Rescued Sign to Be a Beacon for School

For nearly 40 years, it was a shining landmark for countless teenagers headed to movies at the Edwards Cinema in Loehmann’s Five Points Plaza.

So it’s fitting that a group of high school students saved the yellow neon “Huntington” sign that proclaimed the theater’s Main Street location.

The sign was marked for a dreary fate in March, when the theater closed to make way for an Old Navy clothing store.

While the “Edwards” and “Cinema” signs were already history, John Colby, director of the Huntington Beach High School’s media department, decided the “Huntington” portion still had more to give.

And there would be no better place than the exterior wall of the school’s gymnasium, where the 9-by-40-foot sign could shine upon sporting events.

“I thought it would be cool to have it hanging on the school wall,” said Colby, who was watching workers remove the sign Tuesday morning. “I told the kids in my class about it, and they ran with it.”

Ryan Steidinger, a 17-year-old junior, led the campaign to raise the $8,000 needed to move and refurbish the letters.

“It would have been destroyed,” said Maureen Sloan James, property manager for Terranomics Development, owner of the shopping center. “Ryan saved it. The owners are very happy.”

Modesty prevented Steidinger to soak in the accolades. “This was a television class project,” he said, holding an oversized check for $1,000 donated toward the effort by Terranomics.

Mark A. Frank, vice president of San Pedro Electric Sign Co. and a Huntington Beach resident, volunteered to remove and fix the sign at a discounted cost.

“Normally a sign like this would go right into the trash bin,” Frank said. “I’m glad it’s coming down OK. Sometimes signs get brittle and they just fall apart.”

Frank’s company will change the neon gas that flows through the thin fluorescent tubes from yellow to orange, in honor of the school’s colors. And, because these are teenagers, he will add a high-impact plastic cover that should foil would-be vandals.

He also is dealing with the city and its Design Review Board. If all goes well, the sign could be up as soon as September.

Colby said the whole thing happened so late in the year that most students will be happily surprised.

“They’ll come back in September and, hopefully, that sign will be up on the gym wall,” he said.