A Haunted Mansion Tale is an illustrated prose story, “compiled and edited” by Amy Opoka for the D23 website out of a set of Ken Anderson's early notes and concept art for what would become The Haunted Mansion. It features Beauregard the Butler, Captain Bartholomew Gore and Priscilla.
Description
Beauregard, the Butler, takes curious guests through the haunted Old Gore Mansion, retelling the tragic story of the deaths of its one-time Master and Mistress: Captain Bartholomew Gore (alias the dread pirate Black Bart) and his redoubtable bride Priscilla. Soon, the spirit of Priscilla herself materialises in a rocking chair to help tell her story, and as more ghostly shadows of the past animate the house, a tale stands reveal — where the more murderous of the ghosts is not who one might think!
References
- As a pirate, Captain Gore was known as “Black Bart”.
- Captain Gore's murder of Priscilla took place “over 150 years ago” or “in 1810”. This places the events of the story ahead of its 1957 writing date.
Continuity
- This story is made up of old story material for an early version of The Haunted Mansion (1969); hence, although the Old Gore Mansion is not conflated with the actual Haunted Mansion in this story, some elements of it echo the experience of the ride, especially the ending reveal of Gore's true fate.
- The same story elements had been variously rearranged in later spin-off media based on The Haunted Mansion (1969). For example, in Mystery of the Manse (2005), the story of a bride discovering her husband was once an infamous pirate under a colourful alias is given over to William Gracey, alias Captain Blood, and his bride Emily.
- The end of this story implies that Gore was eventually driven to suicide inside Gore Mansion by the ghost of Priscilla. This is contradicted by Disney Kingdoms' Haunted Mansion (2016), which instead claims that Gore embarked on a journey away from his home and eventually found Gracey Manor, where he drowned to death in the flooded basement, seeking the legendary treasure said to be hidden there.
- The 2011 alterations to the queue of the Walt Disney World Haunted Mansion included the addition of tombstones for Bartholomew Gore as well as for Beauregard to the berm graveyard of the Haunted Mansion.
Behind the scenes
A Haunted Mansion Tale was released in 2020 for Halloween on the official D23 website.
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