People Magazine founder Robert E. Ginna Jr., book editor, and a 1952 Life Magazine article sparked a frenzy by examining the idea that a flying saucer could exist and that he could have visited Earth from space, and that he might have died on March 4th at his home in Sag Harbor, New York.
His death was confirmed by his son Peter St. John Ginna. He was 99 years old.
Mr. Ginna (pronounced “Gannai”) enjoyed a wide range of eight years of careers. As editor-in-chief of Little Brown, he persuaded acclaimed novelist James Salter to write the script, and Dr. Robin Cook discovered as the author of the thriller. He was also part of a team that made films and started people as a high-blow showcase for profiles of cultural figures like Graham Greene and Vladimir Nabokov, but stopped when the magazine came down to what he considered celebrity fluff.
However, to the general public he was probably best known for his article he wrote to HB Darrach Jr. for the April 7th, 1952 issue of Life Magazine. The cover featured a fascinating photo of Marilyn Monroe under the heading “There's an interplanetary saucer case.”
To Ginna's eternal disappointment, this article targeted him by UFO Buff and Cook. According to the headline “Do we have visitors from space?”, it examined 10 reports of unidentified flight sightings followed by a clear assessment from German rocket expert Walther Riedel.
While reports of UFOs in the late 1940s were often trivial, Philip J. Hutchison and Herbert J. Strantz wrote in 2019 in American Journalism: It represents one of the most influential examples of the latter trend. ”
Colonel Edward J. Rappelt, who led the Air Force's internal UFO investigation, wrote in a 1956 Report on Unidentified Flying Objects that “Life Articles undoubtedly threw a punch to the American public more difficult than any other UFO article ever written.”
Other reporters visited the Air Technical Intelligence Center (now the National Aerospace Intelligence Center) in Dayton, Ohio, and “for some reason, the life of life, the outlook for the feature story, and the feeling that this Bobjinna was trying to ask questions made me sweat at ATIC.”
“Life wasn't saying that UFOs are from space. I've probably just said that,” he added. “But to back up this up, 'maybe', it was quoted from some celebrities,” including Dr. Riedel. (The Pentagon report, mandated by Congress in 2024, concluded that there was no evidence that UFO sightings represented foreign visitors.)
Throughout his career, Ginna “paved my own path,” said Jeremy Gerald, a critic, biographer and former New York Times reporter, in an email.
He “cited Yates and Okkay” and “coloured communication with many of the great writers of his time,” Gerald noted, and he was not afraid to go his own way.
Robert Emmett Ginna Jr. was born in Brooklyn on December 3, 1925. He was named after Irish patriot Robert Emmett, as well as his father, an electrical engineer who became chairman of Rochester Gas and Electric. His mother, Margaret (McCall) Ginna, was the daughter of an Irish immigrant.
In addition to his son Peter, an editor and writer, he was survived by his daughter, Mary Francis Williams Ginna. sister Margretta Michie; Two grandchildren. And great grandson. His wife, Margaret (Williams) Ginna, passed away in 2004. His first marriage, Patricia Ellis, ended with a divorce. They had no children. After his wife's death, he was a companion of journalist Gale Sheehee, who passed away in 2020.
After graduating from the Aquinas Institute in Rochester, he enrolled at Harvard University, but at the age of 17 he joined the Navy and served in the Pacific during World War II. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 1948.
Mr. Ginna imagined a career in medical research and was already working in the lab when he traveled through France and was impressed by what he described as an inspiration as he stared at one of the rose windows in Chartres' cathedral. He returned home to change directions, earning a Masters in Art History from Harvard University and worked briefly as a curator of painting and sculpture at the Newark Museum of Art.
In her late 20s, Ginna was a freelance writer for the newspaper Gannett Group before joining Life in 1950. An interview with Irish dramatist Shaun Occase on NBC encourages him to make a film called Young Cassidy (1965), based on Mr. Occasey's memoirs. (Shawn Connally was supposed to star in, but instead chose to play James Bond.)
Ginna also starred David Niven, Anna Karina, John Hart, Israeli actor Topol, Brotherly Love (1970), and produced Before the Winter (1969), starring Peter O'Toole and Susanna York.
“As a producer, Ginna may have had limitations,” Salter writes about their Hollywood misfortunes in his memoir, Burning the Days (1997). “He was meticulously honest. He was a classicist. His interests were cultural, his knowledge was huge and clear in his statements and beliefs.”
He worked for People, a founding editor in 1974, before serving as editor-in-chief of Brown's Little from 1977 to 1980, his son said. There he published “Com Ca com,” the first medical thriller by Dr. Cook. He then temporarily returned to Time Inc. It was about to revive life. From 1987 he taught writing and film at Harvard University. He worked in the final publication at 80 and began the academic press at New England University in Heniker, New Hampshire.
When Ginna was in the early 70s, he crossed Irish lengths and pulled a 38-pound rucksack. In 2016, at the age of 90, he retired from education, but continued writing. He left behind an unfinished memoir entitled “Epiphany.”
