Sorry to learn of Fred's passing. I last spoke with him in April and was hoping to make a detour deeper into Texas to visit him on our way from Kentucky to Arizona in early May, but our schedule did not allow it. As I write this I deeply regret that circumstance as I really would have loved to have seen Fred one more time. Back in the 1980's, I lived for several years in Downey, California and Fred lived over the bridge in Southgate, which made me the closest collector to him geographically. Many times my phone rang with Fred's voice on the other end saying, "First peckerwood over here gets this [fill in the blank with a desirable phonograph] for [fill in the blank with a great price]. I'm fixin' to dust her off. If I have to dust her off the price goes up so you better hurry!". Fred loved to torment the hapless buyer with stuff like, "My best price? $10000 is MY best price", etc. He was a self-described "hornswaggler" who wore Western shirts and one cuff of his jeans always caught at the top of one of his cowboy boots. His mottoes were "When you're dead, call Fred" and "I look for the wreath on the door", both references to his penchant for finding the widows of collectors and buying the collections, at least that's what Fred said. A few times Fred did things that really ticked me off like selling another collector an early Victor VI that I had been making regular payments on, or the time we ran into one another at the Long Beach Flea Market and were walking together when I spotted a Triumph under a table out of the corner of my eye. I headed to the Triumph and Fred headed to the seller and bought it for $300 while I had my hands on it. In spite of crap like that, I liked Fred and always enjoyed buying stuff from him because it was an experience you couldn't get anywhere else. RIP old buddy.
From: jim...@earthlink.net To: Phono-L@oldcrank.org Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2011 15:40:58 -0500 Subject: [Phono-L] Fred Mc Cole's Death Just received an "E-mail" from former wife, Olga Mc Cole, of antique phonograph collector-dealer Fred Mc Cole of Mineola, Texas saying that Fred passed away on 10 June. Though rather appalled by Fred's "mix & match" policy (creating what he called an "Amberola II" by installing an Amberola I-A mechanism in an Amberola III cabinet for instance), I bought a number of nice phonographs from him over the last 15 or 20 years but due to financial setbacks hadn't seen him a several years. (Best to stay away from temptations!) My last purchase from Fred were an Amberola I-A & the early table model Victrola XII sans the more ornate decoration of the later table model XII. I believe that before moving to Texas Mr. Mc Cole lived on the west coast so he may be remembered by collectors there. Jim Cartwright IMMORTAL PERFORMANCES, INC "Austin’s Eclectic Used Record Store Since 1971" 1404 West 30th Street Austin, Texas 78703-1402 USA (512) 478-9954 E-mail: jim...@earthlink.net _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org _______________________________________________ Phono-L mailing list http://phono-l.oldcrank.org
