Walkthrough Part 4: The Library and Pre-show

Unfortunately, I must preface this section of the walkthrough by stating that it will be less complete than the other sections.  Good photographs of the libraries are few and far between.  The reason for this is simple: there were a LOT of details in this section of the attraction, but very little time to thoroughly examine or photograph them.  Lighting in the libraries was low to begin with, and there was very little time before the lights went out completely for the pre-show video.  Guests also got ushered out of the libraries rather quickly after the pre-show, so one couldn't exactly hang around long afterwards to take pictures.  I will do my best to explain this section in text and the few photographs available.

I should also note that the two libraries had different displays, but due to the aforementioned reasons (time, difficulty of documentation) I generally can't say specifically what all of the differences were.  I do have some notes that indicate details from one particular library or another, however, and will explain these details later in this post when relevant.  For many, details, however, the best I can do is say that they were in the library--but as to which library on what exact shelf, I cannot say.

With that out of the way, let's continue our tour.

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When the library doors opened, a bellhop greeted the guests and explained that their rooms were unfortunately not yet ready.  As guests entered the room, the ghostly tones of the lobby music loop faded away, instead being replaced by the sound of heavy rain and a thunderstorm just outside of the library's "window" (actually a special effects piece).  The approximate layout of the libraries was this:

If you're wondering why I call them the "King's" and "Queen's" libraries, see my post about the lobby.

The King's and Queen's side libraries were mirrors of each other, layout-wise.  Guests entered each through double doors, to find a darkened room filled with tall bookshelves and an old-fashioned television in a cabinet in one corner.  On the wall next to the television was a special-effects window, through which rain and lightning/thunder sounds echoed into the room.  This actually created an architectural error for the Queen's library, as a window to the outside would not logically be in that location in the building.

An excellent photo of one of the DCA libraries by Omnitographer.  Based on the placement of the TV and the desk, I believe that this was the King's Library.  Shared unaltered under this license.

Another library photo, taken by land-of-manors-and-beans.  Based on the placement of the TV, I believe this photo was from the Queen's library.  The exit door is shown on the right of this photo, while the special effects window was to the left of the photographer.

EDIT: Here is another photo, confirmed to be of the King's Library, taken December 2016 by Commander Corn of Micechat:

/EDIT

In front of the window in both libraries was a writing desk with a distinct lamp on it: the same Egyptian-patterned lamp from the Cast Member station in the lobby.  The desks also had mahjong games on them.

Desk with lamp and mahjong game, by land-of-manors-and-beans.  I believe this is the desk from the Queen's library; note how the lamp placement is mirrored from the King's library desk in Omnitographer's photo.

Those distinct lamps are one way to tell apart photos of the DCA libraries from the Florida ones.  The libraries are arguably the hardest parts of the Towers to tell apart from one another, but if I recall correctly Florida has two floral lamps on each desk rather than the Egyptian lamps.  I don't currently have any recollection of what lamps Paris uses, however.

In addition to the writing desk, the libraries had a long table with a lamp and book press at the back of the room, one open book (with unreadable medieval-style script) on a book stand near the exit door, and some antique chairs and another table that were stacked with books and/or statues to prevent guests from sitting on them.  The tables and chairs also had some random room keys laying around.

Table with book press and lamp at the back of one of the libraries.  I believe that it was in the King's Library.  That lamp used to have beaded fringe hanging down from its edges; I presume the fringe was removed due to wear from guests playing with it.  Photo by Omnitographer, shared unaltered under this license. 

A table and chairs with a statue, phone, and assorted books.  Based on the photo context in the original article where this photo appeared, I believe this is from the King's library.  Photo by Dusty Sage of Micechat.

As you can see in the photos, the bookshelves were filled with a variety of antiques (or antique-looking pieces) as well as fancy-looking books, all covered in dust.  For those curious, those antique-leather decorative books were in Danish.  These pretty stock books are often sold by the foot for use as props to display on movie sets, model homes, etc.  Any of the Danish books in the library were real, although some that were stacked up on the libraries' chairs and tables were covered in plastic to make them more durable (as guests were more likely to touch them).  Books with English titles (which I shall discuss shortly) were likely fake props made specifically for the ride.

As an added bit of trivia, the Danish books included a set of the Konversations-Leksikon, the Danish translation of a German encyclopedia from around 100 years ago.  It's commonly used as a prop book set.

EDIT:

Antiques on the top shelf of a library.  December 2016 photo by Commander Corn of Micechat

Fancy Danish books in the library.  December 2016 photo by Commander Corn of Micechat

/EDIT

The location of the exit door was hidden when guests first entered the libraries.  The exits were sliding panel doors that opened once the pre-show was over.  While closed, they appeared to be wood-paneled parts of the wall.  An oil painting (or a replica of one) hung on each of the exit sliders.  In the King's library, the painting was of a meadow with a blue sky and a tree.  In the Queen's library, the painting was a portrait of a Medieval-looking noblewoman.

EDIT: One can get a quick glance of the King's library painting at about 1:07 in this video [1] /EDIT

Cast members instructed guests to only stand in a particular part of the room as they entered the libraries.  In the early years, this was a rectangle of carpet in the middle of the otherwise wood floor.  In later years (I have no exact date for the change), CMs told guests to stand on the small checkered wood tiles in the center of the room (see Omnitographer's photo of the King's Library).  Although there was no official reason for the change, I surmise that it was due to simple wear and tear.  Making every single ride guest stand on a particular patch of carpet likely wore out that section of flooring.

Of course, being restricted to one area of the room prevented guests from fully studying what the library had to offer--a restriction exacerbated by how quickly the pre-show began.  However, if guests had time to explore, or went through the ride multiple times and paid attention, they found a veritable treasure trove of Twilight Zone references.  As you can likely tell from the previous photos, the library was jam-packed with detail, and the designers seemingly had fun hiding as many little references as they could.

Here I'll list all the Easter Eggs I could find record of, along with the best description of their location that I can give:

1. Broken glasses.  These were found in both libraries in a cabinet under the television.  You can see them in this photo by Dusty Sage of Micechat:

Click the picture to see a large version.  The glasses are just in front of that old photo frame in the cabinet under the TV.  Photo Source

These glasses were from the episode "Time Enough to Last," which was about a man who never had enough time to read--until the apocalypse happened.  Unfortunately, he needs reading glasses.  The fact that the glasses in the Tower were broken constitutes a spoiler for how the episode ends.

2. Trumpet.  I remember seeing this in only the Queen's library, on a low shelf to the right of the exit door.  This referenced the episode "A Passage for Trumpet," about a trumpet player who finds himself in limbo after a suicide attempt.

EDIT: There also was a trumpet in the King's library, as it turns out.  It was on a low shelf to the right of the exit door.  You can see it sitting in front of a white bust at 1:06 in this video [1] /EDIT

3. Small space suit.  This was in both libraries, on the top of the shelves among the dusty antiques.  They were fairly easy to spot, being prominently placed and having their futuristic designs stick out among the antiques.  They referenced "The Invaders," an episode about an old woman battling tiny space invaders.

4. Demon-headed fortune teller.  I've seen this called "the mystic seer," which I assume is what it's called in the episode it referenced: "Nick of Time."  In this episode (which I still haven't seen yet...), a couple discovers the fortune-teller in a diner.  This was another Easter egg that was easy to find in both libraries.  One simply needed to look for a red box with a demon head on top of it, sitting on the top of one of the bookshelves.

5. The infamous "To Serve Man" cookbook, obviously from the episode "To Serve Man."  This existed in only one of the libraries, but I'm not sure which one.  Photos I've seen show it sitting behind one of the tables and chairs on the side of the library.  It was a black book with alien writing on the cover, with a card containing the translated title sitting on top of it.

6. and 7. Twilight Zone scripts and the "Rod Serling" and "Victoria West" letters.  I'm listing these together because the letters and the scripts were found together in the libraries.  The Queen's library had the scripts with an envelope marked "Rod Serling" (I'm not sure if it also had "Victoria West" or not), while the King's library had the "Rod Serling" envelope with the scripts and the "Victoria West" one elsewhere.  Each library had a row of thin green books (like episode scripts), labeled with a "TZ" on the spine and titled with episode names from The Twilight Zone.  In the Queen's library, the books were on the lowest shelf to the left of the exit door, with the "Rod Serling" envelope sitting in front of them.

The Queen's library script set

In the King's library, the scripts were on the lowest shelf and closer to the television.  The "Rod Serling" letter stuck out of the top of the books.  I don't have a photo of just these scripts, but you can see them in the Omnitographer photo:

Detail of this photo, shared under this license.

The "Victoria West" letter was behind the white Buddha statue that sat on the table in the King's library.

King's Library "Victoria West" letter, May 2016

The letters referenced the episode "A World of His Own."

It's unlikely that these were actual Twilight Zone books/scripts.  They were likely specially-made props.

Once ushered into the library and instructed to stand on the carpet/tile, the guests only had maybe 30 seconds to look around the room as the entry doors closed.  Storm sounds echoed through the room, and lightning flashed from the window, the thunder growing louder with each flash.  Then, suddenly...

BOOM!

With a great thunderclap, the lights in the room went out, and the television turned on.  Thus began the pre-show.

Now, I have three video options for viewing the pre-show video, each with its own pros and cons.  I'll list them all here and let you readers decide for yourselves which one(s) to view:

1.  Full Source Florida pre-show.  Pros: full source video and audio.  Cons: Shows Florida exterior rather than DCA (although all other shots are the same).

2. Paris Source video w/ TV border.  Pros: Completely correct video and audio for DCA.  Cons: French subtitles from the Paris version, and your mileage may vary on how you feel about the video border that mimics the pre-show's TV cabinet.

3. DCA Live Recording, May 2016. Pros: It's all DCA.  Cons: It's a live recording, and filmed from a not-entirely-optimal angle in the library.

Since Blogger won't let me embed this video, here's the Google Drive link.

EDIT: Here's one more version by YouTube's SuperHotLarry, a supposed source version of DCA's video.  Some of the timing seems inexplicably off, however, but even if it's an edit rather than a true source version it's still probably the best quality available:

/EDIT

The video opened with the titles from seasons 4 and 5 of the original Twilight Zone series.  This means that the "lost episode" the Tower represented was from either season 4 or 5, which aired in 1963.

The following is a rough transcript of the pre-show audio, just in case those videos don't work or readers would rather read through.  I'll put the text in blue to make it easy to scroll past those who don't want to bother reading the transcript after watching a video, although I did include some notes here about how the video synced up with the actual library environment.

Rod Serling:  You unlock this door with the key of imagination.  Beyond it is another dimension.  A dimension of sound,

[Window shatters loudly]

a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind.  You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas.  You've just crossed over into... The Twilight Zone.

[Dramatic Music]

[Lightning Crashes]

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.

[Lightning crashes, striking the Tower and sending the elevators plummeting]

[Lightning crashes again, this time synchronized with the special effects window in the library.  Note that every lightning from this point onward in the video was synchronized with the "real" window]

The time is NOW, on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed.

Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction.  This, as you may recognize, is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you.  We invite you if you dare to step aboard, because in tonight's episode you are the star, and this elevator travels directly to...

[Audio now comes out of speakers hidden throughout the room, rather than from the television]

The Twilight Zone.

[Lightning crash, dramatic music, TV cuts out]

Thus, guests learned the plot of the ride, and got an explanation for those crashed elevators in the lobby.

The portion of the video featuring Rod Serling comprised another Twilight Zone Easter egg.  The footage of Serling was from the episode "It's a Good Life."  In the pre-show, you'll notice that the camera cut away from him right as he said "maintenance"--this was because the original footage finished the line with "map of the United States."  Disney digitally (well, presumably digitally) replaced the original episode's background (a wall with a map on it) with the maintenance elevator for the ride.

Voice actor Mark Silverman provided the voice of Rod Serling, both for the pre-show and the on-ride narration.

Fun fact: The DCA version of the pre-show video showed the wrong exterior for the Tower!  If you look closely, the exterior has the "round things" on the sides that differentiate Paris' exterior from California's.  This, however, is minor compared to the exterior-shot errors in the Florida version of the pre-show.  In the Floridian video, the Tower is a different shape and the sign is in the wrong place compared to the actual ride building, as explained in this TowerSecrets post.

Another video vs. ride continuity error occurred in the DCA and Paris versions of the Tower, however, regarding the number of drop shafts.  The video and the ride exterior itself showed three sections of the building, and thus three elevator shafts, being zapped into the Twilight Zone.  However, there were only two crashed elevators in the lobby!  This discrepancy was likely a holdover from the Florida version, which only has two drop shafts to match the two crashed elevators.

After the television cut out, the lights turned back on and the hidden exit doors slid open.  The bellhop, now at the back of the room, announced to the guests that their rooms were now ready, and that they should proceed onward to reach the elevators.  Bellhops who wished to have a bit of fun liked to sneak to the back during the pre-show, stand directly behind a guest in the back of the room, and then make the announcement very loudly, providing a bit of a jump scare.

Guests then left the library, exiting into the boiler room hallway.

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[1] The video is "Tower of Terror POV (Complete Ride Through & Queue 1080p POV w/ Night Vision and 5.1 Surround Sound)" by LMGvids of YouTube.  This is different from the LMGvids video I previously recommended.