My earliest recollection of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion was in 1969 when I was four years old. It was summertime, so the Mansion had to have been less than a month old. I do remember it was the "new ride" at Disneyland. I also remember that it had a very long line and that I did not want to go inside because my brother had heard that things "pop out" at you. So while my dad and my brother waited in the long line, my mom took me to "see the dinosaurs" on the train. Afterwards, we had Mint Juleps and waited for them to come out. Well, my brother came back with very high praise for the ride and when we visited the park one year later, I finally felt brave enough to go inside. Funny thing though....I have a pretty clear memory about that one time that I did NOT go into the Mansion, but I have since been through the attraction so many times, that I don't have a very clear recollection of what it was like when I saw it for the very first time!
Today, I will CELEBRATE the Mansion's 40th anniversary by posting just a few photos from my personal collection. For some reason, I decided to experiment with some different photo effects including changing them all to sepia tone.
The photo above was taken on July 17, 2009....Disneyland's 54th birthday.
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I took this photo of the bride back in January of 1996. This is when she still "floated" and her heart could be seen beating inside of her chest. I think this version of the bride was a much better effect than the one they have today....but that's just my opinion!
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This last photo is of the attraction poster that hangs under the east train tunnel at the entrance to the park.
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Happy 40th Anniversary to Disneyland's Haunted Mansion!!!
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4 comments:
Great Bride photo! My beef with both of the brides is that stylistically, neither one of them matches the Marc Davis style, which is prevalent throughout on almost every character in the mansion. For some reason, I like both Leotas though. Go figure!
My earliest memory of the Mansion is that I was too chicken to ride it. My grandpa took me to do something else while everyone else rode it. When I finally went on it, I loved it! Guess my imagination got a bit carried away.
NICE POST & PICS!!! I've been on it so many times I can't even remember the last ride, much less the first ride in 1969! I do recall my dis-satisfaction that the ride didn't completely match up with the LP I had listened to hundreds of time, I always thought that was odd. Wasn't Ron Howard on the LP? The sound effects matched, but the story was different.
I agree with your assessment of the Haunted Mansion bride: I definitely think the floating red beating heart version is MUCH better as an effect than the current version with Constance. The current version seems so out of place with the rest of the ride.
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