“Hollywood, 1939. Amid the glitz and the glitter of a bustling, young movie town at the height of its golden age, The Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right; a beacon for the show business elite. Now, something is about to happen that will change all that. The time is now on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed.”
What’s so perfect about the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror? It’s a supernatural attraction that brings a dead man back to life. I’m not even talking about one of the characters in the story. Instead, I’m referencing Rod Serling, the host of the attraction and its namesake television show. He died in 1975, but Disney’s Hollywood Studios didn’t unveil the ride until 1994. How’s that for spooky? In this article, we’ll discuss this and several other chilling aspects of the accursed building known as the Hollywood Tower Hotel. Let’s go behind the ride to learn why Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is such a classic.
The Experience: Entering the Twilight Zone
The Trick: Choosing the perfect IP from several diverse options
What do Mel Brooks and Stephen King have in common? The logical response is, “Not much.” For Disney park planners, however, they were candidates on the same drawing board. During the Blue Sky phase of plotting Disney’s Hollywood Studios, both of these content creators were in discussion for a new attraction.
Imagineers wanted to build something spooky as part of their movie-based theme park. One of their inspirations was Young Frankenstein, the Mel Brooks movie. Park officials and then-CEO met with Brooks about the idea, which would become the first major expansion at Hollywood Studios.
After a time, this idea fell by the wayside, and Disney moved along to the works of Stephen King. This ride concept also would have embraced the supernatural. Disney officials quickly realized that Stephen King wasn’t a great match with the land of Mickey Mouse, though.
Eventually, park officials realized that a perfect match was available. The Twilight Zone ran for 156 episodes, and its legend had only grown during the new era of cable television programming. After several years of discussion, Hollywood Studios had found its perfect match. The intellectual property (IP) of The Twilight Zone was the perfect premise for a ride.
The Experience: Creating a Tower that terrifies
The Trick: Classic Disney construction with an ominous twist
Once park planners settled on an IP, they embarked on a strategy to bring The Twilight Zone to life. They quickly settled on a classic Hollywood theme for the attraction, recognizing that Imagineers could construct the perfect wienie as a bookend for one side of the park. A Tinseltown hotel, one where A-list celebrities escaped the common people, was the perfect setting for a ride.
The premise checked several boxes at once. The hotel skyscraper would draw attention to Hollywood Studios, even from a distance. There was a catch, though. One side would be visible to guests at Epcot, and the line of sight matched the Mexico Pavilion. It was a potential disruption to the theme of the wienie there, the massive pyramid structure. For this reason, one side of what we now call the Hollywood Tower Hotel has a modest but noticeable Aztec design. Park officials refused to let a new manmade monument disrupt the illusion of an existing one.
There was also the problem of building a giant tower. The underlying premise of the Hollywood Tower Hotel is that it’s a skyscraper, one that requires a large elevator shaft to navigate all the floors. As Disney fanatics know, federal regulations stipulate that any structure over 200 feet must have warning lights to signal approaching aircrafts.
Imagineers obeyed these rules, although they pushed the boundaries as much as possible. The hotel is 199 feet tall. For a time, it was the tallest structure at Walt Disney World, although Expedition Everest later surpassed it…by half a foot.
The genius of the Hollywood Tower Hotel is its foreboding, almost menacing presence. This high-rise seems to warn onlookers that they should steer clear of the building. To make it menacing, Disney used a baseline of existing Hollywood hotels such as the Mission Inn and the Biltmore Hotel. Then, they added exterior touches to provide the appearance of disrepair stemming from long-term abandonment. The grave look discourages just as it intrigues, a perfect effect for this attraction.
The Experience: Theming a new building to appear decades old
The Trick: Selecting the perfect Easter Eggs from 156 Twilight Zone episodes
Image: DisneyMost fans of this ride know that the Imagineers working on it did their homework. They watched all 156 episodes of The Twilight Zone during what had to be one of the best work weeks ever. It WAS work, though. Cast members took notes about all of the high points from the series, deciding which elements that they could include at the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
Their shopping list was a weird one. To populate the interior of the hotel, Disney had to acquire plausible items for a hotel lobby. They sought out auction house items at high-profile Los Angeles dealers, ones that would seem right at home in a classic upscale resort. Then, they had to age these items to complete the effect.
Image: DisneyDisney trivia buffs know that the last guests at the hotel checked in on October 31st, 1939. By the time theme park tourists started visiting again in 1994, it had been abandoned for more than half a century. Everything you see at the hotel is intentionally disheveled, and the theming causes unusual problems for cast members. When they clean up the building, they can’t make it TOO clean. That would break the illusion.
The Easter Eggs are what make the theming special. Little touches populate the building, especially the Library where a television clip plays. In this room alone, you’ll see a Mystic Seer machine, a book entitled To Serve Man, and glasses that belong to the last man on Earth.
Other classic references include a puppet and a signature. The puppet is from the famous episode, The Dummy, and the signature shows the name of the person who approved usage of the doomed elevator. That gentleman is Mr. Cadwallader, whom Twilight Zone fans know is the Devil. Cheeky touches like this one augment the Tower of Terror experience for those who loved the television series.
The Experience: Bringing the dead back to life
The Trick: Using Rod Serling AND a reasonable approximation
No Twilight Zone experience would be complete without the presence of the famed host of the series, Rod Serling. Since he died in 1975, Imagineers faced a unique obstacle. While looking for ideas, they spoke with his widow, Carol Serling.
What Disney wanted to do was bold. Their preferred choice was to show Serling on camera. That’s impossible, right? Since you’ve ridden Tower of Terror, you know that it isn’t. You may not understand how it’s possible, though.
The next time you’re watching the video, pay careful attention to Serling. You’ll realize that his onscreen presence is minimal. It’s his VOICE that’s ubiquitous. Ride designers found the perfect clip for the story that they wanted to tell from an episode entitled It’s a Good Life. In that episode, Serling spoke the magic words, so to speak…or at least some of them.
Image: DisneyWith so much narration ongoing, Imagineers couldn’t splice together the entire script. Instead, they used some clever video editing. During Serling’s speech, you’ll notice that the camera cuts away as he speaks the words “maintenance service elevator.” This happens because Serling never uttered those words.
To recite their script, Disney needed someone new, a voice actor capable of imitating Serling perfectly. They underwent an extended casting call before settling on Mark Silverman. His audition earned the approval of Carol Serling, which was good enough for Disney. Much of the dialogue that you hear throughout the attraction is in fact Silverman doing a marvelous impression of Rod Serling rather than Serling himself. You had no idea, did you?
The Experience: A terrifying, unique freefall every time
The Trick: Two elevator shafts, a special vehicle, and a brutal drop rate
Image: DisneyThe true magic of Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is the ride experience. Sure, any theme park could build a basic drop tower. Honestly, most do. Imagineers know this, and it drove them to create the greatest drop tower attraction ever built. They succeeded so well that it’s widely considered the best of its kind. For that matter, you the voters at Theme Park Tourist have ranked it as THE best dark ride of any kind.
What’s so special about Tower of Terror’s ride mechanic? The answer is in the design. Park planners knew precisely what they wanted from this ride. All they had to do was do several things that had never been done before to make it happen.
The first step was crafting a pair of elevator shafts. One would carry guests up to the ride area. The other…is more complex. It’s the place where you bounce up and down several times. On most drop tower attractions, you fall at such a high rate that gravity ceases to exist for a time.
Image: DisneyYou can even do a Penny Test to prove this. Drop a penny right as the ride starts. It will “float” in the air since you’re moving at the same rate of speed as it is.
Actually, that’s not quite true. To achieve the desired effect, Disney hired the most famous elevator company on the planet, Otis Elevator Company, to do something that they’d never done before. Elevator design involves a bit of cushioning, a sort of soothing process wherein the shaft rises at a slower rate to prevent people from freaking out.
Disney wanted the opposite. They needed the fastest possible drop down the elevator shaft. They also wanted a lightning-quick ascension, too. Otis Elevator Company built one of the most expensive elevators ever at Hollywood Studios, and nobody knows it because the elevator sits in the dark most of the time. That blind spot when you’re in the drop zone is one of the most violent elevator rides ever built!
Image: DisneyYou’re not even in a free fall during these tense moments. The elevator literally drags you up and down. It’s the polar opposite of all other drop zone attractions.
The innovation doesn’t stop there, either. You know that moment when it feels like you’ve escaped the elevator? It’s when you ride down a path, seeing Twilight Zone spooky sights on the sides. While you’re admiring the theming and bracing for the drop, Disney’s using unprecedented technology.
To transfer you from one elevator shaft to the other, Imagineers had to create an automated guided vehicle (AGV). It’s a mobile elevator cab that can lock and unlock from an elevator. It’s also capable of propulsion, which is to say that it can move forward.
Image: DisneyYour “elevator” is in truth a technical marvel. First, it carries you up an elevator shaft. Then, it breaks contact with its host and follows a series of hidden sensors down a path. It’s a guidance system that safely transports people to the elevator shaft. And its deep functionality enables Disney to play one other trick on riders.
When Twilight Zone Tower of Terror opened, every ride was the same. Later, Disney added a new trick. Using computerized technology and the utility of the AGV, Imagineers realized that they could provide a different ride every time. The number of times that you bounce up and down is a simple, randomized computer calculation. No matter how many times you ride the Tower of Terror, you’ll have a different ride experience. It’s that final touch of terror that you’ll experience in the accursed tower!
