Wash Post Article: 'First Class Act: The Postal Service Puts Black Film History In a Starring Role' By Jacqueline Trescott

The Vintage Black Cinema stamps feature (from left): "Black and Tan," a 1929 film with Duke Ellington and his Cotton Club Orchestra; "The Sport of the Gods," based on a book by Paul Laurence Dunbar; Josephine Baker in "Princess Tam-Tam"; "Caldonia," made in 1945, with band leader Louis Jordan; "Hallelujah," released by MGM in 1929, one of the first films from a major studio to feature an all-black cast.

U.S. Postal Service Press Release: www.usps.com

In today's Washington Post:
~LT

First- Class Act
The Postal Service Puts Black Film History In a Starring Role

Sunday, July 20, 2008; Page M06

A mocha-skinned, marcelled beauty is bent over backward, pushing away from a tan lover with lacquered waves. Maybe she is fighting him off. Or maybe she is giving a second thought to this seduction. Whatever, the embrace is definitely heated, and one you usually don't find on a postage stamp.

Yet this week, courtesy of the U.S. Postal Service, the poster from "The Sport of the Gods," a black silent film released in 1921, has become a first-class stamp. Movie posters have always been collectibles, but the advertisements from the early days of black cinema are rare, and so is much of the knowledge about these movies.

Postal officials were attracted to vintage black cinema images for their artistic qualities as well as their history. "The posters themselves are powerful, beautiful and striking," says David Failor, manager of stamp services for the Postal Service. "They tell a really great story about the industry that was out there that a lot of people don't know."

The five stamps are based on posters done before 1950, which eliminates the young visage of Sidney Poitier and the groundbreaking swagger of Richard Roundtree in "Shaft." Says Failor, "It was not so much the time frame, but we wanted five examples of really good artwork."

The earliest poster is of "Sport," the story of a woman who moves to that naughty New York after her husband goes to prison for a crime he didn't commit. The stars were Edward R. Abrams and Elizabeth Boyer. The silent movie was based on a novel by poet Paul Laurence Dunbar and was made by the Reol Motion Picture Corp., a white-owned company.

Washington Post Article By Jacqueline Trescott: www.washingtonpost.com