My town (Long Branch) had an amazing haunted mansion on its now-defunct pier.
What I loved about it was not only the fact that it was a REALLY SCARY haunted mansion, but that it was the showpiece of the most happening pier/amusement area in the state, attracting up to 100,000 visitors per week.

Long Branch became such a hot spot because of that Pier, and the mansion is what made it really stand out. The best part about it was the fact that it employed so many of my fellow Monmouth College (Now Monmouth University) theatre students and they got to earn money for their first professional "acting" gigs. It was so cool to walk through the place and watch our friends at work, refusing to break character to say hi to us!

Every once in awhile, they'd give you a wink as an acknowledgement, but mostly we'd
watch little kids (and adults) being truly creeped out by our peers, hard at work at their "craft." On June 8, 1987, the Pier, along with the Haunted Mansion, was destroyed in an electrical fire, but the memories live on in this cheesy cable TV commercial.

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