Pepper's Ghost

Did you know that the special ghostly effects within the mansion were developed from a very old illusion which Disney Imagineers found in an antique magic book.

The illusion is called 'Pepper's Ghost" and is based on the reflection of the object (the ghost) into a clear piece of glass, placed appropriately to match the physical props/set where the actual viewer can see. The effect is tremendously successful and the brilliant minds at Disney took it one step further by adding a hearse, open windows, animatronics, sounds and era appropriate dress.

Sadly, Walt passed away during the development of the ride and the designers were lost without his guiding hand. Should it be scary? Should it be funny? If scary, how much scary-ness is acceptable.

Originally planned as a walk-through, it was decided that guests would linger too long within the attraction, so the transportation system designed by imagineers for the World's Fair was incorporated with tremendous success!

Some of original gallery furniture pieces designed by Rolly Crump for the "Museum of the Weird" can still be found within the mansion. The candle sconces were examples his Rolly's wonderfully creative imagination!

There is a wonderful book titled 'The Haunted Mansion-From the Magic Kingdom to the Movies' by Jason Surrell which I highly recommend!

If you want to learn more about Pepper's Ghost, check out these links!
http://www.phantasmechanics.com/pepper.html
http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~tbardin/html/pepperghost.html