FEBRUARY 24, 1992 – The US Postal Service unveiled two designs for an upcoming Elvis Presley stamp for a poll conducted to see which picture of Presley should be used on a commemorative stamp after years of public campaigning to convince the US Postal Service that Elvis was a proper choice for a stamp. Members of Congress even debated the worthiness of Elvis as a stamp subject.
Once the two designs had been accepted, a poster announced an election to decide which Elvis picture the public wanted to be used was prominently placed in every post office in the country, as well as in the April 13, 1992, issue of People magazine. The Postal Service showed surprising cleverness with the line “Decide Which Elvis is King.”
In order to vote, you had to go to the post office and get an official postcard-sized ballot, but you couldn’t fill the ballot out right there at the post office and give it back… you had to mail it in, requiring you to buy a stamp for each one. A total of 1.2 million ballots were cast with the young Elvis beating out the Vegas Elvis.
“Young Elvis” was painted by Mark Stutzman, who depicted the singer as he looked in a still shot from the 1956 movie “Love Me Tender”. Stutzman’s images of Elvis and three other early rockers were used in the set of Legends of American Music stamps a year later, but he is also known for his many depictions of other entertainment icons including Led Zeppelin and the many faces of James Bond. His most exposed works are likely the ones that have graced the covers of Stephen King novels for several years.
The “Vegas Elvis” was painted by John Berkey (1932-2008), who depicted Elvis as he appeared in the 1973 “Aloha From Hawaii” TV special. Over the years, a total of 16 Berkey creations have appeared on U.S. stamps.Celebrated film director George Lucas commissioned John Berkey to work on pre-production designs during the planning stages for the “Star Wars” movie. Berkey also painted the cover of the 1976 novelization of the movie, and a poster depicting a dogfight over the Death Star. The poster became a bonus insert in the original “Star Wars” soundtrack LP.
The chosen design was issued on January 8, 1993 (what would have been his 58th birthday) at a post office near the King’s Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. Some consumers purposely mailed letters to fake addresses so they could get their mail back stamped with “Return To Sender.”
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