Tarot Productions, Inc. was founded by Frankie Albano “and some other people we have not figured out yet.” Unfortunately that is more than most people know, as Tarot Productions and its resident artist/designer/figurehead have become a mystery less than 50 years after the fact. A thorough search of incorporation records in Los Angeles in late 1967 through January 1968 might turn up some more information, but what is missing is far beyond the scope of county records to enlighten us upon.
What we know is that a gentleman by the name of Frank R. Albano formed a business he called “Tarot Press” at 716 N. Fairfax Avenue (on the southern border of West Hollywood) and was printing anti-war posters in 1967. That same year he designed his “Tarot Wheel” and changed the name of the company to “Tarot Productions,” which was shortly thereafter incorporated. Tarot Productions, Inc. created essentially two products: the “Tarot Wheel,” which was an extremely limited-run project, and a set of decks (one set of images with no less than six variations in at least eight different boxes), and in so doing left a permanent mark on the second wave of the modern tarot revolution. If only the Bodhi Tree hadn’t run itself into the ground a few years back, we might have some of Frankie’s associates who could shed some light on his whereabouts.
In the various “Tarot Productions, Inc.” related pages (links at the bottom of this page) we have done our best to piece together various known facts about this man, his company, and his creations, in bite-sized chewy pieces of brain candy. Here we will speculate on the possibility of how we will get more factual information to flesh out a full bio page on this company, its history, and where the hell Frankie went. Please stop in as we flesh this out a bit. If you have information (and I am looking your way Erin [Regadrdie’s personal astrologer]) please send us a note!
Okay, more as it develops . . .
And the lead for Vincent Albano at Albano’s Pizza went cold, although we did find a whole family of Albano’s who own pizza restaurants spanning three generations in northern California. This is a bit of a long shot.