10. How do they do the ballroom? What is the spider web on one of the columns? (Disney's Haunted Mansion)
Description
This article is from the Disney's Haunted Mansion FAQ, by Don Bertino bertino@netcom.com with numerous contributions by others.
10. How do they do the ballroom? What is the spider web on one of the columns? (Disney's Haunted Mansion)
The ghosts in the ballroom is probably the nicest (and simplest) effect
known as "Pepper's Ghost" and has been popular since the
turn-of-the-century.
All you are looking at is a reflection in the clear reflective
"windows" that cover the entire balcony that you are looking through.
(You can see the windows if you look closely enough.) Both above
and below you, there is a reproduction of the space you are looking
forward into; so the actual audioanimatronics are going through their
motions ABOVE, BELOW AND BESIDE you. Since the space you are in is dark,
you can see both what is lit through the window (the ballroom set) and
what is REFLECTED in the window (the audioanimatronics.) To give you an
example: when you walk toward a sliding glass door at night, you see
yourself as well as what is outside. The amount you see of either depends
on how much light is falling on you or what is outside. Disney makes the
ghosts appear to fade in and out by simply dimming and fading the lights
on the actual audioanimatronics above and below your "doom buggy".
As you're going through it look and you'll notice what's supposed to look
like a spider web on one of the sheets of glass. (It's on one of the
last ones you see) The story I heard behind this (from a HM Cast Member
and a good friend of mine) is that one night somebody actually shot
through the glass, leaving a bullet hole.
This was confirmed by Mark Keiser (Retlaw 72-76 Security 77-81) Summer
1974 "The guy that shot there presumably also shot the hole in the last
or second to last window of the Primeval World diorama. Later
investigation determined the hole to be .22 caliber (in both places), and
bullet fragments matched (courtesy of Anaheim PD) the holes in Adventures
in Inner Space (he shot up the snow flakes)."
There is another bullet sized hole beneath the duelist on the right, so
perhaps a deranged guest was shooting at "the man with the gun".
They knew that to replace the glass they'd have to take the roof off the
building first, so they decided to simply disguise it as a spider web.
BTW, there is a spare pane in the back lot.
A bit of trivia: the organ being played by the mad organist in the
ballroom is the actual movie prop organ from 20000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Continue to:
My Books
