visitors have only the chance of a ghost of getting out alive!
are you afraid of ghosts?
In 1958 Vincent Price gave a party in the HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL but few of his guests lived to enjoy it.
In 1963 Julie Harris & Claire Bloom were menaced by weird apparitions while spending a horrifying night at Hill House in THE HAUNTING.
Now, in 1970 YOU can spend some time in a haunted house ... if you dare ! If you live in California or plan to visit, be sure to see the newest Disneyland attraction: The Haunted Mansion!
the trouble with ghosts
Nine years ago a huge foreboding mansion was constructed in the empty space near New Orleans Square in Disneyland. The idea of a Haunted House for the Magic Kingdom had been in Walt Disney's mind as early as 1955 but several problems kept the House from being completed on the original target date in 1961.
How do you build a ghost ? That was the most difficult problem facing the Disney engineers & artists. How can you make transparent ghosts fly & jump about when you have to have electronic gizmos inside them to make them move?
a ghost for a host
Another problem was how to get the public into & thru the attraction. At first it was decided that a "ghost host" or hostess would escort the guests on their semi-mental journey. But this idea was rejected on the grounds that it is easier to spook & scare a small group than a larger one. The great Disney, who sought perfection in everything he did, sent everyone back to their drawing boards to try to come up with a more satisfactory way to present the Haunted Mansion.
Other projects, such as the exhibits to be pre-pared for the 1965 New York World's Fair, pushed the work on the Haunted House even farther into the background.
gracey the grue-vy
It was Yale Gracey, Disneyland's "master illusioneer", who was finally able to create the fantastic ghostly effects to be seen in the Haunted Mansion. Despite warnings from engineers who insisted that his ideas for creating certain ghostly illusions were not feasible, Gracey was able to put them into successful operation.
"Often I simply don't know that something couldn't be done," explains Gracey when questioned about his creations. "I would develop a concept and gather various gadgets & materials and keep trying until it worked."
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