Haunted Mansion

**The Haunted Mansion** is a classic Disney dark-ride attraction in Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World, and Tokyo Disneyland. It has developmental and backstory connections to the Tower of Terror franchise.

## History

### Backstory

In main continuity, the Haunted Mansion is an antebellum estate overlooking the Mississippi River from Esplanade street in New Orleans, Louisiana. The mansion has a long and bloody history of different macabre owners and residents including the deposed Gracey family, serial-killer Constance Hatchaway, Romani clairvoyant Madame Leota and the manor's deformed, "Ghost Host" who hanged himself from the manor's rafters. In modern times, the manor is a sort of postmortem retirement home for 999 spirits from around the world though it always has room for 1,000.

## Tower of Terror connections

### Attractions

#### Buena Vista Bugle

For Halloween editions, the celebrity sightings section is renamed to, "Happy Haunts" as a reference to the lyrics of Grim Grinning Ghosts.

#### Tower of Terror

The Haunted Mansion's former owner was California aristocrat George Hightower who was murdered by his bride Constance Hatchaway in 1877. George's surname, nationality and statues infer him to be a relative of the evil Harrison Hightower III, owner of the Hotel Hightower. Both Tower of Terror and the re-haunting which added this backstory also happened in the year 2006.

#### Tower of Terror 10-Miler

Various Haunted Mansion characters such as the butlers and dancers made live-appearances at this event.

#### The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror reuses the, "Pepper's Ghost" effect to show ghosts in the hallway. This effect was also used in the Haunted Mansion for the ballroom scene. Voice-actress Kat Cressida who voices Constance Hatchaway also voiced Sally Shine in the Disney California Adventure version of Tower of Terror.

### Printed-materials

#### Disney Kingdoms: The Haunted Mansion

In this non-canonical comic, the Hollywood Tower Hotel is pictured and identified as one of many haunted locations connected to the, "Endless Staircase" of the Haunted Mansion.

#### Tales from the Haunted Mansion

One of the short stories told by Amicus Arcane featured old Hollywood ghosts within locker, "39", seemingly a reference to the October 31 of 1939 from the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror's backstory.

### Promotional materials

A 2004 advertisement for *Disneyland* and *Disney California Adventure* showed the Hitchhiking Ghosts gleefully riding on an elevator in the Hollywood Tower Hotel to the dismay of a grim bellhop.

### Other connections

#### Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!

On his desk in the pre-show video, the Collector has a maquette of the Haunted Mansion's Hellhound on his desk.

#### Hollywood Land

Madame Leota made a cameo in the infamous Hollywood Land attraction, "Superstar Limo", summoning Hollywood agents from a séance. On this attractions' replacement *Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!*, Randall briefly changes his scales' pattern to the Haunted Mansion's iconic wallpaper.

#### Jungle Cruise

In the Jungle Navigation Company's Amazon River Base is a vial labelled, "*Prof. Plump's Miracle Tonic for Everlasting Life*", seemingly referencing the Hitchhiking Ghost Phineas who is often identified as a snake-oil salesman named Prof. Phineas Plump. The Goliath spiders in Shir Lee's Temple also used to appear in the Haunted Mansion and a member of the lost safari shared his face mould with the mansion's caretaker, resulting in skippers sometimes identifying them as distant cousins.

##### Skipper Canteen

Two books in the library allude to the Haunted Mansion. These books are *Ghosts of New Orleans* by Scholtz while the other is, *Tales of the Supernatural* by Gracey with the latter of the two referencing Master Gracey and the Gracey family.

## Trivia

* The Haunted Mansion's British colonial reimagining of *Mystic Manor* in *Hong Kong Disneyland* is also connected to the Tower of Terror as Lord Henry Mystic was a contemporary of Hightower, present the date of his disappearance.

## Gallery

The ride facade in DisneylandThe ride facade in the Magic KingdomA photo of the Hollywood Tower Hotel in Disney Kingdoms: Haunted MansionA pin themed to the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and Fantasmic!
## References

1. ↑ https://disneylandmaps.files.wordpress.com/2016/03/vol-3-iss-4.pdf