Scope and Content Note
The papers of Francis Thomas Farrell (1912-1983) span the years 1897-1988, with the bulk of the material produced during the period 1945-1975. They consist chiefly of correspondence, newspaper columns, photographs, and reports arranged in four series: Correspondence, Military Service, Subject File, and Writings. The Papers also include oversize and classified material.
Farrell's professional pursuits and his postwar military service are well documented in the papers. During the early years of World War II, Farrell was an undercover special agent with the Office of Naval Intelligence. He later saw wartime duty as a reconnaissance patrol chief with the United States Marine Corps in the South Pacific and with the United States Army reconnoitering the China coast for Allied landings and rescuing Allied prisoners of war. The Military Service series, however contains little material chronicling Farrell's wartime activities. Items pertaining to his tour of duty as a "coastwatcher" with the First Marine Division in the South Pacific are scant, as are those concerning his stint with the United States Army behind Japanese lines in China. There is no material in the series documenting Farrell's intelligence work with the United States Navy. References in this series to Farrell's wartime activities are, generally secondary or autobiographical, and most were produced later in his lifetime.
Most of the material in the Military Service series pertains to the two-year, postwar phase of Farrell's military enlistment. After the war he was assigned as an interrogator and special prosecutor of German war criminals for the International Military Tribunal for the Far East in Shanghai, China. Farrell and Marvin Gray instituted an investigation of German military, diplomatic, and business figures accused of military intelligence and propaganda activities in China in violation of Germany's unconditional surrender in May 1945.
The series also includes investigation files and transcripts of war crimes trials arranged alphabetically by name of suspected criminals and informants. They generally include sworn statements, correspondence, reports, photographs, maps, and related material. Other material includes Farrell's military personnel files. Papers documenting his association with veteran's organizations can be found in the Subject File.
The Subject File chronicles Farrell's return to New York and his journalism career after the war. The series primarily contains correspondence, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, and photographs that document the extensive social activities on which Farrell relied for material used to write columns about persons locally and nationally prominent in theater, motion pictures, business, and politics. There is considerable material pertaining to clubs to which Farrell belonged or nightclubs that he patronized, including the 21 Club, Dutch Treat Club, Circus Saints and Sinners, Raffles, and the Stork Club.
Farrell was among the print journalists, such as Walter Winchell and Ed Sullivan who made successful transitions into radio and television broadcasting. The Subject File contains transcripts, photographs, and other material pertaining to radio and television talk shows that Farrell hosted, including the daily program "Lunch with Frank Farrell" broadcast nationally by the ABC Radio Network from 1955 to 1957.
During the latter years of his life Farrell worked as a public relations consultant and advertising executive. He founded Frank Farrell Enterprises in 1970, and in 1979 he was made president of the advertising firm PR Associates, a subsidiary of Gaynor & Ducas. Farrell's longtime personal friendships with businessmen Robert Wood Johnson, Richard S. Reynolds, Jr., William G. Reynolds, Sr., and Steven Howard Young, among others, enabled his firm to represent international clients such as Johnson & Johnson and Reynolds Metals Company and real estate investment companies Fisher Brothers, Goldman & di Lorenzo, and the Lefrak Organization. Farrell's public relations and advertising pursuits are documented in the Subject File with correspondence, reports, press releases, and photographs.
Other material in the Subject File chronicles Farrell's association with several public service organizations with which he held executive positions, particularly the Parkinson's Disease Foundation and the Intrepid Museum Foundation. The files contain photographs, correspondence, reports, and other records of membership and fund-raising activities, including a party organized by Farrell for the Parkinson's Disease Foundation in 1960 to recognize Douglas MacArthur on his eightieth birthday.
The Subject File also contains correspondence, a diary, and other items of Jack Howard Redding, originally of Edinburgh, Scotland, and an acquaintance of Farrell's. Much of the correspondence was exchanged between Redding and his parents while he was serving with the First Aberdeen Volunteer Artillery in South Africa during the Boer War in 1900. Redding eventually settled in New York and founded J. H. Redding, Inc., later Wilber-Ellis & Redding, a foods import and distribution company.
The Writings series includes newspaper and magazine articles written by Farrell. His daily column "New York--Day by Day" was written for the New York World-Telegram and distributed through the Scripps Howard and McNaught Syndicate. Other writings include historical fiction that parallels Farrell's investigation of German war criminals in China following World War II.
The Correspondence series contains incoming and outgoing general correspondence pertaining to Farrell's business, personal, and social activities. Much of the correspondence complements material in the Subject File and is particularly inclusive of persons on whom Farrell relied for source material used to write his newspaper columns about New York society, theater, and nightlife. Correspondents include Russell Aitken, Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher, Otto and Willi Grun, J.D. and Patricia Hittle, Robert Wood Johnson, Herbert Kamm, Mort and Leslie Kaye, Dong and Helena Kingman, John W. Kluge, Neal and Frances Lang, William B. Leeds, Russell and Ruth Cleary Patterson, Jack Howard and Alice W. Redding, Leo and Claire Klar Shull, Lowell Thomas, Walter Winchell, and Lee B. and Mildred Louise Rody Wood. Other prominent persons represented in the Correspondence series include Burt Bacharach, Victor Borge, James Cagney, Al Capp, Roy M. Cohn, Joan Crawford, Hume Cronyn, Bette Davis, Sammy Davis, Douglas Fairbanks, Joan Fontaine, Joel Grey, Hugh M. Hefner, Douglas and Jean Faircloth MacArthur, Mary Martin, Ethel Merman, Tony Randall, Ginger Rogers, Nipsey Russell, and Connie Joyce Travis.