Francis Joseph Xavier Scully; (April 28 1892 – June 23 1964) was an American journalist, author, humorist, and a regular

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Column (newspaper), Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the fo ...

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''. His authored books include ''Rogue's Gallery'' and ''Fun In Bed: The Convalescent's Handbook''. Scully received a screenwriting credit for the American version of the film ''Une fée... pas comme les autres'' (''The Secret of Magic Island''). Scully publicized the Aztec, New Mexico UFO hoax when, in 1949, he authored two columns in ''Variety'' claiming that dead

extraterrestrial Extraterrestrial refers to any object or being beyond ( extra-) the planet Earth ( terrestrial). It is derived from the Latin words ''extra'' ("outside", "outwards") and ''terrestris'' ("earthly", "of or relating to the Earth"). It may be abbrevia ...

beings were recovered from a flying saucer crash. 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." In 1952 and 1956, '' True'' magazine published articles by '' San Francisco Chronicle'' reporter John Philip Cahn that purported to expose Scully's sources as

con artists A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have de ...

who had

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

ed Scully. Scully's 1963 book ''In Armour Bright'' also included material about alleged flying saucer crashes and dead extraterrestrials.

Publications

Books

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Contributions, introductions, forewords

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Feature films

Notes

References

External links

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"Flying Saucers and Frank Scully"
a detailed account of ''Behind the Flying Saucers'' and subsequent exposé {{DEFAULTSORT:Scully, Frank American male journalists Journalists from California 1892 births 1964 deaths Burials at Desert Memorial Park 20th-century American journalists