USPS Orson Welles’ film “Citizen Kane”

USPS on 18 February 1999 issued a First Day Cover stamp honouring Orson Welles’ famous film “Citizen Kane” from the 1940s.  It was one of several 32¢ First Class Mail Rate stamps; it was part of their "Celebrate the Century" series released between 1998 till 2000. The FDC postmark cancellation originated from Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia. The quantity printed included 188,000,000 stamps. Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. used an offset, intaglio printing method. It was designed by Carl Herrman of Laguna Niguel, California, and illustrated by Howard Koslow of Toms River, New Jersey.

Regarded as one of the most influential films ever created in the United States, “Citizen Kane” was Orson Welles’ first film. His dramatic use of lighting and music, as well as innovative narrative techniques, established him as a master filmmaker.

Welles wrote, directed, produced, and starred in “Citizen Kane.” The movie tells the story of a powerful newspaper magnate, based on the lives of publisher William Randolph Hearst and his mistress Marion Davies. Hearst’s failed attempts to block the film’s release in 1941 made his connection with the story even more obvious to critics and movie-goers.

The opening scene of “Citizen Kane” shows Xanadu, Charles Foster Kane’s immense estate, blanketed in fog. Looming above he mist, atop a man-made mountain, sits a castle with a single light shining from a window. Inside lies the dying Kane, clutching a crystal globe enclosing a winter scene. He utters one word, “Rosebud,” then dies. It is then up to a reporter to find out who the real Kane was, and the significance of “Rosebud.”

Source: USPS