USPS Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane”

USPS on 18 February 1999 honoured Orson Welles’ “Citizen Kane” in their Celebrate the Century (1940s) series. The stamp was based on a photograph from the original movie. Ashton Potter (USA) Ltd. printed the stamp using an Offset, Intaglio printing method. First Day Cover originated from Dobbins Air Force Base, Georgia. A total of 188,000,000 stamps were printed. 

Welles wrote, directed, produced, and starred in “Citizen Kane.” It is considered by many critics to be one of the greatest films ever made, given the time when it was released.  It has been hailed for its artistic and technical innovations. Welles dramatic use of lighting and music, as well as innovative narrative techniques, established him as a master filmmaker. 

"Citizen Kane’s" cinematographer, Greg Toland experimented with lighting and lenses. His experimentation resulted in deep focus which allowed all elements of a shot to fit in the screen at once. This film launched the film industry into the “modern age,” or the big Hollywood era of the 1950s and 1960s. 

The film follows the life and career of Charles Foster Kane, a wealthy and 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 the 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.”