Animatronics and Other Manufactured Creeps
Typically this blog is not about haunted attractions or ”man-made” ghosts, so to speak. But I do think there are/were some noteworthy attractions worth writing about. And let’s face it, when the ride temporarily breaks, being stuck by yourself in the dark in the Haunted Mansion cemetery scene at Disney when not every doom-buggy around you has passengers *does* make for being mildly creeped out. No? Well okay, fair enough…..but admittedly I was just waiting for someone or something looming in the dark to sneak up behind me when this happened to me a few years ago.
In addition to what theme parks refer to as ”dark rides”, there is another genre of man-made haunts that I think is cool enough to write about and that is the now defunct animatronic “ghost theatre”. I only know of three, all of which closed over the past decade: “Ghosts and Legends” (2003-2013) in Myrtle Beach, SC; ”Hauntings Extreme Ghostly Adventure” (2009-2015) in Gatlinburg, TN; and ”Haunted Tales” (2008-2019) in Atlantic City, NJ. If you know of any other existing attractions like that, please do reach out to me. I would love to hear about them. What I really did like about these three attractions was the story-telling nature. All three functioned like sit-down ghost tours, based on local legends and lore. So even though the dramatic flare and theatrics were a large part of these attractions, they were all based on stories that had been passed down for ages.
One Room Theater and gift shop designed and built by Oliver Holler, Ghosts and Legends Theatre & Myrtle Beach Ghost Walk were long established profitable businesses. When this attraction came up for sale, it was advertised on a website called Hauntrepreneurs, which described it as such:
Gift shop, all merchandise inventory included. Scripts, artwork, marketing materials and franchising rights included. Web sites and additional URLs also included. Seasonal decor included. Ghosts and Legends show is an intimate theatrical attraction showcasing southern ghost stories and lore. The show is historical, factual, educational, sensational, and chilling. It presents popular ghostly legends with sophisticated special effects, in a re-creation of a classic southern plantation parlor. The authentic ante-bellum scenery and southern storytelling completely submerses the audience into another world. Ghosts and Legends provides entertainment that is significant to the Grand Strand area with a presentation that has broad appeal and historical relevance -which never goes out of date. It is entertaining, and offers tourists a comfortable place to sit down, relax, and be swept up in the rich history and folklore of the Grand Strand. No other venue offers this to audiences. The concept is a blueprint of efficiency. It takes advantage of minimal operating staff, minimal square footage, and automated show control. Profit is maximized with swift ‘crank-through’, multiple shows (others can be added in the future), flexible seating capacity, and broad appeal. Related merchandise in the gift shop adds to income compounded by residual advertising benefits, (i.e. logo souvenirs). Ghosts and Legends is located in a high foot traffic area of the popular Barefoot Landing, which claims a daily tourist population of 40,000 people during the season. Ticket prices start under ten dollars and coupons make the attraction accessible to even those with a modest budget. Unlike other shows that operate seasonally, and in the evenings only, Ghosts and Legends is available to audiences every fifteen minutes from dawn until dusk, year ’round. Because of the educational content, the show is ideal for school groups, church groups and tour bus outings. Reduced Asking Price is $150,000.
Sadly, this attraction was never purchased and the physical structure now houses a retail store. I really wish I would have invested in this years ago and moved to Myrtle Beach. I think it could have been fun and lucrative. I don’t remember very many specific details, but I remember a very realistic storm was replicated in the show as part of the ”Gray Man” story. I remember the rocking chair rocking on its own. And I remember a hologram of the ghost of a woman named Alice. Both of these stories are pretty popular ghost stories up and down the entire Carolina coast and I will reserve details for another future blog.
Hauntings Gatlinburg at $7/ticket was running for just about six years, before ending its run in 2015. The best information I could find was this video on youtube. This one didn’t seem as sophisticated as its Myrtle Beach counterpart, but nonetheless worth a nod.
Haunted Tales NJ was located in Atlantic City. It also went up for sale and this is how it was described on Haunt World: Haunted Tales is priced to sell quickly with over $200,000 invested into it, Selling for JUST $29,000, right in time for the Holiday Season! The business includes the Haunted Tales Theater Attraction, A separate Coffin Ride Simulator located in the store front which can also dual as gift shop if desired. About the Attractions: Greeted by the Grim Reaper at the door, a coffin on hydraulics is used as the first attraction called Buried Alive. Inside the Buried Alive coffin you are staring at the inside of a coffin and listening to a 5 minute story simulation of being buried alive. It include motions, sounds, smells and a story between gravediggers to emulate the genuine feel of actually being buried alive while being inside of a custom made dual-person coffin ride. The main attraction, Haunted Tales, is inspired by the haunted house experience of the 1980’s and was created as a Family Friendly attraction for audiences of children and adults. It’s exactly what the name implies, a spooky attraction that is used to tell “haunted tales”. To give Haunted Tales its own unique identity; elements of local area folklore are incorporated into the tales revealed in the show. The Haunted Simulation theater is filled with Victorian-era objects including authentic antiques, antique replicas, old time photos, a piano, bubbling cauldrons and many other haunted house details that took many months to incorporate into an animatronic simulation of a real life haunting. The effects are mostly done with air, as in the old days, and uses visual, auditory, tactile, and olfactory effects. There are two stories spanning a total of 15 minutes; one about the Jersey Devil, the other about a local pirate. $7.50 was the ticket price I found published for Haunted Tales, but I think eventually it did go up a bit (slightly more for the Coffin Ride, which sounds like an awful experience to me…..I think that would be my own personal phobia realized being trapped inside that coffin.)
Carpetbagger reviewed Haunted Tales on his vlog. And by the way, if you have never watched any of his videos, he does an amazing job reviewing roadside attractions throughout North America. I really enjoy watching his experiences visiting places that I would have never otherwise heard about. Check it out- he has some pretty amazing discoveries.
Then we have the king of haunted animatronic attractions: Disney. While there are a few animatronic theaters throughout the parks (Tiki Room, Carousel of Progress, Country Bear Jamboree, and Hall of Presidents), there is not really a *haunted* animatronic attraction per-se, but I do want to briefly talk about the spooky rides like The Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror. Of course, the rumor mill runs at full capacity with the legend and lore that these three rides all host their own “real” ghosts.
The Twilight Zone is pretty much my favorite TV show of all-time and I believe Rod Serling was a genius, ahead of his time. The themes he used in each episode of the series may seem a bit dated now, but they really are so relevant today. So the fact that Disney World has a ride inspired by this series, lures me right into Hollywood Studios, more for this particular attraction than any other. Cast members here are dressed as Bellhops and the ride is based on an abandoned glamorous Hollywood hotel that has been taken over by…….something very strange, after being struck by lightening. The story goes that the power went out, and when that happened the guests in the elevator experienced a free-fall. Legend has it that a real ghost lives inside the ride. A Bellhop loading guests onto the elevator, platform D dropped dead from a heart attack right on the platform. So of COURSE there is a rumor that this cast member lingers in that platform D loading area of the ride. “That Disney Girl” has a pretty interesting video about said Bellhop.
I also thoroughly enjoy the Haunted Mansion, more than just about any other ride. There have been long-standing rumors that guests actually scatter cremated ashes on the ride (and other rides as well), specifically in the Haunted Mansion graveyard scene, and in-turn the ghosts rise from those ashes. Not only is publicly spreading ashes in the Disney parks unlawful, but also really gross. Custodians of the park validate that this does, indeed happen. And they only get swept up every night when the magical Disney high-power vacuum system swallows them up and spits them out into the garbage. So what is the point? And where are there ghosts? Cast members have claimed to see more than just the 999 ghosts who are part of the fictitious ”cast”. Both Disneyland in California and its Florida counterpart in Magic Kingdom claim to have their own ghosts, but none of the stories have ever been substantiated with details about who the ghosts might be. There’s one story at the Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion known as the “Old Man With the Cane.” He is seen sometimes by Cast Members at load/unload, just sitting in a DoomBuggy, unresponsive, but no one really knows who he is or where he came from. Haunted or not, the architecture and design of both versions are quite lovely and something that I marvel at every time I find myself at Disney parks. The Disneyland Haunted Mansion was designed to be similar to the Shipley-Lydecker House owned by a sea captain and built in Baltimore in 1803.
The inspiration for the Magic Kingdom Haunted Mansion’s exterior facade was discovered on the hills in the rural town of Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania and is known as the Harry Packer Mansion. This beautiful home was built by Harry Packer’s father, Asa in 1874 on the fortune he accumulated while running the lucrative Lehigh Valley Railroad. Judge Harry Packer served as President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad as well as the Schraeder Coal Company. His father Asa was also the founder of Lehigh University. Pretty impressive! Their family story is interesting because they were not born into wealth, and families like the Astors, Vanderbilts, and Carnegies turned up their noses to the Packers. The house is now a Bed and Breakfast, and it is on my list to visit, most of all because it has ghosts of its very own.
Pirates of the Caribbean is hands-down one of my other favorites. An imagineer (engineer for Disney) named George allegedly died in the early ’70s while welding a piece of the ride. The story varies a bit. Some say he was crushed under a heavy piece of the set that had fallen on top of him. Other versions of the story say he fell from the top of the attraction’s burning city in one of the final big scenes. Either way, his ghost never left. Cast Members have said to have seen a ghostly apparition on ride monitors in Pirates of the Caribbean. They have also heard mysterious footsteps or phone calls from the control room when no one is in there. Cast Members make sure that one of them tells George “good morning” and in the evening, someone tells George “good night” over the PA system. If they fail to do so the ride will break down throughout the following day and have all sorts of complications. Guests have reportedly felt a mysterious chill in the burning city section of the ride, and cast members have had to repeatedly close a door, only to close it again and again after it opens on its own. The door is near the famous key-holding dog scene near the exit and is now known as “George’s Door.” Other cast members have felt a tug on their costume, only to find out that there is no one there. Also, though not a ghost story, Johnny Depp occasionally makes a live appearance in the ride. It sounds so creepy to me to be among all of the animatronics inside the spooky dark corners of the ride!
Interesting haunted attractions, even if they have a bit of poetic license and dramatic flair. Sometimes it’s nice to change things up from the traditional ghost tour or haunted venue, which both are typically the general direction of this blog. Please do let me know if you know of any other spooky ghost-show attractions or if you have experienced any haunted theme park attractions. In the mean time, I’ll sign out for now. Goodnight, George.
