Let's explore the story of Captain Gore the first resident of Walt Disney's Haunted Mansion. After the World's Fair had concluded Walt Disney had a pretty good idea that he wanted to do something New Orleans related with the old mansion that they had built on the riverside. The Mansion had already been here for years years and they still didn't have an idea of what they were doing. Ken Anderson and a group of Walt Disney imagineers were tasked to go to New Orleans to figure out what the local stories and legends were to bring back home Disneyland. Who Is Captain Gore? It wouldn't stay this way forever, but for a while imagineer Ken Anderson was in charge of creating the backstory for the Haunted Mansion. He wouldn't be the imagineering team that would finish it but he was where it started and some of the original pieces and storylines that he crafted are still a part of the Mansion over 50 years later! Off of the side of New Orleans Square not too far away from the Pirates of the Caribbean, Walt wanted to build a house for a famous pirate Bartholomew Roberts AKA black Bart and he wanted it to be a home that had a legend or rumor that it was haunted by the wickedness of its owner. However Ken Anderson thought Bartholomew Roberts just was too plain of a name so he came up with the idea of Bartholomew Gore AKA Captain Gore who as Legend would have it would be the cruelest meanest pirate to ever sail. This would begin in the relationship between the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean because after all it would be a pirate Captain Gore there would be the resident of Walt's Haunted Mansion. Let's look at Ken Anderson's best version of the story. Captain Gore dreamed of retiring and he wouldn't retire to this quiet Seaside Community where he could maybe escape from being a fearsome pirate and just live out the rest of his years as a regular guy. He changed his name, moved to the seaside community and created a new identity and he funded it all with the blood money that he had made as a pirate. After he turned himself into a respectful Citizen and purchased a house, having it built perfectly positioned on the river's edge. The mansion had a sailing ship as a weather vein, a spy glass on the balcony and an attic full of all kinds of treasures. Captain Gore wanted to bring on a young bride so she could bear him lots of children and he could live out the rest of his life not like a pirate but like a normal man. In an attempt to make his life feel more complete he took on a young bride by the name of Priscilla and he would share with her his wealth and beautiful mansion all based on one small agreement. She was never to step into his attic! This was the only part of the mansion that was off limits. Of course the bride on her wedding day, in her wedding dress was far too curious and she went into the attic. She opened up a large chest and inside she found all of Captain Gore's secrets. She learned that he was a bloodthirsty pirate! Once Gore had realized that she had betrayed his wishes, he fell into a rage, lost his mind and she lost her life. He threw her out the window. When we go through the attic scene our doom buggy turns as we are falling out of the attic just like Priscilla his bride fell out the window. She however got revenge on him, haunting him until he lost his mind and eventually he hung himself. As the attraction begins, the man hanging in the stretching room from the rafters is Captain Gore the original resident of the Haunted Mansion. And we hear that woman scream that's Priscilla laughing and shrieking knowing that she finally got revenge on the man that killed her. The man that threw her out of the window of the Haunted Mansion.
More Pirates of the Caribbean discoveries inside of the Haunted Mansion include Mark Davis character sketches. He based the auctioneer off of the idea of Captain Gore. Also when you go through the ballroom scene in The Haunted Mansion that same animatronic comes out through the graveyard and is chased by a bride. The fact that that character is in both Pirates and in the Haunted Mansion means that Captain Gore truly was the original resident of the Haunted Mansion. Big changes recently with the recent opening of Tiana's Palace Restaurant so I wanted to feature the current condition and lay-out of New Orleans Square. The roughly three-acre area was the first land to be added to Disneyland after the park's opening, at a cost of $18 million. It is exclusive to Disneyland. Current attractions and entertainment
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Club 33 Membership in the club has been exclusive since the very beginning. In fact, in 2007 the wait-list became so long that the club officially closed the wait-list for 5 years before reopening it again in 2012. That same year, the reported cost of membership was a $50,000 initiation fee and $15,000 annually for individuals, and even more for corporations. Membership initiation fees and dues are reportedly much higher now; as of 2022, it is reported that individuals invited to join must pay closer to $60-70,000 for initiation and up to $20,000 annually, according to current members. The second stop on the Disneyland Railroad is home to the telegraph cable office, where a paraphrased portion of Walt Disney’s opening-day speech from July 17, 1955, can be heard in Morse code. The telegraph message is just over a minute long and decoded it says: “To all who come to Disneyland, welcome. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.” We are soon to lose this view as the Haunted Mansion queue line expansion begins in 2024.
Constance Hatchaway was a beautiful woman born in Money County, California supposedly in the year 1851. By 1869, an 18-year-old Constance had moved to Secret County, California where she became engaged to a young farming-heir named Ambrose Harper. Not long into their marriage, the teenage Constance murdered Ambrose with a hatchet via decapitation. Being Harper's wife, she inherited much of his estate while also keeping his severed head within a hatbox as a twisted souvenir. The murder of Ambrose Harper was the first instance of Constance's modus operandi as a serial killer. Constance would target wealthy men and murder them with her hatchet before stuffing their heads inside of hatboxes as trophies. Through this habit, Constance would garner more and more wealth and status. An apparent affiliate of hers, at some point in her criminal career, was a man of unknown identity who came into possession of her hatboxes at some point in time. Constance's next victim came in 1872 in the form of Frank Banks, an eastern banker, and community pillar. Two years later, Constance married the foreign diplomat and Chinese military officer the Marquis de Doome and in doing so presumably became the Marchioness de Doome herself. A year later she married celebrated railroad baron, gambler, and world-renowned gourmand, Reginald Caine. All of these husbands would fall to her blade and have their belongings and heads become part of Hatchaway's collection. In 1877, the now 26-year-old Constance married one George Hightower of the wealthy Hightower family. By this time, Constance had left California and went on to move into a grand manor which George came into possession of. This manor was however haunted by many spirits and deemed, "The Haunted Mansion" by locals. Regardless, Constance used the mansion's attic to hide away her many incriminating belongings.
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