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Here comes the bride..., As long as we both shall live..., For better or for...worse...I do- I did. In sickness and in...wealth. You may now kiss the bride. We'll live happily ever...after, Till death...do us part...
―Constance Hatchaway


Constance Hatchaway is the "Black Widow Bride" or simply The Bride is a character from the Haunted Mansion. Her likeness is actress Julia Lee while she is voiced by Kat Cressida.

History[]

Background[]

Origins[]

Constance Hatchaway was a beautiful woman born in 1851 in Money County, California. When she was 18 years-old, she married the meek and fairly wealthy farmer's son Ambrose Harper in Secret County, California.[1] Constance murdered Ambrose with an axe, severing his head to keep in a hatbox as a souvenir, and inheriting his fortune. This incident established a modus-operandi for Constance to pursue as a serial-killer, targeting wealthy men to marry and murder for their money and social ranks while keeping their heads (amongst other items) as trophies.

Black Widow Bride[]

Constance's second husband was eastern banker Frank Banks whom she married and murdered in 1872. In 1874, she married and the Asian diplomat and military veteran the Marquis de Doome, whom she may have married at his Ambassadorial Residence on February 13th before murdering him.[2] In 1875, she married railroad baron, gambler and gourmand Reginald Caine whom she likewise murdered. Constance would also be affiliated with a mysterious figure who held onto a variety of hatboxes, likely connected to those which Constance used to keep her victims' heads.

The Haunted Mansion[]

In 1877, Constance married Newport Beach aristocrat George Hightower. The two moved out of California and into a riverside mansion which George owned (traditionally located in New Orleans, but located in a small Hudson River Valley village in some versions) where Constance stored her many trophies, and evidence of her life of crime in the attic. After marrying George, Constance murdered him with an axe-blow to the head before taking his head as a trophy and claiming his inheritance.

Constance thmportgallery

Constance atop George's tomb in her old age

Constance was never convicted for her crimes and lived happily into her old age. At some point, the man associated with her hatboxes died and had his own head severed and stuffed within his own hatbox.

Constance herself died of natural causes in 1927 before becoming a ghost herself, and haunting the mansion in her younger form and wedding-dress. Constance's ghost would prowl the attack making sadistic jokes about her murders while tormenting (and potentially attempting to target) new prey which entered her domain.

Emily

The Haunted Mansion's original bride

Development history[]

The character of the Bride always appeared in the Haunted Mansion with an implied backstory of having murdered her husbands. This original version of the bride was silent, and had her backstory diluted by the removal of the Hatbox Ghost figure along with the cast-member created, non-canonical but influential backstory of, "The Ghost Gallery" where the Bride was Master Gracey's tragic young-bride Emily, a story recycled for the Haunted Mansion comics. In 2006, the Haunted Mansion went through a refurbishment which revised the bride's character, revealing her backstory and personality while also making her a composite character with Marc Davis' elderly black-widow in the stretching-room portraits (a character referred to as Abigail Patecleaver in unused scripts).

In 2023, the Tokyo "Beating Heart Bride" iteration of the character was confirmed to be Constance Hatchaway as-well.

Appearances[]

Haunted Mansion[]

Things to look for: One of the gifts she received with Frank Banks is a cabinet. In it, there is a woman figure looking down at a man figure who has fallen and lost his head. George Hightower's grave can be seen in the stretching room as well as a woman sitting on it holding a rose. Constance is holding a rose in the last picture in the attic. There is also a hat rack that holds the hats of Constance's dead husbands.

The last thing guests see before exiting the attic is the ghost of Constance. Between her wedding vows a hatchet appears in her hands. She recites her vows in an ominous, sinister tone

Meet 'n' Greets[]

Penny Arcade[]

Constance's stretching-room portrait appears on one of Esmeralda's tarot cards.

Trivia[]

  • Constance's performance model Julia Lee was born on Halloween.
  • The name, "Constance Hatchaway" is a play on her, "Constantly hatching away".
  • Constance's last groom George Hightower's surname and status implies him to be related to Harrison Hightower III from Tower of Terror. Her husband Frank Banks' name has been taken to possibly relate him to the Banks family of Mary Poppins.
  • The wedding date of her second marriage to George Hightower being 9/9/09 so to correspond with the 40th anniversary of the ride.
  • In Phantom Manor, her counterpart is the far more innocent Mélanie Ravenswood.
  • Due to being a female theme-park character who appeared as a mute figure since opening-day then was later given more lines and backstory, Redd is somewhat similar to Redd from the Pirates of the Caribbean.
  • With every marriage, Constance received a new pearl necklace.
  • In Walt Disney World, there is a plush of Sally from the Nightmare Before Christmas in her attic.

Gallery[]

External links[]

References[]

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