I am sorry you only have a single of the stamp revenuermd. The stamps were issued in panes of twenty, two rows high and ten columns across.
Additionally the two rows were tête-bêche thus giving ten such tête-bêche pairs where the acrobat, B-O-B ( that's how he spelled it) was transferring from one plane to the other. B-O-B's position progressively varied such than from the left column to the right column B-O-B started closest to the top plane and ended closest to the bottom plane such that five columns were the reverse of the other five columns. So while you think B-O-B is falling from the plane in your single image, if you invert the image, it will show B-O-B about to land on the plane feet first to resume his acrobatic wing walking popular at the time. Thus each of the ten tête-bêche show different stages of his performance B-O-B frequently transferred plane to plane during his show while also wing walking a bit after landing while the two plane each perform one half of a barrel roll so he may drop from one plane to the other again..
While this appears to be an airmail stamp (Scott "C" prefix) it is actually part of the circus issue which only appeared in the USPS circus book, thus not Scott listed.
Sadly B-O-B only performed his show two complete times, failing to do so during his third performance. One plane suffered brief engine issues causing the plane to suddenly slow considerably before regaining proper power. While the pilot land safely, both planes and pilots did, B-O-B did not rather B-O-B's landing was much more impactful as his landing plane was out of position.
B-O-B landed almost dead center in a round pen, actually a closed sided bull pen which was not being used for horse training at the time, luckily for the fairgrounds. Also being closed sided, it blocked from public view of B-O-B's final landing. The first emergency worker on the scene was heard to ask, "Where's B-O-B? I looked in and it was just like a pancake with cherry or strawberry syrup on top. But, no B-O-B.
The burial of B-O-B was rather unique. While a grave hole was dug, it was never filled in. As the only way they could be sure all of B-O-B's remains were gathered the top several inches of the soft bull pen soil was excavated. Thus when B-O-B was placed into his grave, it needed only be sodded over as the hole was filled.
The USPS had stamps designed to be another image changing issue showing B-O-B about five feet up and smiling then switches to a top view if the resulting pancake. Prior to the official announcement of the issue, someone leaked the design to Electronic Arts which immediately filed an infringement lawsuit against the release by the USPS. Currently there is no set release date, if any, until the matter completes its journey via the courts. The basis for the injunction request was that the USPS' name for the issue was the "Holographic B-O-B Pancakes Forever Stamps" which they claim is too close to the Sims 4 Character, Bob Pancakes, the likeness, name and his family which they own. |
Posted 12/22/2024 07:58 am
