Pick the Next 10 'Legends of Hollywood' Stamps

Cafe Society
1

Inspired by Eve’s thread Born in 1905 And Deserve Stamps, Dammit!(http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=298158), I was wondering what Eve and any similarly inclined Teeming Millions think the USPS should choose as the next 10 stamps in its Legends of Hollywood series. The main restriction is that the honoree has to have been dead 10 years before he or she can be featured on a stamp.

The USPS has already issued the following in its Legends of Hollywood:

1995: Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)
1996: James Dean (1931-1955)
1997: Humphrey Bogart (1907-1957)
1998: Alfred Hitchcock (1899-1980)
1999: James Cagney (1899-1986)
2000: Edward G Robinson (1893-1973)
2001: Lucille Ball (1911-1989)
2002: Cary Grant (1904-1986)
2003: Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993)
2004: John Wayne (1907-1979)
2005: Henry Fonda (1905-1982)

The USPS also issued stamps outside the series featuring the following actors, actresses, directors & producers:

1968: Walt Disney
1975: D.W. Griffith
1980: W.C. Fields (Performing Arts series)
1982: The Barrymores (John, Lionel & Ethel) (Performing Arts series)
1984: Douglas Fairbanks, Sr. (Performing Arts series)
1991: Comedians booklet: Laurel & Hardy, Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy, Jack Benny, Fanny Brice, Abbott & Costello
1993: Grace Kelly (joint issue with Monaco)
1994: Stars of the Silent Screen: Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow, Charlie Chaplin, Lon Chaney, John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, The Keystone Cops, Theda Bara & Buster Keaton
1997: Classic Movie Monsters: Lon Chaney (as the Phantomof the Opera), Bela Lugosi (as Dracula), Boris Karloff (as Frankenstein & the Mummy), and Lon Chaney, Jr. (as the Wolfman)
1999: Alfred Lunt & Lynne Fontaine
2005: Greta Garbo (joint issue with Sweden)

With that out the way, my picks for the next 10:

2006: The Marx Brothers
2007: Bette Davis (1908-89)
2008: Jimmy Stewart (1908-97)
2009: Marlene Deitrich (1901-92)
2010: Gloria Swanson (1899-1983)
2011: Fred Astaire (1899-1987) & Ginger Rogers (1911-95)
2012: Gene Kelly (1912-86)
2013: Spencer Tracy (1900-67)
2014: Katharine Hepburn (1907-2003)
2015: Orson Welles (1915-86)

Suggestions? Comments? Recipes?

2

Some other stamps already issued that you forgot:

The Films of 1939: Gone with the Wind (Gable & Leigh), Beau Geste (Cooper), The Wizard of Oz (Garland), and Stagecoach (Wayne, which means he has two now).

Also, the Celebrate the Century series had a number of movie stamps, including The Great Train Robbery, Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs, Citizen Kane, E.T., Jurassic Park, Titanic, and another Chaplin stamp, plus the Beatles got a stamp displaying the Yellow Submarine logo.

Also, there was a series of stamps on film composers: Korngold, Steiner, Tiomkin, Newman, Waxman and Herrmann.

Also, a series on Filmmaking: Directing (John Cassevetes), Editing, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound, Scoring, Special Effects (E.T. again), and Make Up (Karloff’s Frankenstein again).

I think your next 10 are pretty on-the-nose, though I suspect we may have another director, which would likely be John Ford (unless they have a separate Great Film Directors sub-series), though I’m most doubtful of Welles (who’s pictured in one already), Dietrich, and Swanson.

I figure if they gave Wayne two, then they’ll probably give Coop a second as well. Lillian Gish and Mary Pickford weren’t included in the Silent Stars series, and they’re both obviously worthy. I’d also put Ingrid Bergman up there. So Cooper, Bergman & Gish are the three I’d substitute (I heard there were some issues with the Pickford estate that’s prevented her thus far).

3

Whoops–almost forgot. There was also a Musical Performers series that listed several big movie stars (including Bing Crosby, Al Jolson, and Ethel Merman). Plus Elvis, of course.

Not Frank Sinatra, though, so I imagine he’s pretty near the top.

I’d also put Bob Hope as close, except he just died, so they’ll need to wait a few years before he hits eligibility.

4

Not bad. You were wrong about 2006 (Judy Garland got her 2nd one that year), but you nailed Stewart & Davis, just switching the years. Stewart was this year, and the USPS announced that Bette Davis will be the LoH issue for 2008.

There will also be a 5-stamp series commemorating “Vintage black cinema” (specific films not announced yet).

5

Didn’t they just do some Star Wars stamps? And haven’t they done Trek stamps?

How about DeMille?

Busby Berkley

6

In ten years either:

a. Stamps will be $32.57 each for First Class, and no-one will buy them, or

b. Everything will be either metered mail or email, and no-one will buy them.
Stamps are going the way of the buggy whip.

7

silenus
I wouldn’t be so quick to announce the stamp’s demise.
I’ve heard that the Post Office will be issuing a series saluting other legends of the cinema - gaffers, key grips, clapper loaders etc. :slight_smile:

8

The sheet of 15 SW stamps came out a few months ago. When they did the Celebrate the Century series, there was a stamp of the Enterprise amongst the stamps for the 1960s.

So far, the only film directors* to get a stamp are Griffith and Hitchcock. I suspect Ford and Capra would be at the top of the list of directorial candidates most likely to get their stamp next.

Nope, though I think Fred Astaire & Gene Kelly will both be getting theirs before Busby.

*this doesn’t include actor/directors like Charlie Chaplin or Buster Keaton

9

And the USPS has now announced that Ol Blue Eyes will be getting his own stamp this year as well. Here’s what it will look like.

10

Well, Gary Cooper got his 2nd a few months ago, and several of the TV Legends stamps included some film stars (most notably Groucho Marx).

But it looks like 2010 will have Katharine Hepburn as the next inductee into the LoH series (since they’ve bumped the death deadline from 10yrs down to 5).

There will also be a Cowboys of the Silver Screen sheet: Rogers, Autry, Mix, & Hart.

11

So, it looks like next year’s official LoH stamp will go to Gregory Peck (though Helen Hayes & Carmen Miranda will also be getting their own stamps in 2011)

12

Bumping to see how the predictions went. The actual honorees were:

2006: Judy Garland
2007: Jimmy Stewart
2008: Bette Davis
2009: Gary Cooper
2010: Katharine Hepburn
2011: Gregory Peck
2012: Directors: Capra, Huston, Wilder, Ford
2013: (none)
2014: Charlton Heston
2015: Ingrid Bergman
2016: Shirley Temple

(names in bold are ones the OP got right). In all fairness, it was reasonable to not predict Garland or Cooper because they already had stamps from the “Films of 1939” release (with The Wizard of Oz and Beau Geste, respectively).

Also, Groucho Marx was honored with a “You Bet Your Life” stamp and Orson Welles for Citizen Kane.

Most of the stamps for 2017 have been announced yet, but not for this series (though rumor has it that it’ll be Elizabeth Taylor).

13

As everyone might know, Star Trek stamps did come out last year, but none represented the characters–they were all images & icons in the bright primary colors of the uniforms.

14

I’d go for the great character actors, whose familiar faces were in hundreds of films. People like Charles Bickford, Keenan Wynn, Leo G. Carroll and Fred Clarke

15

I bought a few sheets of them: