Elvis lives!
OK, it's just on a stamp. But the public will have the final say on which portrait of the King of Rock and Roll - young and lean or aged and flabby - will go on the Elvis Presley postage stamp.The U.S. Postal Service is planning to issue the stamp in 1993 as part of a series honoring American music.
Postal Service spokesman Lou Eberhardt said there are 20 to 25 artists' renderings of Presley in the running, and an advisory committee was narrowing the field to two contenders. The final decision will be handed over to the public next month.
Eberhardt said the designs are "strictly faces" and the Postal Service has set one criterion - of the two finalists, one must portray the young Elvis, and the other has to be a portrait of the King in his twilight years.
The Postal Service will probably sell postcards depicting the two faces of Elvis in post offices across the country, Eberhardt said. Fans would then cast their ballot by mailing in the card with their choice.
Pat Geiger, 72, has spent nine years campaigning to get her idol on U.S. stamps. The head of the Elvis Presley Postage Stamp Campaign said she will probably cast her vote for a more mature picture of the King.
"As Elvis got older he got better looking, particularly 1973. He's the most beautiful creature God ever created," Geiger said.