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7-11 is indeed a lucky combination.
July 9 saw the appearance of some home movie footage from August of 1969, probably taken during the opening week of the Haunted Mansion, or not long after. There is a murky but important shot of the original attic bride, lasting about three seconds, and some much better film of the Hat Box Ghost, which is the real prize, of course.
This historic footage was discovered by Todd J. Pierce and posted at the Disney History Institute blogsite. Being the anal old cuss that I am, I have a few quibbles with the narrative that accompanies the edited film. The photograph Todd mentions as appearing "40 years" after the Mansion first opened has actually been up at the Doombuggies.com site since October of 2001. To get really picky, the sign hanging at the entrance went up in January of 1965 and not 1963. But forget about those nit-picks. This is about as close to a Holy Grail for Mansionites as you're ever likely to see.
While we're on the subject of film, another video you just GOTTA see if you haven't already is the Martin/Warren ride-thru video of the WDW Mansion, filmed in 2009. It sets a new standard for this sort of thing, miles above anything else out there, including official Disney product. It's about an hour long, intending to give you every tasty detail of the ride. The sound quality is also excellent, so be sure to listen with headphones sometime.
The Haunted Mansion WDW 2009 HD from Martins Videos on Vimeo.
For many Orlando fans, the three-and-a-half year interval between the major refurb of September 2007 and the disastrous new additions in April 2011 represents the gold standard, the best any Mansion has been since 1969 (notwithstanding the addition of Constance). It is our good fortune that the Martin/Warren video was made during this period.
Getting back to 7-11, as luck would have it, July 14 saw the publication of an October 1975 photo of the Disneyland attic bride, proving that the "Corpse Bride" variety was indeed used at Anaheim. That, plus the newly discovered HBG footage, led to the revamping of our early history of the attic bride. We can thank the Major at Gorillas Don't Blog for that one.
