Post Office Honors Rebel Without A Cig

The Rebel Without a Cause has become the rebel without a cigarette.

When the U.S. Postal Service launched its James Dean stamp one month ago, it went to great effort to keep cigarettes out of promotional posters, fearing the public would complain that it was supporting smoking.

Nonetheless, James Dean has a cigarette in his hand at the Clematis Street post office in downtown West Palm Beach, Fla. The origins of the life-size cutout are a mystery.

The 32-cent Dean stamp souvenir sheet also shows the late actor walking down a Manhattan street - minus the cigarette hanging from his lips. The U.S. Postal Service altered the photo, which also is used in promotional posters.

“We removed the cigarette from the poster so we would not be in a position of promoting or being accused of promoting cigarettes,” spokesman Mark Weinberg said.

“We’re in an era of political correctness,” said Lenny Prussack, who manages a gift shop at the James Dean Gallery in Fairmount, Ind., Dean’s hometown. But “it’s kind of tampering with history.”