Welcome to my stamp blog

Welcome to my stamp blog
Feel free to leave comments!

Friday, August 25, 2017

Fun With Philatelic Material - Olympic Gold Medalist to Tarzan!

Sometimes it's fun when I run across philatelic materials that illustrate part of my collection where the subject takes a strange twist. Such was the case with the stamp from the Isle of Man that commemorated Johnny Weismeuller's Olympic achievements in the 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games.

I never new he was an Olympic gold medalist! I knew about him since I was a little boy because my father loved to watch him in his Tarzan movies late at night. He and I would sit together in the dark and watch late into the night on Saturday. Weismeuller's parents were from Banat, Yugoslavia where my father was raised.


Later I found this First Day Cover issued in Romania in 2004 to commemorate his achievements.


Johnny Weismeuller was born June 2, 1904 as an ethnic German, the elder son of Peter and Elisabeth, both Banat Swabians. His generally accepted birthplace is in Freiodorf, Austro-Hungarian Empire. 

At the age of 9 Johnny contracted polio and at the suggestion of his doctor, took up swimming to help battle the disease. Weismeuller was swimming's first superstar; swimming the 100m freestyle and the 4x200m relay team event at both the 1924 Paris and 1928 Amsterdam Games. He also won gold in the 400m freestyle.

On the cache, postmark, and stamp, this FDC Romania commemorated his Olympic achievements as well as his transition to the Tarzan roles in multiple Hollywood films.

The following postcards were also issued with caches from various Tarzan movie posters.



Thursday, August 24, 2017

Olympic Torch Relay



In contrast to the Olympic Flame proper, the Torch Relay of the modern Olympic Games, which transports the Olympic Flame from Greece to the various designated sites of the Olympic Games, has no ancient precedent and was introduced by Carl Diem at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.



Ghana - 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games
Isle of Man - 1948 London Summer Olympic Games
Cambodia - 1968 Mexico Summer Olympic Games



Turkey - 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympic Games
Austria - 1972 Munich Summer Olympic Games

This is what the page in my album looks like:



While most of the time the Olympic Torch is still carried by runners, it has been transported in many different ways including, by dragon boat in Hong Kong, by airplane, on horseback, and as a radio signal transmitted by satellite to trigger a laser beam to relight the flame. It has even been carried under water by divers, in an outrigger canoe, on a camel, and on the Concorde.


In this souvenir sheet featuring Pierre de Coubertin, the founder of the modern Olympic Games, the stamp shows the Olympic Flame arriving in the Cook Islands, May 31st 2000, being transported aboard a traditional outrigger canoe with islanders dressed in native costumes.


Monsterrat - 1932 and 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympic Games
Netherlands - 1968 Mexico Summer Olympic Games



Germany - 1952 Helsinki Summer Olympic Games
German Democratic Republic - 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympic Games

And here is the page in my album:



On its first journey to the southern hemisphere the flame was carried by runners from Olympia to Athens. When the torch reached Athens it was transferred to a miner's lamp and put on board the Qantas Airlines Super Constellation VH-EAB Southern Horizon under Captain Andy Young and given safe passage to Darwin, its first stop in Australia. The flight also carried 440 pounds of souvenir mail of which this cover was one of the 33,116 items flown.





The cover was postmarked at Olympia on 2 November 1956, and then received a special back stamp on arrival at the Olympic Stadium in Melbourne on 22 November 1956,

This is the page in my album:




The 1984 Summer Olympics Torch Relay was run from May 8th until July 28th, prior to the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The route covered about 9,300 miles across the United States and involved over 3,600 torch bearers.



This postcard with a First Day of Issue cancellation in Los Angeles, also has the Olympic Torch runner as part of the imprinted stamp. The cache features two Olympic Torch runners handing off the Olympic Torch.



Ghana - 1960 Rome Summer Olympic Games

The 1960 Rome Olympic Games Torch Relay started at Olympia then went through many ancient cities including Pyrgos, Patras, Megara, Eleusis, and Athens, from the Panathinakos Stadium in the Greek capitol, to Syracuse in Italy, and along the Appian Way, the Forums, and on to the Olympic stadium.

And finally, this is what the page looks like in my album.


My collection of Olympic Torch Relay stamps and pages will continue to grow as a unique subset of my collection, and part of the Olympic Games story told in stamps.