Actress Helen Shaw, 92, will be the...

Actress Helen Shaw, 92, will be the grand marshal for the Old Fashioned Days Parade in Altadena Saturday. Shaw, an Altadena resident since 1938, appeared as Grandma in the recent movie “Parenthood.”

Shaw, who studied medicine but ended up with more than a dozen other careers, has written for several newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press, and is now writing her third book. She was present in 1922 when Howard Carter unsealed the tomb of King Tut in Egypt. Although she moved to Altadena to combat asthma, she has used the town mainly as a home port, traveling most of the time. Last year she flew 800 miles along the Orinoco River in Venezuela and then caught a plane to Florida to appear in “Parenthood.” She has appeared in hundreds of television commercials and films.

This is her first appearance in the Old Fashioned Days Parade, which will begin at 11 a.m. on Mariposa Avenue and turn south on North Lake Avenue to New York Drive. It will include a Wells Fargo stagecoach, music, horses and antique autos.

Other events of the day include a Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast from 7 to 11:30 a.m. at 233 N. Lake Avenue. Events at the parking lot on the northeast corner of Lake Avenue and Calaveras Street include a sidewalk sale and flea market from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., a costume contest at 1:15 p.m., free pony rides from 1:30 to 4 p.m. and a Maypole demonstration at 2:30 p.m.