August 9, 1969 – The Haunted Mansion Attraction Opens at New Orleans Square in Disneyland
“You Ghost Host is happy to show you their humble abode. Enter…if you dare!”
On August 9, 1969, the Haunted Mansion attraction officially opened at New Orleans Square in Disneyland. A highly popular attraction, it uses the Omnimover system with guests riding in “doom buggies” through the house of a 19th-century sea captain who met an untimely end, and now has his mansion inhabited by 999 ghosts, with “always room for one more.” The attraction was first described to guests in the Disneyland episode Disneyland 10th Anniversary (see January 3rd entry for more details).
The mansion was first built in 1962 – 1963, but Imagineers were unsure of what to do with the attraction. One idea was to make it a walk-through attraction, but there were traffic flow problems to deal with in that case. Another idea was to keep the outside of the mansion as decrepit as the inside, but Walt had told the Imagineers that they would keep up the outside of the mansion, and let the ghosts take care of the inside. Narration for the ride is provided by Paul Frees. In recent years, the attraction has been decorated for the holidays with the cast of The Nightmare Before Christmas.
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