PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
94
Charlie Delgado of Elyria, Ohio, used
a ticket to a local Disney Tarzan production along with some Disney Tarzan
stickers, to put together this cover, which he mailed on Nov. 4, 2016,
postmarking the stamps with his Mailers Postmark Permit cancelling device.
Stamps are the 5-cent grapes cluster definitive stamp issued in 2017, the
8-cent U.S. Flag-White House stamp, issued in 1971, and the Frida Kahlo
self-portrait, issued as a 34-cent stamp to honor the Mexican folk artist
in 2001.
Ever since the Disney Tarzan film of 1999, local productions
of the musical have taken place all over the U.S., mostly in high schools.
I don't know if anyone has a record of how many there have been. Participating
in a play is a memorable experience and one that participants usually remember
all their lives. My daughter was Lucy in a high school Peanuts musical
and retained a fondness for the character thereafter. One of my brothers
still remembers the character he played in high school, Mr. DePinna in
"You Can't Take It With You," especially since his role was to pose as
a toga-wearing ancient discus thrower and he had to stand in the pose on
one foot throughout an entire act as the action went on around him
I haven't been in a lot of plays, but I remember playing
the bear in a kindergarten play. So these folks who are in the Disney Tarzan
productions will likely have a long memory of these characters, too, and
some of them, as well as members of the audiences, may eventually become
fans of ERB's real Tarzan.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
95
On this date, Nov. 5, 1999, The Cover
Monster dropped this in the mail. His 32-cent stamp from the World of Dinosaurs
stamp sheet, issued by the USPS in 1997, was postmarked with the local
bullseye cancellation in Elyria, Ohio. In his letter inside, The Monster
wrote: "Here is another Tarzan cover and some Tarzan address labels. Hope
you can use them." They were probably labels like the one he used to mail
the cover. I must have used them all up by now!
The stamp depicts the Edmontonia (no relation to Ed Burroughs).
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
96
Cartoons from The Far Side and other
comics always make great images for postal covers. Dave Lemon of Ohio found
one of Gary Larson's many takes on Tarzan, clipped it out and glued it
on, while repositioning the caption, for this cover mailed Nov. 6, 2017.
He used a 1-cent Bobcat stamp along with a 48-cent Niagara Falls stamp
to equal the then first-class rate of 49 cents.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
97
Julia Buchanan, member 520 of the Art
Cover Exchange, likes to feature "the little girl in me" on the postal
art
covers she sends out. Here, the little girl meets Tarzan himself!
Julia affixed a Bonsai tree stamp, issued Jan. 23, 2012,
the same year at the Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp, and mailed it on Nov.
12, 2013, a day after the US Veterans Day holiday.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
98
The Cover Monster probably didn't realize it, but he
not only sent me two nearly identical covers four years apart, but he also
mailed them on the same date -- Nov. 21!
The first cover was mailed just three months after the
Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp was issued (Aug. 17, 2012) and mailed with a
hand-cancel from the Vermilion, Ohio, post office, just a few miles from
The Cover Monster's lair. The date is not visible on this postmark. However,
the letter inside is dated Nov. 21, 2012, so it was likely mailed the same
day, or perhaps on Nov. 22.
The Cover Monster had laid in a good supply of ERB stamps
and he used another one four years later to mail another cover, this one
with a spray-on cancel from Cleveland, Ohio, on Nov. 21, 2016.
Both covers fefture the ERB stamp along with a cachet
of Taz as Tarzan.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
99
Neal Adams's "Tarzan of the Apes" cover art was used by Leroy
in Washington state for this cover sent to me in 1999. This one escaped
without a postmark, but the letter inside was written on Nov. 29, 20 years
ago today. Leroy added a 3-D lion sticker to the scene.
Postage was 33 cents back then and he paid for the piece
of mail with a 32-cent Superman stamp, issued Sept. 10, 1998, as part of
the Celebrate the Century stamp series, commemorating events of the 1930s,
and a 1-cent definitive stamp showing an inkwell and feather pen with the
words: "The ability to write -- a root of democracy." Certainly, Edgar
Rice Burroughs was free to write and, once he got started with stories
such as "Under the Moons of Mars" and "Tarzan of the Apes," he wrote freely
for four more decades.
PUSHING THE ENVELOPE NO.
100
The Cover Monster
enjoys asking trivia questions on some of his covers, and all ERB fans
know the answer to this one. However, in the event there are any who do
not, The Cover Monster conveniently supplied the answer at the bottom of
the cover.
This one was franked with the Edgar Rice Burroughs stamp
which had been issued three and a half months earlier and mailed on Dec.
4, 2012.
SPECIAL
.
