The Cookeville Collection 6 6

[Tri-Color Brian]

I think if the book had come out 10 years ago it would have a lot of misinformation in it, so maybe it's better that we can expect it in 2029 instead...

I also think it would be nice if the top 5 Contributors to Matt's Pedigree website would get FREE copies of the book...

Edited July 2, 2022 by Tri-ColorBrian

[telerites]

On 7/1/2022 at 8:23 PM, Tri-ColorBrian said:

I think if the book had come out 10 years ago it would have a lot of misinformation in it, so maybe it's better that we can expect it in 2029 instead...

I also think it would be nice if the top 5 Contributors to Matt's Pedigree website would get FREE copies of the book...

That's a pedigree load of uploads and your optimism that a book will be published in our lifetime is to be applauded.

 

[Aman619]

is that website still live?

 

[Tri-Color Brian]

On 7/2/2022 at 8:44 AM, Aman619 said:

is that website still live?

 

I'm not sure.  I haven't uploaded anything there for years.  You can still navigate it though...  http://comicpedigrees.com/

Edited July 2, 2022 by Tri-ColorBrian

[Aman619]

Thanx for the link… couldn’t remember the site name or find my bookmark.  I though Matt abandoned updating the site, but there’s news dated 2019 and 2020!   So maybe there’s hope. 
 

also if you have uploaded 500 scans , more than anyone, and the total scans are 28000, there must be a boatload of collectors who have contributed.  Unless Heritage is 20000 of the total?

Edited July 2, 2022 by Aman619

[Tri-Color Brian]

On 7/2/2022 at 3:14 PM, Aman619 said:

Thanx for the link… couldn’t remember the site name or find my bookmark.  I though Matt abandoned updating the site, but there’s news dated 2019 and 2020!   So maybe there’s hope. 
 

also if you have uploaded 500 scans , more than anyone, and the total scans are 28000, there must be a boatload of collectors who have contributed.  Unless Heritage is 20000 of the total?

Heritage is responsible for the majority...

I thought the project was a cool idea, so I did my part to increase the scans.  The site is "not secure" now, so I stopped uploading. 

Edited July 2, 2022 by Tri-ColorBrian

[lou_fine]

On 7/1/2022 at 6:23 PM, Tri-ColorBrian said:

I think if the book had come out 10 years ago it would have a lot of misinformation in it, so maybe it's better that we can expect it in 2029 instead...

My thinking is that once they started to make the information associated to CGC stats in terms of their census and relative grading status, the book would have built-in obsolescence no matter what year it came out.  

It would have made a lot more sense to have stuck to their original format in terms of just the history, owners, founders, discovery, etc. of the pedigree and didn't bother with all of the CGC associated stats.  

[Robot Man]

On 7/4/2022 at 7:53 AM, lou_fine said:

My thinking is that once they started to make the information associated to CGC stats in terms of their census and relative grading status, the book would have built-in obsolescence no matter what year it came out.  

It would have made a lot more sense to have stuck to their original format in terms of just the history, owners, founders, discovery, etc. of the pedigree and didn't bother with all of the CGC associated stats.  

I agree. The pedigrees and their stories are what would make the book. CGC census numbers are pretty unimportant. They are also VERY limiting. They are probably more ungraded copies out in the wild than graded ones. 

[jimbo_7071]

On 7/4/2022 at 11:21 AM, Robot Man said:

I agree. The pedigrees and their stories are what would make the book. CGC census numbers are pretty unimportant. They are also VERY limiting. They are probably more ungraded copies out in the wild than graded ones. 

For pedigrees that were brought to market early, like the San Francisco pedigree, there are probably still many times as many raw copies out there as certified copies, and the ones that don't have a stamp will probably never be identified. Gilboy markings alone wouldn't be proof of the pedigree because there are Gilboy books out there that aren't San Francisco copies.

Edited October 1, 2023 by jimbo_7071

[Ameri]

On 10/17/2020 at 3:24 PM, walclark said:

I was able to track down some additional information about the Cookeville Collection and thought the Board might find it interesting.  I had the opportunity to talk to Jimmie Mackie, the younger brother of Leroy Mackie, and he was kind enough to share a few additional details about the collection.

Leroy was born in 1930 and Jimmie in 1933.  Their family lived on South Jefferson Avenue in Cookeville, not far from the town square.  As the brothers got older, on Saturdays, their mother would give them each a dime and the boys would ride their bikes to the town square.  Sometimes that dime would be spent at the picture show, but more often than not, the Mackie boys would head to Marchbanks Drug Store.  This is where the boys bought the comics that would become known as the Cookeville Collection.

Jimmie (who later changed his name to Jimmy and eventually to James because he told his mother that Jimmie was the way girls would spell that name) remembered that the pharmacy had a soda fountain and sometimes that dime was spent on a malted or a sundae.  Often, he and Leroy would read the comics on the newsstand and eventually make a selection to take home.

At home, their father had built on to the home and added an attic space for the boys to store their things.  It was referred to as the “funny book room.”  Jimmie remembered the room with built in shelves for them to stack their comic books and as a place for them to store their marbles.  Apparently, he was quite the marble player and had amassed a fair number of them that were stored in a big bucket.  I would guess that the fact that the comics were stored out of sight in the “funny book room” is probably what saved the collection that familiar fate of so many other collections…”mom threw away my comics.”

The “funny book room” matches exactly with what Rick Frogge told me about the day that he, Harry Thomas, Geppi, and Overstreet went to move the collection out of the family home.  Jimmie didn’t know a lot about the details of the sale.  In fact, at that time, he didn’t know that Leroy had sold the comics.  He found out a few years later.  When cleaning out the house following the passing of their mother, Jimmie asked Leroy what happened to all the old comics and Leroy told him that silverfish had ruined them and he had thrown them out.  It was only later that he found out that Leroy had been selling some of the comics over a few years and then made the bulk sale.

Jimmie told me that Leroy was the big collector and only stopped buying comics when he joined the Air Force.  Maybe that’s why he didn’t sound at all bitter about the fact that his brother had sold their comic collection without his knowledge.  He told me that at one point Leroy had his daughters cataloging the comics, but he didn’t think those records exist anymore.

As to the big mystery about the initials on the comics, unfortunately, the passage of time has erased that memory.  Jimmie didn’t really remember the writing on the cover at all (I’m guessing that the clerks marking the covers and applying date stamps wasn’t that memorable to a kid that age).  He remembered that it was a couple of the female shop clerks that made the sundaes and rang up the boys’ purchases and he’s certain that it’s their initials on the comics.  And a note to CGC: despite what it says on the CGC website, the store clerks were sisters, but not the Mackie’s sisters.

I’m thankful to Mr. Mackie for sharing his memories of the Cookeville Collection.  He was a genuinely pleasant gentleman and we talked for a while about mutual acquaintances, his business, and his family.  While there is still a lot that we don’t know about the collection, we now add Marchbanks Drug Store to the story.

Here's a clearer photo of Marchbanks. I was looking back at this thread because I think I may have a Leroy Mackie pulp (Feb 1940). Initials L.M. are in pencil above the cowboy's head. The penciled name under the initials is a Willard Bennett. I found a Willard Bennett who lived in Cookeville at the same time but may not be the same Willard. This pulp is stamped "Independence Drug Store", not Marchbanks. 

Edited September 30, 2023 by Ameri

[path4play]

Added a Cookeville to the "Police Comics Pedigree Run."  Turned an Okajima into an undercopy, coming to HA soon...

[DC#]

On 9/30/2023 at 3:44 PM, Ameri said:

Here's a clearer photo of Marchbanks. I was looking back at this thread because I think I may have a Leroy Mackie pulp (Feb 1940). Initials L.M. are in pencil above the cowboy's head. The penciled name under the initials is a Willard Bennett. I found a Willard Bennett who lived in Cookeville at the same time but may not be the same Willard. This pulp is stamped "Independence Drug Store", not Marchbanks. 

 

So this is probably of little interest to anyone - but I am originally from Cookeville and Leroy Mackie was my father-in-law for a time.   Jimmy still attends the same church as my parents.    I was very much a part of the Mackie household around the time of the initial sale in the early 1990s but in all the time we spent together I don't ever recall him mentioning the collection to me.   Maybe I was too young and too interested in other pursuits at that time (my comic collecting was on pause for sure).  

I was really surprised when I first heard the tale of this collection a couple of years ago - really wish I had gotten to see it.     Or better yet - got "gifted" a few books for being such a great son-in-law     

 

 

 

 

 

[walclark]

On 2/5/2024 at 6:10 PM, DC# said:

 

So this is probably of little interest to anyone - but I am originally from Cookeville and Leroy Mackie was my father-in-law for a time.   Jimmy still attends the same church as my parents.    I was very much a part of the Mackie household around the time of the initial sale in the early 1990s but in all the time we spent together I don't ever recall him mentioning the collection to me.   Maybe I was too young and too interested in other pursuits at that time (my comic collecting was on pause for sure).  

I was really surprised when I first heard the tale of this collection a couple of years ago - really wish I had gotten to see it.     Or better yet - got "gifted" a few books for being such a great son-in-law     

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow, now that is a personal connection to a pedigree collection.  Glad you stumbled across the thread.