1 00:00:00,130 --> 00:00:03,350 And now for something completely different 2 00:00:03,350 --> 00:00:11,460 When hinges creak in doorless chambers, and strange and frightening sounds echo through 3 00:00:11,460 --> 00:00:13,080 the halls. 4 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:18,550 Whenever candle lights flicker where the air is deathly still. 5 00:00:18,550 --> 00:00:23,009 That is the time when ghosts are present. 6 00:00:23,009 --> 00:00:28,780 Practicing their terror with ghoulish delight. 7 00:00:30,970 --> 00:00:35,520 The Haunted Mansion is a beloved attraction found at Disney parks around the world. 8 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:41,670 The original version of the attraction opened on August 9, 1969 at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. 9 00:00:41,670 --> 00:00:45,290 Now, lest you worry that I’m getting all Disney-nerd on you here and am ignoring the channel’s 10 00:00:45,290 --> 00:00:50,060 focus on technology--well I assure you we’re talking about a very clever bit of engineering 11 00:00:50,060 --> 00:00:54,280 that seems somewhat of an open secret and yet no one really talks about. 12 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:58,140 That, foolish mortals, is the stretching room. 13 00:00:58,140 --> 00:01:01,650 All versions of the Haunted Mansion, except for Mystic Manor in Hong Kong, begin with 14 00:01:01,650 --> 00:01:03,510 a pre-show in a portrait gallery. 15 00:01:03,510 --> 00:01:09,860 GHOST HOST: [Our tour begins here in this gallery, where you see paintings of some of our guests as 16 00:01:09,860 --> 00:01:14,640 they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state.] 17 00:01:14,640 --> 00:01:19,850 This large octagonal room is lit dimly on all sides, and features 4 portraits. 18 00:01:19,850 --> 00:01:24,100 After asking you to kindly step all the way in please to make room for everyone, our Ghost 19 00:01:24,100 --> 00:01:26,340 Host reminds us that-- 20 00:01:26,340 --> 00:01:29,679 [there’s no turning back now.] 21 00:01:29,679 --> 00:01:33,439 As you look back towards the door you entered, you notice that it is closing. 22 00:01:33,440 --> 00:01:37,560 And as soon as it’s closed, our Ghost Host makes the following observation: 23 00:01:37,560 --> 00:01:42,780 [Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, 24 00:01:42,780 --> 00:01:47,619 almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis.] 25 00:01:47,619 --> 00:01:51,229 As you look around the room, you notice that the ceiling is getting farther and farther 26 00:01:51,229 --> 00:01:55,719 away from you, and the portraits themselves are growing taller, revealing the humorous 27 00:01:55,719 --> 00:01:57,670 downfalls of their subjects. 28 00:01:57,670 --> 00:02:02,689 GHOST HOST: [Is this haunted room actually stretching?] 29 00:02:02,689 --> 00:02:03,689 Yes. 30 00:02:03,689 --> 00:02:04,689 Yes it is. 31 00:02:04,689 --> 00:02:05,700 And for very good reason. 32 00:02:05,700 --> 00:02:10,300 The stretching room does not exist simply to serve as an intriguing pre-show to the ride. 33 00:02:10,300 --> 00:02:13,420 Its original purpose is actually quite a bit more functional. 34 00:02:13,420 --> 00:02:17,500 You see, the stretching rooms at Disneyland (there are actually 2 of them) aren’t just 35 00:02:17,500 --> 00:02:18,500 an illusion. 36 00:02:18,500 --> 00:02:23,590 In fact, they are perhaps the world’s most elaborate and unique elevators, or lifts. 37 00:02:23,590 --> 00:02:27,080 Once the doors have closed, you may notice a very slight movement. 38 00:02:27,080 --> 00:02:29,760 The stretching room floor is beginning to descend. 39 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:32,510 It moves very slowly which makes it hard to notice. 40 00:02:32,510 --> 00:02:35,920 I’d say it feels like little more than a tremble in the floor. 41 00:02:35,920 --> 00:02:40,190 The ceiling of the stretching room, on the other hand, does not move, instead you are 42 00:02:40,190 --> 00:02:42,270 descending farther away from it. 43 00:02:42,270 --> 00:02:44,210 But why does this need to happen? 44 00:02:44,210 --> 00:02:48,710 Well, Disney has always had an obsession with sightlines and illusion. 45 00:02:48,710 --> 00:02:52,920 When you are walking along the Rivers of America and see the Haunted Mansion, you see a quaint 46 00:02:52,920 --> 00:02:57,680 antebellum structure that can’t possibly contain the attraction itself. 47 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,270 If you’re unfamiliar with the ride, it’s an omnimover system where you travel through 48 00:03:01,270 --> 00:03:05,610 many elaborate show scenes, including the massive graveyard scene. 49 00:03:05,610 --> 00:03:09,840 There’s no possible way that that attraction is in that little building, 50 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:11,230 and it’s not. 51 00:03:11,230 --> 00:03:16,320 All of the ride takes place in a separate show building on the other side of the railroad tracks. 52 00:03:16,320 --> 00:03:20,340 The Disneyland Railroad sort of defines the boundaries of the park, at least the boundaries 53 00:03:20,340 --> 00:03:22,350 of what guests are supposed to see. 54 00:03:22,350 --> 00:03:27,260 It’s built on a berm, and with the aid of trees and shrubbery, guests inside the park 55 00:03:27,260 --> 00:03:31,050 generally cannot see anything outside of the railroad perimeter. 56 00:03:31,050 --> 00:03:35,620 While great for immersion, the railroad sort of encapsulates the park and means that any 57 00:03:35,620 --> 00:03:38,990 expansion must be done outside its boundaries. 58 00:03:38,990 --> 00:03:43,350 If you look at satellite imagery of the park, you can see the mansion itself and the railroad 59 00:03:43,350 --> 00:03:44,550 immediately behind it. 60 00:03:44,550 --> 00:03:49,080 It’s a little hard to see, but it is following this curved path through New Orleans Square, 61 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:53,420 behind the mansion, through Splash Mountain, and then you can see the tracks again here 62 00:03:53,420 --> 00:03:54,620 in Critter Country. 63 00:03:54,620 --> 00:03:59,380 You’ll notice that the railroad slips between the mansion’s facade and another building. 64 00:03:59,380 --> 00:04:04,340 That large warehouse-like building is where the actual ride of the Haunted Mansion takes place. 65 00:04:04,340 --> 00:04:08,860 Now when you’re waiting in line, you have no idea that that building is even there. 66 00:04:08,860 --> 00:04:12,740 You can even see the area behind the mansion, and as far as you know there’s no connection 67 00:04:12,740 --> 00:04:17,060 between the mansion facade and the show building out of view to the left. 68 00:04:17,060 --> 00:04:22,090 Somehow you as a guest need to get from this side of the railroad to the other, and yet 69 00:04:22,090 --> 00:04:24,270 there’s no apparent path to take. 70 00:04:24,270 --> 00:04:28,730 That’s because the path you take is a tunnel heading under the railroad tracks and into 71 00:04:28,730 --> 00:04:30,300 the show building. 72 00:04:30,300 --> 00:04:35,560 Somehow guests need to be brought fairly far underground to the level of that tunnel. 73 00:04:35,560 --> 00:04:40,210 One fairly seamless way to do so is to use an elevator and lower guests into the ground, 74 00:04:40,210 --> 00:04:42,460 just like you would a casket. 75 00:04:42,460 --> 00:04:45,660 But that might ruin the illusion that you’re in the mansion itself. 76 00:04:45,660 --> 00:04:47,900 And so the stretching room was born. 77 00:04:47,900 --> 00:04:51,700 Now for those that hate it when someone spoils the magic, the following is my best guess 78 00:04:51,700 --> 00:04:54,560 at how this effect is done in Anaheim. 79 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,850 There are some blueprints you can find online and there are some other explanations, and 80 00:04:58,850 --> 00:05:03,650 what follows is my most complete amalgamation of these sources and my best understanding 81 00:05:03,650 --> 00:05:04,900 of what’s going on. 82 00:05:04,900 --> 00:05:08,710 I may not be completely correct, and please chime in below if I’ve gotten something 83 00:05:08,710 --> 00:05:13,160 wrong, but just know that I’ll be spoiling this beloved scene. 84 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,900 When you enter the stretching room, pay close attention to the gap in the floor. 85 00:05:16,900 --> 00:05:21,120 This is pretty much the only sign that you are boarding an elevator. 86 00:05:21,120 --> 00:05:24,250 Once inside, well that’s when things get weird. 87 00:05:24,250 --> 00:05:29,790 The stretching room is simply a large, octagonal hydraulic elevator with a very elaborate cab. 88 00:05:29,790 --> 00:05:35,300 The floor sits atop the piston of a hydraulic cylinder, and when fluid is released the floor descends. 89 00:05:35,300 --> 00:05:40,560 The walls are stacked, sort of like a telescoping antenna, and are key to the illusion. 90 00:05:40,560 --> 00:05:44,370 The stretching rooms at the Haunted Mansion are perhaps the only elevators in regular 91 00:05:44,370 --> 00:05:48,360 passenger service that don’t really have a ceiling. 92 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:52,550 The wood paneled walls that lie below the portraits are able to slip behind the upper 93 00:05:52,550 --> 00:05:54,450 half of the stretching room. 94 00:05:54,450 --> 00:05:58,920 The cornice that the gargoyles sit atop is attached to the wallpapered portion and hides 95 00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:01,139 the gap between the two. 96 00:06:01,140 --> 00:06:04,980 As the stretching room stretches, only the false ceiling is stationary. 97 00:06:04,980 --> 00:06:06,500 Everything else is moving. 98 00:06:06,500 --> 00:06:11,310 You yourself, in the bottom half of the stretching room, are descending at full speed. 99 00:06:11,310 --> 00:06:16,400 The top half descends at only half speed, and as it does so it stretches the portraits. 100 00:06:16,400 --> 00:06:20,240 The tops of the portraits remain next to the stationary ceiling, but the bottom is being 101 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:23,050 pulled down by the gargoyles. 102 00:06:23,050 --> 00:06:27,210 Only when the portraits are fully extended do their tops pull away from the ceiling. 103 00:06:27,210 --> 00:06:31,140 Having been transfixed by the illusion, you may not have noticed what our ghost host is 104 00:06:31,140 --> 00:06:32,540 about to tell us: 105 00:06:32,540 --> 00:06:35,560 [This chamber has no windows, 106 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:38,460 and no doors. 107 00:06:38,460 --> 00:06:40,140 (sinister laughter) 108 00:06:40,140 --> 00:06:46,440 Which offers you this chilling challenge; to find a way out! 109 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:49,780 (tormented cackling) ] 110 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:55,640 In perhaps the most grim, un-Disney like fashion, our Ghost Host informs us that his way out 111 00:06:55,650 --> 00:06:56,910 of this chamber? 112 00:06:56,910 --> 00:06:58,960 Well, exit by hanging. 113 00:06:59,700 --> 00:07:03,780 [Of course, there’s always my way.] 114 00:07:03,780 --> 00:07:06,020 (Thunderclap) 115 00:07:06,020 --> 00:07:10,550 The lights go out, and the ceiling (which is really a cloth scrim) disappears to reveal 116 00:07:10,550 --> 00:07:13,680 the skeleton of our host dangling by a noose. 117 00:07:13,680 --> 00:07:15,860 (Screaming, followed by a crashing noise) 118 00:07:16,280 --> 00:07:19,040 That’s right, it’s the happiest place on Earth. 119 00:07:19,050 --> 00:07:23,490 Anyway, that thunderclap is timed with the stopping of the elevator which again makes 120 00:07:23,490 --> 00:07:28,240 it very hard to notice, and once the lights come back on, a second door opens revealing 121 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:29,640 the path to the ride. 122 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:34,130 It’s at this point that you are in a tunnel walking under the railroad tracks. 123 00:07:34,130 --> 00:07:38,889 What makes this illusion so disorienting and hard to nail down is the use of vertical stripes 124 00:07:38,889 --> 00:07:41,800 in both the wallpaper and the wood paneling. 125 00:07:41,800 --> 00:07:45,500 This is very effective at hiding the fact that the walls are moving. 126 00:07:45,500 --> 00:07:50,060 The only really obvious thing is that the paintings are being unrolled as you can clearly 127 00:07:50,060 --> 00:07:52,020 see the curve at the bottom. 128 00:07:52,020 --> 00:07:55,290 But everything else is really, really difficult to grasp. 129 00:07:55,290 --> 00:07:59,900 Unfortunately, the wallpaper tends to get damaged over time, but the upside is that 130 00:07:59,900 --> 00:08:01,509 it reveals what’s happening. 131 00:08:01,509 --> 00:08:05,100 You can see that the walls are descending away from the ceiling because you have this 132 00:08:05,100 --> 00:08:07,190 point you can focus on. 133 00:08:07,190 --> 00:08:11,169 This also reveals that the portraits are on a separate piece that’s not yet moving 134 00:08:11,169 --> 00:08:12,940 --otherwise they wouldn’t stretch-- 135 00:08:12,940 --> 00:08:15,949 but once they’re extended, they too descend with the wall on 136 00:08:15,949 --> 00:08:17,040 either side. 137 00:08:17,040 --> 00:08:21,550 To hopefully help illustrate what’s happening, I made this little mockup in tinkercad. 138 00:08:21,550 --> 00:08:25,220 The yellow octagon is representing the stationary ceiling scrim. 139 00:08:25,220 --> 00:08:28,420 Notice that the walls are both extended above the ceiling. 140 00:08:28,420 --> 00:08:32,090 Now, unfortunately I can’t make this move smoothly like it should, but I can move it 141 00:08:32,090 --> 00:08:33,330 in steps. 142 00:08:33,330 --> 00:08:37,950 You stand in the brown portion, and both it and the upper tan portion descend together, 143 00:08:37,950 --> 00:08:42,029 but for every length you drop, the tan walls fall half as much. 144 00:08:42,029 --> 00:08:46,220 The combination of an enclosed space, the vertical design elements, and the dim lighting 145 00:08:46,220 --> 00:08:50,760 almost perfectly disguise the fact that you’re only here because you need to descend into 146 00:08:50,760 --> 00:08:51,760 the basement. 147 00:08:51,760 --> 00:08:56,290 Now, it’s very hard to see on video because, well, it’s hard to convey scale this way, 148 00:08:56,290 --> 00:08:59,980 but the stretching rooms at Disneyland stretch a TON. 149 00:08:59,980 --> 00:09:04,620 The room becomes much, much taller, almost to a frightening degree. 150 00:09:04,620 --> 00:09:09,710 That is after all kind of the goal, it disorients you, makes you feel small, and in general 151 00:09:09,710 --> 00:09:11,610 is just sort of creepy. 152 00:09:11,610 --> 00:09:16,160 By the time the stretching is done, you’ve descended almost 2 stories into the ground. 153 00:09:16,160 --> 00:09:20,880 The blueprints I found, linked below, suggest the descent is a little over 18 feet. 154 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:24,740 A somewhat humorous side-effect of the scale involved here is that the doors to the chamber 155 00:09:24,740 --> 00:09:26,690 are comically large. 156 00:09:26,690 --> 00:09:30,190 The low light makes them near impossible to see on video, but the doors themselves are 157 00:09:30,190 --> 00:09:33,790 probably around 15, maybe even 20 feet tall. 158 00:09:33,790 --> 00:09:37,130 After all, they got almost 10 feet longer during the stretch. 159 00:09:37,130 --> 00:09:40,801 Going back to our model, you can see that even the entry door must be as large as the 160 00:09:40,801 --> 00:09:47,410 exit, even though the actual opening from the foyer is no larger than your average door. 161 00:09:47,410 --> 00:09:51,380 What I love most about the stretching rooms is that they were born out of necessity. 162 00:09:51,380 --> 00:09:56,160 The imagineers could have chosen any number of ways to get guests under the railroad tracks, 163 00:09:56,160 --> 00:09:57,690 but they went with this. 164 00:09:57,690 --> 00:10:01,930 And that my friends, I think, is just beyond cool. 165 00:10:01,930 --> 00:10:05,700 The stretching room effect is so well liked that it was copied for future iterations of 166 00:10:05,700 --> 00:10:06,700 the attraction. 167 00:10:06,700 --> 00:10:11,270 However, except for the Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris, the other versions of the stretching 168 00:10:11,270 --> 00:10:13,580 room are not elevators. 169 00:10:13,580 --> 00:10:17,370 Specifically at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, the park was designed without space constraints 170 00:10:17,370 --> 00:10:20,770 and the entire attraction is within the boundaries of the railroad. 171 00:10:20,770 --> 00:10:25,770 There was no need to move guests underground, but the stretching room was still replicated. 172 00:10:25,770 --> 00:10:29,850 In these versions, the ceiling simply moves up and away from you. 173 00:10:29,850 --> 00:10:34,360 One unfortunate side-effect of going this route is that the scrim tends to visibly move 174 00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:38,000 when the ceiling stops, which somewhat ruins the illusion. 175 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,060 And I’m pretty sure it doesn’t stretch quite so much as the Disneyland version. 176 00:10:42,060 --> 00:10:43,280 And now for some trivia. 177 00:10:43,280 --> 00:10:47,490 I had a hunch that the stretching rooms at Disneyland may very well be the world’s 178 00:10:47,490 --> 00:10:48,959 largest passenger elevators. 179 00:10:48,959 --> 00:10:53,970 To satisfy my curiosity, I googled “world’s largest elevator”, which is actually for 180 00:10:53,970 --> 00:10:59,430 boats at the Three Gorges Dam in China, but I sad Passenger Elevator, and found that to 181 00:10:59,430 --> 00:11:01,310 supposedly be in Japan. 182 00:11:01,310 --> 00:11:07,530 This elevator carries 80 passengers and its floorspace is 11.15 feet by 9.2 feet. 183 00:11:07,530 --> 00:11:11,340 That would give it an area of 102.58 square feet. 184 00:11:11,340 --> 00:11:15,390 That seemed a lot smaller than the stretching rooms, and to assure myself I wasn’t wrong, 185 00:11:15,390 --> 00:11:20,800 I used my friend Google to find the area of an octagon with sides of 6 feet, which seemed 186 00:11:20,800 --> 00:11:22,120 about right. 187 00:11:22,120 --> 00:11:24,740 That would be 173 square feet! 188 00:11:24,740 --> 00:11:26,450 That’s much bigger. 189 00:11:26,450 --> 00:11:30,620 But I wanted to find out how many people could fit, and thanks to the wonders of YouTube, 190 00:11:30,620 --> 00:11:34,740 someone was able to ride the stretching room back up, and the cast member told them that 191 00:11:34,740 --> 00:11:40,080 the elevator is only strong enough to bring 12 people up, but it can handle bringing 90 192 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:41,280 people down. 193 00:11:41,280 --> 00:11:46,709 90 is bigger than 80, so ladies and gentlemen I do declare that the world’s largest passenger 194 00:11:46,709 --> 00:11:52,640 elevator by both size and capacity is not in Japan, but rather is at Disneyland. 195 00:11:52,640 --> 00:11:55,170 At least when going down. 196 00:11:55,170 --> 00:11:58,860 Apparently riding the stretching room back up isn’t that out of the ordinary--guests 197 00:11:58,860 --> 00:12:02,290 in wheelchairs often go this route to exit the attraction. 198 00:12:02,290 --> 00:12:06,800 Although the attraction didn’t open until 1969, after Walt Disney’s death, the mansion 199 00:12:06,800 --> 00:12:08,940 facade was built years earlier. 200 00:12:08,940 --> 00:12:13,720 One source, linked below, says that the mansion itself was completed by 1964, and that the 201 00:12:13,720 --> 00:12:16,430 stretching rooms were built with the facade. 202 00:12:16,430 --> 00:12:20,110 The attraction was originally conceived as a walk-through attraction, and although Walt 203 00:12:20,110 --> 00:12:25,010 Disney died in 1966, nearly three years before the attraction eventually opened, he may very 204 00:12:25,010 --> 00:12:27,130 well have seen the stretching rooms. 205 00:12:27,130 --> 00:12:31,580 However, other sources disagree, so we’ll call that a firm maybe. 206 00:12:31,580 --> 00:12:36,769 The really awesome link down below has pictures from 1964, showing the backside of the mansion 207 00:12:36,769 --> 00:12:38,640 and the tunnels under the railroad. 208 00:12:38,640 --> 00:12:41,660 I highly encourage poking around down there if you’re interested. 209 00:12:41,660 --> 00:12:45,240 And I’d like to leave the video by giving credit where credit is due for the existence 210 00:12:45,240 --> 00:12:46,820 of this attraction. 211 00:12:46,820 --> 00:12:50,040 There are lots of great links down below if you’d like to learn a little more about 212 00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:54,820 the history of the Haunted Mansion, but specifically for the stretching room, we have Rolly Crump 213 00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:59,940 to thank for its concept, Claude Coats for his woodworking skill, and Yale Gracey who 214 00:12:59,940 --> 00:13:01,620 made the mechanics. 215 00:13:01,620 --> 00:13:04,760 And the Ghost Host was voiced by the legendary Paul Frees. 216 00:13:04,760 --> 00:13:08,500 Thanks for watching, I hope you enjoyed this look into the fascinating stretching rooms 217 00:13:08,500 --> 00:13:09,940 of the Haunted Mansion. 218 00:13:09,940 --> 00:13:13,690 A few months ago I made a different theme park-related video about blocking systems 219 00:13:13,690 --> 00:13:17,400 in roller coasters, so if you haven’t seen that and are looking for something else to 220 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:19,370 watch, look for it in the end screen. 221 00:13:19,370 --> 00:13:22,840 Of course, thank you to everyone who supports this channel on Patreon! 222 00:13:22,840 --> 00:13:26,260 Patrons of the channel have made a huge difference for the future of this channel, and starting 223 00:13:26,269 --> 00:13:29,240 this week it’s officially my full-time job. 224 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:31,400 Thank you for making that possible. 225 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:35,560 If you’re interested in supporting the channel as well, please check out my Patreon page. 226 00:13:35,560 --> 00:13:38,080 Thanks for your consideration, and I’ll see you next time! 227 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:44,680 GHOST HOST: [Our tour begins here in this gallery, where you see paintings of some of our guests as 228 00:13:44,720 --> 00:13:48,360 they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state.] 229 00:13:48,440 --> 00:13:51,360 CAST MEMBER: [Ladies and Gentlemen please step away from the walls to the 230 00:13:51,360 --> 00:13:52,520 dead center of the room.] 231 00:13:52,720 --> 00:13:54,960 WOKE DUDE: Dead. Center.