Haunted Mansion

**The Haunted Mansion** is a classic attraction in the Disney Parks which has shared history with the *Jungle Cruise*.

## History

### Backstory

The Haunted Mansion is a large antebellum manor on Esplanade Street in New Orleans, Louisiana (or a dutch-colonial mansion in a sleepy village of New York's Hudson River Valley in the Magic Kingdom). The manor has a bloody history with many past owners and residents including the wealthy Gracey family, the mansion's, "Host" who hanged himself in the cupola, the Romani sorceress Madame Leota, and the serial-killer Constance Hatchaway who inherited the mansion from her husband George Hightower upon murdering him. In modern day, the estate is a form of retirement home for spirits and the undead, having 999 residents from around the world.

## Overlays

### Haunted Mansion Holiday

This is a Christmas overlay themed to the film *Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas* (1993). In its story, Jack Skellington arrives at the mansion as, "Sandy Claws" and assists the manor's ghosts in celebrating a macabre version of the holiday season.

## Jungle Cruise connections

### Attractions

#### Jungle Cruise

Various contributors behind the Jungle Cruise also developed the Haunted Mansion, including Harper Goff, Marc Davis and Blaine Gibson. The two are known to share audio-animatronics and moulds such as the Goliath Spiders from Shir Lee Temple having appeared in the Haunted Mansion and a member of the trapped safari using the mould of the Haunted Mansion's caretaker, Silas Crump. The latter was sometimes acknowledged by skippers saying that the characters were distant-cousins with skippers also often imitating the Ghost Host while beginning their tours as a joke.

In the Amazon River Base is a bottle labelled, "Prof. Plump's Miracle Tonic for Everlasting Life". This is likely a reference to the Hitchhiking Ghost, "Phineas" from the *Haunted Mansion* who in the non-canonical, "Ghost Gallery" backstory was explained to have been a snake-oil salesman and who in many materials is given the name, "Professor Phineas Plump". The medicine also appears in the cabinet at the lookout of Disneyland's boathouse. In both American Jungle Cruises are crates for *Hightower Industries*, connected to the manor's late owner of George Hightower.

In the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion, the character of Bertie Dread whose tomb is outside the mansion has a Marc Davis-influenced white colonial design similar to the characters of the Jungle Cruise. In this same queue is the ghost of poetess Prudence Pock who tells many morbid poems, some of which have a jungle theming. These poems include: " *One night on safari, crazy Franz Geiger tried to ride a man-eating tiger*", "*Deep in the wild, on his off-road machine, Greg found that his tank had no more gasoline*", "*Sweet Hanna had taken a cruise to Manila. She was thrown overboard by an angry gorilla*", and, " *Irv thought he'd relax in his jungle cabana, but a really big monkey thought him a banana*".

#### Skipper Canteen

Two books within the library of the Skipper Canteen reference the Haunted Mansion. One is titled, "Tales of the Supernatural" by Gracey, referencing imagineer Yale Gracey and his ride counterpart of *Master Gracey* whose family owned the Haunted Mansion. Another book is titled *Ghosts of New Orleans* by Scholtz, referencing the mansion's setting.

#### Trader Sam's

The, "Zombie Head" mugs are modelled after Blaine Gibson's, "Leering head" mould for characters in the Haunted Mansion. When ordered, ambience similar to that of the Haunted Mansion plays in the bar and a remove effect illuminated the heads of Trader Sam's family. The bars are also known for selling and serving tiki mugs depicting Haunted Mansion entities including the Hitchhiking Ghosts, gargoyles, Hatbox Ghost and Jack Skellington. There are also references to Sam being connected to the Hightower family via his alleged grandfather Billamongawonga having been right-hand-man to Harrison Hightower III in New York City.

### Web media

#### Jungle Cruise Skippers Give Tour of the World Famous...Haunted Mansion

This was a video released on YouTube by Disney Parks that had two skippers giving a, "Tour" of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion.

### Other connections

#### Club 33

There is a portrait of the mansion in this exclusive club which shares the manor's New Orleans Square setting.

#### Mary Poppins

Constance Hatchaway's second husband-turned-victim was an eastern banker named Frank Banks in 1872. Frank might be implied to be a member of the Banks family from Mary Poppins.

#### Main Street Cinema

The Disneyland Casting Agency has a post from the manor's Ghost Relations Department.

#### Mystic Manor

Mystic Manor is a British colonial reimagining of the Haunted Mansion. In Tales from the Haunted Mansion, Lord Henry Mystic was mentioned as a grave-robber and exploiter of mummies in an origin-story for the manor's mummy, Prince Amenmose.

#### Pirates of the Caribbean

The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean are sister-attractions with assorted, loose connections between them.

#### Tower of Terror

The Haunted Mansion is connected to Tokyo DisneySea's Tower of Terror via Harrison Hightower III, the owner of the Hotel Hightower being an implied relative of George Hightower, the mansion's owner and last-known victim of Constance Hatchaway.

## Trivia

* The Haunted Mansion's reimaginings of Mystic Manor and Phantom Manor both have their stories connected to the Jungle Cruise, notably by Lord Henry Mystic and Captain Rowan D. Falls.
* The character of Mr. Toad from *The Wind in the Willows* (1908) appears as a tombstone and undead resident of the Haunted Mansion. Toad is also the author of a book titled, "The Wildest Ride" in the *Skipper Canteen* and patron of Trader Sam's in Trader Sam's Grog Grotto.
* In the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion, there is a, "Spectrecom" on the crypt of Prudence Pock, patented by one R.H. Goff. This is a tribute to Harper Goff and in universe could be connected to the character Professor Harper Goff.

## Gallery

A web video of two skippers at the Haunted MansionZombie Head mugs in Trader Sam'sThe Haunted Mansion's caretakerThe caretaker's doppelgänger in the Jungle CruiseA Goliath SpiderMr. Toad's tombstone in the Haunted Mansion
## References

1. ↑ https://www.themeparktourist.com/features/20140313/16801/secrets-jungle-cruise-skipper-disneys-magic-kingdom?page=587
2. ↑ https://ziggyknowsdisney.com/skipper-canteen-review-dinner-magic-kingdom/