Cape May couple devoted to the arts — and to their community

Editor’s Note: Cape May County ranks 15th nationwide and first in the state as a second home destination, so this summer the Herald will be periodically featuring stories about interesting second homeowners. If you have the name of someone you would like to nominate, please email editor@cmcherald.com with the reason why and with contact information. This is the fourth in that series.

CAPE MAY – Two “Cs” — character and charm — are what drew Myles and Leslie Martel to become second homeowners in Cape May years ago, and it’s a third “C” — culture — that keeps them interested in what they describe as a “special place” where they say the cultural opportunities are unrivaled.

The couple, who have been married for nearly 24 years, bought their home on Columbia Avenue in Cape May 19 years ago, and love that they are able to walk everywhere, whether doing errands, banking, shopping or dining before a performance at the Cape May Stage.

Leslie Martel has been a Cape May Stage board member for 17 years, nine as president. She calls herself a “theater junkie” and loves the “magic” when an actor gets onstage and turns the script into a performance and story.

The couple and her family bought the naming rights to the playhouse, called the Robert Shackleford Playhouse since 2007, in memory of her father, who was an actor on Broadway and London stages and in various movies in the 1930s and 1940s before his tragic death at age 42 in 1956. He vacationed in Cape May as a young man.

Myles Martel is a communications adviser, serving mainly corporate and political clients since 1969 after founding the firm Martel and Associates, where he remains president and chief executive officer. He has been a member of the board of the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts for nine years, and chairs the team that has brought many distinguished lecturers to the city through the center’s Distinguished Lecture Series over the past 12 years.

“When we started dating, we would come to Cape May, and I fell in love with it,” Leslie Martel said, adding that at the time, she was living in Florida and Myles split his time among Cape May, Florida and Philadelphia. “When we got married, we decided we had too many houses and gave up the Philadelphia home.”

Myles grew up in a small town in Maine and compares Cape May’s “friendliness” and “small-town feeling” to that which he remembers growing up. “I don’t have that friendly sense of community in our Florida condo community,” he said. “We started meeting people here; there are some really fascinating people who live here, and many, like us, want to give back to the community.”

Myles came for dinner to Cape May two nights during the winter of 1968, but said, “I never saw the town. It was nighttime, and winter. So in the summer of 1991, the family and I came into Cape May while we were staying with friends in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

“We had heard nice things about Cape May, and wanted to see what it was all about. We were WOWED during the one night we were here. Two weeks later, we started looking for a home here and ended up buying a place on Madison Avenue.” He later sold that property.

He spent his career as a communications adviser to political and corporate leaders, having been President Ronald Reagan’s debate coach against John Anderson and incumbent Jimmy Carter in 1980. He taught for 14 years at Temple University and West Chester University and has authored six books on leadership and communications.

“My research for my first book on political debate strategy led me to becoming President Reagan’s debate coach,” he said. He has advised leaders from 43 different countries and many in the corporate arena, mostly leaders in the nuclear, petrochemical, transportation and pharmaceutical industries. Now, he consults privately with select leaders.

When asked what advice he might have for President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, who recently held a debate, he said he would tell them both: “Don’t make debating your core profession.”

Leslie spent 20 years owning a rug designer business and has been a painter all her life, mostly doing traditional watercolors but also venturing into abstracts and collages with paints and paper.

Her love of the theater can be traced to her father’s love of music and theater, and she said when she came to Cape May Stage initially, she was impressed by the talent, offerings and activities of the organization.

“I love being involved with the Cape May Stage,” she said, calling it her “unpaid full-time job.”

“I think we have a really great board and staff, who have done a great job bringing in equity actors and new plays to Cape May. I’m very proud of how it’s grown, from folding chairs and borrowing props to now having our own props, an actors’ house in North Cape May and great play selections. We are able to attract some really great actors to the stage as well. I have a real passion for the stage.”

Myles added that it’s “exciting to see how the organization has evolved successfully with high-quality performances.”

“Our goal is to get people to cross the bridge for cultural activities,” Myles said, referring to the bridge on Route 109 leading into the City of Cape May over the harbor. “It’s an ongoing challenge, but we’re getting there.”

During their downtime the couple, who are not beachgoers, love to participate in many of the local activities, from the recent Fourth of July parade with Leslie’s two grandchildren, to going to the library or gym, to dining at their favorite restaurants.

Myles loves to have breakfast at the Ocean View Restaurant and lunch at the C-View Inn, both in Cape May, and dinner at Yozu Sushi in North Cape May. Leslie enjoys Yozu, as well as the Blue Pig, La Dona Restaurante Mexicano and Andrea Trattoria Italiana, all in Cape May. For special treats, they both enjoy Provence in Court House.

“I think the cultural fabric in Cape May is becoming quite strong,” Myles said, “and the opportunities in Cape May are unrivaled. I sense an increasing contagious spirit as the offerings become greater in the community.”

Leslie believes that since the pandemic, when many people left cities like Manhattan, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., to come to the Shore, “people want more than the beach. They want to be entertained and culturally engaged. This is a really special, special place, and we are happy to contribute as we can.”

Contact the reporter, Karen Knight, at kknight@cmcherald.com.