10 Secrets of the Haunted Mansion

In addition to being home to 999 happy haunts, the mansion also houses many hidden secrets, little-known tributes, and amazing effects. See if you can spot some of these the next time you journey through its endless hallways.

 

 

1. The Cemetery

While waiting in line for the ride, check out the names on the tombstones to your left. Each of these whimsical epitaphs pays tribute to the Imagineers who brought the Haunted Mansion and its ghostly denizens to life.

 

 

2. The All-Seeing Eye(s)

No, you are not seeing things: Madame Leota’s grave is looking at you! Keep an eye on her, as she opens her eyes every so often to take a peek at visitors.

 

 

3. Laughter from Beyond

Despite the Ghost Host’s warning to stay together, linger behind other Guests when exiting the stretching room. You’ll hear the gargoyle’s eerie child-like laughter before it fades away.

 

 

4. Leota’s Having a Ball

Madame Leota’s séance is one of the most memorable sequences of the Haunted Mansion. The sinister face of Madame Leota is actually that of Disney Legend and Imagineer Leota (Toombs) Thomas. Originally, the image of her face reciting the infamous incantation was projected onto a featureless model of a head (think of those foam heads used for displaying wigs and such). Before Toombs was chosen to be the face of Leota, Imagineer Harriet Burns was considered for the part. (Burns had previously crafted one of the first models for Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland.)

 

 

5. Swinging Party

Those ghostly effects in the ballroom are created with an early 19th-century theater trick called Pepper’s Ghost. It’s essentially an optical illusion involving large glass panels and reflections. The ghosts are actually located directly above and beneath your Doom Buggy as you travel past, with the lights shining on them making them appear and disappear before your eyes.

 

 

6. From the Jungle to the Mansion

The scared caretaker, who greets you speechlessly just before you enter the graveyard, looks very familiar, doesn’t he? He should! His face also appears on the Jungle Cruise as the low man on the totem pole getting chased by the rhino. I guess he didn’t get the point…in the end.

 

 

7. Disney or Bust

Despite popular belief, Walt Disney is not one of the singing busts in the graveyard sequence. That is actually Thurl Ravenscroft, whose voice can be found in many other Disney attractions as well.

 

 

8. Ghostly Apparitions

The ghosts in the graveyard seem more ghostly due to the reflective, transparent clothing they’re wearing. A scrim between the Guests and the ghosts helps enhance this effect even further.

 

 

9. Mickey in the Hood

Just before you exit the graveyard scene, look the right of the opera singers, into the doorway of a crypt. You’ll see a ghostly hooded figure, with his left arm raised. If you look closely, you’ll see that his hand creates a Hidden Mickey.

 

 

10. Servant’s Quarters

When you first leave the mansion, there’s a door to your right marked “Servant’s Quarters.” Despite rarely being seen by Guests, this short hallway contains a large key rack, with hooks labeling every room within the Mansion. Unfortunately, the keys that once hung from these hooks were lost over the years. Or perhaps someone—or something—borrowed them to get around the mansion.

 

 

BONUS: Ghostly Goodnight

When standing in line for the attraction at night, look at the windows. You can sometimes see a ghostly image going from room to room, holding a flickering candle.

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