U.S. #2768
1993 Porgy & Bess – Broadway Musicals
Legends of American Music Series
- Honors well-known musical Porgy & Bess – chosen to represent the decade of shows produced in the 1930s
- Issued as part of the Broadway Musicals set for the 100th anniversary of Broadway
- Part of the Legends of American Music Series
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Set: Broadway Musicals
Series: Legends of American Music
Value: 29¢, First Class Mail Rate
First Day of Issue: July 14, 1993
First Day City: New York, New York
Quantity Issued: 515,000,000 (Total for all four Broadway Musicals stamps)
Printed by: Printed for American Bank Note Company by Multi-Color Corporation of Scottsburg, Indiana
Printing Method: Photogravure
Format: Booklet, 5 panes of 4 horizonal stamps each, arranged vertically. Gravure printing cylinders of 220 subjects (11 across, 20 around).
Perforations: 10.9 (L perforator)
Tagging: Prephosphored paper
Why the stamp was issued: To celebrate the landmark American musical Porgy & Bess and commemorate the 100th anniversary of Broadway.
About the stamp design: Like the other Broadway Musicals stamps, the design was created using a large collection of photographs as reference. New York City artist Wilson McLean created pencil sketches for the approval of the Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee before creating final oil paintings to be pictured on the stamps. Interestingly, McLean received special permission from the Postal Service to make his finished paintings larger than the five-times-stamp-size maximum normally imposed on stamp artists.
Special design details: The Porgy & Bess stamp pictures the show’s love triangle, Porgy, Bess, and Crown. Crown attempts to embrace Bess at the left while Bess pushes him away, while Porgy is at the right, face lifted, eyes closed. McLean said of his depiction of the three characters, “They’re very stylized… They’re not very realistic in a photographic sense. I allowed for great exaggeration in design and shape. I was quite concerned about the shapes, and also about the light and shade – the shadows play a great part in it.” McLean also included a piece of wrought-iron stair railing in the background from “Catfish Row.”
First Day City: This stamp, along with the rest of the Broadway Musicals set, was issued in New York, New York, the home of Broadway and a fitting place for the stamps’ First Day of Issue. The day coincided with the second annual “Broadway on Broadway” event in New York City.
About the Broadway Musicals set: The four-stamp set was issued to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Broadway. The set pictured scenes from musicals that made their mark on American music: Show Boat, Porgy and Bess, Oklahoma!, and My Fair Lady. The Oklahoma! stamp was the same design used earlier in 1993 to commemorate the musical’s 50th anniversary (although there were some design differences as the two stamps weren’t printed by the same company).
Project manager for the Legends of American Music series, Terrence McCaffrey chose a musical from each decade (Show Boat from the 1920s, Porgy and Bess from the 1930s, Oklahoma! from the 1940s, and My Fair Lady from the 1950s. Overall, the set was created based on the desire of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee to honor composers of American musical theater.
McCaffrey also said of the Broadway Musicals designs that he wanted to make sure the stamp designs wouldn’t remind the viewer of the famous actors and actresses most well-known for playing specific roles in these musicals. He said “We needed to have generic faces as opposed to the more recognizable faces from the actual musicals.”
About the Legends of American Music Series: The Legends of American Music Series debuted on January 8, 1993, and ran until September 21, 1999. More than 90 artists are represented from all styles of music: rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm and blues, country and western, jazz and pop, opera and classical, gospel and folk. In addition to individual singers and Broadway musicals, subjects include band leaders, classical composers, Hollywood songwriters and composers, conductors, lyricists, and more. The Legends of American Music Series was a huge advancement for diversity because it honored many Black and female artists.
History the stamp represents: When Porgy & Bess opened on Broadway in 1935, it was the realization of a longtime dream of George Gershwin’s. After reading Du Bose Heyward’s book Porgy in 1926, he had written Heyward hoping to use the book as the basis for an opera. Heyward was interested in the prospect, but both men had other commitments, forcing them to postpone the project. Finally, in 1933, the two, along with Ira Gershwin and Dorothy Heyward, began work on what would become the most popular opera written by an American composer.
A black “folk opera,” Porgy & Bess is set in Catfish Row, a Negro tenement in Charleston, South Carolina. Forced to go into hiding after murdering a man, Crown flees, leaving behind his girlfriend Bess, who falls in love with the crippled Porgy. Crown later returns to take Bess away, but is killed by Porgy out of self-defense. When Porgy is taken to jail, Sportin’ Life, who is also in love with Bess, tempts her to run off with him to New York. Believing she will never see Porgy again, Bess agrees. The play ends with Porgy, who has been freed from jail, leaving in search of Bess.
The 1935 run of 124 performances was modest by Broadway standards; for an opera, it was exceptional. Since then, it has been performed throughout the world.
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