In honor of 4 years of Tower Blogging, here's some fun recent merchandise!

Approximately around the time that the infamous giant Sorcerer Mickey hat finally left Hollywood Studios, the iconic Tower of Terror finally became, well, an icon.  With the hat gone and the Great Movie Ride on its way out (albeit with Runaway Railway to occupy the space later), Tower of Terror became the iconic building representing Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Being an icon brings the benefit of Disney producing a lot more merch of the building in question.    Therefore, in honor of this blog's fourth birthday (and because the pandemic kept most parks rightly closed and thus left less to write about otherwise), I thought I'd highlight some blog "birthday gifts" in the form of new Tower merch I found this year.  Note that I'm on the West Coast, so merch here is a rare and special find worth noting, unlike how it might be for Disney World fans who still have the ride!

First off, back in January, Disney released a line of blind bag plushies of park icons as part of its "Wishables" blatant cash grab plush line.  I'm really not a fan of blind bags, especially ones that are so expensive ($10 for a handheld-sized plush, really?), but I was determined to get a Tower one!  Thankfully  a cast member helped me feel a bunch of bags (this was pre-Covid, obviously) to find the correct plush on the first try.

Pictured: The way to make me actually buy a blind bag item, I guess

One thing I noticed was how the building was listed on the back of the packaging: "Hollywood Tower Hotel" instead of "Tower of Terror", even though all of the other buildings had their normal attraction names.  Eventually I noticed that this was something of a trend regarding more recent merchandising, advertising it by the name of the hotel rather than the name of the attraction.  I don't really have any reasoning for this; one commenter on a past post suggested it began when Disney started marketing certain home goods souvenirs (like robes) under the HTH name to make it seem like you'd bought those things from the "real" hotel.  However, that wouldn't explain why the HTH name extended to more "out of universe" merchandising like toy depictions of the ride building.

Speaking of toy depictions of the ride building:

Pictured: the way to get me to eat at a McDonald's even though In N Out is down the street

Side view with hidden Mickey

Rear view

Other side view, which has no hidden Mickey

Bottom of car-- note the Hollywood Tower Hotel title

Closeup of Mickey and his odd side-smile

In November-December McDonald's started offering a "train" of Disney World vehicles and buildings to promote Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.  The #6 car was the Tower--er, I mean, The Hollywood Tower Hotel.  Both the logo on the bottom of the car and the toy's packaging all listed it as the HTH at all times, never by its actual attraction name.  It is shorter to write than "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror", so I guess I'm fine with the marketing change.  I'm actually impressed by the level of detail on such a small and stylized depiction of the building--the sign is accurately depicted on the front, it features the "boxes" on both the front and back of the building, and there's a hidden Mickey on the side!  As the car rolls along, a side-smiling Mickey Mouse jumps up and down through the top of the building.

Even though McDonald's toys technically use the blind bag model, it was much more tolerable because it 1) was cheaper than the Wishables by a LOT and 2) came with lunch.  The other ride vehicles were pretty nice too, so I wasn't complaining about getting the "wrong" ones.

This last one was a real surprise to find... in fact, I didn't know it was being made available on the West Coast at all outside of online orders.  It's the Tower of Terror ornament:

Front view, on the tree

What's funny about this one is that, in many ways, it's the opposite of the other two entries on this list.  Unlike the happy meal toy or wishables packaging, which have stylized depictions of the buildings but accurate renderings of the sign or the right building name, this has an incredibly detailed re-creation of the façade but puts the full title of the ride instead of the sign!  Seriously, the time the designer would be most justified in using the "Hollywood Tower Hotel" name is the one time they don't use it!

Still, I absolutely love this ornament.  The detail is incredible, and I love that the back has a "cutaway" showing scenes from the ride.  I also feel lucky having found it; nobody else I know had mentioned seeing it outside of Disney Florida gift shops or the notoriously unreliable ShopDisney site.  I even searched the rest of the store to see if there were any other stray Florida ornaments, or even other copies of this ornament (since mine has a minor paint flaw), but nope.  This was literally the only non-Anaheim ride ornament in that store.

Rear view

Rear diorama details

Right side view

Left side view

That's all the Tower-specific merch I found this year.  There were some other generic "Disney Parks" items that included Tower or Mission Breakout as part of a medley of park icons, but those didn't seem specific enough to include.  Amusingly, though, this Disney Parks ornament I found on the ShopDisney site placed the Tower of Terror next to California Adventure's Fun Wheel.  I did a double-take, wondering if it was a misprint or old merch, until I realized it was generic merch featuring both Florida and California park icons.

Screenshot from the ShopDisney site, since I didn't buy this one

And that wraps up another blog birthday post!  I do have more "serious" content planned in the future: keep watching for more posts about themeing, as well as more insight into the DisneySea Tower of Terror!

The Shining Meets DCA...and possibly the Tower of Terror?

 Earlier in the year, I was lucky enough to visit Yosemite National Park in search of socially-distant open spaces.  I was also unlucky enough to visit when it was covered in wildfire smoke that made everything look like Silent Hill, and eventually forced the park to evacuate everyone due to the health risk.  Before the rangers called for the evacuation, I briefly sought some refuge from the smoke in its historic Ahwahnee Hotel.  

You are now entering Silent Hill and/or The Twilight Zone.  Yeah, that's all extremely thick wildfire smoke.

As terrible as the smoke was, I admit the spooky atmosphere looks cool in photos.

I knew little about it before going in; I just knew that it was a historic hotel built in 1927, and that I really enjoy historic hotel architecture (as is probably apparent by this blog).  Upon entering, though, I immediately recognized the place.  "Wait a second," I thought, "This is the Overlook Hotel from The Shining!"

The entry lobby; the bar is to the left and the check-in desk across from this view

Descriptive plaque near the check-in desk

Check-in desk; the gift shop entrance was just to the right

The Grand Lounge.  Note the smoke managing to get into the hotel lobby.

Stained glass windows in the Grand Lounge.  Also notice the glass cases displaying fancy pottery.

As it turns out, I was close to correct.  The Stanley Kubrick film wasn't actually filmed at The Ahwahnee, but the sets were built based on the real hotel's architecture.  This shot might seem especially familiar to Kubrick fans:

*Insert elevator "ding" sound here*

Oddly enough, The Ahwahnee also inspired a very different hotel: Disney's Grand Californian.  This is most apparent in the exterior of the building, as well as how similar The Ahwahnee's grand dining room is to the Grand Californian's lobby.

The dining room is both grand and Californian

Now, of course, this is a Tower of Terror blog.  You know where this is going.  While Florida's Tower very directly copied the Biltmore Hotel's lobby, its Californian and Parisian counterparts' inspirations have required a bit more digging.  Thus far, I haven't found any references so direct as Biltmore is to Florida; instead, the DCA/Paris design seems to copy the general "feel" of late 1920s Californian luxury hotel architecture.  Much like the Norconian, The Ahwahnee certainly seems to have that distinct combination of Art Deco and Native American/"Southwest" style, as well as the crossbeamed ceiling of the DCA/Paris lobby.

The similarities are most apparent in the large public spaces of the Ahwahnee; the Grand Lounge feels very much like the DCA Tower lobby, including the furniture and area rug choices, the large fireplaces, and those display cases with pottery I mentioned earlier.

Grand fireplace across from the elevators

One of the Grand Lounge seating areas, in front of another fireplace

A look at that fireplace--note the tapestry above, and how it's flanked by two lamp stands

Another seating area, in front of a different fireplace on the other end of the lounge

Yet another grand fireplace.  Note that this one is so large it has what appear to be seats built into it.

That ceiling!

Another look at that fancy pottery display case and the stained glass windows

The side rooms branching off from the Grand Lounge also felt vaguely like Tower's libraries.  There were three branches, with the Solarium forward and behind one of the giant fireplaces, the Mural Room to the right (if one was facing the Solarium), and the Winter Club Room to the left.

The Solarium; across from this view was just a full wall of bay windows.  There was no view that day, just a thick gray wall of smoke.

Entering the Mural Room

The mural

Mural Room Fireplace

Mural Room window, with wildfire smoke outside

Mural Room exit

Winter Club Room entrance

Winter Club Room fireplace and memorabilia displays

Winter Club Room window and more display cases

I couldn't help but notice that, like the different incarnations of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, the Ahwanee also has its own unique symbol/logo that features on everything from the framed menu in front of the dining room to the panel of the elevator.

Logo on elevator panel

While we're here, here's the rest of the elevator.  It even made that classic "ding" sound like Tower's elevators!

That beautiful stained glass ceiling!

The exit near the parking lot even had display windows of souvenirs with the logo in the background... very reminiscent of DCA and Paris' exit area!

One of the more common ways I've heard non-Disney-fans try to describe Tower of Terror is "The Shining, but as a ride."  Presumably, this is just because The Shining is one of the most popular examples of a haunted hotel in current popular culture.  However, as it turns out, The Shining really does have a close connection to DCA--and not necessarily the Tower!  Indeed, it's California Adventure's luxury hotel that is instead heavily based on the same hotel as The Overlook.  I don't believe that the Ahwanhee is quite close enough to DCA/Paris Tower to say it was the direct base for the design the way The Biltmore was to Florida's, but the connection is still apparent as well.  It certainly shows how expertly the Tower's designers properly captured the exact style and feel of a late 1920s luxury resort.

The Tower of Tarot

Some Disney attractions, such as the Haunted Mansion, are lucky enough to have the origins of their concepts thoroughly documented.  Fans can look back and enjoy seeing the origins of their favorite attraction in old films, movies, books, folklore, and so on.  Other attractions, however, are much lighter on confirmed source material.  This (probably obviously, given what blog you're on) includes the Tower of Terror, where most of what's known about it boils down to "well, the designers certainly did watch every episode of The Twilight Zone" and "gee those hotel architectural elements sure look similar to some real supposedly-haunted hotels in Los Angeles".

Interestingly, I suspect I have a lead on yet a third plausible influence: the tarot card literally called The Tower.

I'm not familiar at all with the use of tarot in "serious" fortune telling or spiritual ideas, but I do have some vague knowledge of it via its influence on art and literature.  Tarot motifs are a fairly common inspiration for artists and storytellers of all stripes, so it's not out of the question that Imagineers would be familiar with the symbolism--especially given how tarot's "spooky" fortunetelling reputation likely intersected with Haunted Mansion development.  And when it comes to The Tower's symbolism, the description seems awfully familiar.

The Tower from the Rider-Waite deck, which seems to be the "standard" tarot deck

The artwork itself usually depicts a tall tower being struck by lightning, with building pieces crumbling and people falling.  That alone is already a fairly literal translation to the ride.

But then comes the symbolic description.  The Tower is one of the most intimidating cards in tarot; it represents terrible chaos, destruction, sudden change, extreme upheaval.  The artwork might be themed around the Tower of Babel, thus carrying the implications of the successful made low.  The famous Rider-Waite tarot deck even depicts a crown being literally knocked off the building by the lightning!  The tall building, built on shaky ground, is torn down alongside ambition and false promises by nature's wrath.  The lightning symbolizes harsh truth and reality cutting through illusions.

There's not much positive in the description of The Tower, and seems to be one of the most feared tarot cards--a good basis for a horror attraction.  Terrible chaos, destruction, and sudden change also describe what literally happened to the hotel in-universe; one bad storm and the hotel is both physically destroyed and its inhabitants cursed.  Furthermore, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a symbol of the "glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie town", only to have its beauty stripped and the ugly "dark side of Hollywood" revealed.  The majority of the ghosts in the attraction appear to be wealthy too, and the whole "successful made low" aspect makes sense for an attraction whose IP has a reputation for karmic tales.

This "plot" (for lack of a better term) is arguably even more obvious in the DisneySea version of the Tower, which centers around rich jerk Harrison Hightower III and his hotel being cursed by one of the many artifacts he stole and hoarded.

Ironically, at DCA the ride itself met a rather Tower-like fate, being suddenly and (arguably) destructively changed into Guardians of the Galaxy.

Do I have solid evidence for this tarot card inspiration?  No.  But given how common tarot is as a source of artistic inspiration, and the sheer amount of description that lines up, I'd call this a solidly plausible source of inspiration for this classic attraction.

Some Sources on Tarot Symbolism:

https://www.edelwyn.com/tower-card/

https://www.biddytarot.com/tarot-card-meanings/major-arcana/tower/

https://tarotparlor.com/tower-tarot-card-meaning/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tower_(Tarot_card)

and also good old Google's succinct summary :