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For broadcast on CBS Radio Network stations April 3-4, 2004:

It's All Relatives

The Stamp Collecting Report, I'm Lloyd de Vries. 

Earlier this year, the Postal Service dumped the previously-announced Spencer Tracy as this
 year's Legends of Hollywood stamp, and then, eventually, replaced him with John Wayne.

A John Wayne stamp design had been posted more than two years earlier at The Virtual Stamp 
Club, an Internet stamp site, but Postal officials wouldn't confirm the stamp then. 

Now, John Hotchner, the most prominent stamp collector on the Citizens Stamp Advisory 
Committee, which screens and chooses stamp subjects, says that's because one of the Duke's 
relatives was objecting to the stamp. That relative has since passed away, he said.

A check of obituaries finds that Michael Wayne, who spent most of his life guarding his 
father's image, died a year ago.

That made John Wayne available to step in for Spencer Tracy.

Hotchner also revealed to a Washington stamp club the Postal Service thought it had the 
rights to Tracy locked up -- until another relative appeared on the scene and objected.

And that's Stamp Collecting this week. 

I'm Lloyd de Vries, CBS News. 

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