{"id":21344,"date":"2015-09-15T11:40:19","date_gmt":"2015-09-15T11:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/waitesmith.org\/?p=21344"},"modified":"2025-11-22T16:44:57","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T16:44:57","slug":"tarot-productions-albano-deck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/waitesmith.org\/index.php\/decks\/tarot-productions-albano-deck\/","title":{"rendered":"Tarot Productions’ Albano deck"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]F<\/span>rankie Albano<\/a>, like the original (black) line art done by Pam, is an enigma. We know that both existed, and we have evidentiary proof of this. We have the results of their being here, but not either one of these things left\u00a0any direct indication<\/em> of their passing this way, or where they got off to. Anyone who knows where they are is silent as death on this matter. But here is what we\u00a0do<\/em> know about\u00a0Frankie Albano<\/a>, his company<\/a>, his tarot decks<\/a>, and even his various tarot deck boxes<\/a><\/em>, and that is more than enough to waste a lazy sunny afternoon on.<\/p>\n

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In 1959 University Books, Inc.<\/a>\u00a0created a full color tarot deck\u00a0to accompany its (first ever) full color publication of\u00a0The Pictorial Key to the Tarot<\/a><\/em>. They obviously had one of the old Rider decks from London because they were able to match the colors. More than that however they\u00a0established the colors<\/em> of the tarot because they were the first to print decks in color in America, using the modern processes available in 1959 in New York City (the most technologically advanced city in the world at the time). Their only possible reference for colors was a physical copy of the old Rider decks, which they used to base their art and color on. But obviously they got it all wrong<\/em><\/span>\u00a0which is why Frankie Albano had to re-color the cards with “accurate color tones<\/a>” (see below for what\u00a0that<\/em> means). The year was 1968 when Frankie (he let’s me call him that in our weekly\u00a0poker games) revealed his “re-colored” deck to the buying public. The hippie movement was in full swing and he was as much a product of it as a card-carrying member (oh the stories he tells . . .<\/em>). One year previous Frankie had published his tarot wheel<\/a>, which was an interesting\u2014and unique Ouija board of sorts. These are rather rare and all but impossible to come by with the original planchette.\u00a0Fortunately I have magical voodoo powers (and amazing persistence) and I was able to summon up an original Albano tarot wheel in minty-fresh condition<\/a>,\u00a0with a planchette<\/em>. The only thing that is missing is the original box, so if\u00a0you<\/em> happen to have one please send pix!<\/a><\/p>\n

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. . . And all of this brings us to the deck, and back to 1968. Frankie had previously established “Tarot Productions” at 8006 Melrose Ave,<\/a> in the lower “Hollywood” area of Los Angeles for the express purpose of publishing and distributing “metaphysically correct” divinatory art. Frankie was just down the street from BOTA, and may have even been a member for a time, but his\u00a0tarot wheel and deck remain true in concept and form to the Waite-Smith ideology, which implies a firm rejection of PFC’s manufactured Kabbalah-intensive tarot. The colors on his (1967) tarot wheel by the way were lifted directly from either an original Rider or a University Books deck. It is only in 1968 that he felt the need to correct the colors of the tarot once and for all.\u00a0Frankie decided that the colors\u00a0William Rider & Co. used to color Waite’s deck (and Pam’s art) were wrong on so many levels. Whether he ever had possession of an original<\/em>\u00a0Rider deck we will never know, but it is blatantly obvious that he\u00a0did have<\/em> one or several of University Books, Inc.’s decks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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We know this because Frankie blatantly copied their LWB (UB invented<\/span> the “Little White Booklet”<\/em><\/a>) and only changed the trump card on the cover and the color of the paper cover from white to ivory, and later to goldenrod. This mars the legacy of Frankie, but in a sense it makes him the godfather of copying LWB’s, as other tarot card manufacturers\u00a0copied\u00a0his LWB, or <\/em>also stole from UB directly. Frank\u00a0had an interesting point however. By Waite’s time, the four classical elements of ancient science (now the four states of matter in modern physics) were tied to four of the five suits of the tarot. Fire, Earth, Air, and Water were now permanently infused psychologically with the tarot cards as divination and manifestation tools. To Albano (Frank R.) this meant that the dominant colors of each suit should reflect the elemental properties therein. This made the deck annoying aesthetically but far superior for use by neo-pagans than the wildly popular University Books, Inc. edition, and later the re-released Rider (of London) and USGS decks (of New York) that flooded the market. This new coloration was carefully thought out by someone with an artistic eye\u00a0and a metaphysical mind. It was simply “an improvement” to an old standard (the Waite-Smith images from 1909).<\/p>\n

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Given that Frankie did not invent much when it comes to the tarot it is important to point out some historically pertinent facts of what (his company) Tarot Productions<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>did bring to the market. Here are a few\u00a0points every tarot student should know:<\/span><\/p>\n

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