Proprietor and bowling ’ s fairy godmother, Elaine Brumberg, grants wishes and turns frowns upside down

Elaine Brumberg, proprietor of Thunderbird Lanes

By Evan Henerson

Do I look,"asks Elaine Brumberg, "like the Fairy Godmother of Bowling?"

The question isn't' easily answered. Admittedly, fairy godmothers - if legend and Disney are to be believed - may come in all shapes, sizes and appearances. But the woman on the other end of my Facetime screen is not wearing a gown, or brandishing a wish-granting wand. So..."Do I look like I'm going to be 80?" returns Brumberg. "Well I am." This also isn't easily believed. Perhaps it's Brumberg's energy, effervescence and the fact that, well, I have seen news footage of this woman in a pink princess ballgown, a look not exactly in keeping with prototypical bowling center proprietors.

The owner of Thunderbird Lanes in Warminster, PA, Brumberg is many things: innovator, author, wife, mother, grandmother, leader, cosmetics expert and, for the last two and a half years, an expectation-flouting executive in an industry largely controlled by men. The Fairy Godmother of Bowling is Brumberg’s alter ego when she packs up her portable dinosaur stand and plastic pins and comes into Philadelphia area hospitals permitting children who can’t come to Thunderbird Lanes to experience the fun of the sport.

To these kids, Brumberg makes wishes come true, and — like them — she feels the magic. “I hope to God I can keep waving that magic wand and bring smiles to these children’s faces until I’m ninety something,” Brumberg says. “For me, that’s what I think is going to keep me young.”

It’s safe to say that bowling is Brumberg’s second act. She spent many years in the beauty and cosmetics industry, authoring three books, including, “Save Your Money, Save Your Face,” and “Take Care of Your Skin.” She was interviewed on multiple talk shows and traveled the country. As the wife of bowling center proprietor Norman Brumberg, Elaine ran the youth leagues and eventually became interested in learning the

Elaine’s beloved Thunderbird Lanes

Elaine, in her street clothes, is still pretty magical

Elaine with her close friend, Michael, who inspired her work with special needs children and adults

business herself. When Norman’s health declined, the Brumbergs sold off four of their five centers, keeping Warminster, with Elaine eventually taking over the business after Norman’s death. She trained at the Bowling Proprietors Association of America in Dallas. Brumberg’s business philosophy revolves around delivering unparalleled service. Thunderbird Lanes employees are expected to always ask whether a customer has visited before and, if they haven’t, to offer assistance to help them get acclimated. Brumberg herself is a visible and recognizable presence at her center, greeting and embracing her guests, welcoming the league bowlers and making sure everyone is having the best possible experience. “We just had six birthday parties on Saturday and two adult parties, and I went down and talked to every family,” Brumbeg says. One guy looked at me and said, ‘Elaine I’m a pizza maven and this is the

best pizza I have ever eaten in a bowling center.’ I said, ‘Would you put that on Facebook?’”

“I’m proud of what I do. I’m proud of the fact that I have incredible management. I treat my staff like they’re my family and they aremy family.”

In this practice, Brumberg notes she is following the example set by her late husband, Norman, who also treated customers of Thunderbird Lanes like they were guests in his home.

“He was an incredible human being and an incredible businessman,” Brumberg says of her husband who died in 2011. “Brunswick came along and they offered my husband a great deal of money to buy our center, and he wouldn’t sell them because he didn’t want his employees to be unemployed. That’s the kind of individual he was.”

Glenn Keenan, vice president of sales for US Bowling, has known both Brumbergs since he was a teenager and has served as both a professional sounding-board as well as a trusted friend to Elaine since she entered the world of bowling proprietorship. According to Keenan, Thunderbird Lanes’ future – and Norman Brumberg’s legacy – are in stable hands with Elaine.

“She knows she has to cater to all different demographics,” Keenan says. “I would say hers is a modernized version of her husband’s management style. She knows how to delegate, and she knows when she sees something she doesn’t like and

Elaine with her bowling buddies

she’s quick to correct it. She has a really good grasp of what it takes to own a center and to run it properly.”

As with cosmetics, Brumberg discovered she had a flair for bowling center administration as well. She has introduced multiple promotions for open bowlers, everything from couple’s nights, lady’s night, wine and bowl, to promotions for mothers, fathers, and veterans. League bowling does brisk business Monday through Friday. On Saturday morning, the center hosts groups of special needs bowlers, a service of which Brumberg is especially proud.

Brumberg had a close friend whose then 14-year old son, Michael, was diagnosed with cancer and was not expected to survive. But he defied a grim prognosis and beat back the disease. Brumberg eventually had a lightbulb moment: certain kids who might love to bowl will never be able to visit Thunderbird Lanes.

“I thought if they can’t come to me, I’ll go to them,” Brumberg says.

Which, according to Keenen, is entirely in character. “Elaine is a very warm and caring person, for sure,” he said. “That old saying, she would give you the shirt off her back? She would do it without being asked.”

Brumberg packed up her dinosaur stand and a set of plastic

pins and lanes. Dressing up in princess regalia, she brings party favors on her visits to St. Christopher’s and Shriner’s Hospitals.

According to Brumberg, the experience brings her as much as joy as it does to the children.

Elaine, dressed as Mrs. Claus, brings holiday cheer to her guests

“These children forget they’re sick,” Brumberg said. “I can’t begin to tell you how much joy I get that I’m bringing these kids [joy], to see the smiles on their faces. They forget they’re sick. I forget they’re sick. They hug and kiss me. It’s just incredible.”

As much as she and her team are hatching new ideas for open play bowlers, Brumberg is also, to some extent, a traditionalist where bowling is concerned. Other than adding a redemption arcade, she has balked at any suggestions that she move toward transforming Thunderbird Lanes into a family entertainment center. There will be no removing lanes to carve out space for laser tag or rock-climbing walls at this facility.

“I didn’t want to take away from my programs for the special needs children. I didn’t want students from the high school to have nowhere to bowl,” Brumberg says. “There are fewer and fewer bowling alleys or bowling centers because people are turning them into family entertainment centers. They think they can make more money.”

In the two and a half years that she has been running the center, Brumberg has financed major renovations and upgrades, including new furniture, a new bar, and café. The facility has a new food service manager which has led to expanded menu items. On the bowling side, Thunderbird Lanes has new synthetic lanes, added new glow-in-the-dark QubicaAMF lanes, and all new shoes. 50-inch flat screen TVs and new carpeting were scheduled to come in the spring, but the plans were made pre-COVID-19. “All these things are important because they really dress up the center,” Brumberg says. “I’d like to bring in a commercial chandelier to make the entrance more exciting. You have to invest on your business. You can’t just let everything go.” There was a time in their marriage when Norman Brumberg made the mistake of telling his wife that she could not do something. “I can do anything but brain surgery,” was her response. She still feels that way. “I want to be an inspiration to other women, to show them that, in the bowling industry, they can be as qualified as their husbands or managers or whatever. They can buy out centers and they can run them,” Brumberg says. “I want to show people that — guess what! — women can be proprietors. Anybody who is in the bowling industry can say, ‘Hey, I can do the same thing as Elaine Brumberg! I can be as successful as she is.’” ❖

Evan Henerson is a features and lifestyle journalist who lives in Los Angeles. His work has appeared in TV Guide , American Theatre, Orange Coast and the Los Angeles Daily News where he was a staff writer and critic for nine years.