Frankie Albano: what we know

[katrinka]

(The odds would favor a man his age being deceased. I haven't been able to find an obituary, however. So if we manage to find him and he's living, I'm strongly urging you guys not to bother him. He's elderly and obviously doesn't want to be bothered or he wouldn't be keeping such a low profile. )

Over a year and a half ago, I wrote this blog post. It's been quietly cooking along, getting occasional comments and bits of information. So there's been some progress!
https://fennario.wordpress.com/2019/06/03/frankie-albano-please-call-home/

 

What we know so far (short version):

Frankie (or Frank) Joseph Albano, born June 14, 1938 in New Galilee, PA to Joseph and Rose Zitto Albano. 
Common knowledge stuff - recording career in the mid 1960's (see page 4):
http://krlabeat.sakionline.net/issue/25sept65.pdf

and later, Tarot.

Then he went to London. One of my commenters knew him in the early 70's - she was a buyer for the Way In, Harrods and they carried his deck. She said he "clearly had money, he had a very expensive flat in a very expensive part of London in Knightsbridge." (The cards are always right.)

The man did keep irons in the fire and would have had multiple streams of income. Here's a 1970 handbill for Hair (along with the playbill) that uses his Lovers card. The fine print in the lower right reads "A CARD FROM THE ALBANO-WAITE TAROT DECK (R) BY TAROT PRODUCTIONS INC. 579 NORTH VERMONT AVENUE, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90004" So this was a licensed use of the image:

 

He was still in London in 1977. Another commenter mentions a quarter page ad in the October 1977 issue of Harpers & Queen where he advertised "in depth private readings by appointment only at 51 Beauchamp Place SW3."  Also a pretty posh address, it seems. About a year later it became Ciro's Pizza Pomodoro. 

He may have returned to Los Angeles after that. The August 1998 issue of Los Angeles magazine features this ad:

And that's about it. But it's more than we used to know. 🙂

Edited February 15, 2021 by katrinka

[Arcadia]

Wow, how fascinating it's always surprising what little information we can find out about someone. I would never guess he was a Tarot reader i always thought he was just an Artist that was interested in the Tarot and also created the Frankie Albano Ouija board 1967, but then why wouldn't he be psychic card reader. 

[katrinka]

10 hours ago, Arcadia said:

I would never guess he was a Tarot reader i always thought he was just an Artist that was interested in the Tarot and also created the Frankie Albano Ouija board 1967, but then why wouldn't he be psychic card reader. 

 

Curiously, non-readers creating decks seems to be more of a modern phenomenon than something that went on in the 20th century.
Since the colors of the Albano deck are drawn from Paul Foster Case's BOTA, he'd have almost had to put some serious study time in. 
https://bota.org/
It's even possible that Mr. Albano is listed in their old member rolls, since they have a Temple in Los Angeles!

Edited February 15, 2021 by katrinka

[Mab]

This is the most info I've seen about Mr A... great detective work 🙂