LOS ANGELES -- The U.S. Postal Service announced it will issue stamps in 2009 depicting Bob Hope, Gary Cooper and prominent 1950s television figures.
The Hope stamp will be issued on May 29 in a ceremony aboard the USS Midway in San Diego on the 106th anniversary of his birth.
The Early TV Memories set of 20 stamps will be issued Aug. 11 in Los Angeles.
The set consists of stamps depicting Milton Berle; "I Love Lucy" stars Lucille Ball and Vivian Vance; Red Skelton; puppet Howdy Doody; "Dragnet" star Jack Webb; Lassie; William Boyd, best known as Hopalong Cassidy, and his horse Topper; "You Bet Your Life" host Groucho Marx; Dinah Shore; Ed Sullivan; "Kukla, Fran and Ollie"; Phil Silvers; The Lone Ranger (Clayton Moore) and his horse Silver; "Perry Mason" star Raymond Burr; Alfred Hitchcock; George Burns and Gracie Allen; Ozzie and Harriet Nelson; Steve Allen; "Twilight Zone" creator and host Rod Serling; and "The Honeymooners" stars Jackie Gleason and Art Carney.
The Cooper stamp will be issued Sept. 10 as the 15th in the Legends of Hollywood series.
The USPS services every address in the nation -- 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail.
Other stamps set for release in 2009 include:
- Alaska Statehood
- Lunar New Year: Year of the Ox
- Oregon Statehood
- Edgar Allan Poe
- Abraham Lincoln
- Miami University Stamped Card
- Civil Rights Pioneers
- Love: King and Queen of Hearts
- Wedding Cake
- Wedding Rings
- Anna Julia Cooper (Black Heritage)
- Flags of Our Nation (Set 3 of 6)
- Hawai'i Statehood
- Gulf Coast Lighthouses
- American Treasures: Edward Hopper
- Richard Wright
- Thanksgiving Day Parade
- United States Supreme Court Justices
- Nature of America: Kelp Forest
- Christmas: Madonna and Sleeping Child by Sassoferrato
- Winter Holidays
- Angel with Lute
- Hanukkah (menorah)
- Kwanzaa (family)
