Monthly Archives: October 2010

Favorite Ghost – Madame Leota

Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat. Call in the spirits, wherever they’re at!” I’d have to say, one of my favorite Disney characters is Madame Leota, the fortune telling woman whose head is projected in the crystal ball in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion attraction. In my recent trip to Disneyland, I noticed the woman looked different than the woman I remembered as a child. Did Disney update the ride some time ago and replace the original Madame Leota with a new actor? I decided to investigate and was quite pleased with what I found. The original voice of Madame Leota was Eleanor Audley. The original actor for Madame Leota was a well respected Walt Disney Imagineer named Leota Toombs Thomas. Leota began working for WED (Walt Elias Disney) from a very young age and became a talented model builder, character artist and costumer for the company. She worked on several projects throughout her careeer including The Enchanted Tiki Room, The Hall of Presidents, The Haunted Mansion, and The Jungle Cruise. Her first husband, Harvey Toombs, was a Disney animator. She met her second husband, Hugh Thomas, while inspecting the banks of The Jungle Cruise ride in Florida. (There’s that Disney magic!). People who knew her and had a chance to work with her said that she was a gifted and extremely dedicated hard worker, and was an extremely nice and generous person. Continue reading

Laser Vortex: Building the Prop

Oh yes…the Laser Vortex. I’m sort of panicking right now. There are only two days left before Halloween and I’ve totally procrastinated on my Halloween prop for this year! The good thing is that I have all the necessary parts to build the prop. And I’ve already soldered some of the wires together. I feel like a mad scientist putting this thing together at night in the hopes that it will work beautifully and I can cry out “ITS ALIVE!”. Continue reading

Zombie Costume Make-Up

Having trouble coming up with an idea for a Halloween costume this year? Don’t panic. Just be a zombie! After all, you practically have it down already…you know, the stare you give while watching hours of mindless television. All you need is a little monster make-up. Rat up your hair with a pick and put some black circles around your eyes. If you want to take it to the next level, check out this video for some Zombie Make-Up Tips.

Halloween TV Specials 2010

I could very easily go into a rant about how Halloween TV specials today are nothing like they used to be back in the late 70’s early 80’s. But I wont. There are plenty of other blogs that do that. Instead I will do something productive and share with you something I wish I had found at the beginning of the month. TVtango.com compiled a fantastic list of Halloween-themed specials, marathons, and episodes for the entire month of October. This list is fantastic and very thorough. So if you have nothing else to do this Halloween…take comfort that there is still something to watch on TV. Here are some TV episode recommendations:

  • Glee Rocky Horror Picture Show Episode, Tues Oct 26, FOX 8pm ET
  • Modern Family Halloween Episode, Wed Oct 27, ABC 9pm ET
  • Scared Shrekless Halloween TV Special, Thurs Oct 28, NBC 8pm ET
  • Community Halloween Episode, Thurs Oct 28, NBC 8:30pm ET
  • The Office Halloween Special, Thurs Oct 28, NBC 9pm ET
  • The Simpsons 21st Annual Treehouse of Horror, Nov 1, FOX 8-8:30pm ET