Francis Amadeo Giannini (1898-1971), born Francis Armadeo Johnnene, was a philosopher, author, and four-time convicted burglar who wasn't afraid to think outside the globe. In his 1927 essay "Physical Continuity of the Universe and Worlds Beyond the Poles," he hypothesized the universe is a "Physical Continuum" that continues past our poles, bridged by navigable causeways of land, ice, and water that forever link together all planets and stars. Known as The Giannini Concept, the Fortean Society described his theory as "extremely contra-Copernican without owing anything to Tycho Brahe." Discouraged because he lacked visual proof for his concept, he went silent for twenty years until he saw the first photos of Earth from space as captured by rocket V-2 No. 13 on October 24, 1946. Now armed with the proof he sought and emboldened by reports of military flights beyond the poles, including Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd's establishment of a base at the South Pole, he refined and published his hypothesis in 1959 as Worlds Beyond the Poles.