Cathleen O’Connell didn’t need a flashlight or an amateur sleuth to grasp what it meant when the Trump administration pulled her funding for a film about fictional crime-solver Nancy Drew.
Her project about the fearless detective, who was authored by multiple writers under one pen name, was all but over.
The National Endowment for the Humanities terminated hundreds of grants in April, citing belt-tightening and a re-aligning of “priorities.” O’Connell saw her prestigious $600,000 award disappear like a phantom in the books she adored as a child.
She despaired. Then she thought: What would Nancy do?
“Nancy Drew wouldn’t give up,” she said of the beloved literary heroine who would always crack the case. “Having had so much support of people along the way, I didn’t want to let them down either.”
Now the filmmaker has turned to a Kickstarter campaign to make up some of the difference in funding. She lost $350,000 in federal grant money and is hoping to raise at least $95,000 by July 30 to finish the documentary she started, “Nancy Drew: The Case of the American Icon,” she said.
The campaign met O’Connell’s original $50,000 goal in 11 days, she said. The response convinced her she could raise more and make the film she first envisioned.
“Kickstarter let us get in touch with our audience, tap the fan base and get them excited about the project,” she said. To the more than 400 people who have donated, she said, “I’ve written a thank you note to every one.”
95 years of mysteries solved
This year marks Nancy Drew’s 95th anniversary.
The series debuted in 1930 (with “The Secret of the Old Clock”) and has sold more than 70 million copies over nearly a century, according to publisher Penguin Random House.
Curious details tied all the books together: the luncheons with her father Carson Drew, her trusty female side kicks Bess and George, a blue roadster and a tenacity that always led Nancy to solve the mystery.
In her research for the film, O’Connell found that the amateur detective – an icon of fearlessness and female ingenuity in the 20th century – was still inspiring readers in the 21st, with updated storylines, illustrated versions and new videogames.
Hundreds of arts grants cancelled
O’Connell won the federal humanities grant on the back of a 106-page proposal that took nearly a year to write and edit. Landing the grant was like winning the Pulitzer Prize or earning a PhD, she said.
Then, at President Donald Trump’s direction, billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency began searching for ways to slash federal spending. The email hit her project inbox at 11:30 p.m. on April 3.
“Your grant no longer effectuates the agency’s needs and priorities,” said the email signed by Michael McDonald, NEH acting director, a portion of which was shared with USA TODAY.
He added: “The NEH is repurposing its funding allocations in a new direction in furtherance of the President’s agenda.”
Early on, DOGE was “still in chainsaw mode,” O’Connell said. Her grant was among roughly 1,000 cancelled by the NEH.
The federal agency didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
A box in the attic
O’Connell, 60, grew up in rural Maine. She’d save her 25-cent weekly allowance to buy a Nancy Drew book – then $1.25 – each time a new one came out. Then she’d bury herself in the sleuth’s latest adventure.
Years ago, O’Connell found a box in her attic filled with yellow-bound volumes with titles like The Secret of the Forgotten City and Mystery of Crocodile Island. She knew author “Carolyn Keene” wasn’t a real person but a pseudonym for a slew of hired writers.
She wanted to learn more.
“I wanted to watch a documentary,” she said. “There wasn’t one. People have asked me, ‘Why are you doing this?’ The question is, why hasn’t this been done before?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: A filmmaker, Nancy Drew and the case of the missing grant money
