Next to Edgar Rice Burroughs himself, the man who I believe is most deserving of having his picture on a first-day-of-issue cover is Denny Miller.

Denny played Tarzan once, in the 1959 movie, "Tarzan the Ape-Man." The movie was not the top Tarzan movie of all time by a longshot, but that was in no way because of the acting abilities of Denny, who went on to have a productive career in movies and television, including on-going roles in "Wagon Train," "Mona McCluskey," "Dallas" and "Lonesome Dove."

But Denny was a fan favorite, demonstrating his interest over the years by showing up at fan gatherings and becoming personal friends with many of the fans along the way, including the King of Fans, George W. McWhorter, founder and curator of the Edgar Rice Burroughs Collection at the University of Louisville.

One of Denny's greatest services to fandom came in 2006, when he was invited to some festivities surrounding the opening of the Clinton Presidential Library (his cowboy costume, from the movie, "The Party," was on display there as a tie-in with Bill Clinton's childhood love of cowboys).

Denny had been invited to dinner at the home of the chairman of the Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee and Denny took full advantage of the opportunity to put into the ear of that chairman the idea of having a stamp in 2012 to honor Edgar Rice Burroughs on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the publication of his first stories, "Under the Moons of Mars" and "Tarzan of the Apes."

The chairman liked the idea, and a few months later wrote to Denny saying the stamp had been approved by the full board for the 2012 date. Denny's timing was excellent, since USPS stamps are selected about five years in advance.

Then came the excruciating half-a-decade wait in which Denny must have wanted to share the good news with fans. But at last it was time for the Postal Service to announce its stamp subjects for 2012.

Even then, there was no grand announcement of Denny's role. In fact, I learned of it only from an aside mentioned by Denny's wife, Nancy, in a post to the erbcof-L list serve. Her subject was something else entirely but she happened to mention the stamp in passing.

That was the first I'd heard of possible Denny involvement in the stamp, and I arranged to interview him at the upcoming Dum Dum for the full story. The interview took place and the story has been told. It's featured at ERBzine 4395

http://www.erbzine.com/mag43/4395.html

It was also published in The Burroughs Bulletin No. 87 and in Cover-to-Cover, the monthly publication of a philatelic organization, the Art Cover Exchange.