About This Stamp
With the 13th stamp in its Legends of Hollywood series, the U.S. Postal Service honors James Stewart (1908–1997), the American film star who is remembered as the hero in classic American movies such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and Rear Window (1954). His naturalistic acting style, lanky physique, and slow, drawling speech made him seem more "real" than other movie stars, though his performances were in fact carefully planned. His numerous films include Destry Rides Again (1939), Harvey (1950), The Glenn Miller Story (1954), and a sentimental holiday favorite, It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
“MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON” © 1939, renewed 1967 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Courtesy of Columbia Pictures.
Art Director
Phil Jordan
Phil Jordan grew up in New Bern, North Carolina, and attended East Carolina University. After Army service in Alaska, he graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in visual communications. He worked in advertising and in design at a trade association before joining Beveridge and Associates, Inc., where he provided art direction for corporate, institutional, and government design projects. A partner in the firm, he left after 18 years to establish his own design firm where he managed projects for USAir, NASA, McGraw-Hill, IBM, and Smithsonian Books, among others. He was Design Director of Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine for 15 years. His work appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications such as Graphis and Communications Arts. A past president of the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, he was an art director for the U.S. Postal Service from 1991 to 2014. A resident of Falls Church, Virginia, he is a retired glider pilot and a member of the Skyline Soaring Club.