How about the way the USPS is giving us a preview a day for the 2012 stamps? The first in the film director set is a John Ford Forever stamp. Frank (It's A Wonderful Life; It Happened One Night) Capra has since joined Ford; I'm waiting to see the remaining two. Nice job of creating suspense USPS! Have you ever thought of going into the film biz?
As part of the design of the Ford stamp, from art by Gary Kelly, designed by Derry Noyes, there is an adaptation of the famous shot in the Ford film, The Searchers, where John Wayne is framed in the doorway of the cabin, walking away. (The Wayne walk is of course as famous as the Tom Cruise run or the Harrison Ford -- no relation to John -- double take.) This shot in the film is symbolic of the disappearance of the real Wild West and the real men that populated it. A theme of countless films, including Monte Walsh and the Wild Bunch, The Searchers may have tackled the theme in a way more poetic than any other.
Speaking of the Wild Bunch, one of its featured actors, Earnest Borgnine has been a stamp collector for many years. Another hero of westerns and other genre films, Glenn Ford (yet another non-relation) was also a serious philatelist. The West may have been wild, but its character actors knew how to settle down enough to enjoy some good stamp collecting.
If you'd like to keep up with the news of future stamp releases visit the USPS's Beyond The Perf.
Stamp Image © USPS
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