"Humphrey Bogart, here's looking at you," said Postmaster General Marvin Runyon at the unveiling of the 32-cent stamp at Mann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood. "As one of the greatest actors of all-time, Humphrey Bogart secured a place in American history."
Bogart's widow, Lauren Bacall, accompanied by their children, Stephen and Leslie, attended. The ceremony was hosted by Anjelica Huston, whose father John directed such Bogart movies as The African Queen (for which he won an Oscar), The Maltese Falcon and Key Largo (which also starred Bacall).
"Humphrey died when he was very young...and I think this is a great way to remember him," Bacall said of the Bogie image, which shows the laconic star as he was in l946 playing world-weary private eye Philip Marlowe in The Big Sleep.
But the actress didn't mention specific memories of their relationship, considered one of Hollywood's great romances, which began when she costarred with him in the l944 To Have and Have Not. (It was in that film that she uttered the famous line: "You do know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You put your lips together and...blow.") Forget whistling, isn't it time old Steve learned how to lick a stamp?
The Postal Service receives more than 40,000 suggestions each year for subjects for stamps. Only about 25 to 30 are selected. The Bogie stamp is the third in the Postal Service's "Legends of Hollywood" series, which also includes James Dean and Marilyn Monroe. Tomorrow, post offices nationwide will begin selling 195 million stamps of the Casablanca star.
The most recent Hollywood honoree prior to Bogart was Warner Bros. cartoon star Bugs Bunny. The Bugs stamp outraged some purist philatelists who felt the wascally wabbit was a bit of crass commercialism.
The Postal Service also faced backlash with another high-profile celebrity stamp, that of Elvis Presley. Many collectors felt the King's drug problems made him an unsuitable candidate for such an honor. However the stamp--which was preceded by a poll to pick between a young Elvis and a fat Elvis--proved hugely popular. The young Elvis image was a bestseller with proceeds benefitting not only the post office but the King's estate, which had strong-armed the agency into giving them a cut of the related merchadise.