Cast-Off Theater Marquee Frames A Granddaughter’s Memories

By Jan Howard

A granddaughter’s memories of her grandfather and her life growing up in Newtown recently took on a very tangible aspect. An Edmond Town Hall theater marquee, taken down and replaced by a replica, will soon be on its way to North Carolina to the granddaughter of the man who constructed it.

The marquee, built and painted by Ed Cullen sometime in the 1960s, will be installed in some way in the home of Mr Cullen’s granddaughter, Molly Renda.

“It’s a very tangible memory for me. I’ll install it in some fashion in my home,” Ms Renda, an artist and freelance graphic designer, said. “It is a very viable memory of my growing up in Newtown and hanging out in his workshop.”

Ms Renda and her grandfather lived near the Botsford town line on lower Route 25.

She noticed the sign about three years ago when she was taking care of personal business at Edmond Town Hall following the death of her father, George Renda.

The sign looked rather shabby, she remembered. “Over the years, with weathering, and even with maintenance, it was over 40 years old,” she said. Remembering, however, that her grandfather had made it, as well as other signs around town, she inquired about it and was told there were plans to replicate and replace it.

When she asked if it was possible for her to have the old marquee, she said they assured her she would be called when the new sign was installed. “They were very kind and accommodating about saving it for me.”

“She came in about two or three years ago,” Marcy Becker, administrator of Edmond Town Hall, said. “I took her name and number and said I’d call her.”

In the spring, Ms Becker said the marquee was in poor condition, and before it disintegrated completely, it was obvious a new marquee was needed. At that time, she called Ms Renda to see if she was still interested in obtaining the marquee.

“It’s nice she could have some memorabilia,” Ms Becker said.

The new marquee is identical to its predecessor and has a magnetic tray for the letters. “It’s nostalgic that way,” Ms Becker said.

The old marquee was stored in the town hall basement at the time the new sign was installed and remained there until Mike Zeerip of Brookfield picked it up with his truck and took it to his mother, Olga Van der Veen of Newtown, a friend of Ms Renda, for storage.

“She’s taking care of the sign for me until I can pick it up,” Ms Renda said. Sometime before the end of the year, she added, “I plan on carting it down here and installing it inside my house. I’ll do what I can to keep it together.”

“He was a wonderful character,” Ms Renda said of her grandfather. “He was diligent in cataloging documentation,” she added, keeping records of the work he had done.

Signs Of Newtown

Mr Cullen created many of the signs around town during the 1960s, Ms Renda said, such as for local professionals, farms, churches, the Newtown and Hitching Post inns, Newtown’s 250th anniversary celebration, and businesses, such as D’Addario Sand & Gravel. “He was kind of the only game in town,” she noted.

A longtime resident of Newtown, Mr Cullen, a newspaper cartoonist, commercial artist, and painter, talents his granddaughter has obviously inherited, worked out of the house and studio he build here in 1932 on Toll Gate Hill.

He was born in Stratford, son of Mr and Mrs Dennis Cullen. He spent his early career as a mechanical draftsman in the automobile field, later becoming an art apprentice at the General Electric plant in Cleveland.

He took night courses at the Cleveland Art School and then left the industrial field to join the Cleveland Plain Dealer as a feature artist, later working for the Cleveland Press and Binghamton Sun. He was also active in the safety cartoon field.

After his association with the Cleveland Plain Dealer, he worked during World War II as director of illustration of engines and spare parts for the Army Air Service Command. For five years, he was art director of Spare Parts Publications for Pratt & Whitney Aircraft in East Hartford, and later operated the art division of the Allied Engineering Corp in New York City with an office in Bridgeport.

He marketed an invention called the Kartoon Kadoodler, which aided amateurs in drawing cartoons. He took a succession of holes of various sizes and shapes, incorporated them into a 4¾- by 3-inch strip of plastic, and produced a pattern for making cartoons. He also published a booklet, How to Draw Cartoons with the Kartoon Kadoodler, to accompany it, which contained illustrations that show how to make cartoons using the device.

Interested in politics and government, in 1938 Mr Cullen ran unsuccessfully for state representative. “He ran for office on the Socialist ticket,” Ms Renda noted. In August 1953, he headed a district advisory committee on zoning in Newtown, one of several committees that would canvass residents to determine what sections should be marked for light industry, heavy industry, business, and residential uses.

During his many years in Newtown, his cartoons appeared in the Bridgeport Post and in The Newtown Bee. Mr Cullen died in Newtown on August 24, 1968, at the age of 79.

He and his work live on, however, in the memories of his granddaughter, who will soon have an example of his work in Newtown in her North Carolina home.

Ms Renda said, “It is wonderful to have this tangible artifact of his work.”