Frank Scully

American journalist

Frank Scully
Born	Francis Joseph Xavier Scully (1892-04-28)28 April 1892 New York City, U.S.
Died	23 June 1964(1964-06-23) (aged 72)^[1] Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Resting place	Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, California^[2]
Occupation(s)	Journalist, author, ufologist
Employer(s)	The Sun, Variety
Spouse	Alice Scully (1909–1996;^[3] his death) (married 1930)
Awards	Knight of the Pontifical Order of St. Gregory the Great in 1956^[4]

Francis Joseph Xavier Scully; (April 28 1892 – June 23 1964)^[1]^[4] was an American journalist, author, humorist, and a regular columnist for the entertainment trade magazine Variety.

Career

Scully studied journalism at Columbia University, was on the reporting staff at The New York Sun, and was a contributor to Variety.^[5] His authored books include Rogue's Gallery^[6] and Fun In Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook.^[7] Scully received a screenwriting credit for the American version of the film Une fée... pas comme les autres (The Secret of Magic Island).^[8]

Three men demonstrate the Aztec hoax claims using an inverted bowl to represent Earth and a copy of Frank Scully's book to represent a magnetism-powered flying saucer. — Author Frank Scully (right) and confidence man Silas Newton (center)^[9]

Scully publicized the Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax when, in 1949, he authored two columns in Variety claiming that dead extraterrestrial beings were recovered from a flying saucer crash.^[10]^[11]^[12] Scully's 1950 book Behind the Flying Saucers expanded on the themes of flying saucer crashes and dead extraterrestrials, with Scully describing one of his sources as having "more degrees than a thermometer."^[13] In 1952 and 1956, True magazine published articles by San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Philip Cahn^[14]^[15] that purported to expose Scully's sources as con artists who had hoaxed Scully.^[16] Scully's 1963 book In Armour Bright also included material about alleged flying saucer crashes and dead extraterrestrials.^[17]

Publications

Books

Scully, Frank (1932). Fun in Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook. Preface by Logan Clendening. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 2430955.
—— (1934). More Fun in Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 2629757.
—— (1936). Bedside Manna: The Third Fun in Bed Book. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 328577.
—— (1938). Just What the Doctor Ordered. Fun in Bed (Series Four). New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 3317354.
—— (1943). Rogues' Gallery: Profiles of My Eminent Contemporaries. Hollywood: Murray & Gee, Inc. OCLC 1661190.
—— (1950). Behind the Flying Saucers. New York: Henry Holt and Company. OCLC 1467735.
—— (1951). Blessed Mother Goose: Favorite Nursery Rhymes Retold for Today's Children. Illustrated by Keye Luke. New York: Greenberg. OCLC 6248166.
—— (1951). Blessed Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes for Today's Children. Illustrated by Keye Luke. Hollywood: House-Warven. OCLC 27893933.
—— (1951). The Best of Fun in Bed. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 687125.
—— (1955). Cross My Heart. New York: Greenberg. OCLC 2570206.
—— (1962). This Gay Knight: An Autobiography of a Modern Chevalier. Introduction by Dale Francis (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Chilton Co., Book Division. OCLC 1376376.
—— (1963). In Armour Bright: Cavalier Adventures of My Short Life Out of Bed. Introduction by Jack Paar (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Chilton Books. OCLC 1393335.

Contributions, introductions, forewords

Tchirikova, Olga Wassilieff (1934). Scully, Frank (ed.). Sandrik, Child of Russia. Introduction by Grand Duke Alexander. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company. OCLC 1522799.
Kirkus, Virginia (1935). Scully, Frank (ed.). Fun in Bed For Children: First Aid in Getting Well Cheerfully. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 4054743.
—— (1935). Scully, Frank (ed.). Junior Fun in Bed: Making a Holiday of Convalescence. New York: Simon & Schuster. OCLC 5859811.
Scully, Frank (1940). "The Beaut from Montana". In Gingrich, Arnold (ed.). The Bedside Esquire. New York: Tudor Publishing Company. OCLC 706396.
Sper, Norman (1942). Norman Sper's Football Almanac [Eastern section, 1942]. Introduction by Frank Scully. New York: Greenberg, Inc. OCLC 31249461.
Francis, Dale (1960). Kneeling in the Bean Patch. Forewords by Frank Scully. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons. OCLC 3026310.
Walker, Gerald, ed. (1963). My Most Memorable Christmas. A Pocket Book special, 10021. Anecdote contributed by Frank Scully. New York: Pocket Books. OCLC 4182787.

Feature films

Scully, Frank (Writer (1964 U.S. version)) (1957). Une fée... pas comme les autres (Motion picture) (in French). France/Italy: Cine del Duco, Del Duca Films.^[18]

Notes

References

^ ^a ^b "Frank Scully, Columnist, Dies; Defied Disabilities With Jests". The New York Times. 25 June 1964.
^ "Frank Scully, Author of Cheer Books for Invalids, Dies at 72". Desert Sun. June 25, 1964.
^ "Alice Mellbye Pihl Scully". Variety. New York. 3 December 1996. Retrieved 2 April 2013.
^ ^a ^b Scully, Frank. "Frank Skully". CatholicAuthors.com. Retrieved 28 March 2013. Originally published by Walter Romig in The Book of Catholic Authors
^ "A LIFETIME OF ILLNESS Frank Scully, Author of Cheer Books for Invalids, Dies at 72". California Digital Newspaper Collection. DL Consulting. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
^ "Rogue's Gallery (1972 edition)". Open Library. Internet Archives. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
^ "Fun in bed; the convalescent's handbook". Internet Archive. Internet Archive. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
^ "The Secret of Magic Island". TCM Turner Classic Movies. Turner Classic Movies, Inc. Retrieved 2022-03-04.
^ Severson, Thor (October 14, 1952). "Little Men Due Soon: Flying Saucer Landing Forecast". The Denver Post. Photograph by David Mathias. Denver, Colorado.
^ Scully, Frank (12 October 1949). "One Flying Saucer Lands In New Mexico". Variety. New York.
^ Scully, Frank (23 November 1949). "Flying Saucers Dismantled, Secrets May Be Lost". Variety. New York.
^ "Variety (November 1949)". 1949.
^ Reece, Gregory L. (2007). UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture. London; New York: I. B. Tauris. p. 34. ISBN 978-1-845-11451-0.
^ Cahn, J.P. (September 1952). "The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men" (PDF). True. pp. 17–19, 102–112. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
^ Cahn, J.P. (August 1956). "Flying Saucer Swindlers" (PDF). True. pp. 36–37, 69–72. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
^ Bartholomew, Robert E.; Howard, George S. (1998). UFOs & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books. p. 193. ISBN 978-1-573-92200-5.
^ Scully, Frank (1963). In Armour Bright: Cavalier Adventures of My Short Life Out of Bed. Introduction by Jack Paar (1st ed.). Philadelphia: Chilton Books. OCLC 1393335.
^ Une fée... pas comme les autres (1957) at IMDb