notonlyamovie | What Sandra did next – her early post-acting career

After The Last House on the Left and several further exploitation films, Sandra Peabody's final screen acting role was as Bird in 1974's Teenage Hitchhikers, as we've already seen. She continued to act on stage for at least a short time after that, as she is listed as having appeared in Tunnel of Love at the Oregon Ridge Dinner Theater; this play ran from December 1977 to January 1978.¹

Sandra remained in theatre for a while, starting out on what would become a major part of her life: supporting young people in the arts. She was hired by the highly prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts, teaching theatre techniques to children.² In 1982, now working for Cablesystems Pacific, Sandra created Portland Tonight. This was a late-night talk show based loosely on Johny Carson's hit The Tonight Show, but with a strong local element.³

Also in 1982, Sandra devised Get Movin' ... with Kids, a children's variety show. She certainly put in the hours with this programme, acting as writer, director and producer. Get Movin' ran for 26 episodes and won Sandra her first major accolade, the 1983 CableACE Award presented by the National Cable Television Association for Best Children's Series. It would not be her last.

Sandra created Get Movin' at a time when funding for kids' TV was on the wane. She was determined that children's own ideas would play a prominent part, placing an ad in the Portland Children's Museum's newspaper – playfully called Boing! – asking to hear from them about their interests. On top of this, she obtained the use of the cable company's local studio to hold auditions for local talent.⁴

Her next show would be the one that would bring Sandra her greatest success: Popcorn. That is a fascinating story which deserves – and will get – a post of its own in the future. But by the 1980s Sandra Peabody had moved decisively onto a different career path, overcoming both her sad experience on Last House and the more expected problems of kids' TV finances to begin a lifelong commitment to safely supporting young performers.

¹ "Wednesday at Oregon Ridge", The Baltimore Sun (4 December 1977), p146.
² "Popcorn", The Oregonian (15 December 1985), p29.
³ News article, The Oregon Journal (21 January 1982), p15.
⁴"Children's talent captured on film for TV showing", The Oregonian (21 December 1982), p26.