Frank Scully

File:Frank Scully 1937.jpg

Scully studied journalism at Columbia University, was on the reporting staff at The New York Sun and was a contributor to Variety.{{cite web |title=A LIFETIME OF ILLNESS Frank Scully, Author of Cheer Books for Invalids, Dies at 72 |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/?a=d&d=DS19640625.2.25&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1 |website=California Digital Newspaper Collection |publisher=DL Consulting |access-date=2022-03-04 |ref=Desert Sun}} His books include Rogues' Gallery{{cite book |title=Rogues' Gallery: Profiles of my eminent contemporaries | last= Scully | first= Frank | place= Freeport | publisher= Books for Liberties Press |lccn=72004759 |oclc= 333722 | date=1972 |orig-date =1943|ol= OL5285843M }} and Fun In Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook.{{cite book |title=Fun in bed; the convalescent's handbook |url=https://archive.org/details/funinbedconvales00scul |access-date=2022-03-04| oclc= 1035091094| publisher= Simon and Schuster| date=1932| editor= Frank Scully | lccn = 32033431| url-access= registration}} Scully received screenwriting credit for the American version of the film Une fée... pas comme les autres (The Secret of Magic Island).{{cite web |title=The Secret of Magic Island |url=https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/563177/the-secret-of-magic-island#credits |website=TCM Turner Classic Movies |access-date=2022-03-04}}

Shortly after Scully moved to Burbank, California with his family in 1934, fellow journalist and author Upton Sinclair won the Democratic primary for the upcoming gubernatorial election. A supporter of Sinclair's End Poverty in California plan, Scully founded the Author's League for Sinclair, which attracted the likes of Gene Fowler and Dorothy Thompson.{{cite book |last=Mitchell |first=Greg |author-link= |date=1992 |title=The Campaign of the Century |url=https://archive.org/details/campaignofcentur00mitc/page/56/mode/1up |location=New York |publisher=Random House |pages=56–58 }}

In January 1939, Scully was appointed administrative assistant and secretary of the California Department of Institutions by director Aaron Rosanoff.{{cite news |title=Frank Scully Given State Job |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1169385399/?match=1&terms=%22frank%20scully%22 |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=The Humboldt Times |date=19 January 1939 |location=Eureka}} Just nine months later, Scully was fired and replaced with Rosanoff's daughter Marjorie.{{cite news |title=Institutions Chief Fires Frank Scully |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1169373549/?match=1&terms=%22frank%20scully%22 |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=The Humboldt Times |date=20 October 1939 |location=Eureka}} A year later, Scully testified against Rosanoff and detailed abusive conditions at the Whittier State School for Boys. He further alleged that his lack of involvement in the abuse was the reason why he was targeted in an indictment for misappropriating funds.{{cite news |title=Whittier School Conditions Are Assailed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/1172769668/?match=1&terms=%22frank%20scully%22 |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=Pasadena Star-News |date=16 October 1940 |location=Pasadena}} He was later acquitted of all charges.{{cite news |title=Jurors Acquit Frank Scully |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/721978805/?match=1&terms=%22frank%20scully%22 |access-date=16 May 2025 |work=The Long Beach Sun |date=26 October 1940 |location=Long Beach}}

During the 1940 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Scully joined a left-wing slate pledged to lieutenant governor Ellis E. Patterson for president.{{cite news |title=Notice Lists 5 Slates For May 7 Vote |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/997869159/?terms=%22Ellis%20E.%20Patterson%22&match=1 |access-date=15 May 2025 |work=Santa Barbara News-Press |date=9 April 1940 |location=Santa Barbara}} They opposed incumbent Franklin D. Roosevelt on the grounds he was focusing too much on foreign affairs and not enough on domestic unemployment.{{cite book |last1=Burke |first1=Robert E. |title=Olson's New Deal for California |date=1953 |publisher=University of California Press |location=Berkeley |pages=141–142 |url=https://archive.org/details/olsonsnewdealfor0000robe/page/141/mode/1up |access-date=21 April 2025}} The Patterson slate lost to Roosevelt's by a margin of fifteen to one.{{cite book |last=Peek |first=Paul |authorlink=Paul Peek (politician) |title=Statement of Vote at Presidential Primary Election held on May 7, 1940 in the State of California |publisher=California State Printing Office |location=Sacramento |pages=4–5, 40–41 |url=https://archive.org/details/stateofcaliforn194050cali/page/n9/mode/1up |access-date=15 May 2025}}

File:Aztec-hoax-pic.png

Scully publicized the Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax when, in 1949, he wrote two columns in Variety claiming that dead extraterrestrial beings were recovered from a flying saucer crash.{{cite news |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=One Flying Saucer Lands In New Mexico |newspaper=Variety |date=12 October 1949 |location=New York}}
- {{cite news |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Flying Saucers Dismantled, Secrets May Be Lost |newspaper=Variety |date=23 November 1949 |location=New York}}
- {{Cite periodical |url=https://archive.org/details/variety176-1949-11/page/n219 |title = Scully's Scrapbook |page=25 |work=Variety |date=23 November 1949 |last=Scully |first=Frank}}

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".{{cite book |last=Reece |first=Gregory L. |title=UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture |publisher=I. B. Tauris |location=London; New York |date=2007 |page=34 |isbn=978-1-845-11451-0}} In that book, he promoted the pseudohistorical claims of Paxson Hayes that prehistoric giants inhabited the Americas.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YqXh-xTvJLoC|title=Behind the Flying Saucers|first=Frank|last=Scully|date=July 4, 1950|publisher=Holt|via=Google Books}}

In 1952 and 1956, True magazine published articles by the San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Philip Cahn{{cite news |title=The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men |last=Cahn |first=J.P. |url=http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn1.pdf |work=True |date=September 1952 |pages=17–19, 102–112 |accessdate=29 March 2013}}
- {{cite news |title=Flying Saucer Swindlers |last=Cahn |first=J.P. |url=http://www.physics.smu.edu/pseudo/UFOs/Scully/Cahn2.pdf |work=True |date=August 1956 |pages=36–37, 69–72 |accessdate=30 March 2013}} that purported to expose Scully's sources as confidence tricksters who had hoaxed Scully.{{cite book |last1=Bartholomew |first1=Robert E. |last2=Howard |first2=George S. |title=UFOs & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery |date=1998 |publisher=Prometheus Books |location=Amherst, New Yok |isbn=978-1-573-92200-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/ufosaliencontact00bart/page/193 193] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/ufosaliencontact00bart/page/193}} Scully's 1963 book, In Armour Bright, also included material about alleged flying saucer crashes and dead extraterrestrials.{{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |others=Introduction by Jack Paar |title=In Armour Bright: Cavalier Adventures of My Short Life Out of Bed |edition=1st |date=1963 |publisher=Chilton Books |location=Philadelphia |oclc=1393335}}

• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |others=Preface by Logan Clendening |title=Fun in Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook |url=https://archive.org/details/funinbedconvales00scul |url-access=registration |date=1932 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=2430955}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=More Fun in Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook |date=1934 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=2629757 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Bedside Manna: The Third Fun in Bed Book |date=1936 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=328577 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Just What the Doctor Ordered |series=Fun in Bed (Series Four) |date=1938 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=3317354 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Rogues' Gallery: Profiles of My Eminent Contemporaries |date=1943 |publisher=Murray & Gee, Inc. |location=Hollywood |oclc=1661190 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Behind the Flying Saucers |url=https://archive.org/details/behindflyingsauc00scul |url-access=registration |date=1950 |publisher=Henry Holt and Company |location=New York |oclc=1467735 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |others=Illustrated by Keye Luke |title=Blessed Mother Goose: Favorite Nursery Rhymes Retold for Today's Children |date=1951 |publisher=Greenberg |location=New York |oclc=6248166 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |others=Illustrated by Keye Luke |title=Blessed Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes for Today's Children |date=1951 |publisher=House-Warven |location=Hollywood |oclc=27893933 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=The Best of Fun in Bed |date=1951 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=687125 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Cross My Heart |url=https://archive.org/details/crossmyheart00scul |url-access=registration |date=1955 |publisher=Greenberg |location=New York |oclc=2570206 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=This Gay Knight: An Autobiography of a Modern Chevalier |others=Introduction by Dale Francis |date=1962 |edition=1st |publisher=Chilton Co., Book Division |location=Philadelphia |oclc=1376376 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |others=Introduction by Jack Paar |title=In Armour Bright: Cavalier Adventures of My Short Life Out of Bed |edition=1st |date=1963 |publisher=Chilton Books |location=Philadelphia |oclc=1393335 |author-mask=2}}

• {{cite book |last=Tchirikova |first=Olga Wassilieff |editor-last=Scully |editor-first=Frank |others=Introduction by Grand Duke Alexander |title=Sandrik, Child of Russia |date=1934 |publisher=Dodd, Mead & Company |location=New York |oclc=1522799}}
• {{cite book |last=Kirkus |first=Virginia |editor-last=Scully |editor-first=Frank |title=Fun in Bed For Children: First Aid in Getting Well Cheerfully |date=1935 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=4054743}}
• {{cite book |last=Kirkus |first=Virginia |editor-last=Scully |editor-first=Frank |title=Junior Fun in Bed: Making a Holiday of Convalescence |date=1935 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |location=New York |oclc=5859811 |author-mask=2}}
• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |editor-last=Gingrich |editor-first=Arnold |title=The Bedside Esquire |date=1940 |publisher=Tudor Publishing Company |location=New York |oclc=706396 |chapter=The Beaut from Montana}}
• {{cite book |last=Sper |first=Norman |others=Introduction by Frank Scully |title=Norman Sper's Football Almanac [Eastern section, 1942] |date=1942 |publisher=Greenberg, Inc |location=New York |oclc=31249461}}
• {{cite book |last=Francis |first=Dale |others=Forewords by Frank Scully |title=Kneeling in the Bean Patch |date=1960 |publisher=P.J. Kenedy & Sons |location=New York |oclc= 3026310}}
• {{cite book |editor-last=Walker |editor-first=Gerald |others=Anecdote contributed by Frank Scully |title=My Most Memorable Christmas |series=A Pocket Book special, 10021 |date=1963 |publisher=Pocket Books |location=New York |oclc=4182787}}

• {{cite AV media |people=Scully, Frank (Writer (1964 U.S. version)) |date=1957 |title=Une fée... pas comme les autres |language=French |location=France/Italy |publisher=Cine del Duco, Del Duca Films}}{{IMDb title|0056461|Une fée... pas comme les autres|(1957)}}

• {{cite book |last=Scully |first=Frank |title=Frank Scully papers, 1927–1985 |url=http://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah09554.xml |accessdate=31 March 2013 |publisher=American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming |location=Laramie, Wyoming |oclc=34073391 |quote=Donated by Alice Scully in 1988. |archive-date=27 June 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627220255/https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah09554.xml |url-status=dead }} Collection Number 09554 processed in 1995.

• Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax
• Donald Keyhoe
• Frank Edwards

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|0780272|Frank Scully}}
• [http://www.physics.smu.edu/~pseudo/UFOs/Scully/ "Flying Saucers and Frank Scully"], a detailed account of Behind the Flying Saucers and subsequent exposé

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Frank}}

Category:1892 births

Category:1964 deaths

Category:Burials at Desert Memorial Park

Category:American humorists

Category:American male journalists

Category:Journalists from California

Category:20th-century American journalists

Category:Culbert Olson administration personnel

Category:Culbert Olson political appointees