Happy Haunts Materialize: Will the Haunted Mansion exhibit return?

In 2019, Disneyland hosted a “50 spirited years of retirement unliving” event to celebrate the Haunted Mansion’s 50th birthday. You needed a special ticket for the after-hours event, but they also set up a Happy Haunts Materialize exhibit, which was open to any park visitor. Will the release of the new Haunted Mansion movie cause it to rematerialize?

I don’t know, but it would be cool if it did. It was a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the Haunted Mansion’s origin story. A “ghoul-ery,” as Disney so cleverly termed it, used original sketches and artifacts to show how the concept evolved from a kernel of an idea to the ride it grew to be.

I was lucky enough to go to the special after-hours event. (Or, as my husband likes to tease me, “foolish” enough to pop for the outrageously-priced tickets.) But I was also happy I noticed the Happy Haunts Materialize sign when I visited the park during the day.

“What’s this all about?” I remember thinking. I headed inside to find out. Here’s what awaited.

How the Haunted Mansion Materialized

An info sign at the start of the Happy Haunts Materialize exhibit explained exactly what it was all about. In case the above photo isn’t clear enough to read, here’s what the sign stated:

Since its hinges first creaked open in 1969, the Haunted Mansion has welcomed generations of Guests and Ghouls alike to tour the ghostly retreat. Yet contact between the earthly plane and the boundless realm of the supernatural was not easy to establish; it took over fifteen years for the happy haunts of the Haunted Mansion to materialize. 

During that time, Walt Disney Imagineers were faced with the “chilling challenge” of deciding what a haunted house attraction at Disneyland should be. Should the ghosts be grinning or should they be grim? Should the attraction focus on the “hot and cold running chills” of its setting or the “wall-to-wall creeps” that inhabit it?

In celebration of 50 years with our Grim Grinning Ghosts, the Disney “Ghoul-ery” invites you to a special viewing of the Haunted Mansion’s residents as they appeared in their corruptible, concept state. Kindly step all the way in to explore the eerie evolution of the Haunted Mansion’s design, from a walk-through attraction at the top of Main Street U.S.A., to a “Museum of the Weird,” to the ghoulish delight that we know today. As you trace the attraction’s “disquieting metamorphosis,” you’ll discover how Walt Disney Imagineers made final arrangements for a Haunted Mansion that was both silly and spooky by building off the sympathetic vibrations of each other’s ideas.

Now, as they say, “look alive,” and we’ll continue our little tour…

The Original Haunted Mansion Imagineers

Who were the Imagineers instrumental in creating the Haunted Mansion? There were nine, including:

1. Marc Davis “conjured” many of the Mansion’s most memorable characters, including “the corruptible mortals in the Stretching Portraits and several silly spooks in the Graveyard jamboree.”
2. Claude Coats “advocated for playing up the spookiness of the eponymous Mansion’s creepy crypts and doorless chambers.” That contributed to the attraction’s “chilling aura of foreboding.” But it was “the choice to set the memorable foreground characters of Marc Davis against the captivating backgrounds of Claude Coats” that “ended up being the perfect magical mixture that conjured the Haunted Mansion to life.”
3. Ken Anderson’s “spooky concepts for the Haunted Mansion…would go on to inspire many of the characters and environments that are iconic to the Haunted Mansion today.”
4. Xavier “X” Atencio’s “script fleshed out the story of the Haunted Mansion.” He also “penned the words of the Ghost Host that echo through” its halls.
5. Rolly Crump’s sketched “man-eating plants, haunted fortune-teller wagons, and coffin-shaped clocks.” They were intended for the scrapped “Museum of the Weird” but “helped inspire many of the Haunted Mansion’s most memorable moments.”
6. Blaine Gibson is best known for sculpting the famous “Partners” statue of Walt Disney holding Mickey Mouse’s hand. However, Gibson also “helped bring many of the Haunted Mansion’s spooks to life—or, rather, un-life.” Among them were the Hitchhiking Ghosts and the Swinging Wake’s “ghastly guests.”
7. Duane Alt’s “paintings helped inform overall atmosphere…and the eerie environs of the Haunted Mansion.”
8. Jack Ferges was a giant at 6’8″, but he “was known for his tiny, intricate models and expressive sculptures.” He’s responsible for transforming the concept sketches of “many of the attraction’s 999 silly spooks” into three-dimensional renderings.
9. Joe Kaba had an “impressive eye for sculpture” and a “knack for molding expressive faces in particular,” many of which inhabit the Haunted Mansion.

The Happy Haunts Materialize “Ghoul-ery”

There was so much to look at it in the “Ghoul-ery,” and so much behind-the-scenes info to absorb about the Haunted Mansion’s creation. I snapped pics like crazy. Here are some of my favorites:

The Entrance

The “Ghoul-ery”

Portrait Hallway

Haunted Mansion Wallpaper Inspiration

The Swinging Wake

The Bride

Madame Leota and the Seance

The Hitchhiking Ghosts

The Graveyard

Sculptures

Unused Concept Art

Takeaways about the Haunted Mansion from the Happy Haunts Materialize Exhibit

The behind-the-scenes peek at the Haunted Mansion’s origin story was fascinating. It certainly didn’t come together overnight, did it? It took fifteen years to come to fruition.

Learning more about the Imagineers involved and who collaborated to create the beloved attraction that fans still enjoy today was also neat. I especially liked finding out where the Haunted Mansion’s iconic wallpaper came from —a Rolly Crump design!

However, how cool they kept some of the scrapped ideas too. Especially because it reflects other directions they considered taking the Mansion.

I must admit, it would’ve been pretty cool to have a “Museum of the Weird” to visit too. Maybe it would’ve been something like the Swiss Family Treehouse? (Which I guess Disneyland no longer has, but Magic Kingdom does.)

And what if it had become a guided walk-through tour attraction instead of one with Doom Buggies? Would it have been as popular?

Speaking of Doom Buggies, if the Happy Haunts Materialize exhibit had any info about them, I didn’t see it. Which was both surprising and disappointing. I would’ve loved to see concept art for them and learn about their origin story.

Two other surprising revelations involved Madame Leota and the seance and the Caretaker. Who knew that prior to brainstorming ways to incorporate Spiritualism into the Haunted Mansion, there’d never been a depiction of a spirit conducting a seance before?

And I never thought about the Caretaker being one of the only mortals in the Haunted Mansion attraction. Which makes sense. After all, us Foolish Mortals are there for the ghosts.

Check-In

Which Happy Haunts Materialize exhibits did you like best?