After 77 years, it’s no secret: Nancy Drew is still a heroine

Nancy Drew has amazing legs, especially for someone 77 years old.

The plucky teen heroine was first introduced to readers in 1930 in “The Secret of the Old Clock.” Created and outlined by Edward Stratemeyer, founder of the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the first Nancy Drew novels were written by Mildred A. Wirt Benson and edited by Stratemeyer’s daughter Harriet. Edward Stratemeyer died the same year “Clock” was published.

It was customary for the syndicate to use a fictitious author’s name for all books in a series, no matter who wrote them. “Carolyn Keene” was chosen as the pseudonym for the Drew series.

On television, Pamela Sue Martin, Tracy Ryan and Maggie Lawson have played Nancy Drew.

Surprisingly, though, only two actresses have played the sleuth on the big screen.

One of them is Emma Roberts, the 16-year-old daughter of actor Eric Roberts and the niece of Oscar winner Julia Roberts, who stars as the shamus in “Nancy Drew,” opening Friday.

But it was Bonita Granville who first brought Nancy to the big screen in 1938. And the four films starring Granville (“Nancy Drew -- Detective,” “Nancy Drew -- Reporter,” “Nancy Drew -- Trouble Shooter” and “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase”) make their DVD debut Tuesday to coincide with the release of the new movie.

Though only 15 when she was cast as Nancy, Granville was already a seasoned veteran and an Oscar nominee for 1936’s “These Three.”

The four films were produced by Bryan Foy, the son of vaudevillian Eddie Foy, and directed by William Clemens, who also helmed installments of “The Falcon” and the “Perry Mason” movie mystery series in the 1930s and ‘40s.

Frankie Thomas, who later played “Tom Corbett, Space Cadet” on TV in the 1950s, was Nancy’s exasperated boyfriend, Ted Nickerson, and John Litel was Nancy’s attorney father, Carson Drew.

Granville, who appeared in such films as “Now, Voyager” and “Hitler’s Children,” later produced the “Lone Ranger” and “Lassie” TV series with her husband, Jack Wrather.

She died of lung cancer in 1988 at age 65.

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Susan King