Sunday, July 09, 2006

The Man in the Web

Greetings!

Everyone knows the stories of Disneyland's Haunted Mansions, Hatbox Ghost. It's a 37 year old mystery, but at least we know of his existence and have even seen pictures of him. However, Walt Disney World also has a mystery, something a little more elusive than a hatbox ghost.

At Disney World, guests board their buggies and head through some added scenes not at Disneyland. They finally get to a staircase where the ride is nearly identical. At this stair however are some gargantuan webs filled with massive spiders. However, did you know that at one time, a ghost was caught in the first web on the left? This web is now VERY dimly lit and is barely visible. The Man in Web existed long ago, but it was removed shortly after the opening of the attraction. There is much speculation as to why it was removed and there are stories of the body being hidden in storage to scare new cast members. Some people have considered this body to be just a myth, a legend, nothing more. However, we have discovered some proof.

These are croppings from a WDW maintenance manual. One page is a table of contents listing, the other shows where the item was located. As of this far, no one seems to have pictures of this man in the web. But who knows, maybe someday the man will come back to rest in his arachnid abode.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Great sleuthing, as usual! I always wondered why there were two giant spiders and webs so close to one another in the ride. It makes much more sense from a storytelling perspective that one spider would indicate the predator, and a man in the second web would indicate the unwitting prey. Too bad that effect got lost in the mists of time.

2:36 AM  
Blogger Norn Cutson said...

i went to WDW the first year it opened & i am sure i remember this, but all this time i thought i mustve been mistaken!!!

thank you for the validation!

7:55 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I heard they removed the man in the web because with im there was an awful track of soud affects that acompanied it, with sounds like blood-curling shrieks and moans. They got rid of the man and the soun effects because it was just too scary for the haunted mansion. ( I heard this from a castmember)

6:19 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I swear that I remember seeing the man in the web, but I can't possibly remembering it because I first went to Disneyworld in 1984 I think, so it should have been long gone by then.

Also, the way I remember it, it was next to the conservatory. I remember this because I thought at first that the "let me out of here" was comming from the web because I saw it before the coffin.

Either that or it had a very similar sound effect because hearing the "let me out of here" at the coffin always reminds me of the web. And I know I'm not imagining it from reading it somewhere because I first read about it this past months and I've been thinking about it for years.

But it can't have still been in the mansion in 84 could it?

12:38 PM  

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