Museum of the Weird
Many volumes have been written regarding Haunted Mansion at Disneyland. Much has been made about its origin story. Mostly about the two schools of thought the designers had about whether the attraction should be really scary, or a spooky Halloween type ride.
Not much has been said about the Mansion and the Pirates of the Caribbean initially being considered as walk-through type attractions. One of the early ideas for the Haunted Mansion walk-through was for the whole of the inside of the house and show building to be presented as a museum of the weird.
Like, in the attraction's story, it would be submitted as a museum that tells the story of the house’s former occupants when they were alive. Ghost docents would be conducting a tour of the mansion and the odd things the rich occupants collected.
This came from the mind of eccentric Imagineering Hall of Farmer Rolly Crump as he describes in his book: “It’s Kind of a Cute Story” by Rolly Crump. He drew inspiration from really cool sources like a Surrealist 1920’s French Film version of “Beauty and the Beast” and 1900’s book of incredible forgotten stage illusions.
There are a lot of amazing things this attraction would have featured. I redrew this man-eating plant from a sketch in the book. It wasn’t a color drawing, so I painted my best guess at the colors. This would be one of many man-eating plants in what would be the seance room with madam Leota. If it looks vaguely familiar to you, the famous Haunted Mansion Wallpaper was based on this design.
I might do a series on more of these little-known elements of the Haunted Mansion walk through that never was. In the meantime check out “It’s Kind of a Cute Story” by Rolly Crump.
Thanks for reading!
