The Oxon Hill Library provided the backdrop for the U.S. Post Office to show off its latest window to history: Five stamps that feature movie posters from the 1920s through the 1950s.
Images on the 42-cent commemorative first-class stamps replicate vintage movie posters highlighting various facets of the African-American cultural experience.
The stamps shed light on 20th Century icons like Josephine Baker, Duke Ellington, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Fredi Washington, Louis Jordan, Daniel L. Haynes, Victoria Spivey or King Vidor.
“These posters now serve a greater purpose than publicity and promotion,” said Delores Killette, vice president and consumer advocate for the U.S. Postal Service, in a recent statement. “They are invaluable pieces of history, preserving memories of cultural phenomena that otherwise might have been forgotten.”
U.S. Postal Service Media Relations Manager Roy Betts / Photo: Raoul Dennis
The Vintage Black Cinema souvenir sheet includes 20 stamps in four rows with five different commemorative stamps featuring posters advertising movies produced for African-American audiences prior to 1950. Stamp art director and designer Carl T. Hermann of Carlsbad, Calif., intended to evoke a strip of film with perforations, or sprocket holes, running down the left and right edges. This souvenir sheet also includes selvage text.
“This is a magical moment at a magical time in our nation’s history,” said U.S. Postal Service Media Relations Manager Roy Betts at the regional unveiling at the Oxon Hill Library. Betts assured guests that the U.S. Postal Service has much more on tap in the form of Black Heritage stamps coming in 2009. “This is just the beginning.”
One of the five stamps pays homage to the first screen appearance of famed bandleader and composer Duke Ellington in the 1929 film Black and Tan. The 19-minute short features three songs by Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra. In the film, Ellington plays himself, and is in danger of having his piano repossessed. When his fatally ill girlfriend dances at a nightclub, she saves Ellington’s music—and asks to hear his “Black and Tan Fantasy” on her deathbed.
Another in the collection highlights one of only four movies to star entertainer Josephine Baker. Princess Tam-Tam tells the story of a novelist who discovers a simple African woman, played by Baker, and presents her as a princess to Parisian society. Released in France in 1935, this French-language feature remains a rare film showcase for Baker’s singing and dancing.
Award-winning author Yasmin Shiraz Photo: Raoul Dennis
Yasmin Shiraz, an award winning author, journalist and marketing professional whose company The Signals Agency has partnered with the postal service to assist in branding the campaign was also on hand at the unveiling. She stressed the value of the stamps in passing down important history to future generations. “Our young people need to know that black music videos did not start with P. Diddy in the 1990s,” she said referring to the “Caldonia” film shown at the unveiling which is now part of the Heritage series. “It’s just about knowing who you are and how you got here but how you grow from here.”
Shiraz, who mentors teen girls in violence prevention, suggested to guests that young people some times remind listeners that they seek support. “‘You said I could rise but you never gave me a ladder’ is what Lil Wayne said on a track on his latest album,” she reported. “This history is a part of [that ladder]. If we don’t start sharing this history it will be lost. This is the kind of thing you want your grandchildren to find in your home after you pass on.”
Shiraz showcased an array various marketing and collector’s materials designed to support the series. Many of the guests who are collectors appreciated the range of stamp holders and biographical packages. “You can’t find a Charles Chestnut stamp anywhere,” said one collector. The stamp’s scarcity is due in part to the rise in postage to 42 cents just months after the 41-cent Chestnut stamp was released.
The Post Office started commemorating the achievements of African Americans in 1978 with a stamp honoring Harriet Tubman, the runaway slave from Maryland, who became a Moses-figure for leading hundreds of slaves to freedom along the Underground Railroad over a 10-year span. The Post Office has also paid tribute to a number of inventors, educators, scientist, entrepreneurs and athletes.
--PGS Staff
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