He's Making a List...

Sandy Claws has made quite a list, but that snake in the attic just keeps chomping away!

While some names on the list may be random, there are a few which were intentional:

Stevie - Steve Davison, creator of Haunted Mansion Holiday
Gordon - Gordon Goodwin, composer of the 2001 Haunted Mansion Holiday score
Leota - Leota Toombs Thomas - The face of Madame Leota, and the voice and face of Little Leota
Tim - Tim Wollweber - Concept and finalization artist of many things in Haunted Mansion Holiday, including the stretch portraits, changing portraits and seance tarot cards.
Garner & Holt - Garner Holt created the Jack and Oogie Audio-Animatronic figures for Haunted Mansion Holiday.
Paul - Paul Frees - The Ghost Host


There are many more names on the list. Many correspond to someone who was affiliated with either the original Haunted Mansion or with Haunted Mansion Holiday.

But whatever Stevie did, he must have been a REALLY bad boy...

A Galleon of Ghostly Gardeners

Greetings Mortals!

When the Haunted Mansion at Walt Disney World first opened, many things were different than they are today. The exterior had no gate, no pet cemetery, it didn't even have a hearse, toppled fountain or queue canopy to stay out of the hot weather.

However, one thing existed on the mansion front lawn that doesn't exist there today.

When the Haunted Mansion first opened, there was a large ornate design on the front lawn. It wasn't anything particularly spooky, but more of an intricate design.




Over the years, the design changed into something else, another intricate design, before it vanished into the grassy lawn we know today.

A Chilling Challenge....

Greetings!

This week, I want to direct your attention not to this blog, but to the Doombuggies.com message board where a contest is being held for Friday the 13th.

http://p080.ezboard.com/fdisneyshauntedmansionfrm4.showMessage?topicID=2451.topic

In this contest, you can win 1 of 3 changing portraits from The Ghoulish Gallery, just in time for Halloween. I am the webmaster for The Ghoulish Gallery and I own all of these portraits myself. They are amazing! So, what are you waiting for? Have a frightfully good time!

Any Witch Way - Part 2

Last week we took a look at one piece of imagery from the Witch of Walpugis painting from the Disney World Haunted Mansion's Sinister 11. This week we look at the concept painting that Marc Davis created and the imagery in it.

Many of the Sinister 11 paintings at one time were meant to be changing portraits for Disneyland's Haunted Mansion. Some remain in the gallery such as Medusa and the defunct April/December. In the Witch of Walpurgis painting, the witch would mysteriously change into a goat-like creature. In the cave setting around her were some interesting items. A skull with a dagger stabbed into it, a weird bat stanchion-esque creature and a hand with all 5 fingers lit as though they were candles.

What is more interesting is that all three items were found in an illustration entitled "An Assembly of Witches" by Frans Francken. This painting was also featured in last weeks book about witchcraft. It is know that Marc and Alice Davis have an interesting home collection of books, but they were also adamant about books from the WDI library. This is yet another amazing detail by the Imagineers to further the realism in our favorite attractions.