Is Hatbox Ghost Disney World’s 1,000th happy haunt?
“We have 999 happy haunts here, but there’s room for a thousand. Any volunteers?” the Ghost Host proclaims at the Haunted Mansion. This leads to a big question. When the Hatbox Ghost joins the group at the mansion in Disney World in late November, does that bring the mansion to capacity?
Such was the question Uncle Deadly and Gonzo were dying to ask Walt Disney Imagineer Daniel Joseph at Destination D23 this past weekend. Joseph unearthed an answer some may not have anticipated.
The short answer is no. You see, the Hatbox Ghost was one of the original 999 happy haunts to populate the mansion when it opened at Disneyland in 1969. But the apparition disappeared shortly after foolish mortals discovered the mansion, Joseph explained. That is until 2015, when it reappeared inside the mansion (with no explanation on where he was, but there is speculation he went on a multi-year shopping spree looking for new hats).
In addition, Joseph explained that there are 999 happy haunts in the mansion and that the Hatbox Ghost is not a happy haunt but a “very, very unhappy haunt.” So another reason that the happy haunts number will not be at capacity. But this raises a number of other questions. How many unhappy haunts are in the mansion?
Who is the Hatbox Ghost?
The Hatbox Ghost is an elderly male ghost in a cloak and top hat, leaning on a cane with a wavering hand and clutching a hatbox in the other that first appeared in the original Disneyland version of the Haunted Mansion in 1969.
The animatronic figure was placed in the attic with his head vanishing from his shoulders and reappearing inside the hatbox. The head was supposed to disappear in time with the bride figure’s heartbeat.
A technical problem made the figure disappear.
The idea behind the Hatbox Ghost figure was for its head to vanish from atop its shoulders and reappear alternately inside the hatbox, in time with an adjacent bride figure’s beating heart. But the gag wasn’t working correctly. The head could never be darkened enough to seem to completely vanish, so the gag was scrapped fairly quickly.
“The gag was based purely on lighting. The ghost’s head was illuminated by black lighting. A light inside the hatbox he held would rhythmically illuminate and hide the head in the hatbox, while, in tandem, the actual head on the ghost’s shoulders would be hidden by extinguishing the black lighting,” Imagineer Christ Merritt said in an interview with DoomBuggies.com.
The updated Hatbox Ghost figure’s face is an animation that is projected onto the figure. The character looks back and forth and narrows his eyes before his head dissolves into mist and vanishes. As the head vanishes, a chuckle can be heard. The head then appears inside the hatbox before again vanishing.
The Hatbox Ghost will be materializing in the Haunted Mansion as you pass the attraction’s Endless Hallway.
