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 _______________________________________________ WBMUTBB mailing list [email protected] http://www.mayberry.com/tagsrwc/wbmutbb/
