Things You're Just Supposed to Know
Most of the time, Long-Forgotten assumes that readers are already familiar with basic factsabout the Haunted Mansion. If you wanna keep up with the big boys, I suggest you check out
first of all the website, Doombuggies.com. After that, the best place to go is Jason Surrell's book,
The Haunted Mansion: Imagineering a Disney Classic (NY: Disney Editions; 2015). That's the
re-named third edition of The Haunted Mansion: From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies (NY:
Disney Editions, 2003; 2nd ed. 2009). Also essential reading is Jeff Baham's The Unauthorized
Story of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion (USA: Theme Park Press, 2014; 2nd ed. 2016).
This site is not affiliated in any way with any Walt Disney company. It is an independent
fan site dedicated to critical examination and historical review of the Haunted Mansions.
All images that are © Disney are posted under commonly understood guidelines of Fair Use.
There are a few more Mansion connections with this book. First off, obviously the title itself, Ghostly Gallery (which is what the gallery room in the Mansion ends up being referred to). Also, in Hitchcock's first person preface to this book, he refers to himself as a "ghost host", and his first words, just like the ghost host in the Haunted Mansion, are "Good evening." Do you think the Imagineers might have been influenced by Hitchcock?
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to say, but 1962 (the year of publication) is early enough for the book to be part of the Imagineers' general research, and you would think they'd take a look at a Hitchcock book of "spooky stories for young people." "Ghostly gallery," "ghost host," and "Good evening" as an opening line are all X Atencio coinages in his early show script, so it's possible that X was influenced consciously or subconsciously by the book, if he saw it. I think it's a good deal less likely that the chair artwork influenced Rolly Crump.
ReplyDeleteI still have my copy of this book (bought it new). Excellent stories, gave me nightmares throughout youth. I often read it in the car on the way to Disneyland, but never made a connection to the HM till now.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, I was thinking about one of the stories last week, and then I see this post.
Thanks.
JG
The was a skit one Jim Hensons "Sam & Friends" where a puppet version of Hitchhike boasts about his rare collectibles and antiques ...and declare "his arm chair is made form real arm".
ReplyDeleteI wonder who inspired who?