AVILA BEACH, CA — An enlargement of the Johnny Cash First-Class Forever stamp will be unveiled during a special dedication ceremony at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, June 19, 2013, in the garden area of the Avila Beach Post Office, 191 San Miguel. Special guest will be famed photographer Frank Bez, who took the original 1963 photo featured on the stamp. Mr. Bez will share his recollections of Johnny Cash and the famous photo shoot, as well as sign sheets of the Johnny Cash stamps.
The Johnny Cash Forever stamp was issued June 5, 2013, in Nashville, TN, at the Grand Ole Opry – Ryman Auditorium. It is the second stamp issued in the exciting new Music Icons stamp series, which pays tribute to the legends responsible for making American music part of global popular culture. Resembling the appearance of a 45 RPM record sleeve, the square 46-cent Forever stamp features the photograph taken by Frank Bez during the photo session for 1963’s Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash.
Bez’s career was set in motion about 60 years ago when he was given a 616 Kodak camera for his birthday. After a stint in the Army as a videographer, he landed in Hollywood and started photographing some of the most spectacular stars of the 50’s and 60’s, including Natalie Wood, Raquel Welch, Angie Dickinson, Duke Ellington, Jim Morrison and Johnny Cash. Bez is now retired and resides in Avila Beach.
Johnny Cash stamp sheets autographed by Mr. Bez will be sold at the Avila Beach Post Office after the June 19 event while supplies last. The Johnny Cash stamp sheet features 16 stamps for $7.36.
Johnny Cash (1932–2003) is best remembered internationally as a country music artist, but his influence extends from rock and folk to blues and gospel. Cash found inspiration for his music in the stories of outlaws and laborers, and in his own life experience. A child of the Depression, he grew up in rural Arkansas, and the culture of that time and place remained with him all his life. Themes of redemption, loneliness, love, loss, and death colored his music with a gritty realism that differed markedly from other socially conscious popular music.
By the 1960s, Cash had become one of the top names in country music, known to many simply as “The Man in Black.” He had a string of hits that included “Folsom Prison Blues,” “Cry, Cry, Cry,” “I Walk the Line,” and the Grammy award-winning “A Boy Named Sue.” He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1980 and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992.
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