Claudia Dell
Encyclopedia
Claudia Dell was an American showgirl
and actress of the stage and Hollywood motion pictures. Her birth name was Claudia Dell Smith. She was born in San Antonio, Texas
on January 10, 1910. She attended school in San Antonio and Mexico
. Dell was blonde and blue-eyed, with a porcelain face. Her height was 5'5". She was said to have been the model for the Columbia Pictures
logo
.
. Her niece desired to go on the stage from an early age. The youth's first experience as an entertainer was playing her violin
for soldiers at Kelly Field during World War I
. She visited New York
with Mary at age 14 and yearned to remain there.
After completing her education at home, Dell returned to New York and became an understudy to Irene Delroy in the Ziegfeld Follies
of 1927. She studied acting in New York City at the Academy and singing at the Juilliard School
. Soon she was sent to London
to play the lead in a musical comedy, Mary Mary. The play's run lasted one year. While in England
, scouts from Warner Brothers noticed her and asked her to come to Hollywood. She returned to New York along with her aunt following a tour of southern Europe
. Claudia became homesick, rejected leads offered her in two stage productions, and moved to Los Angeles, California
, where her family was living.
to star in a number of musical pictures. She played the title role in a lavish Technicolor
musical film Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930). Claudia's next role was in another important musical, this time co-starring with Al Jolson
in Big Boy (1930). Unfortunately, late in 1930, due to the beginning of the Great Depression, the public had grown weary of musicals. The Warner Brothers, however, had already begun to film two other musicals (which would be released in 1931) in which Dell was given a leading role. The first of these was another lavish Technicolor production entitled Fifty Million Frenchmen
. In the second film, Sit Tight
(1931), she played the love interest together with Paul Gregory, another musical star. Ironically, both pictures had their musical sequences entirely cut before release. Warner Bros. dropped her option in 1931 (along with most of their other musical stars) and Claudia (having become associated with musicals) was relegated to Poverty Row
productions.
On December 29, 1934, Dell married theatrical agent Edward Silton. She gave her age as twenty-two. The couple honeymooned at the Palm Springs, California
desert resort and also in Europe. They were later divorced.
in the first of four Westerns, Destry Rides Again
(1932), which starred cowboy actor Tom Mix
. In 1935, she played the heroine in a very low quality serial, The Lost City
. Other 1930s films in which she participated included Algiers
(1938) and We're In The Legion Now (1937). Dell was playing minor roles by the end of the 1930s and the 1940s continued her decline. She was cast in low-budget productions like Black Magic (1944), a Charlie Chan
series movie. She had a part in Call of the Jungle (1944), which showcased stripper Ann Corio
.
After her film career faltered, Dell was under contract for five years with RKO Howard Hughes
organization and did many Lux Radio Theater
programs for Cecil B. Demille
and Orson Welles
. She had her own television show in New York, Leave It to the Girls
.
School Charm and Modeling School in Sherman Oaks, California and Woodland Hills Promenade. Previously, she had worked twelve years as director of the John Robert Powers School in Beverly Hills, California
. Claudia commented about her new position, "There is no better work than being able to be associated with a school which helps mold young people for the future and one that gives a whole new dimension to a woman's life."
In the early 1970s, Dell had a syndicated radio program which aired in the Midwest called, The Claudia Dell Show. She wrote a syndicated column for eight years and in 1973 completed a collaboration with English author Helga Moray. This was for a television script which was considered for the Theater of the Week program.
Claudia Dell died in Los Angeles in 1977.
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
and actress of the stage and Hollywood motion pictures. Her birth name was Claudia Dell Smith. She was born in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
on January 10, 1910. She attended school in San Antonio and Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. Dell was blonde and blue-eyed, with a porcelain face. Her height was 5'5". She was said to have been the model for the Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
.
Early career
Dell's aunt Mary Dell was an actor in vaudevilleVaudeville
Vaudeville was a theatrical genre of variety entertainment in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. Each performance was made up of a series of separate, unrelated acts grouped together on a common bill...
. Her niece desired to go on the stage from an early age. The youth's first experience as an entertainer was playing her violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
for soldiers at Kelly Field during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. She visited New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
with Mary at age 14 and yearned to remain there.
After completing her education at home, Dell returned to New York and became an understudy to Irene Delroy in the Ziegfeld Follies
Ziegfeld Follies
The Ziegfeld Follies were a series of elaborate theatrical productions on Broadway in New York City from 1907 through 1931. They became a radio program in 1932 and 1936 as The Ziegfeld Follies of the Air....
of 1927. She studied acting in New York City at the Academy and singing at the Juilliard School
Juilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
. Soon she was sent to London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to play the lead in a musical comedy, Mary Mary. The play's run lasted one year. While in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, scouts from Warner Brothers noticed her and asked her to come to Hollywood. She returned to New York along with her aunt following a tour of southern Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. Claudia became homesick, rejected leads offered her in two stage productions, and moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where her family was living.
Hollywood
Dell made her screen debut following an interlude of three months after coming west. She was given a contract by Warner Bros.Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
to star in a number of musical pictures. She played the title role in a lavish Technicolor
Technicolor
Technicolor is a color motion picture process invented in 1916 and improved over several decades.It was the second major process, after Britain's Kinemacolor, and the most widely used color process in Hollywood from 1922 to 1952...
musical film Sweet Kitty Bellairs (1930). Claudia's next role was in another important musical, this time co-starring with Al Jolson
Al Jolson
Al Jolson was an American singer, comedian and actor. In his heyday, he was dubbed "The World's Greatest Entertainer"....
in Big Boy (1930). Unfortunately, late in 1930, due to the beginning of the Great Depression, the public had grown weary of musicals. The Warner Brothers, however, had already begun to film two other musicals (which would be released in 1931) in which Dell was given a leading role. The first of these was another lavish Technicolor production entitled Fifty Million Frenchmen
Fifty Million Frenchmen
Fifty Million Frenchmen is a musical comedy with a book by Herbert Fields and music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It opened on Broadway in 1929 and was adapted for a film two years later...
. In the second film, Sit Tight
Sit Tight
Sit Tight is an all-talking musical comedy film. It was originally completed as a full musical. Due to the backlash against musicals, however, all the songs were cut from the film except for one in all release prints in the United States.-Plot:Winnie Lightner is the head of a health clinic and...
(1931), she played the love interest together with Paul Gregory, another musical star. Ironically, both pictures had their musical sequences entirely cut before release. Warner Bros. dropped her option in 1931 (along with most of their other musical stars) and Claudia (having become associated with musicals) was relegated to Poverty Row
Poverty Row
Poverty Row is a slang term used in Hollywood from the late silent period through the mid-fifties to refer to a variety of small and mostly short-lived B movie studios...
productions.
On December 29, 1934, Dell married theatrical agent Edward Silton. She gave her age as twenty-two. The couple honeymooned at the Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
desert resort and also in Europe. They were later divorced.
B-movies and radio
She bounced back at Universal PicturesUniversal Pictures
-1920:* White Youth* The Flaming Disc* Am I Dreaming?* The Dragon's Net* The Adorable Savage* Putting It Over* The Line Runners-1921:* The Fire Eater* A Battle of Wits* Dream Girl* The Millionaire...
in the first of four Westerns, Destry Rides Again
Destry Rides Again (1932 film)
Destry Rides Again is a 1932 Western movie starring Tom Mix about a man wrongly framed who returns to wreak havoc following his release from prison. The picture was directed by Benjamin Stoloff and based upon a novel by Max Brand...
(1932), which starred cowboy actor Tom Mix
Tom Mix
Thomas Edwin "Tom" Mix was an American film actor and the star of many early Western movies. He made a reported 336 films between 1910 and 1935, all but nine of which were silent features...
. In 1935, she played the heroine in a very low quality serial, The Lost City
The Lost City (1935 serial)
The Lost City is an independently made film serial produced in 1935 directed by Harry Revier.-Plot:The film took the premise of that year's The Phantom Empire but transferred the lost civilization motif from the west to another popular serial locale, the African jungle...
. Other 1930s films in which she participated included Algiers
Algiers (film)
Algiers is a 1938 American drama film directed by John Cromwell and starring Charles Boyer, Sigrid Gurie, and Hedy Lamarr. The Walter Wanger production was a remake of the successful 1937 French film Pépé le Moko, which derived its plot from the Henri La Barthe novel of the same name...
(1938) and We're In The Legion Now (1937). Dell was playing minor roles by the end of the 1930s and the 1940s continued her decline. She was cast in low-budget productions like Black Magic (1944), a Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Chinese-American detective created by Earl Derr Biggers in 1919. Loosely based on Honolulu detective Chang Apana, Biggers conceived of the benevolent and heroic Chan as an alternative to Yellow Peril stereotypes, such as villains like Fu Manchu...
series movie. She had a part in Call of the Jungle (1944), which showcased stripper Ann Corio
Ann Corio
Ann Corio was a prominent American burlesque ecdysiast and actress. Unlike others in her profession, Ann Corio did not have a stage name.- Biography :...
.
After her film career faltered, Dell was under contract for five years with RKO Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
organization and did many Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater
Lux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
programs for Cecil B. Demille
Cecil B. DeMille
Cecil Blount DeMille was an American film director and Academy Award-winning film producer in both silent and sound films. He was renowned for the flamboyance and showmanship of his movies...
and Orson Welles
Orson Welles
George Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
. She had her own television show in New York, Leave It to the Girls
Leave It to the Girls
Leave It to the Girls is an American radio and television talk show, created by Martha Rountree, and broadcast, in various forms, from the 1940s through the 1980s.- Radio version :...
.
Modeling instructor
She worked as a receptionist in a beauty shop in Hollywood and made appearances in early television dramas. In 1973, Dell became the student director of the John Robert PowersJohn Robert Powers
John Robert Powers was an American actor and founder of a prominent New York City modeling agency.In 1923, John Robert Powers founded a modeling agency. The John Robert Powers Agency represented many models who went on to success in the Hollywood film industry, and even Betty Bloomer who became...
School Charm and Modeling School in Sherman Oaks, California and Woodland Hills Promenade. Previously, she had worked twelve years as director of the John Robert Powers School in Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills, California
Beverly Hills is an affluent city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. With a population of 34,109 at the 2010 census, up from 33,784 as of the 2000 census, it is home to numerous Hollywood celebrities. Beverly Hills and the neighboring city of West Hollywood are together...
. Claudia commented about her new position, "There is no better work than being able to be associated with a school which helps mold young people for the future and one that gives a whole new dimension to a woman's life."
In the early 1970s, Dell had a syndicated radio program which aired in the Midwest called, The Claudia Dell Show. She wrote a syndicated column for eight years and in 1973 completed a collaboration with English author Helga Moray. This was for a television script which was considered for the Theater of the Week program.
Claudia Dell died in Los Angeles in 1977.
External links
- Claudia Dell Internet Broadway Database credits
- Claudia Dell at Glamour Girls of the Silver Screen
- Claudia Dell New York Public LibraryNew York Public LibraryThe New York Public Library is the largest public library in North America and is one of the United States' most significant research libraries...
Digital Gallery photo