Claudia is an American literary character created by author

Rose Franken Rose Franken (December 28, 1895 – June 22, 1988), was an American writer and playwright best known for her '' Claudia'' stories, plus the books, films, and plays based on them. Early years Born Rose Dorothy Lewin in Gainesville, Texas, Franken ...

. An article in '' Life magazine's'' March 31, 1941, issue said, "One of the oddest phenomena in the entertainment world is how a little idea like ''Claudia'' can grow into big business." The Claudia stories originated as serialized narratives in ''

Redbook ''Redbook'' is an American women's magazine that is published by the Hearst Corporation. It is one of the " Seven Sisters", a group of women's service magazines. It ceased print publication as of January 2019 and now operates an article-comprise ...

'' and ''

Good Housekeeping ''Good Housekeeping'' is an American women's magazine featuring articles about women's interests, product testing by The Good Housekeeping Institute, recipes, diet, and health, as well as literary articles. It is well known for the "Good House ...

'' magazines. The stories focused on the Naughton family: Claudia, David (her husband), Bobby and Matthew (their sons) and relatives of the family. A 1949 article in ''Radio Album'' magazine pointed out the similarity between author and character: "Knowing Rose Franken is having special insight into how Claudia got the way she is. ... People who should know claim that Miss Franken is Claudia." Franken's obituary in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' described the Claudia works as follows:

Miss Franken's works displayed a steadfast conviction that marriage was a compound of gaiety and disaster, in which the partners matured as the result of shared experience. A woman, moreover, through fortitude understanding and perspective, could make marriage a happy estate.

That initial series of stories eventually grew into eight novels, two films, a play, a radio series, and a television series.

Books

Books in the ''Claudia'' series are as follows: ''Claudia'', ''Claudia and David'', ''Another Claudia'', ''Young Claudia'', ''The Marriage of Claudia'', ''From Claudia to David'', ''Those Fragile Years'', ''The Antic Years'', ''The Book of Claudia'', ''Return of Claudia'', and ''Complete Book Of Claudia''. The first eight books in the series were

bestseller A bestseller is a book or other media noted for its top selling status, with bestseller lists published by newspapers, magazines, and book store chains. Some lists are broken down into classifications and specialties (novel, nonfiction book, cookb ...

s, with the rest involving revisions and compilations of those.

Play

'' Claudia'' ran 722 times on

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

from 1941 to 1943, with

Dorothy McGuire Dorothy Hackett McGuire (June 14, 1916 – September 13, 2001) was an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for ''Gentleman's Agreement'' (1947) and won the National Board of Review Award for Best Actre ...

in the title role. Franken wrote and directed the play, which producer

John Golden John Lionel Golden (June 27, 1874 – June 17, 1955) was an American actor, songwriter, author, and theatrical producer. As a songwriter, he is best-known as lyricist for "Poor Butterfly" (1916). He produced many Broadway shows and four films. ...

said was his favorite of his more than 100 Broadway productions.

Films

Adapting the play to film,

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

produced '' Claudia'' in 1943, with McGuire again portraying Claudia and with Robert Young as David. The two reprised their roles in the sequel, ''

Claudia and David ''Claudia and David'' is a 1946 American comedy-drama film directed by Walter Lang. It stars Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young. Dorothy McGuire and Robert Young repeat their roles from the film ''Claudia'' (1943). Like its predecessor, ''Claudia ...

'' (1946).

Television

The series '' Claudia'' (also known as ''Claudia, the Story of a Marriage''), was broadcast in 1952, first on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

and then on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

. In 1956, Franken tried to launch a new version of the program. Several entities showed interest in the project, and two pilot episodes were made, but to no avail.

Radio

Two series featuring Claudia were heard on American radio. The first, titled ''Claudia and David'', was on

in 1941, and the second was syndicated in 1947.

References

{{Reflist Characters in American novels of the 20th century