Part 3: Disney Tidbits. Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion

It's that time of the week again and as I promised last week, today will be all about the Haunted Mansion ride.  There are so many little secrets and tidbits to this ride, that it deserves a post all its own!!  So read up on it before you go and get ready to experience the ride in a whole new light!

Did You Know?

• If at the Haunted Mansion at night, look at the top-story right above the front door.  You'll notice a light pass by it and some shadows.  It looks like 2 people are walking by with a lantern. 
•  The top architecture is very easy to recognize as chess pieces.  The architect was famous for building structures that had chess pieces as a part of the structure.  When he was commissioned to build the HM, he continued his "signature" and added some chess piece architecture to the top of it.  The only chess piece missing from the outside is the knight.  This is because it is always (k)night INSIDE! 
• The carriage in the courtyard is being led by an invisible horse, notice the hoof prints (go at night if you can).  The invisible horse is called "Old Glue" or "Elmer," and the black hearse is the same one used in a John Wayne movie called THE SONS OF KATIE ELDER.  Follow the hoof prints (and wheel tracks of the hearse) out to the area where the fastpass machines are housed. This is the stable (you can see horse whips, bridles, and horse shoes hanging down from above).  The weather vane atop the carriage house is in the shape of a horse, and bridles and stirrups are hung just inside the building. There's also a supply of horseshoes here. Of course, any superstitious soul worth his salt would tell you that horseshoes must always be hung with the opening facing up, lest all the luck run out of them. Here at the Haunted Mansion's carriage house, all horseshoes point down. 
• Stand in front of the hearse at the Haunted Mansion and listen.  You will hear the "ghost" horse whinnie.
• In the back of the pet cemetery, you can see Mr. Toad! 
• Loeota Toombs (Thomas) is the woman on the gravestone (watch for her eyes to open and look around on the gravestone) and the small bride right before you exit urging you to "hurry back"--this is actually her voice played here.  She is the head in the crystal ball, but the voice of the crystal ball Leota is actually Eleanor Audley, who did the voice for Maleficent and Lady Tremain (from Cinderella).  Leota was not an Imagineer; she was part of the costuming department (wigs).  Walt saw her as he was touring the department and said, "You've got a face that should be in the Haunted Mansion."  What he meant was that she was quite beautiful, and he wanted her likeness as the now-famous Madame Leota.  
• The "hands" on the clock are actually fingers!  
• Side step the ride and use the exit on the right side of the foyer to find a little corridor leading to the exit side of the mansion (used as a VIP or wheelchair entrance).  In the passage is a row of servant bells.    Though the attic is not one of the locations for which there is a bell, Madame Leota has one. 
• Who is the woman who screams in the stretch room? Some say this is the voice of a woman who has thrown herself down from the rafters and you can hear a dull thump at the end of the scream.
• There is a sea captain with a harpoon pictured in the Portrait Gallery.  HM lore includes a story about the owner of the house being a sea captain who murders his bride. 
• Linger behind the crowd as they are exiting the stretching room and pay attention to the gargoyles.  They speak, chatter, and laugh.  After they are done, if you are very quiet, you can hear a faint voice whisper, “Get out.”  
• Be among the first to exit for the Doom Buggies by standing on the side with the painting of the lady with the parasol (a painting of Master Gracey's first wife who was lured to her death by the machinations of Madam(e) Leota).   
• The piano player in the Music Room is invisible, but you can see his moving shadow on the floor.
• There is a Hidden Tinker Bell in a pane of broken glass over the coffin! 
• Look for the duelists who lean out of the paintings in the Grand Ballroom and shoot at each other.  One of them may be Mr. Sewell, whose tombstone in the family plot proclaims he died from a duel. 
• There is a Hidden Mickey on the dining room table and on the right hand corner of the Spirit.

Characters: (for complete listing go here)

• The Ghost Host is invisible throughout the tour of the mansion, guiding foolish mortals with his ominous disembodied voice (Paul Frees). The Ghost Host's sardonic narration is often punctuated with maniacal laughter. It is implied that he hanged himself from the rafters in the cupola, as seen in the Stretching Room scene. The invisible pianist who casts a shadow in the Music Room is the Ghost Host.  A painting of him can be found in the Corridor of Doors, depicting a tall, thin, ghoulish-looking man holding a hatchet - with a noose around his neck. He has long, stringy white hair and one eyeball bulging, the other squinting (perhaps giving the "evil eye"). One version of the painting depicts him with heterochromia (two different iris colors). His shadow is shown to be raising his hatchet in a threatening pose. Additionally, he appears as a Sinister Eleven portrait character.
• In the stretching room there is an old widow sitting atop the tombstone of her axe-murdered husband. This is Constance Hatchaway (who manifests as a ghost in the attic), and the husband is George Hightower (who is depicted as a marble bust in the painting). In an early attraction script, the widow was named Abigale Patecleaver.  
• The Raven - Inspired by Poe's The Raven, this iconic character can be found in many scenes, glaring at visitors with glowing red eyes. In early plans for the attraction, the Raven was to be one of the proposed narrators. In the 1969 record The Story and Song From The Haunted Mansion, the Ghost Host claims that the Raven is possessed by the restless spirit of an old nag. In the 2003 film, much like in the ride, a raven makes an appearance in several scenes. It is revealed in the commentary that the raven used in the film is actually a harmless bird originating from Africa, to compensate for California's law against domesticated birds of prey.
•  Pickwick, a Victorian era-attired ghost, can be seen in the ballroom, drunkenly swinging from the chandelier by his cane. He was inspired by the character from The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens.  
• Always haunting the Mansion's attic, the bride is considered one of the spookiest characters in the ride's history. The character was possibly derived from the supposedly real-life ghost, the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. The bride has been altered several times over the years, appearing now as Constance Hatchaway—the Black Widow Bride, using a digital projection effect.  An interesting urban legend is that the bride's "ring" is embedded in the ground outside the exit pathway. In reality, this was from a crowd-control stanchion that was cut down. What was left of the stanchion was disposed of during 2007's Re-Haunting. An "official" ring was embedded into the concrete as a tip of the hat to the popular legend, during the 2011 interactive queue installation. 
• The terrified caretaker and his emaciated, whimpering dog stand at the open gates of the cemetery, wide-eyed and shivering at the sight of hundreds of ghosts flitting about. He and his dog are some of the only "living" characters in the entire attraction, and as such they are lit with incandescent light rather than fluorescent or black light. The caretaker's dog (or a very similar looking dog) is also seen moments later near the mummy, sniffing his sarcophagus.   
• The Singing Busts - A quintet of marble busts sing Grim Grinning Ghosts amidst the revelry in the graveyard. Their names are (from left to right): Rollo Rumkin, Uncle Theodore, Cousin Algernon, Ned Nub, and Phineas P. Pock. Rollo Rumkin - "Lived and died a friendly bumpkin," according to his tombstone (spelled Rolo on the stone). His name is a tribute to Imagineer Rolly Crump. He was played by Verne Rowe; Uncle Theodore - His bust's head is broken off. The lead singer, played by deep-voiced Thurl Ravenscroft (often mistaken for Walt Disney) – known for singing "You're a Mean One, Mister Grinch" and providing the voice of Tony the Tiger. Ravenscroft also narrated the 1969 record The Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion. In the 2003 film (like in the attraction), Thurl Ravenscroft's likeness was used for one of the singing busts ;Cousin Algernon - Distinguishable from the other busts by his derby hat. He was played by Chuck Schroeder; Ned Nub - He was played by Jay Meyer; Phineas P. Pock - Relative of the poetess Prudence Pock. He was played by Bob Ebright.  

There are so many more characters to learn about and if you are interested go to the link I provided above the list of the few characters I have posted to learn more.