Tourists enjoyed hotels (the Oak Crest and Anchor Inn on Onset Avenue were the filming sites for the movie, "Kennedys of Massachusetts"), restaurants, theaters, stores, shops, trolley cars, and a casino where people danced to the likes of Tommy Dorsey, Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. The bathing pavilion had the capacity to give 1,000 bathers woolen suits (word has it tourists rented the suits), comfortable dressing rooms and large Turkish towels.
To wind up the summer season, a Harvest Festival was held in the fall complete with a clambake and dancing.
Other events through the years included fireworks, illumination of the beach; and in the 1950s, bonfires on Shell Point became a July 4 tradition. Some were 50 feet high and, once ignited after the fireworks were over, burned all night.
Around 1930, with the advent of the automobile and highways opening up the Cape Cod areas, tourists began bypassing Onset. An urban revitalization coupled with the crowded Cape Cod areas and traffic congestion are causing people to rediscover Onset.
Then tragically, In 1946, there was a murder of a Cambridge woman, Ruth McGurk; she was abducted from one of Onset's dance hall. The quiet village of Onset was rocked, and the murder did effect its' tourism industry. No one was ever convicted the murder, and people were afraid to go out. This added to the negative image Onset was starting to accumulate. Much of Onset growth had been in eating and drinking establishments. Onset had become a party town full of bars. The view of Onset changed and became one of lavish living, drinking and gambling. It was no longer renown for its famous Spirituality. It was now viewed as a village of sin and corruption; it was no longer the family vacation spot.
This negative image would stay for many years. It was further made uneasy by the shantytowns on the outskirts of Onset. Then in 1960, Interstate 195 linked Cape Cod to Provincetown. Wareham, Onset, and Buzzards Bay were now bypassed. The Route 6 businesses in all three towns felt the loss of traffic. This was further exasperated in mid-1980's when the Route 25 bypass was built.