Disneyland's Haunted Mansion

Here's a delightful essay about how Disneyland's Haunted Mansion is an elaborate performance of stage magic — how magic stagecraft is the very substance of the presentation. We especially like this part, concerning the relatively low-tech special effects at the Haunted Mansion: "With magic, there seems to be an inner bent that runs exactly opposite to our more overt bent toward technological progress. If you need lasers and computers to make the elephant vanish, that's good, but if you can do it using only smoke and mirrors, somehow that's better. And it's more delightful for both the magician and the audience."