The e book “The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Basic” by Jason Surrell explains how Imagineers Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump labored up an early demonstration of a proposed Haunted Mansion experience scene for Walt Disney himself again in late 1959. The scene concerned the ghost of a murderous sea captain (Captain Gore), who bricked his spouse up in a wall, Edgar Allan Poe-style, earlier than leaving for sea from the port of New Orleans. Sadly for the captain, he would die at sea, leaving him to be haunted by his spouse again on the mansion.
“A ghost haunted by a ghost!” is how Crump described it in a 1993 interview with Disney Information, later reprinted in Surrell’s e book. Crump mentioned they “staged a full-scale phantasm for Walt” of the scene on the set of Disney’s outdated “Zorro” TV sequence. Of their demo, the captain materialized, soaked with seaweed, earlier than his spouse appeared and got here flying towards him. His apparition then burst right into a puddle of water, like within the trailer, earlier than drying up on the spot.
The phantasm is alleged to have wowed different Imagineers who have been current on the time, however it lasted two to 4 minutes, which wasn’t sensible from a experience operations standpoint. The concept of constructing the Haunted Mansion a walk-through attraction did not attraction to Walt, both, so the seawater and Captain Gore thought have been scrapped together with subsequent plans to attach the attraction’s backstory to the Pirates of the Caribbean (which might finally come to reside in New Orleans Sq. at Disneyland).
By referencing the discarded experience scene within the “Haunted Mansion” trailer, it is clear Disney is drawing deep from the effectively of Imagineering historical past: not simply rides, but additionally deserted experience ideas.
“Haunted Mansion” hits theaters on July 28, 2023.