Celebrity Numismatist Harry "Parkyakarkus" Einstein
Zoins
Posts: 34,116 ✭✭✭✭✭
In researching coins for Garrett and Robison, I've come across Harry Einstein and thought he was worthy of mention.
Is he known as an astute collector? Some of his coins ended up with Brent Pogue as shown below.
Harry Einstein (May 6, 1904 – November 23, 1958), known professionally as Harry Parke and other pseudonyms, most commonly Parkyakarkus, was an American comedian, writer, and character actor. A specialist in Greek dialect comedy, he became famous as the Greek chef Nick Parkyakarkus on the Eddie Cantor and Al Jolson radio programs, and later on a program of his own. He appeared in eleven films (as Parkyakarkas or a close variant) from 1936 to 1945.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_"Parkyakarkus"_Einstein
From E-Sylum:
CELEBRITY NUMISMATISTS
[...]
Some names that come to mind immediately are Buddy Ebsen, Jascha Heifitz, Hoagy Carmichael, Gary Burghoff ("Radar" on M.A.S.H.), Moshe Dayan (from Israeli politics), Harry Einstein ("Parkyakarkus" from old radio days), and from more recent times John LaRocquette. I'm sure you will receive many more names of the famous or infamous who were collectors. A couple of more collectors of note come to mind. Adolph Menjou (Movies) and Wayne Gretzky (Sports - albeit more of an investor than a collector)."
https://www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v03n21a02.html
Here's a photo from the Stack's 1986 catalog:
Here's one of his performances:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAKNFIMT24w&feature=emb_logo
**NOTE: **These two coins were in the Einstein Collection sale but not actually owned by Einstein, so I've "hidden" them under a quote. They are here for posterity.
And two of his coins, the 1804 and 1802 Bowed Liberty Dollars:
1804 Bowed Liberty Dollar - Class III - Restrike - Double Struck - PCGS AU55 - Ex-Berg, Garrett, Einstein, Pogue
- https://www.pcgs.com/cert/38997237
- https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-LYACG/1804-draped-bust-silver-dollar-class-iii-restrike-bb-306-second-reverse-proof-55-pcgs
- https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1047274/appreciating-t-harrison-garrett#latest
1802 Bowed Liberty Dollar PCGS PR64 POP 0/4/0 - Ex-Robison, Einstein, Pogue
- https://www.pcgs.com/cert/32709114
- https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-6QOVY/1802-draped-bust-silver-dollar-proof-restrike-or-novodel-bowers-borckardt-302-bolender-8-rarity-7-proof-64-pcgs
- https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1048957/appreciating-ellis-h-roby-robison-like-pogue-did#latest
Comments
He is an excellent example of how "all glory is fleeting". I had never heard of him before this thread was posted.
I remember that guy. Of course it helped that I had an uncle who was a fan of old-time radio.
Boy, he had some stuff all right !
Was he known to park his carcass?
He was....
He collapsed in front of his audience after a performance and, lat first, people thought his collapsing to his death was part of the act.
https://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2008/11/comedian-dies-d.html
Here's an impressive gold coin of his!
1803 $10 Eagle - BD-6 13 Lg Rev Stars - PCGS MS61 TOP POP 1/0 - Ex-Einstein, Taraszka
And another top pop!
Incredible Gem Mint State 1852 Eagle
The Single Finest Type II No Motto Eagle Known to PCGS
1852 Liberty Head Eagle - PCGS MS66+ TOP POP 1/0 CAC
Wow, Never knew he was Albert Brooks dad !
The Bowers and Merena auction was three days long, June 23, 24 and the 25th in 1986. Is there any history of how/why it was so long after his death and who had his collection?
I don't have the auction catalog anymore but I won one lot, an 1806 large cent which I still have.
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
Here's the catalog. It doesn't say anything about why it was sold in 1986, long after he died in 1958, except for that the collection stayed in a bank vault all those years. Thanks to Stack's Bowers for scanning and placing these online for us.
https://media.stacksbowers.com/VirtualCatalogs/CatalogLibrary/harryeinsteincol1986bowe.pdf
We can speculate by looking at the history of his wife Thelma Leeds. Although Harry died in 1958, his wife survived him until 2006 at age 95. Her second husband died a few years before the sale in 1983. It's not too far fetched to imagine Thelma revisiting her years with Harry after becoming a widow the second time.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelma_Leeds
Not only for his acting, but his coins too.
Here's what David Bowers wrote in the sale catalog.
Can you imagine what it was like to see that large collection coming out of the vault after all those years?
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
That 52 Eagle is spectacular........
Successful BST deals with mustangt and jesbroken. Now EVERYTHING is for sale.
It would have been amazing at Stack's to see that and at the auction. Given that he was collecting in the 30s to 50s, some of those coins haven't been seen for half a century!
There may be an issue with the 1802 Draped Bust Dollar provenance from Stack's. It doesn't seem likely that Stack's sold this coin in 1982 for Robison and then in 1986 for Einstein, given the Stack's sale said the collection remained in a bank vault the entire time. Either that or there's more to the story.
It would be great to compare the 1982 and 1986 catalogs.
https://auctions.stacksbowers.com/lots/view/3-6QOVY/1802-draped-bust-silver-dollar-proof-restrike-or-novodel-bowers-borckardt-302-bolender-8-rarity-7-proof-64-pcgs
1820 Capped Head Left Half Eagle - Bass Dannreuther-7 - Curl Base 2, Large Letters - Rarity-7. PCGS MS65+ TOP POP 2/0 CAC
Here's another top pop CAC coin provenanced to Einstein and Brent Pogue. With so many of Einstein's coins ending up with Pogue, I wonder if there was an explicit strategy to buy Einstein coins by either Mack with David Akers or Brent with Richard Burdick. Anyone know? Anyone around when these coins were being acquired by either or both Pogues?
Of the Pogue sale:
Beautiful coins indeed.... remarkable that the collection remained stored for so long. I had heard of him... listened to some old radio recordings a friend had once. Did not know he was a coin collector. Cheers, RickO
He was a very private collector, sharing only with his family and dealer Abe Kosoff. His collection's sale did come out in 1986 so there was some publicizing at the time. I agree it's amazing these coins were locked away for so long. Back then, it would be treat to just see these coins. Now, it's a treat to see them too, but we can see a lot with the great TrueViews and auction house photos.
Thank you so much for all of the wonderful information! I’m relatively new to the forum, and I own these two Bust $- and studying the provenance of my coins is an important part of my overall collecting enjoyment!
Well done sir...
I was remarking on another thread how far he would have gotten if he had not died at age 58.
He had money and dealer connections.
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
Amazing man, amazing collection! I remember my Mom and my grandfather tuning in to listen.
Makes my miss my mom and dad.
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For mom
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For Dad
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
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For @Zoins and @Floridafacelifter and others:
Be aware that many auctions were labled for the most notable consignor decided by the auctioneer, but many coins in the auctions belonged to other consignors.
More common today is a separate catalog for the main consignor.
Even years ago there were some single consignor auction sales such as Garrett, Norweb, Eliasberg and others, but many other named sales were actually multiple owners.
Such sales often have something like "and other consignments" in smaller print under the headlining consignment as is the case with this catalog as seen here. It appears on the title page but not on the cover of this particular catalog.
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https://archive.org/details/harryeinsteincol1986bowe/page/n13/mode/2up
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Some auctions have all the consignments mixed together with no indication of what belonged to who. Sometimes notable consignor pedigrees are listed with each lot. Other times a main consignment got its own section in a catalog.
The latter is the case for the Harry Einstein auction. The lots from his estate went from lot 1 through 855 and is also noted in the introduction on page 8. If they had not done that, it may have been impossible to know what was in his collection.
The 1804 and 1802 Proof Bust Dollars were never part of the Harry Einstein collection, but they were offered in Bowers and Merena's Harry Einstein Collection AUCTION, June 1986 as noted in some pedigrees. That is very different than saying that Harry Einstein was the owner.
All that can be confusing without researching or already knowing whether the person named in an auction sale title was the actual owner.
The gold coins posted above by Zoins were actually part of the Einstein collection based on the catalog.
"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
Thank you!
I now know the following means not owned by Harry Einstein! I think I should just give up reading provenance lists!
Me either, but then no one is actually prominent due to their coin collecting, except on occasion with other collectors. There are a low number of people who can somewhat legitimately be considered "famous" but it isn't or wasn't due to their collection or collecting. An example is M.A Rothschild whose family name is famous but he is not..
To expand on the Glory is fleeting theme... bought an autograph album on ebay a few years ago.
I bought it for the Jackie Coogan and Betty Grable autos.
Alot of other band leaders and actors from the mid 1930's. Including Bing Crosby brother... Bob
It was fun tracking them down. The more obscure the more interesting. Many have stars on the Walk of Fame and had me toying with a similar themed autograph collection.
Who knew Uncle Fester was once married Betty Grable?
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
i am presuming this is the Einstein to which the 1933 $10 comment from David Akers refers to?
Einstein Collection
I would assume so.