Originally Posted By TP2000 The problem is that between 1957 and 1969, the Anderson story wasn't developed any further by the Imagineers who eventually took the design lead on the actual ride; Davis, Coats and Crump. During the decade of the 1960's the ride just sort of morphed into a jumble of spooky scenes loosely strung along a "tour" of the house. Some of the iconography introduced by Anderson, of sailing ships and so forth were carried over to the final product, but really just as props and themed eye candy. The dead bride in the attic is the strongest presence of the Anderson story, and yet she just sort of appears there for a few seconds as kind of a Space Age spook house effect with no introductory plot as to who she is or what she's doing there. Then it's down the ramp and out into the swinging musical number in the graveyard, and then exit to your left and watch your step folks. In the 1990's as the dual cultural trends of the Annual Pass and the Internet blossomed, superfans came in and filled in all the blanks left by Walt and the Imagineers over the decades and created their own history and plot. And then fast forward to 2010 and you've got a parade performer doing some overtime work in the off-season dressed as a creepy butler for a radio promotion stunt cooked up by Marketing and he reads a story about the spooky sea captain and BINGO! it's "confirmed" by "Disney" as being what Walt intended all along. If it helps you enjoy the ride more by overlaying some plotline about sea captains and jilted brides over the attraction, then go for it and more power to you. But honestly, Walt didn't instruct his team to put a purposeful plot into the thing, and the Imagineers working on it after Walt's death didn't do anything about a plot either. It's all been made up and fueled by the superfans decades after the fact. Enjoy!
Originally Posted By wingednike >>>Not a backstory I'd regard as "creepy"; rather, one I'd regard as romantic. And definitely preferable to the "axe-murdering bride" backstory that's been grafted on>>> When I was young, the shadowy bride with a bright red beating heart creeped me out to no end. It made sense that she would linger around.
Originally Posted By doombuggy the name "Master Gracey" has NEVER been used inside or out of the Mansion. The grave stone that had the name Gracey has been gone for years. Now that a black widow bride has been added it kills the whole MG made up stuff. Which is 100% fan based from WDW where his name and picture are used inside. And sorry TP200 but there was going to be a pirate killed his bride story line. But they dropped it after some of the show pieces had already been made. There even use to be a pirate hat and telescope on the outside balcony.
Originally Posted By Westsider We get Florida CM's stopping by our Mansion occasionally, and they're all "Master Gracey this" and "Master Gracey that" and they get all super-nerdy about how the sailing ship in the portrait hallway has lettering on it that proves Gracey owned it and blah blah blah... And we just kind of look at them and go "Dude, it's a haunted house ride." There's no plot or secret meaning or hidden portal to another dimension in there. It's just a spook house ride with singing ghosts. And there's no one involved in the ride called "Master Gracey". Gracey's not in the current attraction OG, not in the Show Guide written by WDI, and not even in the original SOP from 1969. Master Gracey doesn't exist. The humidity must get to them out there. Or maybe there's literally nothing to do out there in the swamp but hunt for gators and make up stories about old rides that have no story. Nice folks the Floridians, but the Master Gracey nerdfest they get into is borderline creepy. It helps that Tony Baxter has an office about 100 yards behind our Mansion, we see him in the cafeteria next door to the WDI trailers sometimes, and he's given talks to Disneyland Mansion CM's about the development and building of the Disneyland Haunted Mansion. And he has specifically said Master Gracey and all associated Gracey storylines were fabricated long after the ride opened by passionate but misinformed Floridians. And that, my friends, is the end of the story.
Originally Posted By bravebrother (clapping)Thank you Doombuggy and Westsider.... I am so tierd of telling people that the Gracey thing is all made up and was never part of Haunted Mansion Lore. I guess the Haunted Mansion movie didnt help things with the whole Gracey manor thing...
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl The backstory I related from memory is romantic. The one from the radio promotion stunt is sick, and the "axe-murdering bride" backstory is sicker. And given that "Master Gracey" originated as a name on a tombstone, commemorating an Imagineer (Yale Gracey) who worked on the original attraction, I would submit that any backstory in which somebody named "Gracey" figures prominently is almost certainly either (a) utterly spurious, (b) a movie tie-in, or (c) both.
Originally Posted By avimagine Yeah and just because Tony Baxter is one of the greatest Imagineers currently alive doesn't mean he's more of an authority over a Florida hourly CM!. How dare you say so
Originally Posted By karlg I took the "Keys to the Kingdom" Tour at WDW a couple of years back and as a part of that tour they did the story behind the Haunted Mansion. It sounded like he was working from a script of a new story they were pushing to go with the mansion redo. Little of what he said seem to agree with anything I have read from multiple sources. Frankly, the whole tour was full of misinformation. The Guide seem to know his script very well and he was a pretty long time cast member, but he didn't know much about the real Disney history. He new day to day stuff from being there a while, but his Disney history was totally fractured. I told my son that much was what the guide was telling was just made up stuff and to just enjoy the experience of seeing backstage. The one thing I got out of the tour was to look for the lightning rods which are everywhere. The capper for this tour was at the end when the guide told the story of the "lost weekend" with Herb Ryman and then he point a picture (print) by Peter Ellenshaw that was done later for the TV show and proclaimed that it (the Ellenshaw version) was done on the lost weeken by Herb Ryman. My son knew he was wrong too. We kept quite about it until after the tour and then I told the tour guide that the picture he point to was by Ellenshaw and our tour guide asked how to spell is name so he could look it up. We were in Town Hall and I recognized one of Ellenshaw's Winnie the Pooh prints hanging there and so I showed the guide the signature on the print (I had bought a Mary Poppins over London print by Ellenshaw so I was familiar with some of his other prints). The bottom line seems to be that much of the behind the scenes information you get on these tours is pretty much a fairy tale meant to impress the tourist that don't know too much. I think my son and I were the only people on our tour that could identify Roy Disney as the bronze figure sitting next to Minnie on the bench in town square. They really could use two tours, and for the "real information tour" you should have to pass a basic Disney history test. For the real tour they should have a guide that actually knows Disney history so you don't have to cringe you way through.
Originally Posted By BrnardM <<The book describes several re-writes, culminating on page 32, The End of the Story, 3rd paragraph: "Though not as intricately constructed as a Shakespearean play, a story exists...">> In this line Surrell is referring to a loose narative structure within the ride itself, not a backstory. As for the backstory: 999 ghosts haunt an old mansion. It does leave a lot to interpretation, so there you go.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Funny, my retired father and I did that Keys To The Kingdom tour at WDW about 10 years ago. And our tour guide had ALL SORTS of incorrect information and inaccurate stories to tell. I was chuckling the whole time, and about 30 minutes in I leaned over and told my dad that this girl has no idea what she's talking about. As I remember it, she also mixed up her Walt stories and was trying to explain how Walt insisted that something be placed a certain way in the Magic Kingdom, even though he died 5 years before it opened. The tour was an embarassment really, and I wanted to go up and tip her off to all of her errors and bad info afterwards but I couldn't think of a way to do it nicely, so I just smiled and left. It was neat seeing backstage though. But really, they seem to just make stuff up out there in Florida. I think they believe that since they are the biggest gig in town out there in the swamp that no one will ever question them. That probably worked for them up until about 10 years ago, and then the Internet ruined it for them. They haven't changed their scripts though, just dug their heels in more. Silly Floridians. They should stick to raising gators, or maybe miniature golf. They do have some excellent mini golf out there.
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl There is a (mostly) "real information tour." It's called Backstage Magic, and it's one of the last vestiges of the Disney Institute. The Steam Trains Tour, because it was created by, and is exclusively run by, WDWRR personnel, is also "mostly real information." But why are we suddenly talking about WDW in a thread on the DL forum? With apologies to George Burns, I think it's time to say Goodnight, "Gracey."
Originally Posted By karlg We didn't have the time for Backstage Magic on that trip, but maybe we will give it a try some other time. I agree on the Steam Train Tour, that one is very good. We are talking about WDW in the DL forum because the misinformation from WDW has spilled over to DL. But least people think WDW is the only source of misinformation, on the Walking in Walks Footsteps Tour they spin their own tall tales. The two biggest rumors they spread as "facts" is the "golden spike" near the castle as the original center of Disneyland (which is easily disproved with a satellite view or old blueprint), and the "one spire that is not covered in gold" being left undone by Walt himself as a symbol that the park will never be finished. From what I understand, one of the spires became tarnished at the time the tour was created and somebody creatively turn it into part of the spiel (along with Walt wanting solid gold spires) and it has gone on to be reported in "hidden secrets" books.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I heard that bit about the castle spire long before the Walking in Walt's Footsteps Tour began, so if it's bogus, its origins go back way earlier than that.
Originally Posted By avimagine I heard that Bob Iger and Roy Disney were cryogenically frozen and stored in the Haunted Mansion, I heard that Bob was in there for a few years and that it was only recently he was awoken. Maybe this is the real backstory?
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl Actually, gold leaf doesn't tarnish, under normal conditions, so if one of the spires is tarnishing, and the others aren't, then there's an actual difference in the surface material.
Originally Posted By hbquikcomjamesl And yes, the Walt's Footsteps tour has a certain amount of bovine scat. It seems like the bovine scat comes and goes, from year to year, whereas the true stuff sticks around. Anybody know which category the "discontinued surplus ballistic missile parts, that had already exceeded their design life many times over when they began to fail" story (Re: the disappearance of the Flying Saucers) falls into?
