Sammy Sammy’s Haunted Place in the Woods

“Order Of Show”; a behind the scenes, personal reminder of “Ghost Show” program; house paint on wood.

By JOHN DRURY May 21st, 2026

There seems always to be backpedaling in the visual arts, whether a result the blatant (if unintentional) oversight of the unique maker in favor groupthink, or a purposeful exclusion based on outside and prejudiced concerns. So often – too often – the truly distinctive maker, those who are not easily pigeonholed into this or that creative group or movement, are the same to fall through the cracks for risk of being forgotten altogether.

Sammy Sammy’s “Ghost Show” signage reminder.
 

Not in pursuit of any particular knowledge about, interest in or understanding of the visual arts, but in celebration of the potential in the place of his residence itself, and the pursuits a livelihood found there in a sort of entrepreneurship rooted in the fishing and logging vocations endemic British Columbian island life, George DePape (aka Sammy Sammy) turned to creative making at the earliest sparks of tourism in the 1960’s; those incendiary, on his Hornby Island. Soon, folks would come year-round to enjoy the remote island and its wild style complete with Eagle and Whale watching. Sammy Sammy (with this latest lifestyle a new name seemed fitting) fashioned from his previously acquired skills, a puppet show, and invited the public in to share his life story. With several cabins built on the property, a meal might be shared and a roof available to cover one’s head, for only a few dollars or help with Sammy’s makeshift timber mill. Sammy’s spirit was nothing, if not enterprising. In risk, those ever-elusive riches might be found.

Know your Sammy. Sammy Sammy signage and “Ghost Show” player; “Know Your Sammy”, house paint on wood.

There is in the puppeteer the insatiable need to express, and even if in near anonymity, to be heard. And it was in a small, shack “theatre” of his own making, of lumber chopped from his remote property, that Sammy found place to voice his singular story. And so, like that Wizard in the infamous OZ, who secretly maneuvered behind the curtain, in an eventually revealed fragility exposing his humanity inherent, Sammy shared a tale concocted of truth and partial fabrication, with just a dash, perhaps, of delusion as tempered by necessary showmanship. The foibles of personhood come forged via experience, be it pursued or the result circumstances beyond one’s control. His would become the Ghost Show, and a rough and tumble life, supplied many a detail to fleshed out characters he had encountered along life’s path. All revolved however, around Anastasia – a love lost but never forgotten.

Backstage entrance door to Sammy Sammy’s “Ghost Show”. All photos John Drury.

 

Behind the scenes cluster of ropes and pulleys, for Sammy Sammy’s “Ghost Show”, on Hornby Island, B.C.

Character ghosts, front-stage at Sammy Sammy’s puppeted “Ghost Show”.
 

Then yet George, he was born in 1908, to Belgian-born, homesteading parents on Vancouver Island; their youngest of four. Often on the move in pursuit of livelihood, his family survived by hunting and fishing, and falling, milling and selling trees. Moving to the smaller Denman Island, George (in his first pair of shoes) would receive a formal education there in a one-room schoolhouse. He would leave after completing the fifth grade. Then a jump to another island, smaller yet, and another ferry away from the place of his birth would find George on Hornby. Here, George would eventually sire his own 15 children. And with so many bellies to fill, the weekends were but two more days work.

Amongst a tangle of ropes animating his characters past, present and paranormal by pulley, a backscene sign reminded George during each engagement, to “Spook ‘em good”. His was a one-man show. After George’s death in 1988, his Ghost Show was drug behind the pickup truck of an artist friend to the local ballpark (as concerned for its preservation), where it rested for several decades. Now but a memory, only a portion of DePape’s unique storytelling objects remain in the scattered collections of family and friends.

Know your Sammy.