Frank tilts the squeeze chute during branding days

Frank Allnutt's family, in his early years, were ranchers in the central Colorado Rocky Mountains. He and a year-younger brother Dan briefly attended a one-room school house not far from the historic gold mining town of Cripple Creak, Colorado. They then bused to school in Woodland Park, five miles from the ranch.

Years later, the family moved to Denver. After high school, the boys proudly served in the Navy. Frank was a Parachute Rigger and anti-submarine airborn radar operator, and was attached to the Naval Air Station (NAS) Glenview, Illinois. Dan, was a plank owner and shellback on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk CVA-63.

After his stint in the Navy, Frank was admitted to the University of Denver, where he earned a B.A. Degree in Radio-Television-Film. He was a student manager of DU's radio station. During his four years at DU. He also was a diver on DU's championship Swimming and Diving Team. He competed in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Diving Championships at Yale University in 1964. He served as assistant coach in his senior year. His love of music lead to singing in DU's summer operas, chapel choir, and Men's Glee Club.

Frank began his professional career in the Publicity Department at the Walt Disney Studio. He took night courses in journalism and public relations at UCLA and went on to become Public Relations Manager of WED (Walt E. Disney) Enterprises (now Walt Disney Imagineering), the planning and development firm for Disneyland in Anaheim, California, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and the proposed Mineral King ski resort in the California Sierra (mountains). As Walt's representative, he spoke to organizations and interest groups throughout California and conducted favorable relations with members of the news media world-wide. He was preparing to be Mineral King's marketing director; however, radical environmentalists succeeded in stopping the U.S. Forest Service project through the courts.

Frank was then assigned to coordinate the development of plans and budgets for the live entertainment for the grand opening of Walt Disney World in Florida. Among other projects, he created artistic concepts for "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Water," which would be developed by WED at Walt Disney World.

Then came a major career change. Married and starting a family in the new community of Mission Viejo, California, Frank left the Disney organization to establish his own public relations and advertising agency in Newport Beach, California. He went on to create television and video productions, and to publish books and magazines.

With the blessings of Billy Graham's Worldwide Pictures (Bill Brown, Jim Collier, and Cliff Barrows), Frank produced a short film for churches with Corrie ten Boom (of The Hiding Place fame) titled "A Visit With Corrie."

Bill Brown introduced Frank to Richard Kiel (the giant Jaws of James Bond fame), who needed a screenwriter. The motion picture. The Giant of Thunder Mountain, was based on the title, characters and preliminary treatment created by Frank. He left the project over Kiel's insistence to play a romantic lead. The final project also featured Marianne Rogers (then the wife of country singer Kenny Rogers), and Cloris Leachman.

Frank is the author of numerous Christian books, including the classic Christian commentary, The Force of Star Wars, published by Bible Voice and Fleming H. Revell Co. Having sold more than 200,000 copies in its first five months of release, plus foreign language editions, the book ranked 19th in the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA) Journal's ranking of best-selling books of 1977. He also authored commentary books on the movies The Omen, Superman: The Movie, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, along with his end-time novel, The Peacemaker.

He provided public relations and mass communications services to Christian organizations throughout his career. His Christian testimony was featured in Billy Graham's Decision Magazine and other publications in the United States and in other languages. His biography appears in numerous reference books, among them The International Who's Who of Intellectuals, Personalities of the Americas, The International Book of Honor, and a score of others.

Frank assisted William R. Bright, founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, in creating and naming Here's Life Publishers, and served as it's General Manager and Editor-in-Chief. He also assisted Bright in writing and publishing two books.

Frank continues to write. He and his brother Dan are both artists. They live near Frank's son Theodore Allnutt and daughter Lara Richardon, whose book The Table (March 2024 release). It is about her family who live on an historic working cattle and hay ranch in the central Rocky Mountains near Salida, Colorado.

 

 




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