Sunday, September 29, 2013

Circus Stamps #11

5 comments:

Bob Momyer said...

There is much controversy about whether this is actually Lou as the U.S. post office does not use the picture of living people on our stamps. i was backstage at M.S.G. the day the artist made sketches of Lou and Lou told me they were for a postage stamp. One school of thought is that since it is "not a portrait but the image of a character Lou played" it is OK. My stamp collecting friends still argue about this, while many poblications credit the image with being Lou Jacobs that would make the stamp an historic first.
Bob Momyer

Paul Gutheil said...

I vote for historic first !

God bless Lou.

Paul

Ole Whitey said...

Bob: There is some guy who has researched and recorded a number of examples of living persons on U S stamps, but this is probably the first that could be called a portrait.

I think the earliest stamp to show a living person was the 2¢ stamp in the 1898 Trans-Mississippi set. It showed a guy mowing wheat and was engraved from a photo of a living person.

JACKIE said...

These circus stamps are exciting to view. So much controversy over Lou Jacobs. Well, we have mostly all accepted that it is definitely Lou. There might have been many similar make ups, but just looking at the art work in this stamp, the entire clown personality and special character of Lou Jacobs pops right out into our minds. It's Lou! Jackie LeClaire

Bob Momyer said...

Thanks to Ole Whitey for the history lesson. Now can prove to my stamp collecting friends how smart I am. Jackie is correct abouy Lou's personality coming through on the stamp.
Bob Momyer