UPDATE!
On May 9, 2015, The Hatbox Ghost has made his official return to the Disneyland Haunted Mansion!
Dateline: Disneyland 1969. The Haunted Mansion opens it's doors for the first time on August 9th, six years after construction of the facade had been completed in 1963. The Haunted Mansions boasts 999 happy haunts, but were there 1,000 haunts when it first opened? If you were lucky enough to ride the Haunted Mansion in 1969, you may have seen a ghost whose stay in the mansion was brief: the infamous Hatbox Ghost. Ol' Hatty would have lived in the attic, and was positioned just right of the exit of the attic (the Bride was originally where the phantom piano player is located today). The effect was that his head would disappear and then re-appear inside of the hatbox he was holding, while his cane holding hand trembled:
After opening day, a number of merchandising materials started to appear. One of which was a story record, with sounds from the mansion and a story of kids going through the mansion.
In the record, the kids encounter the hatbox ghost, whom the narrator describes... "He was a cloaked figure with an evil, grinning face. A hatbox hung from his hand. With each beat of his bride's heart, his head disappeared from his body
and appeared in the hatbox."
Upon closer inspection, a famous visage appears on the cover:
He also even had his own page in the included 11 page booklet:
There was also a souvenir kids record that contained a picture of Mr. Box:
So as a kid in the late 60's after seeing all of the available merchandise, you would have been familiar with the character of the Hatbox Ghost. Imagineer Marc Davis even drew this mock up of the character:
A number of press photos with Yale Gracey were taken with the Hatbox Ghost, and could be seen in papers as early as May 1969:
Pictures courtesy of doombuggies.com
Here's what the Hatbox Ghost looked like inside the attraction:
Picture courtesy of doombuggies.com
So what happened? Where did this haunted resident go? One rumor circulated that he as so scary, Disney received so many complaints they had to remove him from the attraction. While this makes for a great story, sadly, that was not the case. The real truth was that the disappearing/reappearing head effect just didn't work well enough. The Imagineers tinkered with his effect over the course of a few weeks, or even months, but could never acheive their desired result. Because of this, the Hatbox Ghost was taken out of the mansion for good. But what was his fate?
On a recent article on Jim Hill Media, rumor has it that Imagineer Marc Davis claims the Hatbox Ghost was
re-purposed as one of the eagles in the attraction America Sings:
However, this most likely is not the case. The Hatbox Ghost was not a complex animatronic,
and an item that recently went up for sale on eBay proved this theory.
Early in 2009, a Haunted Mansion Reference Manual went up for sale on the auction site eBay.
This manual was used by cast members to maintain and repair the effects in the mansion.
The following are the schematic pages for the Hatbox Ghost (click to enlarge):
As you can see, there really wasn't a whole lot to him. The main effect was just a matter of lighting, and the only real moving part was his trembling hand on his cane. I highly doubt he was stripped down and used as the eagle in
American Sings, since he was mainly just some metal tubing in the first place.
Recently, home video footage has been found showing this illusive spectre in his original home in the ride:
Since the Hatbox Ghost's now infamous exodus from the Haunted Mansion attraction in Disneyland, his mystery and legend has grown over the years. He became an instant favorite character of doombugs (Haunted Mansion fans, named after the "doombuggy" ride vehicles) everywhere. In the last few years, Disney has noticed the buzz concerning our mansion's favorite ex-resident.
Offical Hatbox Ghost merchandise has been available for the first time since the records in the 60's.
A "Big-Fig" was released in 2005, designed by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily:
He has also been on a number of tombstones:
As well as several pins:
And even in a set of figurines:
In 2013, Disney released a limited edition T-Shirt, featuring our favorite ghoul:
I even went so far as to make my very own Hatbox Ghost!
Click to see it animated!
But perhaps the most exciting bit of merchandise was the recently revealed one of a kind full size Hatbox Ghost that was auctioned off at Disney's D23 Event in 2009. Designed by Kevin Kidney and Jody Daily:
On July 22, 2010 at the San Diego Comic-Con, it was revealed that Disney will be making a new Haunted Mansion movie
written and produced by Guillermo Del Toro. Del Toro stated that the Hatbox Ghost will be a key element to the story.
In fact, the first art shown of the movie was of ol' Hatty himself!
At the 2013 D23 Expo, Disney Imagineering revealed an audio-animatronic Hatbox Ghost.
When asked about his return, Imagineers dodged the question, seeming to insinuate that it’s bound to happen some day.
On the DisneyParks official blog, it was revealed that the Hatbox Ghost
would be making his return to Disneyland in May 2015!
On May 9, 2015, The Hatbox Ghost has made his official return to the Disneyland Haunted Mansion!
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