Her name in lights

June Casagrande

NEWPORT BEACH -- Her starting pay was just $16 a week -- not enough to

beat starvation today. But in 1930, it was enough for 18-year-old

Marcella Sheldon to support her mother and two younger sisters.

And it was enough to start her on what would become a 70-year career

with Edwards Theatres. This week, a plaque will be put over Big Newport

theater’s Auditorium 1, dubbing it hereafter the Marcella Sheldon

Auditorium.

“It was a shock to me,” said Sheldon, 89, on learning that the

1,250-seat auditorium would be named after her. “I can’t tell you how

thrilled I am.”

Edwards management decided to surprise Sheldon with the honor as a way

to ensure that Sheldon’s legacy lives beyond her 70 years with the

company. The family-owned Edwards Theatres Circuit Inc. was taken over by

Denver billionaire Philip Anschutz, who will merge the company with

United Artists Theatre Co. and Regal Cinemas Corp. into a leviathan

theater operator.

“In my experience, staying with a company for 70 years is

unprecedented,” said Ron Reid, outgoing chief executive of Edwards.

“Here’s a person who has devoted her entire life to Edwards Theatres, and

she needed to be recognized. We’re happy to do it.”

Sheldon started at Edwards as a secretary right out of high school in

1930 -- the only rank-and-file employee at the corporate headquarters,

then in the old Alhambra Theater, which has since been torn down. She

became a one-woman support staff to President James Edwards, handling

everything from filing to legal work.

The company moved its corporate headquarters to Newport Beach in 1975.

“You did what had to be done, so I learned to do a lot,” Sheldon said.

When her full-time job ended recently -- as it will for all staff

members of the company’s corporate headquarters -- Sheldon began working

part time as a file clerk for her daughter, Carola Anderson, who is the

outgoing vice president of payroll for the soon-to-be-defunct Edwards.

“I was so proud when she came to work for the company too,” Sheldon

said.

Anderson said her mother was thrilled to learn that the auditorium

would be named after her.

“It’s a great thing for her -- a great feeling. And she’s a terrific

lady,” Anderson said.

But while Edwards Theatres shows its gratitude to Sheldon, she is as

least as grateful to the company. Sheldon attributesher youthful mental

alertness and physical mobility to her years with the company.

“I’d love to keep working,” she said, noting that she won’t be able to

because she has lost her driving privileges. “Let me give you a bit of

advice: Work as long as you can, and be with people and feel like you’re

doing something because that keeps you young. It’s very true. I’m an

example of it.”

* June Casagrande covers Newport Beach. She may be reached at (949)

574-4232 or by e-mail at o7 june.casagrande@latimes.comf7 .