Still rockin' after all these years

By DAVE GUNTER

Feature correspondent

SANDPOINT – It’s been 33 years and we haven’t changed a bit. Well, maybe a tiny bit. Still, there’s something timeless about Lost in the ‘50s that leaves us feeling forever young.

Age melts away when the oldies fire up on the concert stage at the Bonner County Fairgrounds. So much so, that it could be argued the true secret to eternal youth rolls in every year with the armada of classic cars and builds momentum thanks to the three nights of live music that anchor the event.

“Last year, I was at the Rock n’ Roll Heaven show on Thursday night and I was watching all the people come through the door with their walkers, pulling oxygen tanks behind them,” said Sally Transue, who has been on the front lines of Lost in the ‘50s since the very beginning. “At first I thought, ‘Oh, no – is this what we’ve come to?’ But then, the music started and they were all still out there dancing.”

True, the poodle skirts might be a little tighter and the pompadours a little thinner than they were 30-some years ago, but the decades disappear when you’re checking out those vintage wheels or revisiting a favorite song performed live by the original artist. It’s a recipe that has worked all along for the event organizers and they have been wise enough not to tinker with it overly much over time.

In response, the car show and dance package has built a base of diehard fans who make Lost in the ‘50s an annual pilgrimage.

“What I think is so incredible is the amount of people who come from all over – Texas, Arizona, Oregon, Washington – you name it,” Transue said. “I don’t think they’d care if we had so-and-so up there on stage playing spoons. They’d still want to come.”

Even so, the roster of artists does have an impact on crowd size for the two nights of the dance concert.

“That’s why you need the Frankie Avalons and the Brenda Lees,” said Transue, listing stars who have graced the stage in Sandpoint.

Lost in the ‘50s got its start after event founder Carolyn Gleason missed her chance to see Elvis Presley perform in Spokane in the 1970s. Turns out, there wouldn’t be another chance to see the King live. Determined never to let that kind of thing happen again, she later combined her passion for rock ‘n’ roll, classic cars and record collecting and came up with the local concert series as a way to catch these stars while they were still alive and touring.

Catch them she did, signing the likes of Fabian, Lou Christie, Del Shannon, Chubby Checker and a host of other ’50s and ’60s big names to play the event. It was only recently that she nabbed her big ‘get’ for the fairgrounds stage, however.

“Carolyn had a wish list and her big dream was to get the Righteous Brothers,” Transue said. “She got them.”

In the mid-1980s, lining up big names from the Golden Age of Rock n’ Roll was a much easier job than it is today, roughly 55-60 years after most of those names were on the hit parade. As time passed, the organizers dipped more heavily into acts from the 1960s, for obvious reasons.

“We’ve had over 65 original artists in our 33 years and a lot of them have passed away,” Transue said. “Now it’s tough to find someone we haven’t had who’s still performing.”

Although the bands and solo artists have changed with age, the classic cars that make up the other half of the event have stayed remarkably the same, thanks to the love and investment of their owners. Each year, Lost in the ‘50s attracts approximately 450-500 cars to take part in the downtown parade and then fill the town core with their gasoline-powered glory during the car show.

“Our car show entries have always been pretty consistent,” said Transue, adding that weather tips the balance on exactly how many auto enthusiasts shine up their chrome and hit the road to Sandpoint. “If it’s a sunny weekend, they come out like flies. When it’s nice out, we can have 200 cars come up that haven’t pre-registered.”

The largest car contingent hails from north of the border.

“It’s the Canadians – they absolutely love us,” Transue said. “Of course, Spokane, too, and we have quite a group coming this year from Fox Island, Wash.”

Back to the music, many of the bands behind the hits of yesteryear have long ago broken up, but their lead singers are still at it. Three examples of that can be found in this year’s line up, with Mary Wilson of the Supremes headlining on Saturday night and Dennis Tufano, lead singer for The Buckinghams, leading the bill on Friday, along with La La Brooks, lead singer for the 1960s girl group, The Crystals.

If the names don’t ring a bell, consider their many hit songs, including “Stop In The Name Of Love,” “Kind Of A Drag,” and “Da Doo Ron Ron,” respectively.

Lost in the ‘50s gets underway this Thursday at 7 p.m. at the fairgrounds with the Rock n’ Roll Heaven tribute concert starring the world’s top Elvis impersonator Justin Shandor, along with Lance Lipinski appearing as Jerry Lee Lewis and Ray Anthony as Richie Valens.

On Friday, the cool wheels roll into town for the vintage car parade at 6 p.m., followed by the annual street dance DJ’d by Bashful Dan Young and the concert and dance at 7:30 on the fairgrounds stage.

Saturday brings the downtown car show starting at 9:30 a.m. and the second dance concert at the fairgrounds. As always, the backup band will be the jumpin’ oldies ensemble known as Rocky & The Rollers.

For tickets and more information, call 208-265-LOST or 208-263-9321. Tickets are also available at Second Avenue Pizza, located at 215 Second Ave., in Sandpoint.