10/19/2009 4:12:00 PM Historical society scares up good times
Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society volunteer Maybeth Sheridan decorates a scary attraction at the society’s annual Boo-seum in downtown Excelsior. PHOTO BY MARK TROCKMAN
If you go
What: The Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society and the Minnesota Streetcar Museum will host Ghost Trolley rides,
Boo-seum visits and a variety show next to Lyman Park at
350 Water St., Excelsior
When: Oct. 23 and 24 from
6-9 p.m.
Cost: $5-$7
For more information: www.booseum.org
By Ed Huyck
Looking for a bit of a pre-Halloween scare? Excelsior's annual Ghost Trolley and Boo-seum may be your ticket.
The event, now in its sixth year, raises money for the Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society and the Minnesota Streetcar Museum. The 2009 event runs from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.
The event includes several parts, including a variety show written by noted area playwright Jeff Hatcher and, on Saturday evening, a guest appearance by Bill Corbett, best known as the latter-day Crow T. Robot on Mystery Science Theatre 3000. The show is held in the parking lot of Gary's Car Care on the corner of Third and Water streets.
"It's a wonderful community event," said Historical Society president Kathy Endres. "We have a lot of locals up on stage."
Hatcher has written scripts for the past three years of the event.
"The first year, we had five or six monologues from real people in Excelsior history that had some kind of spooky connection. For the second year, we used the old Excelsior Amusement Park as a theme."
This time, Hatcher has turned to classic movie monsters as a theme, so you'll find performers, both young and old, dressed up as Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, the Wolfman and others.
"We do try to do it in a humorous way," Hatcher said.
The inspiration for the theme came from the various movie houses of Excelsior, such as Dock Cinema, where these films played through the years.
Corbett, who is also a playwright and writes and performs for the MST3K-like RifffTrax podcasts, will join the fun Saturday night.
"I've known him for 20 years, when we both came to the Twin Cities on Jerome Foundation grants at the Playwrights Center," Hatcher said. "He's very funny."
Along with the variety show, the event includes the Ghost Trolley, where passengers are taken down a spooky trail for a series of seasonal scares and the Boo-seum, where the historical museum gets a Halloween facelift.
The historical society "was started in the 1972 by a group of five passionate and enterprising women who saw the need to fill a void in their historic community," Endres said. "The Excelsior-Lake Minnetonka Historical Society was formed to preserve and share the rich history of the south Lake Minnetonka area - Excelsior, Tonka Bay, Greenwood, Shorewood and Deephaven."
The society has a number of programs, including its archive collection (housed at the Old School Building and available to the public from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays) and a free museum on Water Street open during the summer months.
