Heroes And Romance On New Stamps

Themes, Says CBS' Lloyd de Vries, Dominating The New Crop Of Stamps

(CBS) 
Also on the lighter side are two entertainment issues sure to please film aficionados: The 12th Legends of Hollywood stamp subject is Judy Garland, featuring a publicity shot from "A Star Is Born" (1954). The 2006 Black Heritage entry honors actress Hattie McDaniel, the first African-American to win an Academy Award (for "Gone With The Wind," 1939). The Postal Service notes that she worked hard to "change the [film] industry from within, as far as the discrimination that African-Americans felt."

Katherine Anne Porter, author of Ship Of Fools, is the Literary Arts subject in 2006. She won both the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize for her Collected Stories and was nominated three times for the Nobel Prize for Literature. And she was the great-granddaughter of Daniel Boone!

The program starts off Jan. 10 with eight stamps of Favorite Children's Book Animals, which is a joint issue with Britain: One of the eight U.S. stamps will feature a British book character (Maisy), while one of the eight British stamps will feature an American subject (The Very Hungry Caterpillar). The other U.S. animals are The Wild Thing, Curious George, Wilbur (from "Charlotte's Web"), Frederick, Olivia and Fox in Socks.

The wedding stamps will be featured in a booklet, but not the kind that fits in your wallet: It will resemble a small invitation, with 39-cent stamps for one-ounce letters (such as reply cards) on one side and 63-cent stamps for two-ounce letters (such as invitation packages) on the other.

The third set of The Art of Disney stamps also features romance, and cartoon couples: Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella and Prince Charming, Beauty and the Beast and Lady and the Tramp.

Other issues slated for 2006 are boxer Sugar Ray Robinson; Amber Alert; American Motorcycles; Quilts of Gee's Bend; Southern Florida Wetland; Holiday Snowflakes; and a new religious Christmas stamp, based on Chacón's "Madonna and Child with Bird" painting at the Denver Art Museum.

The 2006 stamp program was first announced to the stamp collecting press in August at a stamp show in Grand Rapids, Mich. Most of the designs, however, were held until now.

Each year, the USPS receives about 40,000 requests for stamp subjects, of which only a few dozen are granted. The Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee, which screens the requests and makes recommendations to the Postmaster General, usually works two to three years in advance. It's believed most if not all of the 2007 program is already done, although not yet announced.