Saturated purple paint now streaks across the upper facade of Tower of Terror at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, bringing back one of the attraction’s opening day details. The color is part of the hotel’s 1939 lightning scar, and crews are restoring it as part of the exterior refresh. Over the years, that purple had faded into a soft gray lavender (at best). We spotted the fresh paint today from Sunset Boulevard, where scaffolding still wraps around much of the tower.
Purple Lightning Scar Returns to Tower of Terror at Hollywood Studios
IN THIS ARTICLE:
- Crews have applied saturated purple paint to the upper facade of the Hollywood Tower Hotel, restoring an opening day detail.
- Construction photos from Imagineering show the original purple, and our photos from recent years show how much it faded.
- Scaffolding still covers much of the tower as the exterior refresh continues.
The exterior refresh at Tower of Terror has reached the part of the building most fans picture first. Since scaffolding first climbed the southeast side of the hotel in July, crews have repainted the pink stucco and re-aged the stonework by hand. Now the upper floors show the purple scar from the hotel’s lightning strike at full vibrance again.
Bold Purple Returns Above the Hollywood Tower Hotel Sign
The purple stood out right away from Sunset Boulevard, even through layers of scaffolding. Deep violet and indigo tones climb the facade above the Hollywood Tower Hotel sign. They wrap around the arched, shuttered windows flanked by teal spires near the top of the building. Dark painted cracks run through the color, so it looks like a scar burned into the hotel.
The paint looks especially vivid on the right corner of the tower, near a small round window. There, a soft-edged purple streak reaches up the pink stucco like a plume of smoke and fades out below the roofline. That airbrushed edge suggests scenic painters are blending the color into the surrounding facade by hand. When we got our first look at the refreshed exterior on October 3rd, parts of the lower hotel showed a lavender-ish base coat.
The purple now visible up top is far bolder. Scaffolding still covers most of the front face, so only slices of the new paint are visible for now. So far, it looks fantastic and is a restoration of how Imagineers envisioned the attraction facade when it first opened.
How the Opening Day Purple Faded
Construction photos from Walt Disney Imagineering show how bold the purple was when the attraction was built. In one, a crane lifts the “Hotel” sign into place as workers wait on the balconies beside it. Violet streaks spread across the facade behind them. Another shows the finished tower from Sunset Boulevard, with the purple scar running down the center of the building beneath the sign. A third catches Imagineers in hard hats reviewing plans in front of the tower, with scaffolding wrapping the lower floors and purple already on the upper ones.
Disney sets the story on Halloween night, October 31st, 1939, as a thunderstorm rolled over the Hollywood Hills. Lightning struck the hotel’s elevator towers, and the bellman and four guests riding an elevator vanished. The purple marks where that bolt tore through the building. Inside, Disney says every clock in the hotel stopped at 8:05pm, including one at the front desk next to the mailbox.
That same storyline explains the scorch marks that returned to the lobby elevators for the attraction’s 30th anniversary in 2024. Paint does a lot of storytelling on this building.
Our own photos from recent years show how far that color drifted. The purple softened into a dusty gray lavender that blended into the weathered pink, and from Sunset Boulevard, the scar started to fade. Today’s fresh paint closes much of the gap with those Imagineering photos.
Tower of Terror opened on July 22nd, 1994. This refresh brings back the look that greeted guests that summer on their way to a 199-foot drop. It also follows Mark Silverman’s recent visit to Imagineering, which has fans wondering whether new Rod Serling narration could be on the way. Tower of Terror has stayed open throughout the exterior work.
Story So Far
- Spring: Refurbishment work began in the exterior queue, and scrim covered parts of the facade near Tower Hotel Gifts.
- July 9: Scaffolding climbed the southeast side of the Hollywood Tower Hotel.
- August 4: Scaffolding began climbing the front of the building, and repainting appeared on the right side.
- October 3: Scaffolding came down from the southeast side, giving us our first look at the refreshed exterior.
- October 18: Mark Silverman, the voice of Rod Serling, hinted at something new after an Imagineering visit.
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