Fans Give the Young Elvis Their Stamp of Approval

Americans overwhelmingly chose the young Elvis Presley for a new postage stamp, rejecting the lounge lizard look from his later years.

But it was no heartbreak hotel for the 277,723 people who lost in voting for Elvis in his high-collared, jeweled jumpsuit and cape.

The King was getting a stamp.

“I keep pinching myself. It’s hard to believe it’s really happening,” said Pat Geiger, who began fighting for a Presley stamp in 1983. Geiger voted for the older Elvis.

The portrait on the 29-cent, first-class stamp was picked through a nationwide vote, the first ever to select Postal Service artwork. More than a million Elvis fans chose between the portraits, and the winner was announced Thursday during live TV broadcasts on all three morning talk shows.

The vote, conducted by mail April 6-24, ended with the younger Elvis collecting 851,200 votes, three times as many as the mature Presley. More than 5 million ballots had been prepared, so most apparently ended up in fans’ scrapbooks, officials said.

The results were announced at Graceland, Presley’s mansion where he died in 1977 at age 42. More than 200 fans gathered for the announcement under a large, white tent.

“Of all the awards and honors he has received . . . this would probably be the most special for him,” said Priscilla Presley, his former wife.

The stamp will be issued Jan. 8, the 58th anniversary of Presley’s birth. It will be part of a “Legends of American Music” series that will include seven other music figures yet to be selected. The first Elvis stamps will be single sheets of 40 stamps each.