost Gallery

In the non-cannon but influential Ghost Gallery backstory for the Haunted Mansion, the Singing Busts were a musical group from Yale University known as the Mallow Men. Here their names were **Sherman Thurl, Richard Ravens, Robert Croft, Dansen Singg,** and **Omney Buss** and they were old friends of Master Gracey who were invited to perform in the Haunted Mansion. They died in 1934 when lightning struck a cable connected to their microphone during a performance, electrocuting them all to death.

## Members

* **Rolo Rumkin**
* **Uncle Theodore**
* **Cousin Algernon**
* **Ned Nub**
* **Phineas P. Pock**.

## Connections

### The Haunted Mansion

The Singing Busts appear in the graveyard of the Haunted Mansion singing, "Grim Grinning Ghosts" with Uncle Theodore's bust is cracked causing his head to be on a slant. Phineas P. Pock is also a member of the Pock family which also included the mansion's librarian and poetess Prudence Pock, 18th century spirit Phineas Pock who moved to the manor via the Ghost Relations Department, and potentially others from less official materials.

In Disneyland's Haunted Mansion, there are tombstones for Phineas Pock and Rolo Rumkin found in the family plot in the front of the manor, their epitaphs reading, "*Here Lies Phineas Pock, laid to rest beneath this rock. R.I.P."* and, "*Rolo Rumkin. Lived and Died a Friendly Bumpkin."*. It is however unclear if these are intended to be the same incarnations as the Singing Busts considering their apparent different resting places and how common the name Phineas Pock is in the Haunted Mansion. In Walt Disney World, explicit tombstones for the busts can be found in the queue.

### Phantom Manor

The Singing Busts appear in the catacombs under Boot Hill Cemetery outside of Ravenswood Manor along with many skeletal corpses which inhabit the caverns. Only four of the busts appear here with Cousin Algernon being absent. Uncle Theodore's bust is not broken here but is resting on a pedestal which is slanted in the mud.

Additionally, the name of the Ravenswood family is an allusion to Uncle Theodore's performer Thurl Ravenscroft who was selected due to his role as Theodore. The name Ravenswood here being a portmanteau of Ravenscroft which would have been made more obvious with the inclusion of the since deleted character Arthur Ravenswood.

### Mystic Manor

A recreation of Ned Nub's marble-bust is in Lord Henry Mystic's *Acquisitions and Cataloguing Room* in Mystic Manor. It is first inanimate and then brought to life by the Balinese Music Box.

### The Haunted Mansion: Frights of Fancy

In this comic-book, Uncle Theodore is revealed to have been friends with one of Constance Hatchaway's late-husbands. Said husband might be George Hightower, a member of the Hightower family which included Harrison Hightower III of S.E.A..

## Trivia

* The, "Aunt Lucretia" staring-bust was originally intended to have been included amongst the Singing Busts.
	+ This bust also appears in the Mediterranean Hall of Mystic Manor.
* The Singing Busts are often likened to the Dapper Dans of Main Street, U.S.A..
* Rolo Rumkin's name is a tribute to imagineer Rolly Crump, the designer behind the Museum of the Weird.
* There is a popular urban-myth that Uncle Theodore's face is that of Walt Disney, it is actually the face of Thurl Ravenscroft.