Broadway Songwriters
The Legends of American Music series concludes in 1999 with separate tributes to Broadway Songwriters and Hollywood Composers. The series began in 1993 with the issuance of the Elvis stamp, which was also part of the Rock & Roll/Rhythm & Blues set issued later that year. Other music genres celebrated in the series include Broadway Musicals, Popular Singers, Jazz and Blues Singers, Songwriters, Jazz Musicians, Big Band Leaders, Country and Western, Opera Singers, Classical Composers and Conductors, Folk Musicians and Gospel Singers. The Broadway Songwriters stamps honor team composer/lyricists Ira and George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, and Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, and individual songwriters Lorenz Hart, Frank Loesser and Meredith Willson. These songwriters influenced the music of Broadway from the 1920s through the 1950s by producing exciting scores and lyrics that blended American music forms and themes. These stamps, and the Hollywood Composers set, were illustrated by Drew Struzan.