“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 →