Haunted Mansion fans, you can finally die happy! The book that you have been waiting for for decades has finally arrived.
Jason Surrell’s “The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies” (Disney Editions, October 2003) is the real deal, folks. A thoroughly researched, beautiful illustrated history of this much Disney theme park attraction, I can honestly not say enough nice things about this book.
Obviously, Surrell has to be a fan of the ride. I mean, how else do you explain the almost fanatical attention to detail here? Where every little piece of this attraction’s history is celebrated? Where every Imagineer who ever worked on this project is acknowledged? Where even the smallest of differences between the four versions of the attraction are so carefully weighed and measured?
My apologies to Jason if the above description makes “The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies” sound like kind of a dry read. Or some academic tome. It’s really not. Surrell’s text for this book is actually quite entertaining.
More to the point, Jason really knows his Disney theme park history. (But – given that the guy’s an Imagineer – what else did you expect?) Which is why he decided to start his tale of the Haunted Mansion’s development in just the right spot. Back in 1951, when Harper Goff was first doing conceptual work for the “Mickey Mouse Park” that Walt was thinking of building on that 11-acre parcel of land directly across from Disney Studios in Burbank, CA.
And — as Harper was throwing together ideas for that then-super-secret project — he drew one particularly atmospheric sketch entitled “Church, Graveyard & Haunted House.” Goff’s inspirational drawing showed a quaint country church in the foreground. While – off in the distance – this decaying mansion looms over an overgrown graveyard.
And out of this one single sketch … the attraction that millions around the globe have thrilled to was born.
Mind you, Harper’s idea had to pass through a lot of hands before the core concepts for “The Haunted Mansion” attraction that we know today were finally in place. But Surrell skillfully walks you through this part of his narrative. Starting with those first treatments that Ken Anderson wrote for the Disneyland’s “Haunted House” show back in February 1957. Back when the attraction’s central story dealt with the ill-fated marriage of Priscilla and Bartholomew Gore.
Jason then swiftly moves you through all of the other takes that Anderson had on this tale. The version of Disney’s Haunted Mansion where the Headless Horseman (I.E. the villain from the studio’s 1949 release, “The Adventures of Ichabod & Mr. Toad”) was the star of the show. As well as the version that climaxed with the marriage of “Monsieur Bogyman” and “Mlle Vampire.”
Meanwhile, while Ken is hammering out scripts for this proposed attraction, Yale Gracey and Rolly Crump are back at WED — cooking up illusions to present in Disneyland’s Haunted House. In fact, as part of his book, Surrell tells one of my all-time favorite stories about the early days at Imagineering. About how Rolly and Yale used to get a kick out of torturing the janitorial staff by setting up these ghostly gags to go off hours after they’d left their workshops for the night. They’d come in the next morning and find the door to their offices wide open, the broom left where the janitor dropped it after he’d raced out of the room in fright.
Of course, the downside of this gag was that Crump and Gracey eventually got a call from WED’s Personnel Office. Which told the two Imagineers that: “You’re going to have to clean your own office from now on. The janitors refuse to go back in there.”
Pretty funny story, eh? Well, that’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks. Jason has crammed his “Haunted Mansion” book full of great anecdotes like that. Along with page after page of terrific concept art and photographs of models, etc.
And — for those of you who just can’t wait to see Disney’s “The Haunted Mansion” movie (opening at a theater near you on November 26th) — the last third of the book reveals all the care and consideration that went into the creation of this Rob Minkoff movie. And you’re just going to flip when you see the wonderful job that Academy Award winning make-up artist Rick Baker did as he was translating various ghosts from the attraction into characters for the movie. I mean, the Hitchhiking Ghosts look great. As does the Headless Knight, the Executioner and the Opera Singing Ghost.
But perhaps the best reason to buy this book is that it will make you aware how much the folks who are behind this upcoming Walt Disney Pictures release really love “The Haunted Mansion” (the attraction). Otherwise, why else would they go to all the trouble of making two of the singing busts that appear in the film actually look like Thurl Ravencroft (AKA the singing voice of “Uncle Theodore,” the bust that’s often said to look like Walt) and Paul Frees (the voiceover legend who also did the voice for the “Ghost Host” in the original version of the “Haunted Mansion’)?
Another interesting bit of trivia that you’ll only get to learn (and see) when you pick up a copy of Jason Surrell’s “The Haunted Mansion”: The other two busts that were initially designed to be part of the quartet that appear in the “Mansion” movie were modeled after Marc Davis (the legendary Imagineer who designed many of the scenes featured in the attraction) and Blaine Gibson (the talented sculptor who brought so many of Marc’s memorable characters to life). Sadly, these two busts were eventually rejected because it was felt that Marc and Blaine’s visages were just too normal looking. They weren’t “Grim Grinning Ghosts” — like enough for the filmmakers, so their busts were eventually redone.
Speaking of grins … my face actually hurt when I finally closed the cover on this book. Which means that I must have been smiling the entire time that I was reading Jason Surrell’s history of “The Haunted Mansion.” And given what an entertaining read this book is … I guess I can understand why.
So give yourself a real treat (not a trick) this Halloween and go get a copy of Jason Surrell’s “The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies.”