Frank Scully Explained

Frank Scully
Birth Name:	Francis Joseph Xavier Scully
Birth Date:	April 28, 1892
Birth Place:	New York City, U.S.
Death Date:	^[1]
Death Place:	Palm Springs, California, U.S.
Resting Place:	Desert Memorial Park, Cathedral City, California^[2]
Occupation:	Journalist, author, ufologist
Employer:	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) 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 books include Rogues' Gallery^[6] and Fun In Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook.^[7] Scully received screenwriting credit for the American version of the film Une fée... pas comme les autres (The Secret of Magic Island).^[8] 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.^[9]

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".^[10] In that book, he promoted the pseudohistorical claims of Paxson Hayes that prehistoric giants inhabited the Americas.^[11]

In 1952 and 1956, True magazine published articles by the San Francisco Chronicle reporter John Philip Cahn^[12] that purported to expose Scully's sources as confidence tricksters who had hoaxed Scully.^[13] Scully's 1963 book, In Armour Bright, also included material about alleged flying saucer crashes and dead extraterrestrials.^[14]

Publications

Books

• Book: Scully, Frank . Preface by Logan Clendening . Fun in Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook . registration . 1932 . . New York . 2430955.
• Book: Scully, Frank . More Fun in Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook . 1934 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 2629757 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Bedside Manna: The Third Fun in Bed Book . 1936 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 328577 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Just What the Doctor Ordered . Fun in Bed (Series Four) . 1938 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 3317354 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Rogues' Gallery: Profiles of My Eminent Contemporaries . 1943 . Murray & Gee, Inc. . Hollywood . 1661190 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Behind the Flying Saucers . registration . 1950 . . New York . 1467735 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . . Blessed Mother Goose: Favorite Nursery Rhymes Retold for Today's Children . 1951 . Greenberg . New York . 6248166 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Illustrated by Keye Luke . Blessed Mother Goose: Nursery Rhymes for Today's Children . 1951 . House-Warven . Hollywood . 27893933 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . The Best of Fun in Bed . 1951 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 687125 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Cross My Heart . registration . 1955 . Greenberg . New York . 2570206 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . This Gay Knight: An Autobiography of a Modern Chevalier . Introduction by Dale Francis . 1962 . 1st . . Philadelphia . 1376376 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . . In Armour Bright: Cavalier Adventures of My Short Life Out of Bed . 1st . 1963 . Chilton Books . Philadelphia . 1393335 . 2.

Contributions, introductions, forewords

• Book: Tchirikova, Olga Wassilieff . Scully . Frank . . Sandrik, Child of Russia . 1934 . . New York . 1522799.
• Book: Kirkus, Virginia . Scully . Frank . Fun in Bed For Children: First Aid in Getting Well Cheerfully . 1935 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 4054743.
• Book: Kirkus, Virginia . Scully . Frank . Junior Fun in Bed: Making a Holiday of Convalescence . 1935 . Simon & Schuster . New York . 5859811 . 2.
• Book: Scully, Frank . Gingrich . Arnold . The Bedside Esquire . 1940 . Tudor Publishing Company . New York . 706396 . The Beaut from Montana.
• Book: Sper, Norman . Introduction by Frank Scully . Norman Sper's Football Almanac [Eastern section, 1942] . 1942 . Greenberg, Inc . New York . 31249461.
• Book: Francis, Dale . Forewords by Frank Scully . Kneeling in the Bean Patch . 1960 . P.J. Kenedy & Sons . New York . 3026310.
• Book: Walker . Gerald . Anecdote contributed by Frank Scully . My Most Memorable Christmas . A Pocket Book special, 10021 . 1963 . . New York . 4182787.

Feature films

• Scully, Frank (Writer (1964 U.S. version)) . 1957 . Une fée... pas comme les autres . French . France/Italy . Cine del Duco, Del Duca Films.

Archives

• Book: Scully, Frank . Frank Scully papers, 1927–1985 . 31 March 2013 . . Laramie, Wyoming . 34073391 . Donated by Alice Scully in 1988. . 27 June 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180627220255/https://rmoa.unm.edu/docviewer.php?docId=wyu-ah09554.xml . dead . Collection Number 09554 processed in 1995.

See also

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

External links

• • "Flying Saucers and Frank Scully", a detailed account of Behind the Flying Saucers and subsequent exposé

Notes and References

1. News: Frank Scully, Columnist, Dies; Defied Disabilities With Jests . . 25 June 1964.
2. News: Frank Scully, Author of Cheer Books for Invalids, Dies at 72. Desert Sun. June 25, 1964.
3. News: Alice Mellbye Pihl Scully . Variety . New York . 3 December 1996 . 2 April 2013.
4. Web site: Frank Skully . Scully . Frank . Catholic Authors . Originally published by Walter Romig in The Book of Catholic Authors . 28 March 2013.
5. Web site: A LIFETIME OF ILLNESS Frank Scully, Author of Cheer Books for Invalids, Dies at 72 . California Digital Newspaper Collection . DL Consulting . 2022-03-04 . Desert Sun.
6. Book: Scully, Frank . Rogues' Gallery: Profiles of my eminent contemporaries . Freeport . Books for Liberties Press . 72004759 . 333722 . 1972 . 1943. OL5285843M .
7. Book: Fun in bed; the convalescent's handbook . 2022-03-04. 1035091094. Simon and Schuster. 1932. Frank Scully . 32033431. registration.
8. Web site: The Secret of Magic Island . TCM Turner Classic Movies . 2022-03-04.
9. News: Scully . Frank . One Flying Saucer Lands In New Mexico . Variety . 12 October 1949 . New York.
   - News: Scully . Frank . Flying Saucers Dismantled, Secrets May Be Lost . Variety . 23 November 1949 . New York.
   - Scully's Scrapbook . 25 . Variety . 23 November 1949 . Scully . Frank.
10. Book: Reece, Gregory L. . UFO Religion: Inside Flying Saucer Cults and Culture . . London; New York . 2007 . 34 . 978-1-845-11451-0.
11. Web site: Behind the Flying Saucers. Frank. Scully. July 4, 1950. Holt. Google Books.
12. News: The Flying Saucers and the Mysterious Little Men . Cahn . J.P. . . September 1952 . 17–19, 102–112 . 29 March 2013.
    - News: Flying Saucer Swindlers . Cahn . J.P. . True . August 1956 . 36–37, 69–72 . 30 March 2013.
13. Book: Bartholomew . Robert E. . Howard . George S. . UFOs & Alien Contact: Two Centuries of Mystery . 1998 . . Amherst, New Yok . 978-1-573-92200-5 . 193 . registration .
14. Book: Scully, Frank . . In Armour Bright: Cavalier Adventures of My Short Life Out of Bed . 1st . 1963 . . Philadelphia . 1393335.