Sandy’s Free Shows
Early in the 21st century, the City of Sandy began sponsoring free musical groups entertaining in the city’s Meinig Park, one evening a week in the late summer for people’s enjoyment.
Around 1935 the city also sponsored free outdoor shows, but basically for a different reason.
In Sandy in the early 1930s, during the time of the Great Depression that lasted about ten years, business people had to hustle to survive. Hoffman’s Sandy Market seemed to out-hustle their competition by sending their vending trucks, loaded with meat and groceries, out into all the neighborhoods from Boring to Government Camp. They had observed that nearly all families had only one car which the husband drove to his job so the families rarely came into Sandy to shop.
The Sandy Market literally brought the store to the housewives on scheduled routes.
The local business people and City realized that something had to be done to get more people into town. Someone came up with the idea of offering the public free outdoor movies, hoping to get people in to shop. The site of the present soldier statue, the V.F.W. Memorial at the southeast corner of Hwy 211 and Pioneer Blvd. provided a natural amphitheater with its slope to the south. Benches were installed with a high screen at the bottom of the slope. Everyone had a good seat..
The road to Eagle Creek was then a pitiful road that followed what is now Tupper Road and carried hardly any traffic then (the present State Hwy 211 wasn’t developed until 1948). Also, all two-way traffic through Sandy was a block away on Proctor Blvd. so traffic noise didn’t adversely affect the movies.
For a few years during July and August, free movies were presented every Wednesday evening at dusk. With free entertainment, huge crowds came to Sandy. We don’t know how successful it was for the merchants but we know that it was a welcome interlude for people to relax, socialize, visit, and get away from challenges. People remembered the free shows as a bright spot during those Depression years.
When Sandy Market built their new, very modern store on Proctor Blvd. in 1938 (later the site of the Sandy City Library), they discontinued the vending trucks and the free shows ended.
During the period of free shows, a few Sandy High School guys had a small dance orchestra and decided to take advantage of the huge crowds and hold dances after the movies ended at around 10 p.m. They rented the Oddfellows Hall and had visions of getting rich on the proceeds. A number of high school youth came but the adults weren’t interested in dancing in the middle of the week. Gig earnings covered the meager rent but that was about all.
So, it was a good first adventure in the business world!
In the coming weeks of summer 2024, the annual Sandy concerts and movies in the park continue in Meinig Park. Summer Sounds and Starlight Cinema entertainment will include Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire on Friday, August 2 at dusk or 8:30 p.m.; CJ Micken’s Band on Wednesday, August 7 at 6 p.m.; Kung Fu Panda on Friday, August 16 at 8:30 p.m.; and Jennifer Batten and Full Steam on Wednesday, August 21 at 6 p.m. Each of these events is free to the public.
Info is from The History of Sandy Oregon by Phil Jonsrud, copyright 2011 by Sandy Historical Society, Inc., pp. 53-54; 80 Years in the Same Neighborhood: A history of the Sandy, Oregon area by Phil Jonsrud, copyright 2002 by Sandy Historical Society, Inc., pp. 51-52; and the city of Sandy at