The aunt reportedly inspired Dell to seek a career on stage, and she became a student of Ned Wayburn.

[6] After her film career faltered, Dell was under contract for five years with RKO and did many Lux Radio Theater programs for Cecil B. DeMille and Orson Welles.

In 1973, she became the student director of the John Robert Powers School of Charm and Modeling in Sherman Oaks, California, and Woodland Hills Promenade.

Previously, she worked for 12 years as director of the John Robert Powers School in Beverly Hills, California.

Dell said "There is no better work than being 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."

Bette Davis wrote in her 1962 autobiography that: "Little Claudia Dell, whose image was used as Columbia Pictures signature for years, later used it as another kind of jumping-off point.