Nostalgic Fun Sandpoint Celebration Will Take You Back To The Best Of The Bobby Sox Years

Pity the soul who stumbles unaware into Sandpoint this week.

Between the bobby sox and the pomade, the chrome stacks and the doo-wop singers, strangers wandering through the North Idaho resort town will have to feel they had entered the Twilight Zone.

And that would be pretty close to the truth, because beginning Thursday, Sandpoint will be occupied territory.

Occupied by the ‘50s.

Chubby Checker on Thursday, Little Eva on Friday, Little Anthony and the Original Imperials on Saturday.

Hot rods everywhere you look.

And lots of white socks, too.

Welcome to Lost In The ‘50s, Sandpoint’s annual celebration of America’s first-wave youth culture. What began 10 years ago as a one night fund-raiser for the Festival at Sandpoint has taken on a life of its own - four days and three nights of rock ‘n’ roll and hot wheels on the north end of Lake Pend Oreille.

And it’s the biggest of all the fundraisers that help underwrite the summer-long music festival.

Chubby Checker - the man who ushered in the era of no-touch dancing with his 1960 hit “The Twist” - opens this year’s expanded version of Lost In The ‘50s with a Thursday night concert and dance at the Bonner County Fairgrounds.

Also on that bill are the Tokens (“The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” “Don’t Worry Baby”) and Dickey Lee (“Patches”).

Friday’s highlights include a vintage car parade, featuring an expected 450 vehicles from all over the Northwest, the Midwest and southern Canada. It starts at 6 p.m. at Sandpoint High School.

That evening, the rockers get going again at the fairgrounds with a concert and dance featuring Johnny Rivers. Technically speaking, Rivers isn’t a ‘50s artist - all his big hits occurred in the mid-‘60s. But oldies rock isn’t about splitting hairs, and such hits as “Memphis,” “Mountain of Love,” “Seventh Son” and “Secret Agent Man” capture the spirit of primordial rock even if they came along a few years after the fact.

In fact, “Memphis” was a remake of a Chuck Berry hit and “Mountain of Love” was originally recorded by an R&B artist named Harold Dorman.

Rivers is joined on the Friday night bill by Little Eva (“The Locomotion”) and Johnny Thunder (“Loop de Loop”).

Another Friday night act is Bowser & the Stingrays, Bowser being the former star of the ‘70s retro-act, Sha Na Na.

Then Saturday, vintage cars will line the streets of downtown Sandpoint in a giant car show that begins at 9:30 a.m. and runs until 3:30 p.m.

The Saturday night concert dance has been sold out for the past week. It stars Little Anthony & the Imperials, who had hits with “Tears On My Pillow,” “Goin’ Out Of My Head” and “Hurt So Bad.” The group fell apart in the ‘70s but reformed in 1992 and has had significant success since, including dates at Madison Square Garden and the Hollywood Palace.

It appeared on Dick Clark’s American Bandstand’s 40th anniversary TV special and received the Rhythm & Blues Foundation’s fourth annual Pioneer Award.

The group will share the stage with Brian Hyland, who became an overnight star at age 16 when “Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini” went to No. 1 in 1960 and sold a million copies.

The Drifters complete the Saturday show. The famous doo-wop group had big hits with “Save The Last Dance For Me,” “There Goes My Baby,” “Up On The Roof” and “Under The Boardwalk.”

All the evening concerts are at 7:30. Tickets are $21. They’re available at Second Avenue Pizza, 215 S. Second Ave., or call (208) 263-9321 or 265-LOST.

Three Sunday events will put the wrap on this year’s edition of Lost In The ‘50s.

At 10 a.m., the Aspirin Run Rally begins with a 5K run, and a vintage car rally begins at 11 a.m. You don’t have to show a car to run and you don’t have to run to show your car.

Finally, Silver Auctions will hold a vintage car auction at 1 p.m., so all those folks who drooled over the vintage wheels earlier can buy one of their own.