CALIFORNIA: Fun in Bed

One-legged Frank Scully, who wrote Fun in Bed after 20 operations and many years in hospitals, ran for California’s State Assembly in 1938 on the slogan, “Out of the Gully with Candidate Scully.” Though defeated, he got as reward for supporting Governor Culbert Olson the job of administrative assistant and secretary in the Department of Institutions. His boss was Director Aaron Rosanoff, well-known psychiatrist.

Not fun but deplorable conditions Scully said he found in his new Job. Without consulting his superior he began to correct them. Said he: “When there is a fire I don’t wait to get permission to put it out.” Inmates of a Los Angeles school for the blind were receiving harsh treatment, said he, from civil service employes. He questioned whether the death of a young inmate of Whittier State School near Los Angeles was suicide, as reported; said inmates were being grossly mistreated and cruelly punished. Last fortnight Dr. Rosanoff fired Frank Scully, later charged that affairs in Scully’s office were “unbusinesslike.”

Scully refused to be fired, denied that Rosanoff had the authority. When pretty Mrs. Marjorie Reuman, Rosanoff’s daughter, arrived to take over, she found the humorist encamped in his disputed office, determined to stay there until his term expired in 1942. One-legged Mr. Scully had fortified his position with 300-lb. Pete Ladjimi, who once served 30 days for assault & battery upon the person of ex-Champion Wrestler Gus Sonnenberg.

Mrs. Reuman retreated to consult with her father in Sacramento. At week’s end Governor Olson still maintained neutrality. But Scully’s office was certified legally his until Nov. 1, at least, by a court order obtained by his attorneys.