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.
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| 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:
and also good old Google's succinct summary :
