U.S. #2819-28
1994 Silent Screen Stars
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Value: 29c
First Day of Issue: April 27, 1994
First Day City: San Francisco, California
Quantity Issued: 1,860,000
Printed By: Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method: Lithographed and engraved
Format: Ten vertical stamps issued se-tenant in four panes of 40 stamps
Perforations: 11.2
Why the set was issued: Issued to honor ten of the greatest names of the early days of Hollywood movie-making. Fulfilled then-current First-Class postage rate.
About the stamp design: The stamps were designed by renowned artist Al Hirschfeld. Art director and typographer was Howard Paine. The artist used the same caricature style as his earlier work on the Comedians se-tenant booklet pane of five. Hirschfeld’s style captures the main characteristics of each actor’s screen persona. The 29c denomination was printed in drop-out type on a stylized torn ticket stub. Clara Bow and Theda Bara have torn ticket remnants behind their names as well, while others in the set don’t.
Red and purple colors add vibrancy to the black and white caricatures.
First Day of Issue Ceremony: The Castro Theater in San Francisco was the site of the First Day Ceremony, with actor Karl Malden as its main speaker.
Unusual fact about this set: The artist was asked to work his daughter Nina’s name into his caricatures, as he had often done in previous drawings. Several of the stamps have easily identified “Ninas”; others are not as well-defined (Hirschfeld called them near-Ninas”.) Some stamps appear to be missing their Nina.
About the Set: The Silent Screen Stars set includes ten prominent stars of the Silent Screen era: “The Sheik” Rudolf Valentino, “It Girl” Clara Bow, “The Little Tramp” Charlie Chaplin, “Man of a Thousand Faces” Lon Chaney, “The Vamp” Theda Bara, plus John Gilbert, Zasu Pitts, Harold Lloyd, Keystone Cops, and Buster Keaton.
Artist Al Hirschfeld's incredible caricatures give life to the actors and actresses who dominated the silent film era on these unique stamps.
History behind the stamp set:
About the subjects: The delightful characters these highly talented performers created were as timeless and endearing as any created before or since. Each has a special place in the history of the entertainment world.
Rudolph Valentino
Idolized as the “Great Lover” of the 1920s, Rudolph Valentino gained enormous fame for his passionate, romantic roles. Born Rodolfo d’Antonguollo in Castellaneta, Italy, he moved to New York City in 1913 where he worked briefly as a gardener, dishwasher, and vaudeville dancer before beginning his film career in 1918.
Although his performance in The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921) established Valentino as a star, it was his role as the desert warrior in The Sheik (1921) that gained him a national following – making him the most popular romantic star of the silent film era. Following his lead, men learned to tango and tantalize women with smoldering, sensuous stares. And college men, imitating their idol, slicked back their hair and called themselves “sheiks.”
Valentino went on to make several other films including Blood and Sand (1922), The Eagle (1925), and The Son of the Sheik (1926). His sudden death at age 31 from a ruptured ulcer ended his brilliant career.
Clara Bow
Billed as “The Hottest Jazz Baby in Films,” Clara Bow personified the vivacious, emancipated flapper of the 20s. Like the other stars of her day, she symbolized the romantic ideals of the nation, and young girls emulated her by copying her clothes, hairstyle, and seductive ways with men.
Born in a poor section of Brooklyn, New York, Bow entered a beauty contest at age 17 and won. Among the prizes was a Hollywood screen test and a bit part in the movie Beyond the Rainbow. Although her performance ended up on the cutting room floor, she persevered and within three years had become a successful actress.
In 1927 she played the lead in the box-office sensation It. Dubbed the “It Girl,” Bow rocketed to stardom, turning the innocent little pronoun ‘it’ into one of the most suggestive words in the English language. A huge success, the film was followed by other hits, including Wings (1927) – the first movie to win an Academy Award for Best Picture. Voted America’s most popular female star in 1929, she retired just four years later.
Charlie Chaplin
One of the best-known stars in the motion picture industry, Charlie Chaplin won international fame with his portrayal of the pathetic, yet humorous and endearing “Little Tramp.” During the silent film era he was often hailed as “the funniest man in the world.”
The son of British vaudeville performers, Chaplin began acting at an early age. In 1913 he signed on with the Keystone Film Company. Instantly popular, his box-office appeal had become so great by 1919 that no studio could afford to hire him. So together with Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, and D.W. Griffith, he formed the United Artists film corporation and began appearing only in films produced by himself, including such classics as The Kid (1921), The Gold Rush (1925), City Lights (1931), Modern Times (1936), and The Great Dictator (1940).
Although he lived in the U.S. for more than 40 years, Chaplin never became an American citizen. In 1972 he received an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards, and in 1975 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Lon Chaney
Called the “Man of a Thousand Faces,” Lon Chaney’s macabre characterizations became classics of the silent screen. Born of deaf-mute parents, Chaney learned pantomime at an early age, and later became a prop man, director, and actor in his brother’s traveling show.
Beginning his film career as an extra, he became an overnight success after starring in The Miracle Man (1919). During the next ten years Chaney earned a reputation as the finest character actor in films, playing such memorable roles as Quasimodo the hunchback in the Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and the dual role of police inspector/vampire in London After Midnight (1927). But his greatest achievement was his characterization of Eric, the demented, acid-scarred musician who haunted the subterranean passages of the Paris Opera in The Phantom of the Opera (1925).
A versatile actor, he also won acclaim for his realistic performances in Tell It to the Marines (1927), While the City Sleeps (1928), and Thunder (1929).
John Gilbert
Beginning his film career in 1915, John Gilbert learned everything there was to know about the movies – building sets, lighting, hand-tinting film, writing scripts, and directing – before he became an actor. In 1924 he joined the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studio, starring in many of the blockbuster movies of his day.
The Big Parade in 1925 was his greatest triumph. Gilbert’s performance as a doughboy in World War I not only established him as the all-American boy, fearless hero, and romantic lover, but also earned him the Photoplay Award for 1926 (the predecessor to the Academy Award).
In 1926 he starred in Flesh and the Devil with Greta Garbo. This seething melodrama established them as the greatest romantic team in Hollywood. They made films together, including a version of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina, released under the title Love. Over Gilbert’s strenuous objections ads read “Gilbert and Garbo in “LOVE!” An innovative actor, Gilbert starred in over ninety films before his untimely death in 1936.
ZaSu Pitts
Unbeknownst to her, ZaSu Pitts was discovered one rainy day in 1915 on a crowded Hollywood trolley. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Pitts had moved to Hollywood that year in search of a career as an actress. Her big break didn’t come however, until two years later when she co-starred in several movies with America’s sweetheart – Mary Pickford. By 1919 she had made 28 movies.
The following year she was hired by director King Vidor. Exclaiming “I discovered you,” he went on to explain how he had seen her on the trolley on that rainy day in 1915. “Had I not been just a struggling screenwriter at the time,” he told her, “I would have hired you on the spot!” Pitts went on to make four movies with Vidor.
In 1924 she starred in her most important role – the leading lady of Erich von Stroheim’s psychodrama Greed. He also cast her in his 1928 film The Wedding March. Called “the screen’s greatest tragedienne,” Pitts went on to star in numerous comedies. Her brilliant career ended in 1963 when she fell ill from cancer.
Harold Lloyd
A close rival of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd was one of the most popular comedians of the silent film era. A member of Mack Sennett’s comedy troupe, he experimented with various comic characters before creating the role of “Harold.” By 1918, the white-faced man in horn-rimmed glasses and straw hat had become Lloyd’s trademark.
The first comedian to use physical danger as a source of laughter, he was known as the screen’s most daring star, often performing his own stunts. In his 1923 film Safety Last, he dangled from the hands of a clock several stories above a busy city street. In Girl Shy (1924) he took a thrilling ride atop a runaway streetcar. And in The Freshman (1925) - one of the most successful of all silent films – he stood in for the football team’s tackling dummy.
Although his peak of popularity was during the silent film era, Lloyd made numerous sound motion pictures as well. In 1952 he was honored with a special Academy Award for his contribution to motion picture comedy.
Keystone Cops
In August 1912, so the story goes, the Keystone Film Company’s troupe of comic actors arrived in Hollywood the same day as the town’s annual Shriner parade. Seizing the opportunity, Mack Sennett, the Keystone’s director, sent his star comedienne Mabel Normand into the parade. Clutching a baby doll, she began searching the ranks of Shriners for the “child’s” supposed father. In hot pursuit was Ford Sterling, playing the part of Mabel’s irate, two-timed husband.
When a brawl erupted between Sterling and an embarrassed Shriner, the police came charging in to break it up. Meanwhile Sennett, who had set up his camera, captured the entire ruckus on film and sent it off to New York as the first Keystone comedy.
A master of comic timing, Sennett used this formula of spontaneity and controlled confusion to create more than 1,000 short comedies. Oftentimes these slapstick skits featured the famous Keystone Cops, who instead of imposing order, added to the chaos. This incompetent police force kept viewers laughing as they bungled their way through frantic chases, collided with one another, and became entangled with clotheslines, ladders, and folding tents. But through it all, their serious expressions remained unchanged.
Theda Bara
To millions of moviegoers, Theda Bara was evil incarnate. Fatally alluring with her death-white face, snaky black hair, and heavy-lidded eyes, she seemed born to trap unwary males and lure them to their destruction.
Moving to Hollywood as an extra, she began her film career in 1915 with the movie A Fool There Was, an adaption of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The Vampire.” Released with an intense publicity campaign, the film made her an overnight success and established her as “The Vamp.” Within three years she had made more than 40 films.
Rumored to be the daughter of a French painter and his Egyptian mistress, her name was said to be an anagram for Arab Death. In reality though, Theda Bara was a young lady named Theodosia Goodman from Cincinnati, Ohio, whose main ambition was to be a conventional romantic heroine. However, Kathleen Mavourneen (1919), her one attempt at a role other than the irresistible, heartless woman living only for sensual pleasure, was a resounding flop.
Buster Keaton
The stoic manner and poker face of Buster Keaton was as familiar to movie-goers of the 1920s as Charlie Chaplin’s baggy trousers and derby hat. Born Frank Joseph Keaton, he began performing in his parents’ vaudeville act as the “Human Mop” when he was only four. A zany combination of acrobatics and miming, their act, known as “The Three Keatons,” helped him develop his life-long trademark – a never-smiling face.
Following a successful stage career, Keaton entered filmmaking in 1917. Creating some of the most elaborate gags in silent film history, his movies were both harrowing and hilarious – usually centering on his collision with natural disasters and mechanical monsters. But whatever befell him, Keaton’s classic deadpan character “The Great Stone Face” never showed fear or alarm. A writer, director, and actor, he produced and starred in 19 short films and 10 full-length features, including such masterpieces as The Navigator (1924), The General (1926), and Steamboat Bill, Jr. (1928).
About the artist
Legendary illustrator Albert Hirschfeld was born on June 21, 1903, in St. Louis, Missouri. Hirschfeld’s work was so iconic, the USPS broke their own rules to feature his illustrations on two sets of stamps…
Hirschfeld spent the first 12 years of his life in St. Louis before his family moved to New York City in 1915. There, he attended the National Academy of Design. When he was just 17 years old, he was made art director at Selznick Pictures. He remained there for four years before going to Paris and London to study painting, drawing, and sculpture.
Upon Hirschfeld’s return to the US, his friend, Broadway press agent Richard Maney, showed some of the artist’s drawings to an editor from the New York Herald Tribune. The editor was impressed with Hirschfeld’s work and began offering him commissions for illustrations. Soon, his illustrations were being featured in the Sunday edition of The New York Times, and became a weekly staple for decades.
In 1945, Hirschfeld and his wife, Dolly, had a daughter named Nina. After her birth, the artist hid her name in the hair, clothes, or background of his drawings. Often “Nina” would be hidden in several spots and Hirschfeld would write a number next to his signature to let people know how many to look for.
Hirschfeld became known for his signature style – black and white caricatures with exaggerated features. While he was best known for his black and white drawings, he also produced many full-color paintings for magazine covers such as TV Guide, Life, American Mercury, Look, The New York Times, The New Masses, and Seventeen. Hirschfeld also provided color illustrations for several books, including Harlem As Seen By Hirschfeld, which included text written by William Saroyan.
Hirschfeld specialized in illustrations of Broadway actors, singers, and dancers that were featured in the newspaper shortly before opening night. But he illustrated famous people from all walks of life – politicians, TV stars, movie stars, jazz musicians, rock stars, and more. Hirschfeld illustrated several movie posters for Charlie Chaplin films and The Wizard of Oz. He also provided the artwork for the 1977 Aerosmith album Draw the Line. His work was a major inspiration for the “Rhapsody in Blue” segment of Disney’s Fantasia 2000, and he was a consultant on that project. His work was also reportedly influential on the design of the genie in Disney’s 1992 film, Aladdin.
In 1987, the USPS reached out to Hirschfeld to ask if he’d be interested in illustrating Broadway, Hollywood, vaudeville, radio, and television stars for future stamps. Hirschfeld was excited by the idea and accepted the commission. The Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee sent him several names and they loved all of his illustrations, telling him to “keep them coming.” The USPS was so excited to work with Hirschfeld, they broke some of their own rules. They normally didn’t allow hidden messages on US stamps. But postal officials wanted Hirschfeld to include as many hidden “Ninas” as he could, because otherwise they wouldn’t be real Hirschfeld caricatures. And while he wasn’t allowed to sign his name on each stamp, they did include his name on the booklet cover, calling the set “Comedians by Hirschfeld.”
Hirschfeld had created dozens of illustrations for the USPS. In 1994, they issued a second set of stamps featuring his work honoring Silent Screen Stars. Once again, he was permitted to include “Nina” in as many areas as he could. On both sets of stamps, there are some easily identifiable “Ninas” and some that are more ambiguous, which Hirschfeld called “near-Ninas.” The USPS marketing for Hirschfeld’s stamps encouraged people to count how many Ninas they could find.
During his lifetime, Al Hirschfeld received two Tony lifetime achievement awards and a National Medal of the Arts. He died on January 20, 2003, and later that year, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.
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