’Tis the season
for a bone-chilling meal

Kids Stuff
By William Feldman

Welcome to Kids Stuff. I received a request from a reader to spread the word and write about Elaine’s Bed and Breakfast, Dinner Theater and Haunted Mansion Restaurant, located at 513 Lafayette St. in Cape May, N.J. The reader had the best time with her family. I followed up on her request and began my own quest.
Ron Long and Shirley Finney are the owners of the establishment, which is open seven days a week, April through December. Their mission is to make sure all of their shows are family friendly and fun for all ages.
The dinner theater and restaurant have been around for 18 years in a humongous Victorian House about 11,000 square feet. For five of those 18 years, they were voted the best restaurant and dinner theater in the area by New Jersey magazine.
The bed and breakfast is only 3 years old. It took a whole decade to redo the rooms one at a time, and there are 10 sleeping rooms, because the owners have traveled worldwide to obtain the perfect furniture.

THEY DO IT ALL
Ron is not only the creator and writer of the shows, he also builds the stage and sets, hires the creative cast and performs in some of the shows. Shirley handles the finances and business, and she also cooks breakfasts for the guests. Ron used to write puppet shows with his brother when he was 5 years old. He used to write plays that they performed in their basement.
"When I went to church as a little kid, it was the stories that I loved — all of those great biblical tales of Moses and Noah," Ron said. "As I got older, I just enjoyed writing, and wrote a lot of music."
Ron also has been involved in a lot of tri-state dinner theaters, including the Riverfront and the Three Little Bakers, as well as ones all over the country. He was part of a big dinner theater show called,1520 AD, then it became King Henry’s Feast. That particular show went all over the world, including London and Orlando.
Ron said his college education and experience taught him what people like and what people want. He tries ideas that have never been done before and things that other people have not done.
"I try to build characters around a new topic. The most important thing that we do at Elaine’s is humor. We want people to leave here laughing and to feel a part of the shows," he said. "What is written into each show is the audience. The audience is part of the show. Again, there are a lot of jokes, but they are never inappropriate for young children."
The shows are truly family oriented and friendly. In my opinion it worked out and it has been very successful.

YOU CAN COUNT ON SCROOGE
In order for their guests to have variety and keep coming back, Ron and Shirley change their shows. However, traditionally they have been doing Scrooge, the musical, for 18 years. It usually starts the second Saturday in November. They include kids from local schools, and they are rotated so many children have a chance to participate. They even do a New Year’s Eve event with an upgraded dinner, the show, a midnight countdown, party hats, favors and a continental breakfast afterward.
The production I saw in their dinner theater was Forbidden Forest. The show is a sit-down served meal. The stage is in the front of the room; however it extends around to one entire side of the room. The show is very interactive. The actors are everywhere! As the actors walk or run around the room they kind of incorporate people along the way. Yes, we were one of those tables. The show and the dinner are usually 90 minutes each, for a total of three hours of fun. A unique feature here is that most of the actors in the show also work as servers or hostesses. That is why at Elaine’s you dine first and then see the show. The actors are mostly college students.
The best part is that the waiter was able to repeat this long menu — Your dinners include rolls, your choice of soup or salad, entree of choice from our daily menu which includes, roast pork loin, shrimp and scallops scampi, salmon oscar, veal parmesan, broiled flounder, eggplant roulade, chicken cordon bleu, seared halibut with tomato coulis, blackened tuna, penne pasta with vodka sauce, sirloin filet and pork prime rib, plus a vegetable and potatoes du jour, your choice of desserts, coffee or tea — almost without taking a breath.

IT LOOKS LIKE THE REAL THING
The Haunted Mansion Restaurant, which is now running the production Voodoo Dolls, is decorated like a haunted house. A talking skeleton serves as your emcee while playing a piano, and there are real cool special effects and lighting. There’s also a moosehead on the wall that moves and talks, pictures that move, and a swooping ghost that comes down through the room.
While you are dining, the performers are all around you singing, dancing and telling jokes. Here is one great joke: Did you hear that all the toilet seats were stolen from the evidence room from the local police headquarters? Now they have nothing to go on.
Anyway, during Halloween season, they even encourage kids to come dressed in their own costumes. Joan Lavelle, sales and marketing manager, told me that this year she is going to make up trick-or-treat bags for all of the young children. This is only open from May 19 though Oct. 31.
After the dinner theater or restaurant, Elaine’s also has a walking ghost tour for $10 per person. I did not have a chance to do this. I was told it is an hour long and goes through the streets of Cape May. It is lantern lit and led by a tour guide.
"They do not actually go into any of the properties, but they do tell the stories of the hauntings from the outside of the properties," Joan said. "They actually go out through Ocean through Washington Street Mall, they cut over Carpenter and go down Jackson Street all the way down to the beach. They walk along the Promenade area of the beach.
"There are a lot of pirate and ship ghost stories that they tell," she added. "They come back up on Ocean and they cut over on Columbia and come back over Washington and end out back on Lafayette Street where Elaine’s is located. They start with telling the story about the property right here with the hauntings that we have had here."

A CHILLING TALE
And speaking of ghosts, I had to write this up for my readers. This ghost story at Elaine’s was described to me by Joan.
"Our ghost on our property is Emily, and she is very friendly," she explained. "Emily is a child ghost. She was the daughter of a doctor."
The present building was owned originally by a doctor, Joan said, and the family mostly lived on the second and third floors. Emily’s room is their present bed-and-breakfast room, No. 6. Emily was wheelchair bound because she had cystic fibrosis and spinal meningitis. She was very ill; however, she was very bright and very ornery.
"She actually would wiggle herself out of her wheelchair and push her wheelchair down the steps," Joan explained. "Her father would come running and her wheels would be spinning. He would think she fell and she would be sitting on the steps laughing. She always pulled tricks on her dad. She died in this house."
They have had people come in and do readings who told Elaine’s that not only is Emily a ghost, but a lot of the servants who took care of her are ghosts, too.
"They are laid-back ghosts," Joan said. "We don’t tend to hear from them very much. But, Emily now and then does tend to cause a little ruckus."
Joan recalled an encounter with "Emily" one day during her first winter working there.
"I was sitting in my little office, which used to be the elevator shaft. She used to ride on the elevator a lot with her wheelchair because she couldn’t take the steps," Joan said. "I was sitting there working, when all of a sudden above me — which would have been Room 6, which was her bedroom — I heard a sound. There is carpeting on the floor up there, but it sounded like somebody took a handful of marbles, dropped them on a wooden floor and they rolled.
"Needless to say," Joan added, "I just very calmly packed up my things and left. I did not feel frightened. I just know that there was a presence here."
Also, Elaine’s use a company called Wildwood Linens.
"You may see their trucks all over the place because they do all of the linens for the restaurants, bed and breakfasts and hotels," Joan said.
The Wildwood Linen man came one day and walked into the building to drop off the linens and get paid, Joan explained. He was calling for someone but no one was around. He opened the mansion door, thinking that it was an office.
"He started to go in and saw somebody in there," Joan continued. "He went over and kept saying, ‘Can you help me? I am from Wildwood Linen.’ The person did not say anything and turned around. It was a child, a young girl. She was actually luminous, she lit up. Her feet were off the ground. He took out of here. Four years later, the Wildwood Linen guy is still on their route, but he drops the linen off at the back door. He does not come in our building."
They mail their payments in.
An important fact is that Elaine’s is in the book The Ghosts of Cape May as well as on the National Register of Historic Places.
The bottom line, I would highly recommend Elaine’s to anyone of all ages. This would make great student class trips. For more information, visit www.elainesdinnertheater.com on the Internet or call 1-609-884-4358.

A note of interest

Based on the Academy Award-winning movie, Disney On Ice presents Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo will bring the Wachovia Center under water for 10 performances from Wednesday, Oct. 24, to Sunday, Oct. 28.
Visually immersed under the water, Finding Nemo will take audiences to join the curious clownfish Nemo, his overprotective father Marlin and their absent-minded yet lovable pal Dory in a fun journey of friendship.
The audiences will see the "super-dude" turtles Crush and Squirt; the hilarious trio of vegetarian sharks Bruce, Chum and Anchor; and the eclectic Tank Gang from the dentist’s aquarium who each play their own part in Nemo’s and Marlin’s adventurous quest to reunite.
For more information, visit ComcastTIX.com or call 1-800-298-4200. ••
Columnist William Feldman can be contacted by e-mail at wmkidscolumn@aol.com