Frederic
Mullally (25 February 1918 – 7 September
2014) was a British journalist, public relations executive, and novelist. He
was born in London.
Career
Mullally's
journalism career began in India where, from 1937 to 1949, he was sub-editor
on The Statesman of Calcutta, then editor of the Sunday Standard of Bombay. Back in London he worked as a sub-editor of The Financial News, as
co-editor of the weekly Tribune,[1] and
finally as political editor and columnist of the Sunday Pictorial. From 1950 to 1955, he headed the public
relations firm of Mullally & Warner, with clients ranging from Audrey Hepburn and Frank Sinatra to Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Paul Getty, Frankie Laine, the Festival Ballet and Picture Post. Others included; Vera Lynn, Yvonne De Carlo, Guy Mitchell, Sonja Henie, Line Renaud, Johnnie Ray, Jo Stafford, Les Paul and Mary Ford,
and the Oxford University Press and
its counterpart, Cambridge University Press,
as well as the Hulton Press.
In
1956, he was the only person to receive an interview with the newly
married Prince Rainier of Monaco and
his new wife, Grace Kelly, then on their
honeymoon on the Prince's yacht while anchored off the Mediterranean island
of Ibiza, a request granted to Mullally as, apart from being a
resident of the island himself, he had been the only one of a pack of
journalists to show appropriate respect for the feelings of the couple on their
special occasion.[citation needed]
Mullally's
first novel was the 1958 world best-seller Danse Macabre. This was
followed by eleven more titles. His semi-autobiographical novel Clancy was
dramatised by the BBC in five one-hour television episodes in 1975 and 1977
under the title Looking for Clancy,
starring Robert Powell and Keith Drinkel. Between books, Mullally compiled and wrote with
the collaboration with the BBC an album, The Sounds of Time a
dramatised history of Britain (1933–45) and the long running Penthouse magazine's
erotic strip cartoon "Oh Wicked Wanda!". In
1949, he abandoned a prospective candidature of the Labour Party for the parliamentary constituency of Finchley and Friern Barnet. Late in his life he contributed occasional
freelance journalism. He died in 2014 at the age of 96.[2]
Personal
life
He
was married to the actress Rosemary Nicols from 27 September 1971 until his death on
7 September 2014.[3]
Selected
bibliography
Fiction
·
Danse
Macabre (1958) published as Marianne in
the US
·
Man
with Tin Trumpet (1961) published as Sara in
the US
·
Split
Scene (1963)
·
The
Assassins (1964)
·
No
Other Hunger (1966)
·
The
Prizewinner (1967)
·
The
Munich Involvement (1968)
·
Clancy (1971)
·
The
Malta Conspiracy (1972)
·
Venus
Afflicted (1973)
·
Hitler
Has Won (1975)
·
The
Deadly Payoff (1976)
·
The
Daughters (1988)
Non-fiction
·
Death
Pays a Dividend (1944) with Fenner Brockway
·
Fascism
Inside England (1946)
·
The
Penthouse Sexicon (1968) humorous guide
·
The
Silver Salver: The Story of the Guinness Family (1981)
·
Primo:
The Story of Man-Mountain Carnera (1991).
References
1. ^ "A Seer's Blind Spots". The Washington Post. 25
June 2003. Archived from the original on 4 June 2011. Retrieved 18 February 2010.
2. ^ "Frederic Mullally". Archived from the original on
10 October 2014. Retrieved 20 September 2014.
3. ^ Frederic
Mullally at IMDb