Claude Coats concept sketch for the loading area of Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion. Fascinating to me in that it offers a far different take on what was eventually built - the Mansion as it exists offers pretty much a ‘black void’ (more or less successful depending on how adjusted your eyes are to the darkness) between the portrait hall and once again what is clearly a part of the house (staircase, hallway, etc).
In Coats’ sketch, you are clearly somehow ‘outside’ just after leaving the ‘indoor’ wall on the left, with gnarled trees and a small cemetery surrounding you and the doombuggy track, storm clouds wispy in the distance. This is highly reminiscent of Pirates of the Caribbean loading in the bayou section, actually. I suppose it wasn’t built perhaps for being too ‘out there’ even in terms of the concept of the house being possessed/manipulated by the ghosts within to appear how they wish (that eye and face wallpaper, the distorted grandfather clock, severed arms holding lighting sconces, etc.)
Image courtesy of Long-Forgotten blog.
