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Saturday, May 27, 2006
...and that's why the MGM studio cafeteria always had poutine on the menu...
Yesterday, Canada Post issued a set of four stamps honouring famous Canadians in Hollywood.
Fay Wray, Lorne Greene, Mary Pickford and John Candy are now on 51 cent stamps.
(Shotgun readers recently had a bit of a dicussion at this post here...
http://westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/2006/04/hooray_for_holl.html
...about which Hollywood figures from north of the border should be honoured)
For my part, I think that these are good choices. Local press stories that I have seen on the stamp series note that philately boffins are arguing that it's about time that Canada started honouring entertainment celebrities on stamps. (The U.S. Postal Service sold millions of stamps featuring Elvis and Marilyn Monroe and banana republics have been issuing such stamps for decades.)
I think that John Candy is worth putting on a stamp. Colby Cosh (for one) would probably want to clobber me with a box of stamp hinges for writing this, but I would have preferred that another figure from the Golden Age of Hollywood (such as a Mack Sennett) would have been honoured before Candy. But, putting John Candy on a stamp will help sales of the entire series and thus lead to more such stamps, which is worth consideration.
Who should be honoured on future stamps?
Posted by Rick Hiebert on May 27, 2006 in Film | Permalink
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Comments
Alphonso Gagliano and Chuck Quite and jean Chretien et al in the 'adscam' series of stamps: only problem is people won't know which side to spit on!
Posted by: Bushman | 2006-05-27 5:54:57 PM
George Strombopoulis, Gidget Taber and Frank Morselli.
Posted by: EBD | 2006-05-27 5:59:39 PM
Raymond Massey and Raymond Burr before Candy.
However, I do take your point that Candy helps sales.
Posted by: Gord Tulk | 2006-05-27 6:07:28 PM
A stamp isn't sainthood, though with the number canonized by JP II it is getting closer.
Leonard Cohen would be my vote. Or Joni Mitchell. He probably wouldn't want that, but she probably would.
Posted by: himbly | 2006-05-27 7:02:08 PM
Who else but the best-known Canadian living in the US .... Wayne Gretzky.
Posted by: BCer | 2006-05-27 7:19:23 PM
Told ya Lorne Greene would be there.
Next ?? I'm with you on Sennett. How about Ruby Keeler - loved her in 42nd St.
Posted by: Nbob | 2006-05-27 9:06:21 PM
Nice one Bushman
How about Brian Mulroney and Mike Harris.
Posted by: WinnipegLibertarian | 2006-05-27 10:43:35 PM
How 'bout Elijah McCoy?
"He was an inventor who was awarded over 57 patents. The son of runaway slaves from Kentucky, he was born in Canada and lived there as a youth. Educated in Scotland as a mechanical engineer, he returned to Detroit and in 1872 invented a lubricator for steam engines. His new oiling device revolutionized the industrial machine industry by allowing machines to remain in motion while being oiled. This device, although imitated by other designers, was so successful that people inspecting new equipment would ask if it contained the real McCoy."
-- From http://tinyurl.com/nk28y
Posted by: Vitruvius | 2006-05-27 11:17:38 PM
Or what about Elizabeth Muriel Gregory?
"Born Vancouver, British Columbia 1905. Died November 4, 1980. She became Canada’s first woman graduate to hold a degree in electrical engineering. She also held a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. During WW II her primary responsibility was the production of the Hawker Hurricane fighter aircraft. Her staff of 4,500 people produced more than 2000 aircraft. In 1937 she was the first woman to be admitted corporate membership in the Engineering Institute of Canada. She is a member of Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame. She is considered the first woman to be a designer of airplanes."
-- From http://tinyurl.com/qbb5y
Posted by: Vitruvius | 2006-05-27 11:24:30 PM
Or even Willard S. Boyle, inventor of the Charge Coupled Device.
"A lot of people pooh poohed Boyle and Smith's idea saying it would never work. Remember at this point, it was only a theory. A bunch of equations and diagrams on a blackboard. But the pair decided to take the plans to the shop down the hall and see if the device could be made. As it turned out it was made and it worked exactly as expected.
"Soon afterwards Boyle presented a paper about the new CCD invention at a conference in New York on The Future of Integrated Circuits and as he says, "All hell broke loose." The phone started to ring with people and companies anxious to learn more. One of the calls was from Boyle's boss Jack Morton.
"I guess there's probably a future in this semiconductor IC thing after all," said Morton and that was all the praise Boyle was going to get.
"But in the succeeding years Boyle and Smith went on to win a handful of awards for the device that is at the heart of virtually every camcorder, digital camera and telescope in use today.
"Boyle’s major contributions include the first continuously operating ruby laser, which he invented with Don Nelson in 1962, and the first patent (with David Thomas) proposing a semiconductor injection laser. Also in 1962 he became director of Space Science and Exploratory Studies at Bellcomm, a Bell subsidiary providing technological support for the Apollo space program. While at NASA, Boyle helped work out where to land on the moon.
"In 1964 he returned to Bell Labs, switching from research to the development of electronic devices, particularly integrated circuits, which are now essential building blocks in telecommunications and electronics in general. In 1969, Boyle and George Smith invented the Charge-Coupled Device (CCD). CCDs can be used as computer memory, electronic filters and signal processors, but their overwhelmingly popular application as imaging devices has revolutionized astronomy (the Hubble Space Telescope uses CCDs at its prime focus) and created entirely new industries (e.g., video cameras and camcorders).
"For this invention, Boyle and Smith were joint recipients of the Franklin Institute’s Stuart Ballantine Medal in 1973, and of IEEE’s 1974 Morris Liebmann Award. In 1975, Boyle returned to research as Executive Director of Research for Bell Labs, where he was in charge of four laboratories until his retirement in 1979. Since retirement he has served on the research council of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research and the Science Council of the Province of Nova Scotia."
-- From http://tinyurl.com/l9uo2
Posted by: Vitruvius | 2006-05-27 11:30:33 PM
Actually Canada contributed a lot to Hollywood. Louis B. Mayer founder of MGM was from Saint John
NB as was famed actor Walter Pidgeon. The Warner Brothers were from London Ontario. Director Norm Jewison from The Beaches, Toronto. Glenn Glenn one of the pioneers of film sound came from New Brunswick, and Ruby Keeler Broadway and Film Star raised in NY, was originally from Dartmouth Nova Scotia, married Al Jolson. There are others
of course. Jack MacLeod
Posted by: Jack Macleod | 2006-05-28 6:13:00 AM
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