To Find a Way Out, or Maybe Two or Three

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This is yet another sequel to one of my favorite posts here at Long-Forgotten. To really appreciate what we've got here, you should probably refresh your memory by taking a stroll down memory lane HERE and HERE. The discoveries made here required an updating of the original "To Find a Way Out" post.

A few years back, retired Imagineer and now Disney historian Tom Morris uncovered something truly long forgotten and presented it as part of his lecture tours in 2019. Tom was kind enough to share with me further details and photos pertinent to the subject at hand, so I and you owe Tom a note of thanks.

When they started pouring the concrete for the façade building of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion in 1962, they naturally poured the foundational, perimeter walls in accordance with what they thought at the time the attraction was going to be, which was a twin walk-thru. As we know, the two elevators were for two back-to-back, essentially identical walk-thru adventures, at the end of which guests would ascend a set of steps to an enclosed graveyard area, where they could look around among the tombs and stuff for awhile before exiting through turnstiles.

1965

The two enclosed areas eventually became a queue area on the south side . . . 

. . . and the exit complex of mausoleums on the north side. The original walk-thru

exits became the "chicken exit" on the south side and an emergency exit on the north.

Most of you knew all of that. And if you didn't, you did after reviewing those old posts.

What you may not have known is that in 1961 they were still playing around with several options for getting folks up from the basement level and into the graveyard spill areas on either side. At the time they poured the foundational walls they thought they might have THREE exits on each side. In this photo, looking across the railroad trestle that will eventually be a tunnel covered in earth, transformed into the berm behind the house, you can see two openings in addition to the main opening, the one that eventually led to the "chicken exit" in the graveyard. (That one is boarded up in this shot.)

"The 'E'-Ticket" 16 (Summer 1993) 32

The three staircases beneath the house are visible in this blueprint,

which apparently shows only the exits for the southern graveyard.

Those were put there because at the time they thought they might have guests finish the tour in a large room beneath the house, where the Ghost Host would taunt them about "finding a way out," a line that became infamous when it ended up as part of the stretchroom spiel. According to a 1961 "Haunted House Show Outline," after the GH leads the audience into the basement area, he says:

"Now you are on your way out . . . Here's your way out . . . I found the way out . . .

This way out . . . All paths lead to the same end.  Ha! ha! ha!"

The outline then continues:

Voice shows the audience way out thru one positive central control exit. Audience is now free to find their own way out. Secondary exits from main control exit carries audience up thru graves, crypts and vaults to outdoor cemetery. This area is to be walled in and not seen by public at Disneyland. Area for final exit turnstiles in cemetery wall.

 

Um . . . that's not exactly crystal clear. What would happen is that the guests would find three doorways to choose from. The impression I get from the spiel is that the GH's voice would switch from one speaker to another, over each doorway. It didn't matter which one you picked, because all three had stairways going up to the enclosed cemetery, and that's why they left openings for three entrances in the perimeter walls. These stairways are actually drawn in on some blueprints. I've traced some sketches directly from those, so trust me, you can take these to the bank.

This is obviously the north side exit area. Two of the holes (here in teal) were eventually used, of course. The top one was for the speed ramp rather than this plain staircase, and the right side was eventually used just as it is shown here, becoming the emergency exit on that side. The third one, in the corner, never happened, but the hole in the concrete did not get filled in until the spring of 1969!

The story is much the same on the south side. There was going to be a crypt, a twin to the one on the north side, but instead, what is now the emergency (chicken) exit was made to be flusher with the wall. It's the two staircases that grab our attention. The holes in the wall didn't get filled in until the spring of 1969 either.

The two additional staircases couldn't just pop straight out of the ground like that, of course.

There would have been some appropriate staging for them. Fortunately, they appear in another

blueprint which actually has a few rectangular shapes thrown in, simulating tomb slabs:

For the umpteenth time, here is that Duane Alt sketch that shows what they had in mind. Most of

the time this piece of artwork is printed or displayed, the bottom is cropped, which is a pity, since

it is there that you can see how they planned for some of the crypts at ground level to be open.

Something similar may have been planned for the other side, if it's safe

to squeeze clues out of this Collin Campbell artwork we've seen so

many times before. It probably isn't, but whoever said life was safe?

I imagine the designs would have been based on real-world examples, like this one:

Just as the existing emergency (chicken) exit is based on real-world examples:

The queue in 2000

It is important to understand that these southern holes for additional staircases that never materialized

are below ground level. Above them there was a solid brick wall, probably into early 1969.

The difference between what is and what was being constructed in 1962 can be seen this way:

This photo from Tom, originally belonging to "Cousin Victor," shows in the northern graveyard the hole

 for the speed ramp on the right. Gives you a good idea of where these holes were, vertically as well as

 horizontally. (Just ignore that hole on the left; that's for stuff like heating and air conditioning access.

Another shot of the speed ramp hole:

A shot from the inside, looking up at that same hole:

There is no evidence that the triple exit system ever went past those 1962 blueprints. In fact,

the staircases are all labeled as "future construction," and there doesn't seem to have been any

attempt to sketch out how they would have sprouted from the main exit room beneath the house.

This system just happened to be the latest idea at the time of the concrete pours.

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Son of "The Sea Captain and the Bride...You Never Knew"

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(Caricature of Ken, 1999)

Never fails. You do a major study and publish major results, and the ink is barely dry (or in this case, the electrons are barely cold), and boom, something that should have been in the study is published elsewhere.

Well, I don't really mind. That's where the blog format comes in handy.

Amy Opoka, at the Walt Disney Archives, published at D23's website for Halloween what looks like a complete Ken Anderson script for his famous Ghost House. As a matter of fact, it may be the first one he did.

In addition to the text, Opoka published some storyboard sketches, all but one of which were on display in the exhibit at the Frank Wells building in the fall of 2019 and were put up in the previous post. I've added the one new one (new to us, that is) into that post. It's the captain in bed, with footprints walking around.

We're deeply in Opoka's debt for publishing the script. Alas, it is my solemn duty to point out that the storyboards she selected to put up along with the story as it moves along are not always accurate. She's got a sketch of "Hairy the Arm" (actually he's "Tor" at this point if he's got a name at all) grabbing Priscilla at the window, inserted as if it depicted the Captain attacking Priscilla after she discovers the Horrible Truth, when we know this window scene comes much earlier, even before you enter the building. She's also got the closed-and-locked trunk sketch as if it's what Priscilla discovered in the attic and opened up, but it's actually the trunk after she's locked inside of it by the dastardly Captain.

Those are quibbles. For our purposes, it will serve to simply give the text of the script itself, without all the accompaniment. The story is very simple and sketchy at this point. It's short, and there is no clue as to how Priscilla is murdered.

Scene I — The Picture Gallery

(A group assembles to listen to the tale of "The Haunted House.")

Beauregarde: Welcome to the Old Gore Mansion. I am Beauregarde, the Butler. I have been with the family for many, many years. This was what we called the Picture Gallery. Of course, it's not what it was around 1810, when Captain Bartholomew Gore brought his young bride here to live. This is a portrait of Captain Gore, a wealthy, sea-faring man, and this is Priscilla, his wife. Captain Gore was a brooding man who knew no fear... Given to fits of jealousy and rage. Some say he had an evil eye... "The Devil's eye," they called it. A thing his bride was to learn about later... much to her sorrow!

Scene II — Priscilla in Rocking Chair

Beauregarde: We are now in the hall outside Miss Priscilla's room. Let us try and imagine the terrible thing that happened here over a hundred and fifty years ago. Perhaps Miss Priscilla will come back from the spirit world and tell us about it.

Priscilla: "Bar-thol-o-mew—Bar-thol-o-mew—Where are you, Bartholomew?" It happened the night that Captain Gore was away on a a sea voyage... Or so I thought! I had found an old journal tucked away in his desk... And a curious sort of skeleton key. The journal told of the murderous deeds of Black Bart, the pirate who plundered the Caribbean... The dates and certain incidents aroused my suspicions... I thought of the sea chest in my husband's study... Why was it always locked?... Although I feared my husband's terrible secret!

Scene III —The Captain's Room

Beauregarde: This was the Captain's study. If only Miss Priscilla had not been so curious...

Priscilla: Yes, Beauregarde, I fear my curiosity was greater than my discretion... How well I remember—My hands trembled as I fitted the key into the lock of the chest. Slowly I turned the key, (click) the lock opened... I gasped in horror at the evidence of my husband's true identity, and then... (Gasp!) 

[Priscilla screams]

Scene IV — Hallway (Priscilla's Ghost)

Beauregarde: No one knows what happened to poor Priscilla on that horrifying night—But we're certain of this—She was never seen again—ALIVE, that is!

Priscilla: "Bartholomew, where are you, Bartholomew?"

Scene V — Captain's Bedroom

Beauregarde: After that ghastly night, Captain Gore knew no peace. Every unearthly sound struck terror in his heart. And the last time he was seen on Earth was in this very room!

Priscilla: He would have run away, but there was no place for him to hide... For he knew that I would search for him no matter where he might be... That I would haunt him to the end of this days!...  "Bartholomew, where are you, Bartholomew?"

Scene VI — The Attic Scene

[It starts raining outside.]

Beauregarde: This is called the mystery room, because there is a strange magnetic force that draws you here... As if it had some connection with the mystery of Captain Gore!

[The wind is moaning outside]

Priscilla: "Bartholomew—Bartholomew—"

Beauregarde: Well, that's the end of the story. Some say Priscilla had her revenge—that she drove him mad. Maybe someday we'll know what happened to Captain Bartholomew Gore.

[Thunder crashes] [Obviously, this is where the hanging scene appears—HGB2]

Priscilla: "HA HA HA HA HA..."