The Hollywood Tower Hotel in Florida is a landmark, set on a hill towering 199 feet above Sunset Blvd. with its sunset tiled roofs, twisted columns, and ornate Gothic accents. While the old Hollywood Tower Hotel in California shares its name, the Anaheim hotel's style is entirely unique. That's on purpose. 

For one thing, the dark, foreboding Gothic style is no more, replaced with a warm architectural style called Pueblo Deco, skillfully blending southwest motifs and Art Deco accents with Egyptian shapes and metalwork. While less overtly “horrifying,” the beautiful Southern Californian hotel looks sincerely grand, its towers topped with gorgeous teal domes faded by decades of weathering.

Image: Disney

For those lucky enough to have seen both Florida and California’s Towers up close, they’re likely to have thought that California’s is much less intimidating; even measurably shorter. There are two primary reasons. The first is that California’s Tower is shorter – only 180 feet compared to Florida’s 199 (and Disney World's Tower is precariously perched on a distant hilltop to boot, adding to its looming presence.) 

The second is a matter of perspective. The configuration of Florida’s Tower structurally has most of the ride occur in the massive showbuilding behind the main “guest” tower, with the AGVs moving through the showbuilding horizontally and into the main drop shaft in the “guest” tower out front only for the big finale. That makes Florida’s Tower sincerely loom over Sunset Blvd. In contrast, the new ride system developed for California omits the horizontal scene, meaning that the show building has to be parked right up front ahead of the “guest” tower, making the highest wing of the hotel recede into the distance and appear shorter thanks to the massive showbuilding parked up front.

Image: Disney

And without the ample space and lofty position Florida’s enjoys, it’s true that California’s Tower of Terror also lacks the atmospheric entry and sprawling, misty gardens. Instead, the building is marked by a cracked, art deco fountain with a stone plaque engraved: "THE HOLLYWOOD TOWER HOTEL."

But stand at the fountain long enough and you'll see a light glimmer within. As the lights sparkle within the rock, the Hotel's sign will be overcome with glowing script: "The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror." A wrought iron gate before an Art Deco portico serves as the entrance to the hotel’s lobby right from the street, with a small side garden of crumbling statues as its extended queue.

The Lobby & Library

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But passing beneath the grand glass windows into the hotel itself, a familiar scene comes into view. The grand, towering lobby of the Hollywood Tower Hotel may be one of the most well crafted queue rooms in any Disney attraction. The lobby is covered in cobwebs as the memories of former guests are scattered about, abandoned.

This is storytelling at its finest – whatever happened to empty out the Hollywood Tower Hotel, it must’ve happened quickly as guests left games of backgammon half-played, children left dolls unattended, room keys on lounge chairs…

A felt changeable sign notes the floors in the building that house the pool, lounge, and the Tip Top Club. However, the elevators on either side are out of order. Their ornate wooden doors are buckled outward, splintered – a symptom of an elevator trapping a cushion of air underneath as it freefalls, exploding out the door below…

As the misty remnants of old jazz standards play through crackling sound systems, echoing from distant reaches, a hotel usher leads you from this once-grand lobby into the hotel’s library.

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The dusty bookshelves are filled to the brim with yellowed tomes, knick-knacks, and oddities, with a dusty old television packed away into the shelves. As guests file in and stand on the parquet floors, a storm rumbles as lightning crackles in the distance.

As the doors to the library close, the room rumbles as a sudden bolt of blinding light strikes nearby, the television springing to life. It’s the disconcerting introduction to The Twilight Zone. But this episode is unlike any other. As the intro closes, the black and white television set focuses on a hotel – this very hotel – on a dark and stormy night. Rod Serling’s voice recounts:

Hollywood, 1939. Amid the glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its Golden Age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right – a beacon for the show business elite. Now, something is about to happen that will change all that…

You know the story. Halloween night, 1939, a rogue bolt of lightning strikes a guest wing of the elegant Hollywood Tower Hotel. More than a usual act of god, this lightning strike makes three guest towers of the hotel flicker out of existence, disappearing along with an elevator carrying five guests who are never seen again.

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As the story replays on the old black and white television set in the hotel’s dim, cobweb-infested library, the lightning on screen begins to sync to the lightning flashing in the window…

The time is now on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed. Tonight’s story on the Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a maintenance service elevator still in operation and waiting for you. We invite you if you dare to step aboard, because in tonight’s episode you are the star, and this elevator travels directly to the Twilight Zone.

The Elevator

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A bookcase slides out of the way to reveal the entrance into the hotel’s boiler room. The massive two-story maintenance zone appears oddly alive for a long-shuttered hotel as boilers and ducts rattle and rumble with energy, pulsating with flames. Tensions rise as guests begin to realize there's no turning back now...

Naturally, you’re guided to a cargo elevator loading dock to anxiously watch as the elevator dial above the rusted metal doors signals the ascent of the group before you. The dainty arrow advances on the dial… 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12… And then, it pushes past twelve… And sits. As the boiler room’s lights flicker and ghostly sounds echo over the radio, you watch. Finally, the arrow budges, reversing and returning to B. It’s your turn.

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Strapped onboard, you can look through the metal cage that surrounds this industrial elevator and take in the otherworldly rattles and flickers of air that seem to disguise distant screams – perfectly timed.

Then, the bellhop steps back from the elevator doors. “Enjoy your stay.”

The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Will the elevator rise or fall first?

Neither.

As soon as the doors ding to signal their closure, a most unusual maneuver overcomes you: the elevator pushes off backwards, the boiler room doors growing farther away. “You are the passengers on a most uncommon elevator…” a flash of lightning cracks as the concrete walls of the basement disappear, leaving only the boiler room doors floating in the distance with a hypnotic swirl twisting on them. “….about to take the strangest journey of your lives.” In the pitch-black darkness, you can feel and hear a massive set of doors close off your elevator from the basement. “Your destination? Unknown. But this much is clear: a reservation has been made in your name…” the agile elevator sinks a few inches, then begins to rocket skyward as the eerie picks of a violin plays “…for an extended stay.”

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When the massive, ornate doors slide out of the way, they reveal a gorgeous landing in one of the hotel’s hallways with a carved stone frame around a massive mirror, dead plants on either side. “Wave goodbye to the real world.” With a flash of lightning through a corner window, a bolt of lightning strikes the mirror and extinguishes the warmth from the floor’s lamps. An otherworldly wind billows the dusty curtains as the view in the mirror changes. Every single passenger is now a blue force, overtaken by the bolts of lightning. The carriage rattles as the lightning dissipates and the floor falls silent. Somehow, the reflection shows an empty elevator…

The doors close one again as the elevator swiftly rises.

It dings happily as the doors open to a long corridor, lined with lamps and hotel rooms.

“What happened here to dim the lights of Hollywood’s brightest showplace is about to unfold once again…” Silently, something begins to appear halfway down the hallway. Abstract shadows and lights materialize, expanding and contorting, taking on an electrical interference like an untuned television. Finally, the shapes come into focus: the five people who disappeared on the elevator decades ago.

“It’s raining, it’s pouring, the old man in snoring…” the girl’s disembodied voice chants. The energy that created the cast collects and spreads to the walls, overloading the lamps and dimming the hallway to pitch black darkness. “One stormy night, long ago, five people stepped through the door of elevator and into a nightmare…” In the infinite blackness, stars sparkle to life around the elevator cage as it floats. The only other thing in existence is another set of elevator doors left where the hallway ended. It opens to reveal the doomed passengers inside. Then, the elevator floats away in the darkness. “… that door is opening once again. But this time, it’s opening for you…” The phantom elevator opposite freefalls out of view.

And so do you.

At once, the elevator releases, yanked down toward the basement. The Tower's first trick: this is more than a freefall. The elevator doesn't just drop, it's pushed down by the twelve foot tall motors hidden in the hotel's penthouse, with riders experiencing extreme weightlessness as a result. An auxiliary power surges as the cage’s overhead light flickers on, powering the elevator up through the darkness, plastering riders to their seats.

A resounding ding signal's the elevators arrival at a floor. Only, as the doors part, they reveal something unexpected. Where once, many decades ago, this elevator would've opened into a luxurious guest wing, it now opens into a chasm – a gaping, scortched hole in the side of the building where the guest towers simply disappeared all those years ago. You won't find another view of the Disneyland Resort like this one – from 13 stories up.

It pauses only for a second until the sound of a snapping cable makes it fall again. Up and down, back and forth, the elevator races through the phantom elevator shaft, the overhead light flickering and hotel rooms opening and closing in the darkness. Finally, the elevator is drawn to the height of the tower, looking out over the entire resort.

After a moment of peace, a final plunge pulls the elevator down all thirteen stories and back to the boiler room, the sound of falling cymbal all that’s left. As the doors from the shaft slide open, you can see the boiler room doors once more, floating in darkness. The elevator car glides forward, reconnecting with the doors as the cement walls reappear. “The next time you check into a deserted hotel on the dark side of Hollywood, make sure you know just what kind of vacancy you’re filling,” Rod warns, “or you just may find yourself a permanent resident… of the Twilight Zone.”

Ride System

In Florida, there are four separate show shafts (Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, and Delta) that share two drop shafts (Echo and Foxtrot). Elevators in show shafts A and B share a “5th dimension scene” to connect with drop shaft E, while elevators in show shafts C and D use drop shaft F. 

How Florida's Tower of Terror works. Trace an elevator from the Boiler Room to the exit. Image: Martin Smith. Used with permission.

One problem with this system is, as you might imagine, its expense. This elaborate ride system relies on the trackess AGV ride vehicles to navigate that horizontal scene.

It's also tempermental... if one of the drop shafts or a famed “5th dimension scene” that connects it to the show shafts experiences a technical difficulty, the ride’s capacity is automatically halved.

The system in California was different, and decidely less complex.

There, the ride has three shafts, period. The “show” and the “drop” happen in the shame shaft, A, B, or C. But each shaft has two loading zones – one on the bottom level, and one a level above. So once an elevator is loaded, (let’s say, shaft C, upper level), it’s pushed backward from the loading zone and into the shaft. When the ride completes, the elevator returns to the upper level loading zone and the vehicle is pushed back out of the shaft and up to the doors for guests to exit. Then, the elevator that’s been loading for shaft C directly below is pushed back into the shaft and begins its ride, on and on, as the two loading levels switch back and forth sharing the shaft. The system is of a higher capacity than Florida’s while also ensuring that if a shaft experiences a technical difficulty; the ride’s throughput is cut only by a third.

Economically, this system is a win-win. It’s also got a higher capacity and is a smarter solution in terms of keeping the ride running. In exchange, though, the ride loses the AGV vehicles capable of driving themselves horizontally and rotating, which in turn eliminates the famous “5th dimension” scene pioneered in Florida and forces the ride’s showbuilding to be parked in front of the tower, reducing its intimidation factor.

So, what makes this headlining E-Ticket thrill ride a Lost Legend? You won’t believe the role it played in renewing a lost park and what’s set to replace it.