Secretary to Mark 60 Years at Edwards Theatres : Career: Marcella Sheldon, who will be 80 years old this week, says she doesn’t think she’ll ever retire.

As a young woman, Marcella Sheldon did not particularly consider herself an athlete, but there were certain things that would make her break into a run. A job interview was one of them.

A friend of a friend told her that James Edwards, who in 1932 owned a chain of five movie theaters, was looking for a secretary.

“I told him I’d get there as fast as I could,” Sheldon recalls. “But I had used my book of bus tickets, and I didn’t know how I was going to get there.”

The 20-year-old Sheldon, in the heart of the Great Depression, was responsible for supporting her mother and two younger sisters. So, she ran.

Twenty minutes later, she arrived. “Mr. Edwards always laughs about that,” she says. “He says I fell through his door.”

Her eagerness--not to mention her speed--won her the job. In November, she and Edwards will celebrate 60 years of working together as secretary and boss. During that time, the Edwards Theatres Circuit empire, now based in Newport Beach, has grown to 60 theaters with more than 300 screens. And the company continues to expand.

What does it take to work together longer than most companies stay in business?

“I’m not the argumentative type,” Sheldon answers. “I do have my own opinions, but I try to keep that to myself.

“Mr. Edwards is a very strong-minded person. He’s got to be to get where he’s gotten. I’m very proud of him.”

Aha. Well, anyone who has ever tried to get through to Edwards by phone will know that Sheldon is strong-minded as well.

“Oh, that’s not his doing, it’s mine,” she admits. “I do have a protective feeling abouthim. When you work with someone that many years, it’s natural.”

This week, during Secretaries Week, Sheldon will also celebrate her 80th birthday.

When she was a student at Alhambra High School, Marcella Zuerner dreamed of going to college. Her father would not permit it because she was a girl. Soon, he left his family, and by necessity Marcella began working, when she could, as soon as she graduated in 1930. Edwards gave her her first steady job at the rate of $15 a week.

That first year, she worked Christmas Day filling out weekly reports, she was so happy to have the job.

She married in 1946, but the marriage lasted less than four years. The couple had a daughter, Carola, who now oversees the payroll department at Edwards Theatres. The mother and daughter own a home in Mission Viejo.

Sheldon says the two things she is most proud of in life are her daughter and her career. In that order.

“I’ve learned so much here having had only a high school education,” she says. “I don’t suppose people would say my methods are modern; I still do most of my work by hand and at the typewriter.”

She says he enjoys working with figures best, doing weekly movie rental reports and doesn’t believe that she will ever retire. “I find it invigorating to be able to work here with other people. It has been good for me to be with younger people and try to keep up with the times.”

From her front-row seat, Sheldon witnessed what is widely believed to be the birth of the multi-screen movie theater. In 1939, Edwards bought a vacant store next to the Alhambra theater and called it the Alhambra Annex. Today, on the site of the annex is a “10-Plex.”

Until 20 years ago, Edwards purchased pictures for his theaters a year in advance. It was called block buying. Today, the company rents movies to run on its hundreds of screens for a designated number of weeks.

Edwards himself handled all purchases in the past; now he has a team of five people to do the job from a Los Angeles office.

And before, Sheldon used to attend every theater opening. Now that Edwards builds two or three theaters at a time, there are many she says she has never laid eyes on.

The one thing that has definitely gotten better over the years are the movies, Sheldon believes. Her favorite recent releases include “Driving Miss Daisy” and “Dances With Wolves.” The latter she calls “miraculously wonderful. It’s a movie that teaches people.”