Christmas Seals and Classic Hollywood Stars

I try my best to be charitable all the year, but am most successful during this time when the needy and the sad come to mind often. With those thoughts in mind, I decided to dedicate this post to something charitable with a tinge of classic Hollywood and settled on Christmas Seals as my Christmas post.

Christmas Seals have been around for well over a century. The seals were created to help fight Tuberculosis (TB), a leading cause of death in the U.S. in the early part of the 20th Century.  TB struck the rich, the poor, the young, and the old with equal vigor and it was the most feared disease of its time.

Determined to battle TB, a group of doctors and concerned citizens formed the first voluntary health agency in America in 1904, the National Association for the Study and Prevention of Tuberculosis (NASPT), later to become the American Lung Association.  The first signs of success in treating TB were seen in sanatoriums, which became central to fighting TB in its early days with special attention given to patients who needed long-term care. One of these sanatoriums, a small Delaware facility, fell on hard times and would have to close its doors if $300 could not be raised to save it. Enter Emily Bissell, the cousin of one of the physicians in Delaware. Ms. Bissell knew about fundraising and soon came up with a plan to design and print holiday seals and sell them at the post office for a penny each. Christmas Seals were born. The year was 1907.

Emily Bissell’s first Christmas Seals campaign got off to a slow start, but an endorsement by President Teddy Roosevelt and a feature in the Philadelphia North American newspaper changed matters. Soon after, Bissell and a large group of volunteers were able to raise ten times their goal. For her work in this pioneering effort, Emily Bissell was honored with a stamp in 1980.

Vintage Christmas Seals

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Through the years many famous faces, including presidents like Calvin Coolidge, Woodrow Wilson, and Franklin Roosevelt, have embraced and supported the Christmas Seals campaign. The results have funded medical research, helped produce large-scale public health education campaigns, and provided TB screenings. By the 1950s, TB was largely controlled in the United States. Death rates in 1954 were minuscule compared to what they had been in 1904 when the organization was founded.

Of course, when celebrities were needed to stand up to TB and support the efforts of Christmas Seals they stepped up. They attended fund raisers and exhibits and hosted events as time allowed. Here are a few images supporting those efforts…

Christmas seal campaign luncheon, 14 November 1951. Sherman Asche, Seal Chairman;Walter Pidgeon;Debra Paget;Claire Trevor.. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)

1949 Charles Coburn

Bob Hope with young Christmas Seals artists

Carol Burnett 1968

Clayton Moore (The Lone Ranger) and Jay Silverheels (Tonto) for Christmas Seals

Kirk Douglas kisses a fan for Christmas Seals in 1949

Barbara Britton talks to the crowd at a fundraising event in 1953

Christmas seal campaign luncheon, 14 November 1951. Sherman Asche, Seal Chairman;Walter Pidgeon;Debra Paget

Frank Sinatra 1963

Christmas seal booth at Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street, 8 December 1956. Dani Crayne (starlet) and Roy Williams

Christmas seal booth, 9 December 1953. Rhonda Fleming;Mrs Homer D Root. (Handout).Los Angeles; California; USAChristmas;Postage-stamps. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)

Christmas seal booth opened…subway terminal building, 7 December 1951.;Richard Webb, Actor;Mrs Helen Miller, in charge of booth.;Supplementary material reads: ‘Los Angeles County Tuberculosis & Health Assn. Bob Scholl. DUnkirk 8-3401. 1951- 12-07. Photo Identification: #209: Warner Bros. ‘Distant Drums’ star Richard Webb and Mrs Helen Miller, in charge of booth. At the Christmas Seal booth opened today at the Subway Terminal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Other downtown booths are located at the Spring Arcade Building and at the. E Building at 6th and Main. A fourth booth opens Monday at the Biltmore Hotel’.. (Photo by Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images)

Lana Turner 1954

Radio shows, such as the aptly titled “Christmas Seals Show” featured familiar radio voices as well as Hollywood’s top stars. Even Emily Bissell made an appearance to promote the sale of seals.

I could not get my hands on any of the “Christmas Seals Show” episodes to share, but I found several public service announcements made by top Hollywood stars in honor of Christmas Seals. It’s not surprising that these are my favorite, as you’ll see top talent step off the movie spotlight for this cause.

Bob Hope (1944)

Abbott and Costello and Charles Laughton

Walter Brennan

Frank Sinatra

Virginia Mayo

John Wayne (1955)

Clark Gable

Gary Cooper

Jack Lemmon

James Cagney

James Garner

James Coburn

Jack Webb

Barbara Eden

The American Lung Association remains the leading organization working to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. You can make a donation on its site, or, as in days of old, purchase Christmas Seals.

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I leave you with wishes from some of the famous faces of 1938 and join them in wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and a new year full of love, joy, and movies!