The Vault of Horror: Behind the Scenes of "The Shining"

The corpse of an elderly woman rising from a bathtub, two young girls lying butchered in a hallway, torrents of blood pouring out of an elevator and a snowbound family consumed by the horrors of the grand hotel they agreed to look after. Sound familiar? As an avid horror movie fan, "The Shining" is one of my personal favorites. Directed by Stanley Kubrick and based on the brilliant novel by Stephen King, this movie is a classic. Here are a few fun facts about the film and its production:

For the purposes of simplicity, Kubrick omitted the living hedge animals that were in the novel and opted for the hedge maze instead.

In one particular scene, Kubrick demanded 127 takes from Shelley Duvall, the actress who portrayed Wendy Torrance.

During the film's production, Kubrick often called Stephen King at strange hours of the night to ask him odd questions.

The ending of the film is not the original. There was an alternate which was removed a week after the release of the film. In the alternate, the party photograph that is featured at the very end of the film melts into a hospital room. In the room, Wendy is resting and Danny is playing nearby. Ullman visits Wendy and tells her that her husband's body has not yet been located. As he leaves, Ullman gives Danny the same ball that rolled into the hallway just before he was attacked in room 237.

For the façade of the grand Overlook Hotel, the Timberline Lodge is Oregon was used. The managers of the Timberline requested that Kubrick not use Room 217, the room that was used in the book, as they feared that no one would stay in the room after seeing the movie. Kubrick acquiesced and changed the "haunted" room to the non-existent 237.

The scene in which Danny is riding his tricycle in the halls of the Overlook and sees the Grady daughters is spliced. This was done to spare the young boy who portrayed Danny Torrance, Danny Lloyd. He was told to turn the corner of the hallway, look frightened and cover his eyes. At a later time, the two girls were shot standing in the hallway. The scenes were spliced together and Lloyd never actually saw the girls.

Jack Nicholson's infamous line "Here's Johnny" was not in the original script. Nicholson improvised the line in an attempt to imitate Ed McMahon who used to introduce Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show."

Johnny Carson once used the infamous clip of Nicholson introduce one of his television specials.

In the scene where Wendy brings Jack his breakfast, Jack is wearing a tee shirt that reads "Stovington." It is never mentioned in the film, but in the novel, Stovington is the prep school that Jack used to teach at before he was fired for assaulting a student named George Hatfield.

Although Stanley Kubrick is notorious for being compulsive and shooting dozens of takes before he is happy, he managed to shoot the very complicated "blood and elevator" scene in an astounding three takes.

Kubrick mandated the cast to view the film "Eraserhead" to put them in the proper mood for the movie.

The baseball bat that Wendy uses to ward off Jack is signed by Carl Yastrzemski of the Red Sox. Stepehen King is an avid fan of the Red Sox.

In all scenes (except the one in the food locker) where Jack is conversing with a ghost, a mirror is in the background.

The interior rooms of the grand hotel were shot at Elstree Studios. Due to the heat from the massive lighting needed to film the movie, "The Colorado Lounge" was set on fire. This was the room in which Jack did his writing. The scene was rebuilt and later used by Steven Spielberg in "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The original movie script simply specified "Jack is not working." It was Jack Nicholson who improvised the idea of playing handball with the walls of the Overlook.

The illusion of the snow-covered hedge maze featured at the conclusion of the film was achieved with salt and polystyrene (Styrofoam).

Cary Guffey from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" was Kubrick's original choice to portray Danny Torrance. Due to the subject matter of the film, Guffey's parents rejected the offer.

In the opening of the scene entitled "Monday," Wendy and Danny are watching "Summer of '42" (1971).

When the film was first released, the MPAA prohibited the depiction of blood in any trailer that was approved for all audiences. Kubrick somehow managed to convince the MPAA board that the blood pouring out of the elevator was rusty water.

Kubrick was very protective of Danny Lloyd and directed in such a manner that the young boy never realized that he was in a horror movie until the film was completed.

Neither of the two women who portrayed "the lady in the bathtub" (Lia Bedlam and Billie Gibson) ever appeared in any other films besides "The Shining."

The film editor Norman Gay made a cameo appearance as the wounded hotel guest who startled Wendy when he said, "Great party, isn't it?"

Contrary to the winter setting of the film, the sets were not air-conditioned and the cast and crew were often uncomfortably hot.

Anjelica Houston was cohabitating with Jack Nicholson during the time that "The Shining" was being filmed. She reported that Nicholson was completely exhausted and would fall asleep instantly when he returned home from shooting.

A weak prop door was created for the scene where Jack breaks down the bathroom door with an ax. Seeing as Jack Nicholson was a volunteer fire marshal at one time, he broke the door too easily and a stronger one was built.

Tony Burton, one of the actors, brought a chess set with him to keep entertained in between takes. Although the production of the film was behind in production, Kubrick delayed filming for the day and played chess with Burton; Kubrick won every game.

The Colorado Lounge and Lobby were modeled almost exactly after the Ahwahnee Hotel in Yosemite National Park. They are so close in appearance that guests at the Ahwahnee Hotel often ask if it was the hotel in "The Shining."

In the scene where the party was being held in the Gold Ballroom, the extras who portrayed the ghostly guests were told by Kubrick to nod their heads and mouth their words.

As in the novel, the Torrances drive a Volkswagen Beetle.

The film was shot in script order at the request of Kubrick.

Stephen King was less than thrilled with Kubrick's decision to cast Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance and tried to talk him out of it. King said that he would have preferred Jon Voight or Jack Palance. He felt that they were more normal looking, thus making their descent into insanity even more terrifying.

Entertainment Weekly voted "The Shining" the ninth scariest movie of all time.

Out of 100, the American Film Institute voted Nicholson's improvised line, "Here's Johnny" #68. The same line was voted the 36^th greatest movie line in 2007 by Premiere.

Stepehen King disagreed with Kubrick's decision to cast Shelley Duvall as Wendy. King would have preferred an attractive blond former cheerleader type. He thought that such a person would make Wendy's experiences at the Overlook more horrifying. He felt that Duvall was the antithesis of the type of person that he would have chose to play Wendy.

Coincidentally, the film was released on the 70^th birthday of Scatman Crothers, the actor who portrayed Dick Halloran.

Only one person is murdered (on screen) in "The Shining."

Over 120 scenes were shot of Crothers receiving Danny's telepathic message in his bedroom in Florida.

Crothers greatly enjoyed working with the cast. He referred to them as "beautiful people" and said that he was grateful for the opportunity to work with hem. He especially took a liking to young Danny Lloyd.

Danny utters "Redrum" 43 times in the movie before Wendy awakens.

It was Kubrick's idea to shoot the scene of Jack in the food locker from below.

Shelley Duvall admitted to being envious of the attention that Jack Nicholson received in between takes.

The stress and pressure of the film and the sometimes outrageous demands of the director took a toll on Duvall's health.

Duvall and Kubrick were at odds throughout most of the filming. She resented him at first, but later grew to respect him; she felt that she was able to give a better performance because he pushed her so hard. In the end, Duvall felt that the film was better because of the off-screen tension between her and Kubrick.

Vivian Kubrick, Stanley's daughter, filmed the "Making of 'The Shining.'" She was only 17 years old at the time.

Scatman Crothers often had difficulty remembering his lines during the filming of the movie.

Margaret Adams (who later became the production manager for "Eyes Wide Shut") was Kubrick's secretary. She was given the arduous task of typewriting the phrase "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" hundreds of times for the scene in which Wendy reads her husband's "book."

Many of the crew members got lost in the hedge maze and had to rely on a map to find their way out.

There were a plethora of changes made to the script during production. There were so many that Jack Nicholson stopped reading the script.

A brief cameo appearance is made by Vivian Kubrick. She is the young lady in the black dress on the right side of the couch in the party scene.

The carpet in the Gold Ball Room was custom made for the film.

The dancers seen in the background of the party scene wore radio transmitters in their ears, which played the music that they were supposed to be dancing to. Kubrick did not want any actual noise in the scene.

Wendy Carlos and Rachel Elkind wrote a full musical score for the film. Although he liked it, Kubrick did not feel that it fit well into the film. Vivian Kubrick used one of the melodies in the closing of her documentary.

Many of the corridor/chasing sequences were shot by Garrett Brown who sat in a wheelchair on which the camera was mounted. The wheelchair was pulled in the necessary direction by grips.

Half of Stephen King's novel, "The Shining," was written in the Stanley Hotel ... in room 217.

When we first meet Wendy Torrance, she is reading Jerome David Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.