The "Enhauntsments" of 2021

Aug 12, 2021: Check out additional observations by Foxxy and others at the end of the post.

Mar 29, 2022: New note about the Conservatory.

Since the rather colorless term "enhancements" seems to be the only collective noun Disney is using for the changes and additions to the Anaheim Mansion this year, I have made bold to tweak it a bit and will henceforth use "Enhauntsments" as the official Long-Forgotten designation, inspired in part by the "Rehaunting" of the WDW HM in 2007. Now that I have visited the park in person, I'm in a position to give an eyewitness report.

When there is a major set of revisions or additions to a Haunted Mansion, I have found from previous experience that it's good to have a catalogue like this laying around somewhere, since it won't be many years before the memories will grow murky, and it will all start mooshing together in our overtaxed brains, and we won't remember exactly when this or that particular thing happened. 

I strongly suspect that most or all of these enhauntsments were intended as part of the Mansion's 50th anniversary in August of 2019. None of them were there, of course, but it seems like Disney gives themselves a generous, two year window for such things, so that anything that happens a year before or after the actual day being celebrated counts as being "on time." (Try using that same logic with your significant other's birthday and see how well it works.) Anyway, with COVID adding almost a whole additional year to the debut of the enhauntsments, it became absurd to try to connect any of them with the Golden Anny, so they didn't try. That's my theory, anyway.

Be that as it may, for posterity's sake, here's a catalogue of the changes made, at least as far as I've been able to glean from the many sources out there along with my own first-hand observations. If I've missed anything, leave a comment.

(1) Our Girl April!

©DISNEY

First and foremost, of course, is the return of April-December. As pointed out in our April post, she's been restored beautifully, and the place they have created for her is perfect. She's done in a six-stage, morphing form, which is a new presentation for her but utterly authentic and true to the original Imagineers' intentions, as we now know. Zero complaints! A+. I don't like to brag (well, yes I do, some), but I had been saying for a long time that the obvious thing to do for the 50th Anny was to bring back April, and obviously someone else thought the same, because they did.

(2) April's Hallway

I'll lump into one bullet point all the enhauntsments that accompany April in her immediate environment, including (1) the wallpaper, the wainscoting, and the new candle lighting along one wall of what was previously the right side of the limbo-load area as you enter, plus the visually pleasing metal screen to the left of the guests; (2) a new door beside April in the classic style seen elsewhere in the house, with a moving blue light in its transom, indicating a ghostly presence; and (3) a one-eyed cat statuette.

As noted before, the urns that used to be in this area have not been tossed out but are now congregated over by the staircase where the doom buggies come down.

The cat is recognized as a shout-out to an old, unused concept of X Atencio. You will recall that a one-eyed black cat gradually asserts its demonic presence throughout the ride and serves as your host (or co-host). The connection seems valid, since the new cat has a single red, gleaming eye, as did X's cat, but I hasten to note (and not without appreciation) that this particular enhauntsment offers only a subtle or partial hint to the old concept, not the sort of blatant, elbow-in-your-ribs "tribute!" that characterizes PLQ. The cat is white, after all, not black.

As others have noted, the statuette is actually an off-the-shelf, commercially available item.

It's really only there as an intriguing object to look at briefly as you pass, which is fine with me.

(3) Enhauntsments to the Portrait Hall

A few related changes have been made in the Portrait Hall. The official video makes a point of this, calling attention to the new, lighter color of the heavy drapes around the windows, and I gave them a good hard look when I was there, as no photography can do justice to such things. They looked fine to me. Here's the old on the left, the new on the right.

Also, the wallpaper was redone so as to match the wallpaper behind April around the corner, which is sensible...

...but I deeply regret the loss of the original paper, which offered so many opportunities for finding hidden faces. You can find a face or two in the new paper, but let's face it: the new stuff isn't nearly as rich an environment for that sort of thing.

Pity. Also, when I was there, the rain effect in the stormy windows was gone, and I dearly hope that isn't a permanent change.

(4) The Rolly Chair

At least that's what everyone seems to think it is. There's a new chair hanging around in the Séance Circle that is widely regarded as a tribute to the talking chair in Rolly Crump's unused "Museum of the Weird" artwork, but as far as I can see, their designs actually have very little in common.

The chair isn't animated in any way, and much of it is in deep shadow, so it's not even 100% certain that it has "eyes" (although that does seem likely). Very mysterious, this one.  Which bothers me not at all . Hmm. More may be coming with the new chair, but for now, it's a curious addition to the ride.

UPDATE June 14, 2023. The chair has been missing ever since Classic Mansion returned after the last HMH overlay. In other words, it didn't return. Why so is a mystery. But Brandon Hardy has made a significant discovery about it: it's an off-the-shelf item from Wayfair called a Deangelis Rattan wicker chair, and you can get one for yourself if you've got an extra $550 kicking around.

My Latin is a little shaky, but I think it's "The Rottenness of the Angels."

Okay, a LOT shaky.

In case you had any doubts...

Brandon Hardy

(5) Spruced, Juiced, and Loosed

The ballroom dancers and the ghosts in the graveyard (and perhaps others) have been spruced up and are now much more visible. When I visited in 2019 for the 50th Anny, I was unhappy to see that the vague gray blobs to which time and ultraviolet lighting had reduced the ghosts in the graveyard had not been refurbed for the Mansion's golden anniversary that year, but I now suppose that there were plans to do so soon enough thereafter to count as being part of that year's celebration, as described earlier.

pic by Matthew Bumgardner

pic by Matthew Bumgardner

(6) Another Cat Statuette, and a Refreshed Garden

Yep, they've added not one but two kitty statues. The Disney video calls attention to the new cat in the birdbath out front.

pic by Laurie Holt Dickey

(It's behind/beside the hearse, for those of you who have never noticed it.) That birdbath has been there, unmoved, since 1969, but it became a planter after only a few years and remained in such employ until this year. It's gratifying to the purists among us to see it restored to its original function. And with a macabre bit of statuary added for good measure, we are a happy crew.

The video also highlights the garden landscaping throughout the Pet Cemetery, but in all fairness, the horticulture department at Disneyland has ALWAYS done a great job everywhere, including here, with appropriate plants around the various fixtures, so that what you find there now is not really as big a deal as they make it out to be, but only a sprucing up of something that had not and never has been allowed to fall into ruin in the first place. But all of that just makes me happier that the horti guys are getting the kind of proper shout out they deserve, and yes, some of the garden work is indeed new.

Incidentally, they had to take out the large Magnolia tree that had been in the Pet Cemetery area since before the HM was even built, and it's a relief to see that another large tree was brought in to replace it. I'm sure there was a good reason to remove the old gal (diseased? causing structural damage?).

(7) The Telescope

Hip hip hooray, the telescope on the upper balcony is back after a 20 year absence.

Intelligently, it's on a tripod rather than attached to the railing like the earlier model, so it can easily be removed for the HMH and put back afterwards. (That's what doomed the old one.) Really happy to see this one.

(8) Phineas Gets a Wardrobe Upgrade

Sharp-eyed Forgottenistas like yensidtlaw at the Micechat "Thread" have noticed that Phineas has been given a new cloak, one which more closely matches the concept art for the figure. Subtle stuff indeed, and well done. That's the old Phineas on the left, the new on the right.

Other Items

Some changes may not be changes at all but merely temporary flukes. The deaf guy with the mummy had lost his long beard, but last week it looked to me like it had miraculously grown back. I've mentioned the rain effect in the Portrait Hall windows. I also noticed that the door knockers in the Corridor of Doors were much quieter than they used to be. I hope this isn't a deliberate muffling. I like the clack-clack-clack. It gets your attention and has you looking for the cause, which is a good thing. I also liked that they were a "practical" effect and continued clacking noisily away even during "pranky spirit" interruptions. It makes sense, doesn't it? Some ghosts care not one bit what their prankier brethren are doing and are going to keep up their racket regardless. Screw you all; clack we shall. More power to them.

Reader Imagineer999 points out in the Comments that the Caretaker has his original scraggly beard once again. So far as I know, this is the first time he's had it since the earliest days of the Mansion.

Foxxy has some additional observations after visiting in August: (1) The changing portraits seem to have individual spotlights on them now, making them easier to "read." Mark Hille, in the Comments below, had already noted this; (2) the "monotone chorus" in the graveyard (by the hearse tea party) is more conspicuous, either louder now, or restored after being absent; (3) darker, more mysterious lighting on the exterior porches at night; (4) the so-called Donald Duck chair by the Endless Hallway is new and plusher looking. Vickie Bramm (at the Haunted Mansion fan club on Facebook) explained this to me a couple of weeks ago: The old chair was apparently too decrepit to clean up, so they just made a new one. It looks like it was made to resemble the old one as closely as possible.

When I was there, the blowing drapes were not blowing—in either doorway. The rotting fruit on the ballroom table is not yet rejuvenating. Little Leota's projection was out of alignment, like it was last time I was there. I wonder when the last time it was correct? Other stuff that is obviously just temporarily busted I won't bother mentioning, but I must say something about the pop-up spooks in the graveyard, which I saw July 20-22. They were a disgrace. One didn't pop at all, some did manage to pop but were unlighted, and some popped so anemically that the word pop almost seems like a dishonest use of language, unless, perhaps, in some such sense as "great-grand-pop." Ol' Blasty was working, but he barely cleared his sarcophagus lid. None of the seven were in tip-top shape, I'm afraid. Bad show, that.

NEW: The Conservatory

Overlooked at the time, it wasn't until early in 2022 that we noticed some changes to the Conservatory. Victorian-era details were added in the form of cards and banners with writing on them attached to some of the floral arrangements, only one of which has been deciphered at this point (Mar 29, 2022). When they were put back in, following the HMH of 2021-22, several were relocated. The largest placard then became much more noticeable. This clip is from 2021:

FreshBaked!

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Our Elevendieth Year and Other Anniversaries (Plus: April in April!)

It's our eleventh anniversary! Pop the corks, and let the undecennial festivities begin! We're all familiar with "silver," "gold," and "diamond" anniversaries, true?  Well, unless I am very much mistaken, the eleventh is the "particle board" anniversary.

 

This is not to say that 2021 is a nothing year as far as Mansion milestones are concerned. Far from it. As some of the gang at "the Thread" have noted, 2021 is a banner year for anniversaries:

• 50th anniversary of the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion
• 20th anniversary of the Nightmare Before Christmas/Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay
  
• 15th anniversary of the original Long-Forgotten Haunted Mansion thread at Micechat
• 15th anniversary of Constance Hatchaway's debut
• 10th anniversary of the interactive queue and digital hitchhikers at the Orlando attraction
• 5th anniversary of the return of the berm graveyard at Disneyland
  

Mind you, your blog administrator is not necessarily happy with all of those changes. You ... know ... he's ... not. But love 'em or hate 'em, they are significant events in the Mansion's history. Too bad the Long-Forgotten blog is off by one measly year and so misses inclusion on that impressive quinquennial list. But, *sniff* the same can be said of Phantom Manor (29 years), the attic Pianist (26 years), Doombuggies.com (24 years), the "Rehaunting" of the WDW HM (14 years), and the new Hatbox Ghost (6 years).

 

May April March?

So now we have another item to add to that column: the return of April-December after an absence of seventeen years, plus about half a dozen lesser "enhancements." What shall we call this cluster? When the WDW was spruced up and received a set of new and improved effects in 2007, the clever collective name for it was the "Rehaunting" of the Florida HM. For the new changes to the Anaheim attraction, the only buzzword WDI seems to be throwing around so far is "enhancements."

I realize that most, if not all, of this blog's readers have already heard the news and seen that video. It makes for an awkward situation in that I can hardly pass by this announcement in silence while I kick back and salute our undecennial, but as I write, the return of April has only been announced, not witnessed, because the park won't reopen for another week or so. I will have more to say once first-hand reports start coming in. Plus, I'm planning on a DL trip in July, so I'll have my own observations. Eventually some old blog posts will need updating, but for now, I'll restrict myself to some remarks on the return of April-December as far as it can be observed in the materials currently out there, ignoring for now the other "enhancements," most of which are pretty sketchy at present.

March, April May!

Yes, march April may. In other words, if the pictures and videos can be trusted, Miss April will now be permitted to once again strut her stuff. The team responsible for the new April, led by Michele Hobbs, is to be warmly congratulated for their tasteful restraint and their respect for the prototype. The much-coveted Long-Forgotten seal of approval is hereby bestowed. As was the case with the new Hatbox Ghost in 2015, any temptation to overdo the new April-December appears to have been successfully resisted. April looks exactly as she did when she left us, except that she morphs through all six stages as originally painted by Ed Koch, not just two:

 

You will recall that "April" and "December" originally flashed back and forth with the lightning (i.e. two images), but at a very early date the effect went to a slow morph. There exists some remarkably good video of her from 1989, just twenty years into the ride's existence:

 Sm1thFam1lyV1deos

 

That two-panel set was the only version ever used in the ride, but it has long been common Mansionological knowledge that Marc Davis originally conceived the effect with four panels. It was not until November of 2015, when the above slide set came to light, that we learned that Marc's four was expanded to six and came very close to actually being used that way, morphing through the whole series. It appears to be the case that the new April reproduces exactly this full set, looking much like she would have looked if she had materialized in accordance with plans still in effect mere months away from opening day in 1969.

Granted, the new team's conservatism may have been more than simply a matter of respect for the original. If they had gotten cute and April had been singing and dancing and blowing bubbles, she would have created a slowdown in the line at that point. As it is, the full effect can be appreciated in a matter of a few seconds and shouldn't cause any traffic jams.

 

The setting for the New April is a new hallway cleverly carved out of one side of the Limbo Load area:

 

©DISNEY

 

©DISNEY

 

Here are a couple of "before" shots of the same area:

 

 

 yentsidtlaw1969

 

 Looking back:

 

 

 

From 2008, before the wheelchair access gate was installed:

 

Some props are apparently gone, alas.  C'est la vie, or should we say, C'est la mort?

[Spoke too soon. The urns are now collected together by the staircase.]

The folding metal screen on the left reminds me of a 2011 sketch

by "WDITrent," concerning which I have little information:

 

There are some among us who think that they may be trying to capture some of the beautiful

and mysterious indoor/outdoor ambiguity seen in this famous Claude Coats concept sketch:

That's all for now. We'll know more once eyewitness reports start trickling in.

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The Changing Portrait Hall that Never Was (or, "Rewriting History Part Two")

.

Lights out, nobody home, in this old photo

The late David Mumford of WDI was a great source of information for Disney park historians. According to LF reader Mike Cozart, Mumford once told him that a large trove of negatives and slides for use in the parks came to light many years ago when the Disney Studio was clearing out buildings, including full final sets for the Haunted Mansion changing portraits. Cozart thinks that the multiple sets of glass slides currently going up for auction and featured in Van Eaton's Disneyland catalog likely came from that stash. Makes sense. Wherever they came from, they're forcing us to re-write the history of that part of the attraction.

How so? Well, we've always known that one of the first things Marc Davis worked on after Walt assigned him to the Haunted Mansion project in 1964 was concept art for the changing portraits. Some of them consisted of only two pictures (back and forth), but others had three, four, and even six panels. We have all been under the impression that the longer series were either scrapped entirely or abbreviated to two when the Imagineers recognized that there would not be enough time for guests to watch a sequence of changes longer than a back-and-forth between two images. We all assumed this decision came early in the game rather than late. Boy, were we wrong.

In a number of cases, it was the opposite of what we thought. Rather than condensing the longer concepts to two images, the two-image concepts were expanded to six. It was only at a later point that some of these were shrunk back down again to two panels and used in the ride. Three- and four-image sets that made the final cut were also padded out to six before slimming down to two for the finished attraction.

Kohn

We know that Ed Kohn (and possibly other artists?) were tasked with translating Davis's concept art to finished paintings, and these in turn were transferred to slides for the projectors, but the fact that Kohn had produced six-panel sets was known to very few, let alone that actual slides of these had been made. We don't know whether Davis produced additional concept art for this development or if the expansion was done entirely at the Kohn stage (perhaps under Marc's supervision).

The complex projectors needed for these morphing portraits were built and ready to go. Glass slides were produced featuring a large number of six-panel changing portraits, far more than were needed. It's possible that the Imagineers had plans to switch them out, keeping the hallway fresh by changing the changing portraits every so often. Whatever the case may be, it seems that the Imagineers came very close to actually using the six-panel concept and did not drop the idea until possibly as late as 1969.

In the previous post, we discussed the Black Prince and the Flying Dutchman six-panel sets. They show us that the history of each painting must be considered separately. The Prince was created by Marc Davis as a two-image concept. It was expanded somewhat artificially and unconvincingly to six, and then it returned to two before the ride opened. In contrast, the Dutchman started out as four images and was expanded to six by Davis himself, so the six Kohn paintings were little more than a reproduction of Davis's set. Before the ride opened, of course, it shrunk to two, a mere fragment of Davis's original concept. (We've updated the previous post since the present post was written, so check it out.)

Now, with the publication of the Van Eaton catalog, more previously unknown artwork has come to light. It looks as though concepts rarely seen or heard of and that we never suspected had gone very far in fact almost made it into the ride. Several Davis concepts featuring two, three, four, and six panels are now represented by Kohn paintings that were transferred to glass slides, although many of these slide sets are incomplete.

It would be interesting to learn exactly when they canceled all that work and reduced the portraits to the simpler, two-picture shows that were there when the ride opened, flickering with the lightning flashes.

For now, let's do the Long-Forgotten thing and look at the new artwork, adding our comments, for what they're worth.

April-December

We've known for a very long time that April-December (removed in 2005) was originally April-June-September-December in Marc's concept art:

This was expanded to six. Kohn images 2, 3, 4, and 5 are seen for the first time in the Van Eaton
catalog (Nov 2015). The first and last slides were the ones used in the ride. (You should know that
here and throughout I've corrected the color, since all of these slides were starting to turn magenta.)

(adapted from digitally-improved images by Bair Pinuev)

Random comments: (1) The second "April" panel is practically identical to the first, but there are small differences in locks of her hair. Apparently the idea was to start off the metamorphoses with very subtle changes. We saw the same thing going on with the Black Prince, where the second panel is very little changed from the first. (2) The first "June" is close to Davis, but the second seems like a completely new character. Fun. (3) The difference between the Davis and Kohn "Septembers" is as great as the difference between their "Decembers." Me, I like them both. (If it had been up to me, however, I would have called the second June "August" and renamed September as "October.")

April is my favorite of all the changing portraits (see HERE and HERE).
So yeah, I've been geeking out big time over this one.

(Update: Went for $6250 at auction. Highest for any set and fourth highest
HM item. I'm evidently not the only one carrying a torch for Miss April.)

The Burning Miser

We had a good long look at this guy only a couple of posts back, and here he is in the limelight once again. He's always been a six-parter, and the Kohn version is a fairly straightforward reproduction, displaying no conceptual differences whatsoever.  (Set went for $4000.)

Actually I'm cheating, since the second panel is missing from the Van Eaton set, but it was easy enough to re-create it. I noticed that the only difference between Davis 1 and Davis 2 is some flames on the man's hands and back, so I just 'shopped Davis's flames onto Kohn 1 and ta-da, that's what the lost Kohn 2 must have looked like.

In our original Burning Miser post, we were puzzled by a strange alternate version of the sixth panel that had recently
come to our attention. Now we know exactly what it is: a very poor photographic reproduction of Kohn's final image:

            The Cat Lady

Davis originally conceived of the Cat Lady as a simple two-parter. This was expanded to a six-parter, and curiously enough, the

pictures actually used in the ride when it shrunk back into a two-parter were not panels one and six but panels one and four.

(Went for $4750)

Daphne

This one is a surprise. Up until a few years ago, "Daphne" was only something I had heard about. Then some Marc Davis concept art come to light (courtesy of the Lonesome Ghost), and I published it here for the first time. In 2019 it was put on display at Disneyland:

Now we discover that Daphne may have been a serious contender.

I'm surprised, because it's such an obscure subject and so little horrifying by comparison with others. As we pointed out in

the earlier post, it's an adaptation of the Apollo and Daphne myth, in which Daphne turns into a tree. (Marc took Apollo out of it.)

Of course, a much better choice among Greek myths made it into the Mansion: Medusa. Everybody's favorite Gorgon is not represented in these Van Eaton sets, which may simply mean that the collector in possession of Medusa slides is not selling them or that they are in WDI's possession and archived. We know from the January 1965 "Tencenniel" program that Marc did the Medusa set in 1964 at latest and expected her to appear in the ride. When he did Daphne, we don't know, but evidently she came later as there's no trace of her in published photos or concept artwork.

I have to say that I don't know what Marc was thinking here. Did he want multiple episodes from Greek mythology in the Haunted Mansion portrait hall? Possible, but I wouldn't have expected that. Or if Daphne was put out there as an alternate choice to Medusa, that too is . . . surprising. Seriously, if the vote is between "beautiful girl turns into a tree" and "beautiful girl turns into a snake-haired monster" for inclusion in a haunted house, do we really need a show of hands? Then there's the question of general public acquaintance with the myths involved. Everyone's heard of Medusa, but Daphne? In the Van Eaton catalog she's misidentified as "Persephone," which I suppose illustrates as well as anything how obscure this particular myth is!

It's one of those "interpretive dance" things, apparently

As usual, there are two panels almost alike. The difference between panels five and six is only a little birdie in the tree. I suppose

it's there as a bit of whimsy to lighten the mood, but in my humble opinion the whole thing isn't scary enough to require comic relief.

(My arrogant opinion is similar.) Also, I think the final panel in Davis's concept sketch is much more interesting than what they did here.

(Set went for $1900)

                  The Dustbowl

The "Dustbowl" sketch is remarkable in that it is not a Marc Davis concept. This one came from X Atencio, I am
told. Exactly how many images are in the Atencio concept art, I'm not sure. There are at least four, but there could be
more. Whatever it is, there is not a great deal of difference between the Atencio set and the Kohn set (which went for $2250).

Notice how the crow is skeletonized in the final frame. Once again, a bird has been brought in for some comic relief.

This time the relief is needed. The horrors of the American Dustbowl in the 1930s were hardly ancient history in the 1960s, and this is a pretty straightforward representation of the event, albeit in allegorical form. I had little difficulty pulling up photographic images that were not far removed from what is depicted in this series.

I'm surprised this one was even suggested. I would have thought that 1969 was still a little early to make light of this historical tragedy. How many park guests back then would have had vivid and personal experience with the Dustbowl? And besides, how "haunted house-y" is this topic anyway?*

But what do I know? They were making goofball comedies about WW2 already in the 1950s (Sgt. Bilko) and Nazi prison camps by the 1960s (Hogan's Heroes), so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that Dustbowl humor wasn't a problem for the Greatest Generation. I have to keep reminding myself that being hurt and offended had not yet been established as the recommended default setting for practically everybody in society. Maybe the problem with the Greatest Genners is that most of them never went to college and therefore never had the chance to learn about the permanent outrage imperative, the glories of grievance, the wonders of whining. But we're off topic. (And if I haven't offended anybody, please accept my apologies.) 

The Wilting Roses

For me, the dying flowers are too obvious and too literal as a symbol of mortality. Yes, flowers die, as do all things beautiful and alive. That's food for thought if you're a poet, perhaps, but it's not scary. Even if you are a poet, that hoary cliché, "hoary cliché" comes to mind. "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may...." Still, I suppose it gets the job done. There really isn't much to say about this one. I note that it didn't take much imagination to expand Marc's three-panel original to six. That's a little cupid inside a heart on the front of the vase, adding an extra dash of melancholy, as well as the name "Disney" in a Latin motto. Was this painting done in 1966, I wonder?

(Went for $1500)

Walpurgis and Watermelon

The Van Eaton catalog also includes a few orphans among their Mansion slides. There's a single Kohn panel from what was presumably a six-panel Witch of Walpurgis set. (She went for $1300.)

It's fun to compare and contrast her not only with Marc's original sketch but with the "Sinister 11" portrait

still on display in the Orlando Mansion. They're very different, suggesting that Kohn may have had little

to do with the S11 portraits, even though his "December" was reproduced quite literally as one of them.

You will recall that the Witch started out as a simple two-image set:

One supposes that the goat took a little longer to get here in the six-panel set.

Also in the Van Eaton catalog is a still life with fruit, which you can compare and contrast with what appears to be Marc's original 1964 concept sketch of the same image. What happened in the changing portrait is that the fruit rotted away, much like the roses did. Yawn. Thought provoking, maybe, but hardly the stuff of nightmares. One wonders how this idea beat out some of the other concepts, unless of course practically all of them were made into slides, in which case there are gobs of delightful artifacts still out there in the hands of collectors or collecting dust in WDI archives, if they're not lost altogether.

It may not be spooky, but it's a pretty good painting in its own right. (It went for $325.)

. . . and it follows Marc's original concept sketch very closely.
In 2019 the full set of Davis concept sketches was published for the first time:

MDIHOW 351

There are a number of other HM relics in the Van Eaton catalog,
but it is these slides that show us something we never knew.

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*I highly recommend the Ken Burns film about the Dustbowl. It's nothing less than amazing how terrible that chapter in American history was.