New stamps for Gary Cooper, Thanksgiving parade

WASHINGTON — A Thanksgiving Parade of stamps began their march on Wednesday, and another honoring actor Gary Cooper will mosey into post offices Thursday.

The four 44-cent parade stamps were released at ceremonies at Herald Square in New York, commemorating this traditional day of family togetherness, food and football.

“In 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued a Proclamation of Thanksgiving, marking the beginning of national recognition of an annual U.S. Thanksgiving holiday,” said Joseph Corbett, Postal Service chief financial officer and executive vice president.

The stamps illustrate a marching band, large balloons of favorite animals and popular characters and crowds of onlookers.

Cooper’s stamp, latest in the Legends of Hollywood series, will be released in a ceremony at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles.

A Montana native, Cooper started in the movie business as a stunt man, earning his pay falling off horses in westerns.

After changing his name from Frank James Cooper to Gary Cooper, he became a popular leading man and a friend of writer Ernest Hemingway, who had Cooper in mind when writing “For Whom the Bell Tolls.” Cooper starred when that book was turned into a movie.

Cooper won an Oscar for his portrayal of Sgt. Alvin York, in “Sergeant York,” in 1941. The following year he played slugger Lou Gehrig in “The Pride of the Yankees.”

Perhaps his best known role, though, was as Marshal Will Kane in the classic “High Noon” in 1952. He won another Oscar for that performance.

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