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By Scott M. Haskins, Head of Conservation
Are you aware that there are five Haunted Mansion versions that exist at Disney World, Disneyland Anaheim, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland?
Walt Disney used the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California, as inspiration for the ride. But, The Disneyland Anaheim mansion is supposed to be representative of a New Orleans home.
The Winchester House, once owned by Sarah Winchester, is known for its immense size, architectural oddities, and the fact that Sarah believed it was haunted by the ghosts of those killed by Winchester rifles.
The original 2 Disneyland designers disagreed on how the haunted mansion concept would be built. One wanted it to be funny, while the other wanted it to be scary. In the end, the two themes were combined… and I’m pleased to see that it’s more entertaining than terrifying.
The first mansion opened at Disneyland Anaheim on August 9, 1969 and, as you can imagine, there have been renovations in the last 56 years. In fact there have been renovations at several of the haunted houses as technology has developed.
My father was an elementary school district superintendent in Anaheim, California during my earlier years growing up and all of the local schools used to get discounted access to Disneyland once a year. There must’ve been other promotional programs also because as a child from very young through my teenage years, we would go to Disneyland at least a couple of times a year and I remember one weekend where we went all three days on single day passes. Not only was the haunted house one of the new attractions 16 years after the amusement park opened, it has persisted as one of the most popular attractions in the park.
The 4 family portraits at the entrance of the Haunted Mansion that we preserved and restored a few years ago
Just to refresh your memory, when you enter the attraction of the Haunted House you gather into an entryway of the mansion, where the story of the hauntings begins, and the floor imperceptibly lowers, magically expanding the height of the room. As the room becomes hauntingly taller, the four paintings on the walls are apparently stretched from about 4 feet to 10 feet tall, changing the appearance from a pretty picture of a mansion’s family member to a gruesome funny image. This is the introduction to the Haunted Mansion.
About 10 years ago, we were approached by a collector in the Los Angeles area who had what he thought were all four of the original paintings. Apparently, they had been discarded as part of a renovation. All four of these paintings were original oil paintings. We cleaned and varnished them and mounted the paintings so they would be stable, framed and displayed. It was really a nostalgic thrill to have them come into the lab and be responsible for their preservation as a piece of American culture. It was really fun to have them under our care for a while.
Fished out of the trash by the head electrician of a building renovation and stored rolled up for decades.
You can imagine how surprised we were about a month ago when I got a call from the Las Vegas area. The family’s grandfather had been the chief electrician at Disneyland Anaheim, who serviced the Haunted Mansion. During his employment there, as they shut down the attraction for renovation and began demolishing certain parts, the workers threw into the trash the paintings previously mentioned! The family’s father could not bear to see these iconic paintings discarded so unceremoniously he rolled 2 of them up and took them home where they have been in storage, rolled up like maps, for decades.
The children and grandchildren now are interested in having the paintings look their best so they can display them and continue to tell the funny stories that accompany their grandfather‘s work there. Checking online, they also discovered that these same images from other Disneyland Haunted Houses have come up at auction over the years and have brought up to $150,000 each!
So, once again, we are thrilled to have under our care. the preservation and restoration of two more of the paintings from the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland Anaheim.
The two paintings were stabilized, so that any flaking was stopped; they were also relaxed on a warming table so that all the cracks and distortions would lie flat; they were, of course, cleaned and very carefully touched up if there was paint missing. They received several coats of archival varnish that doesn’t yellow and new frames were built that were reproduced from photos in the Haunted Manson. What fun to see them preserved and looking great for future generations! We’re ging to redeliver them to the family in a couple of weeks… they are going to go NUTS with excitement!!!!
After art conservation treatments with new frame to reflect the style of the original frame
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Its a bit of a coup to get an article syndicated, and its certainly prestigious, as additional “proof” that the info and the author are considered far and wide authoritative and an expert in the field. This article was syndicated for USA national redistribution. What does it mean that this article is “ syndicated”? See end of article for explanation. So, enjoy and trust our content!!
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What does it mean that this article is “ syndicated”?
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