My favorite attraction at Walt Disney World has always been The Haunted
Mansion. We spent the last week there, and we rode it three times.
After we got home I did some research on this attraction, and was surprised to
learn that in 1969, Disney produced an LP based on this ride. In the story on
the record, two teenagers named Mike and Karen visit the mansion. Mike's voice
is that of Ronny Howard, who was 15 at the time. Karen's voice was performed
by Robie Lester, who did the singing for Eva Gabor's characters in The
Aristocats and The Rescuers; she also did Jessica's voice in Santa Claus is
Coming to Town.
(digression alert): On this record, the voice of Madame Leota was performed by
Eleanor Audley, who played the female villains in both Cinderella and Sleeping
Beauty. She never appeared on TAGS, but she had prominent roles on many 1960s
sitcoms, most notably as Oliver's mother on Green Acres. The narrator is Thurl
Ravenscroft; he also sings the "Grim Grinning Ghosts" song (as well as "You're
a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" in How the Grinch Stole Christmas). His deep bass
voice can also be heard in many Disney films, but he will always be most famous
for performing the voice of Tony the Tiger in fifty years' worth of Frosted
Flakes commercials.
(further digression alert): The original voice of Tony the Tiger was Dallas
McKennon, who did many Disney voices, and also played sculptor Brian Jackson in
the TAGS episode "The Statue." Whew! I finally got back on topic.
Anyway, you can listen to this album here:
http://dw56.250free.com/HauntedMansionTape/HauntedMansionTape.html
If you listen to this in the dark, it's rather frightening! Those of you old
enough to remember listening to scary radio programs can attest to the fact
that radio was MUCH scarier than TV could ever be.
Paul Mulik
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