A
house of mirrors or
hall of mirrors is a traditional attraction at
funfairA funfair or simply "fair" is a small to medium sized travelling show primarily composed of stalls and other amusements. Larger fairs such as the permanent fairs of cities and seaside resorts might be called a fairground, although technically this should refer to the land where a fair is...
s (carnivals) and
amusement parkthumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...
s. The basic concept behind a house of mirrors is to be a
mazeA maze is a tour puzzle in the form of a complex branching passage through which the solver must find a route. In everyday speech, both maze and labyrinth denote a complex and confusing series of pathways, but technically the maze is distinguished from the labyrinth, as the labyrinth has a single...
-like puzzle. In addition to the maze, participants are also given mirrors as obstacles, and glass panes to parts of the maze they cannot yet get to. Sometimes the mirrors may be distorted because of different curves, convex, or concave in the glass to give the participants unusual and confusing reflections of themselves, some humorous and others frightening.
In fiction, battles sometimes take place within a hall of mirrors. This is a great way to symbolically show the trickery potential of a villain.
Perhaps the first instance of this was at the climax of the film The Lady from ShanghaiThe Lady from Shanghai is a 1947 film noir directed by Orson Welles and starring Welles, his estranged wife Rita Hayworth and Everett Sloane. It is based on the novel If I Die Before I Wake by Sherwood King.-Plot:...
(1948). Other notable examples include Woody AllenWoody Allen is an American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, jazz musician, author, and playwright. Allen's films draw heavily on literature, sexuality, philosophy, psychology, Jewish identity, and the history of cinema...
's movie Manhattan Murder MysteryManhattan Murder Mystery is a comedic murder mystery film directed by and starring Woody Allen and written by Marshall Brickman and Woody Allen.-Plot:...
(1993) which directly refers to The Lady from Shanghai; the CBS soap Guiding LightGuiding Light is an American daytime television drama that is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest running drama in television and radio history, running from 1937 until 2009...
which, in 1980, featured a now famous sequence that depicted heroine Rita BauerRita Stapleton Bauer was a fictional character on the CBS soap Guiding Light. The character was played by Lenore Kasdorf, and was created by Bridget and Jerome Dobson, shortly after they became Guiding Light's head writers in 1975. Rita was written out in 1981, when Kasdorf announced she was...
(Lenore KasdorfLenore Kasdorf is an American actress.-Biography:Kasdorf was born in New York City to an army colonel father. She is best known for her role as the alluring and promiscuous nurse Rita Stapleton Bauer, whom she played from 1975 to 1981 in the soap opera Guiding Light, and for her performance as Mrs...
) being pursued through a hall of mirros by villain Roger Thorpe (Michael ZaslowMichael Joel Zaslow was an American actor. He was best known for his role as villain Roger Thorpe on CBS's Guiding Light, a role he played from 1971 to 1980 and from 1989 to 1997.-Life and career:...
); the show MacgyverMacGyver is an American action-adventure television series created by Lee David Zlotoff. Henry Winkler and John Rich were the executive producers. The show ran for seven seasons on ABC in the United States and various other networks abroad from 1985 to 1992. The series was filmed in Los Angeles...
, where Jack Dalton is brainwashed and is forced to fire on Macgyver; and the Teen Titans seriesTeen Titans is an American animated television series based on the DC Comics characters of the same name. The show was created by Glen Murakami, developed by David Slack, and produced by Warner Bros. Animation. It premiered on Cartoon Network on July 19, 2003, and the final episode "Things Change"...
episode "Betrayal". Francisco ScaramangaFrancisco Scaramanga is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film and novel The Man with the Golden Gun. The film was so named because it described Scaramanga's possession of a golden gun....
's "Fun House" in the James BondJames Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
film The Man with the Golden GunThe Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of books. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite...
has a House of mirrors. In an episode of the Twilight Zone, "In Praise of Pip"In Praise of Pip" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone.This was the first episode of The Twilight Zone to be 30 minutes long since The Changing of the Guard.-Synopsis:...
", a bookie tries to tell his dying son how much he loves him while chasing him inside a house of mirrors; the 1984 movie Conan the DestroyerConan the Destroyer is a 1984 American action fantasy film directed by Richard Fleischer, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako returning to resume their roles as Conan and Akiro the wizard, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter and Olivia d'Abo. It is...
with Arnold SchwarzeneggerArnold Alois Schwarzenegger is an Austrian-American former professional bodybuilder, actor, businessman, investor, and politician. Schwarzenegger served as the 38th Governor of California from 2003 until 2011....
contains a house of mirrors fight, and the 1983 Walt DisneyWalter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
movie Something Wicked This Way Comes (an adaptation of Ray BradburyRay Douglas Bradbury is an American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer. Best known for his dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451 and for the science fiction stories gathered together as The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man , Bradbury is one of the most celebrated among 20th...
's novel of the same titleSomething Wicked This Way Comes is a 1962 novel by Ray Bradbury. It is about two 13-year-old boys, Jim Nightshade and William Halloway, who have a harrowing experience with a nightmarish traveling carnival that comes to their Midwestern town one October. The carnival's leader is the mysterious "Mr...
) culminates in a house of mirrors confrontation. In the fourth season of the show Leverage, in the episode "The Carnival Job", Elliot has a showdown with Molly's captors in a house of mirrors.
One of the most famous ending sequence in film history related to a House of Mirrors is in Enter the DragonEnter the Dragon is a 1973 Hong Kong martial arts co-production with Golden Harvest and Warner Bros. studios, directed by Robert Clouse; starring Bruce Lee, Jim Kelly and John Saxon. This is Bruce Lee's final film appearance before his death on July 20, 1973...
, starring Bruce LeeBruce Lee was a Chinese American, Hong Kong actor, martial arts instructor, philosopher, film director, film producer, screenwriter, and founder of the Jeet Kune Do martial arts movement...
. The finale takes place in a house of mirrors, where Bruce Lee learns it is best to smash the glass obstacles to solve his problem and defeat the villain.
The KraftwerkKraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
album Trans-Europe ExpressTrans-Europe Express is the sixth studio album by German electronic music band Kraftwerk. Recorded in mid-1976 in Düsseldorf, Germany, the album was released in March 1977 on Kling Klang Records. The album's themes were influenced by friends who suggested writing songs about the Trans-Europ...
includes a song called "The Hall of Mirrors". Fusion guitarist Allan HoldsworthAllan Holdsworth is an English guitarist and composer. He has released twelve studio albums as a solo artist and played many different styles of music over a period of four decades, but first drew attention for his work in jazz fusion...
also has a song called "House of Mirrors" of his Hard Hat Area-Personnel:*Allan Holdsworth – electric guitar, SynthAxe, engineering, mixing, production*Steve Hunt – keyboard*Gary Husband – drums*Skúli Sverrisson – bass guitar*Rejean de Grand'Maison – engineering*Gordon Davis – mixing*Bernie Grundman – mastering...
album. The Insane Clown PosseInsane Clown Posse is an American hip hop duo from Detroit, Michigan. The group is composed of Joseph Bruce and Joseph Utsler, who perform under the respective personas of the "wicked clowns" Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope. Insane Clown Posse performs a style of hardcore hip hop known as horrorcore...
album The RingmasterRingmaster is the second studio album by American hip hop group Insane Clown Posse, released on January 28, 1994, by Psychopathic Records. Recording sessions for the album took place in 1993 at The Tempermill Studio. The album is the second Joker's Card in the group's Dark Carnival mythology...
has a song called "House of Mirrors", representing it as one of the attractions of the Dark CarnivalThe Dark Carnival is the mythology of the concept album series used in much of Insane Clown Posse's discography. It is a concept of the afterlife in which souls are sent to a form of limbo while waiting to be sent to Heaven or Hell based on their individual actions. These concepts are related by...
.
History
The origins of the house of mirrors stems from the hall of mirrors in the
Palace of VersaillesThe Palace of Versailles , or simply Versailles, is a royal château in Versailles in the Île-de-France region of France. In French it is the Château de Versailles....
.
Upon a visit to France to discuss colonial land agreements,
Peter StuyvesantPeter Stuyvesant , served as the last Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherland from 1647 until it was ceded provisionally to the English in 1664, after which it was renamed New York...
arrived at the Palace of Versailles and gazed upon the hall of mirrors present in the palace. Peter (or Petris) became determined to bring this amazement to the newly founded colonial city of
New AmsterdamNew Amsterdam was a 17th-century Dutch colonial settlement that served as the capital of New Netherland. It later became New York City....
, of which he was governor. Peter Stuyvesant's House of Mirrors was founded in 1651 and he charged one
Dutch gulden for admission.
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