Nancy Drew
Nancy Drew is a fictional character appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudonym Carolyn Keene.[1] Created by the publisher Edward Stratemeyer as the female counterpart to his Hardy Boys series, the character first appeared in 1930 in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series, which lasted until 2003 and consisted of 175 novels.
This article is about the fictional character. For the main book series, see Nancy Drew Mystery Stories. For the films, see Nancy Drew (2002 film) and Nancy Drew (2007 film). For the television series, see Nancy Drew (2019 TV series).Nancy Drew
The Secret of the Old Clock (1930)
- Bonita Granville (1938–1939 films)
- Pamela Sue Martin (1977 TV series)
- Janet Louise Johnson (1977 TV series)
- Tracy Ryan (1995 TV series)
- Maggie Lawson (2002 TV film)
- Emma Roberts (2007 film)
- Sophia Lillis (2019 film)
- Kennedy McMann (2019 TV series)
- Lani Minella
- Claire Boynton
- Brittany Cox
Female
Detective
Carson Drew (father)
American
Over the decades, the character has evolved in response to changes in American culture and tastes. Beginning in 1959, the books were extensively revised and shortened, partly to lower the printing costs,[2] with arguable success.[3][4] In the revision process, the heroine's original character was changed to be less unruly and violent.[5] In the 1980s, an older and more professional Nancy emerged in a new series, The Nancy Drew Files, that included romantic subplots for the sleuth.[6] Launched in 2004, the Nancy Drew: Girl Detective series features Nancy driving a hybrid electric vehicle and using a cell phone. In 2012, the Girl Detective series ended, and a new series, Nancy Drew Diaries, was launched in 2013. Illustrations of the character evolved over time to reflect contemporary styles.[7]
The Nancy Drew franchise has been adapted into other forms of media with varied success. As of April 2020, the character has been adapted into six feature films, three television series, four television pilots, 33 video games produced by the brand HeR Interactive, and two different comic book series. Film and television adaptations of the character have been met with mixed reviews, while the video games by HeR Interactive have often been lauded. The character proves continuously popular worldwide; at least 80 million copies of the books have been sold,[8] and the books have been translated into over 45 languages.
A cultural icon, Nancy Drew is cited as a formative influence by several women, from Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor[9] and Sonia Sotomayor to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton[10] and former First Lady Laura Bush.[11] Feminist literary critics have analyzed the character's enduring appeal, arguing variously that Nancy Drew is a mythic heroine, an expression of wish fulfillment,[12] or an embodiment of contradictory ideas about femininity.[13]
Films[edit]
Bonita Granville[edit]
In 1937, Warner Bros. bought the rights to the Nancy Drew book series from the Stratemeyer Syndicate, for a reported $6,000. Warner Bros. wanted to make a series of B-films based on the character, to serve as a companion to their popular Torchy Blane B-film series, which starred Glenda Farrell, Barton MacLane, and Tom Kennedy. Adams sold the rights to Jack L. Warner without an agent or any consultation; thus, she sold all and any film rights to Warner Bros., a move she would later regret and that would later come into question by her publishers.
From 1938 to 1939, four films in the series were released. All of them were directed by William Clemens, written by Torchy Blane writer Kenneth Gamet, and featured the same primary cast: Bonita Granville as Nancy Drew, John Litel as Carson Drew, and Frankie Thomas as Ted Nickerson (changed from Ned Nickerson). Renie Riano and Frank Orth also appeared in some of the films as Effie Schneider and Captain Tweedy, respectively.
The first four B-films were as follows:
Merchandising[edit]
A number of Nancy Drew products have been licensed over the years, primarily in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Parker Brothers produced a "Nancy Drew Mystery Game" in 1957 with the approval of the Stratemeyer Syndicate. In 1967 Madame Alexander produced a Nancy Drew doll. The doll carried binoculars and camera and was available in two outfits: with a plaid coat or a dress and short jacket. Harriet Adams disapproved of the doll's design, believing Nancy's face to be too childish, but the doll was marketed nonetheless. Various Nancy Drew coloring, activity, and puzzle books have also been published, as has a Nancy Drew puzzle. A Nancy Drew Halloween costume and a Nancy Drew lunchbox were produced in the 1970s as television show tie-ins.[175]
Cultural impact[edit]
According to commentators, the cultural impact of Nancy Drew has been enormous.[176] The immediate success of the series led directly to the creation of numerous other girls' mysteries series, such as The Dana Girls mystery stories and the Kay Tracey mystery stories,[177] and the phenomenal sales of the character Edward Stratemeyer feared was "too flip" encouraged publishers to market many other girls' mystery series, such as the Judy Bolton Series, and to request authors of series such as the Cherry Ames Nurse Stories to incorporate mystery elements into their works.[178] The Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series and other girls' series books faced criticism for the formulaic nature of their plots and the poor quality of the actual books.[179]
Many prominent and successful women cite Nancy Drew as an early formative influence whose character encouraged them to take on unconventional roles, including U.S. Supreme Court Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and Sonia Sotomayor;[180] TV personalities Oprah Winfrey and Barbara Walters; singers Barbra Streisand and Beverly Sills;[181] mystery authors Sara Paretsky and Nancy Pickard; scholar Carolyn Heilbrun; actresses Ellen Barkin and Emma Roberts;[182] former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton; former First Lady Laura Bush;[10] and former president of the National Organization for Women Karen DeCrow.[183] When the first Nancy Drew conference was held, at the University of Iowa, in 1993, conference organizers received a flood of calls from women who "all had stories to tell about how instrumental Nancy had been in their lives, and about how she had inspired, comforted, entertained them through their childhoods, and, for a surprising number of women, well into adulthood."[184]
Nancy Drew's popularity continues unabated: In 2002, the first Nancy Drew book published, The Secret of the Old Clock, alone sold 150,000 copies,[185] good enough for top-50 ranking in children's books,[186] and other books in the series sold over 100,000 copies each.[187] Sales of the hardcover volumes of the original Nancy Drew series alone has surpassed sales of Agatha Christie titles,[188] and newer titles in the Girl Detective series have reached The New York Times bestseller lists.[185] Entertainment Weekly ranked her seventeenth on its list of "The Top 20 Heroes" ahead of Batman, explaining that Drew is the "first female hero embraced by most little girls… [Nancy lives] in an endless summer of never-ending adventures and unlimited potential." The magazine goes on to cite Scooby-Doo's Velma Dinkley as well as Veronica Mars as Nancy Drew's "copycat descendants".[89]
Many feminist critics have pondered the reason for the character's iconic status. Nancy's car, and her skill in driving and repairing it, are often cited. Melanie Rehak points to Nancy's famous blue roadster (now a blue hybrid) as a symbol of "ultimate freedom and independence".[181] Not only does Nancy have the freedom to go where she pleases (a freedom other, similar characters such as The Dana Girls do not have), but she is also able to change a tire and fix a flawed distributor, prompting Paretsky to argue that in "a nation where car mechanics still mock or brush off complaints by women Nancy remains a significant role model."[189]
Nancy is also treated with respect: her decisions are rarely questioned and she is trusted by those around her. Male authority figures believe her statements, and neither her father nor Hannah Gruen, the motherly housekeeper, "place… restrictions on her comings and goings."[190] Nancy's father not only imposes no restrictions on his daughter, but trusts her with both her own car and his gun (in the original version of The Hidden Staircase [1930]), asks her advice on a frequent basis, and accedes to all her requests. Some critics, such as Betsy Caprio and Ilana Nash, argue that Nancy's relationship with her continually approving father is satisfying to girl readers because it allows them to vicariously experience a fulfilled Electra complex.[191]
Unlike other girl detectives, Nancy does not go to school (for reasons that are never explained, but assuming because she has finished), and she thus has complete autonomy. Similar characters, such as Kay Tracey, do go to school, and not only lose a degree of independence but also of authority. The fact of a character's being a school-girl reminds "the reader, however fleetingly, of the prosaic realities of high-school existence, which rarely includes high adventures or an authoritative voice in the world of adults."[192]
Some see in Nancy's adventures a mythic quality. Nancy often explores secret passages, prompting Nancy Pickard to argue that Nancy Drew is a figure equivalent to the ancient Sumerian deity Inanna and that Nancy's "journeys into the 'underground'" are, in psychological terms, explorations of the unconscious.[193] Nancy is a heroic figure, undertaking her adventures not for the sake of adventure alone, but in order to help others, particularly the disadvantaged. For this reason, Nancy Drew has been called the modern embodiment of the character of "Good Deeds" in Everyman.[194]
In the end, many critics[195] agree that at least part of Nancy Drew's popularity depends on the way in which the books and the character combine sometimes contradictory values, with Kathleen Chamberlain writing in The Secrets of Nancy Drew, "For over 60 years, the Nancy Drew series has told readers that they can have the benefits of both dependence and independence without the drawbacks, that they can help the disadvantaged and remain successful capitalists, that they can be both elitist and democratic, that they can be both child and adult, and that they can be both 'liberated' women and Daddy's little girls."[196] As another critic puts it, "Nancy Drew 'solved' the contradiction of competing discourses about American womanhood by entertaining them all."[197]
