Another Elvis Hit : Postal service: Debut of The King’s commemorative stamp plays to sell-out crowds in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo.

His denim-clad hips were swiveling on a television screen at a Ventura post office. His rich baritone was crooning from speakers in a post office branch in Thousand Oaks. His picture was hanging on a wall in another branch in Fillmore.

Elvismania swept through Ventura County post offices on Friday as fans and stamp collectors lined up by the hundreds to buy the first-released Elvis Presley commemorative stamps.

Postal officials said they were all shook up by the demand for a 29-cent piece of gummed paper celebrating The King of rock ‘n’ roll.

Sales did not begin until noon of the 58th anniversary of Presley’s birth, but customers began lining up three hours early at some post offices, officials said.

In Ventura, all 103,000 stamps were snatched up within an hour. In Camarillo, 62,000 vanished in less than two hours. In Oxnard, all 60,000 were gone by the end of the day.

Most post office officials in Ventura County reported that they had sold out or were running low on Elvis stamps by the end of the day. Thousand Oaks was a notable exception, with about 100,000 stamps still unsold Friday afternoon.

The initial printing was 300 million nationwide, double the normal commemorative issue, officials said.

“I wish we had a lot, lot more,” said Sue Maynard, supervisor of postal operations in Fillmore, which sold 8,000 stamps in two hours. “You know, people said a lot of crap about him and all, but there were a lot of people who loved that man.”

Chita Millan, 75, of Ventura reminisced fondly as she stood in line at Ventura’s Wake Forest Avenue branch office.

“I saw him in a show in Vegas,” she said. “It was very, very exciting. I’m a big fan.”

Millan bought 120 stamps, which she will give to her children and grandchildren. Immediately after getting hers, Millan took the stamps out of the protective envelope and peered at them carefully.

“Oooh, the color is so pretty!” she said. “I’m going to go home and dream of Elvis now,” she added, giggling.

In Camarillo, Raye Criddle proudly showed off the Elvis postcards that she had waited for for more than an hour. “They’re more valuable if you get them stamped today,” she said, waving the postmarked cards.

Critics have opposed honoring Elvis with a stamp, citing his reported drug abuse. A select group of die-hard fans claims that he is still alive, and thus ineligible for a commemorative issue.

The one-time poor boy from Tupelo, Miss., had a 23-year career in which he produced 107 Top 40 hits, made 41 million-selling albums and starred in 33 movies. He died of a heart attack at age 42 in Memphis in August, 1977.

Last year, in the first nationwide vote of its kind, Elvis fans picked a young Elvis Presley portrait over an older, bloated Elvis.

“I’m a big Elvis fan,” said Brent Harding, 25, of Thousand Oaks, who bought 20 stamps. “I was too young to see him, but my dad was able to see him. I have all of his music, and I’m playing tonight at an Elvis celebration.”

John Gambino, who works in a car dealership in Thousand Oaks, said he didn’t know what all the fuss was about. He bought 100 ordinary 29-cent stamps with U.S. flags for personal and office use, marching defiantly past others who had purchased sheets of Elvis stamps.

“It’s just a stamp,” he said, shrugging as he left a post office branch in Thousand Oaks. “They’re selling millions, right?”