Inside Stories, Part IV
Some little-known factoids and trivia about Dragon
Cards (and "little known" for good reason!)
The menorah in Dgn 357 Hanukkah
2009 is mine. I purchased it around 1977, when I set up my first
living quarters after college and after leaving my parents' home. I
also took the photograph, so I think I have most of the rights to this
design sewn up!
We also have a Mickey Mouse menorah, but I wasn't satisfied with the
pictures I took of it. Maybe for the next Hanukkah design...
Okay, so I went a little overboard on Gary Cooper — and I'm not
even really that big a fan of the actor. But he had such a long career
that he not only worked with or was close friends with several of the
people who have already been honored on U.S. stamps, but he may be the
record-holder for portraying real-life people: Sgt. Alvin York and Lou
Gehrig among them. (he also played Wild Bill Hickcock and Billy
Mitchell, for whom there are U.S. stamps, and Marco Polo and Dr.
Commander Corydon M. Wassell, for whom there are not.) I wasn't
planning the second "Pride of the Yankees" combo with the Baseball
Legends Gehrig stamp (Sc. 3408t), but there were dozens in a lot of
discount postage I purchased. How could I refuse?
The longer the Legends of Hollywood series continues, the easier it's
going to be to make combination FDCs for those stamps.
I was in the 1971 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, playing
trombone in the Syracuse University Marching Band. Wikipedia says that
edition was notable because the winds were so strong that the balloons
were canceled. I didn't know that until I read it recently on
Wikipedia. I was more concerned about the rain beating down on us
during the 3 a.m. run-through for the NBC cameras, and the gust of wind
that took one of my pieces of music at the top of Times Square.
That was my freshman year in college. By coincidence, my freshman year
in high school, I was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
White Plains, NY, edition, on the Friday after the holiday. (Macy's
spun off parts of the parade, but no balloons, to several New York area
towns that had major Macy's stores.) Again, I was in the front row of
the band, but that time, I was playing baritone horn.
One more thing: I applied to Macy's to work on the parade after
college. I actually got an interview with the woman in charge of the
parade, but she explained that there was only one full-time employee
working on the parade (her). It would have been my dream job. Come to
think of it, it still would be.
I had a design nearly finished for the Seabiscuit envelope, but
wasn't sure if I was going to prepare Dragon "Cards" for that issue.
Then I realized I had already purchased the stamps for the combo, so I
submitted the 18 envelopes just before the end of the grace period.
I hadn't planned a variety of the full-sheet Early Television
Memories Dragon Card, but two were spoiled during servicing, so I
submitted replacements...and forgot to specify to use only circular
date stamps. So the replacements were canceled with one pictorial FDOI
cancel and 5 CDS cancels.
Come back soon for the next
installment of "Trivia."
