Harrison Hightower III is a villainous character from Tokyo DisneySea's Tower of Terror. He was portrayed by imagineer Joe Rohde.
History[]
Biography[]
Background[]
Harrison Hightower III was born in 1835 to the wealthy Hightower family. When he was young, Hightower was sent to boarding-school in England and in 1847 became lifelong rivals with fellow wealthy student Cornelius Endicott II. Harrison would go on to become an evil, colonial explorer who travelled the world to thieve and grave-rob subjugated cultures and nations. Hightower operated off of the racist ideology that, "Primitive art is wasted on primitive people" which he used to rationalize his crimes.
Hightower would be a member of two notable organizations which assisted him in his crimes against humanity. One was a group known as the Pillagers Brigade and the other was an aristocratic secret-society known as the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. Hightower was also assisted by his loyal manservant Archibald Smelding and his right-hand man Billamongawonga A.K.A. Trader Bill. In 1889, Hightower opened up the Hotel Hightower in New York City to become his main headquarters and the location where he kept his personal collection of stolen artifacts.
Curse of Shiriki Utundu[]
In 1899, he and Smelding were travelling with the Pillagers Brigade in the Congo when they were attacked by an angered Africana tribe due to their theft. Hightower and Smelding were recovered by the Mtundu tribe whom they learned were caretakers of an African deity idol known as Shiriki Utundu. In the night, Smelding and Hightower robbed the idol to add to Hightower's personal collection in New York City.
Upon their return to New York, Hightower threw a New Year's Eve Party in the Hotel Hightower to celebrate the theft of Shiriki Utundu. Many notable members of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers were in attendance of this celebration. However, Hightower disrespected the idol in his penthouse by using it to extinguish his cigar. This resulted in the idol coming to life and blasting Hightower down an elevator-shaft, killing him.
Hightower would be bound to the Hotel Hightower as a ghost while the public as unaware of his exact fate. Smelding was institutionalized for what he saw before being let out and manipulating the founding of the New York City Preservation Society. This organization deemed the hotel a landmark and regularly sent tourists within which Smelding believed was a blood-sacrifice that might persuade Shiriki Utundu to free his master's soul.
Development history[]
Harrison Hightower III was created for Tokyo DisneySea's Tower of Terror in 2006. He was part of an original story due to Japanese audiences not being as normalized to the television series The Twilight Zone which the American and European versions of the attraction were based on. Hightower was created as a criticism of white colonial explorers of the early 19th-early 20th century and was partly inspired by historic New York City business tycoon and conservative politician William Randolph Hearst (1863- 1951).
In Tower of Terror, Hightower was implied to be a member of the historic Explorers Club, a real-world international multidisciplinary professional society. This allusion was however somewhat anachronistic with real-world history given how the Explorers Club was founded in 1904, five years after Hightower's death. In 2013, Hightower was retconned into being a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers by the Haunted Mansion inspired attraction Mystic Manor. However, this attraction and the society which it featured were much more glamorized depictions of the colonial explorers that Hightower worked to critique.
Jungle Cruise appearances[]
Bengal Barbecue[]
Harrison makes a minor appearance in this restaurant on a miniature portrait of the 1899 S.E.A. roster.
Jungle Cruise[]
Skipper Missy mentions the Hotel Hightower over the Global Broadcasting Service. In both the Amazon River Base and original boathouse are crates belonging to Hightower Industries. While this business as most likely run by Harrison Hightower III, it is unknown if he founded them or if it was a relative such as George Hightower, Harrison Hightower I, Harrison Hightower II or Harrison Hightower IV.
Skipper Canteen[]
The menus of the Skipper Canteen have an item called Shiriki Noodle Soup, mentioned as having been served at Hightower's 1899 New Year's Eve party. There is a certificate in the Falls estate for the, "Hightower Spirit of Adventure Award" being awarded by S.E.A. to Dr. Albert Falls and signed by Captain Mary Oceaneer. Hightower is also one of the authors of the books in the library with his works including, "MINE!", "Treasures of the Animal Kingdom" and, "Everest Expedition: Search for the Yeti".
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar[]
Harrison Hightower III is mentioned in a letter sent to Trader Sam by the New York City Preservation Society on the November 6 of 1912.[1] This letter speaks about how Sam's apparent grandfather Billamongawonga was Hightower's, "Right-hand man" with them sending Sam a portrait of Bill taken from the Hotel Hightower.
Tropical Hideaway[]
On a wall in the hideaway is an oar for H. Hightower's voyage on the Yangtze River in 1872.
Other connections[]
Adventurers Club[]
Harrison Hightower III's evil guild The Pillagers Brigade has been identified by Pamelia Perkins as an unfavourable ancestor of the Adventurers Club.[2] A portrait revealed to depict the brigade used to be hung in the Adventurers Club headquarters where it was said to have also depicted Adventurers Club founder Merriweather Adam Pleasure in-addition to a member greatly resembling early Adventurers Club member and former-president Theodore Roosevelt.[3]
Indiana Jones[]
Hightower visited the Lost River Delta in 1883. Among other things, he found the lost Temple of the Crystal Skull and took a photograph of himself outside of it. This photograph along with artwork of the delta decorate the Hotel Hightower.
Other appearances[]
Adventurers Club[]
A portrait within the club was retconned into depicting Hightower and the Pillagers Brigade.
Aunty's Beach House[]
The portrait of the Pillagers Brigade is hung in the home of late Adventurers Club member Dreamy Ka'imi with a letter explaining Hightower's history.
Mystic Manor[]
Harrison Hightower III appears in a group portrait of S.E.A. taken in the Hotel Hightower in 1899 where he is holding Shiriki Utundu.
Oceaneer Lab[]
Newspapers on the history of the Hotel Hightower are framed aboard the RV Oceaneer Lab ship of Captain Mary Oceaneer.
Raging Spirits[]
There are crates from the Hightower Trust in the Lost River Delta around the temple which Hightower desecrated.
Tower of Terror[]
Hightower's likeness appears throughout the queue of this attraction.
Trivia[]
- Due to his book Treasures of the Animal Kingdom and known affiliation with Expedition Everest's setting, some speculate that Hightower might have visited Kilimanjaro Safaris' setting of Harambe as Hightower would have been an active colonial explorer during the port's era of imperial rulership. That being said, the Animal Kingdom settings of DinoLand, U.S.A. and the Valley of Mo'ara would not have been active during Hightower's lifetime.
- The, "Spirit of Adventure" award might be an allusion to the evil white explorer Charles Muntz from the film Up whose airship and headquarters was called, "The Spirit of Adventure".
- In the Haunted Mansion, one of the manor's former owners was a white American aristocrat named George Hightower who was murdered in the 1870s by the late-Constance Hatchaway.
Gallery[]
