Local Stars Leave Stamp on Walls of Post Office : Encino: The area’s celebrity residents deliver their photos.

One hundred and twenty-five mug shots of Encino’s most wanted hang in the White Oak Avenue post office. Most wanted by autograph hounds, that is.

The tinsel-laden 91436 ZIP code is second only to Beverly Hills and Bel-Air, and possibly ahead of Brentwood and Santa Monica, for its famous residents. Or at least that’s what Encino station manager Barry Seltzer discovered from an unofficial tally, prompting him to borrow the popular restaurant idea of displaying photos of the stars. He’s turned his station into a sort of postal Brown Derby--without the equivalent giant mailbox.

“I figured with all that blank wall space and all these movie stars, it was just the logical thing to do,” said Seltzer, who began framing and hanging the signed celebrity photos 15 months ago. “No matter where you go these days, you have to wait in line, so why not make it pleasant?”

Seltzer, 41, began his project by scanning a postal registry of Encino residents, choosing the most famous. He drafted a solicitation letter, which he gave to clerks and letter carriers to hand out to residents. The response? “About 95% handed over signed photos,” said Seltzer, who resembles Cliff Clavin, the hyperbolic letter carrier on the TV show “Cheers.”

Pictures in the gallery, which stretches across a high wall above the postal counter, range from Annette Funicello and Steve Allen to Melissa Manchester, Rue McClanahan, Wayne Gretzky and Pat Sajak.

Word of mouth spread so that even residents of towns outside Encino, wanting in on the action, have sent in their unsolicited offerings--among them Pee-wee Herman, Paula Abdul, Hulk Hogan and Robert Guillaume. Cartoonist Matt Groening sent in a photo of the Simpson family, captioned “Don’t Have a Cow, All You People in Line!”

“I’m trying to see how many I recognize,” Thousand Oaks resident Bill Foster, 40, said as he scanned the wall on a recent afternoon. “I think it’s a good switch from what you normally see in a post office.”

Fearing that he’d find his own picture on the wall, Encino resident Seymour Weg, 64, said: “If those are the most wanted, I’m afraid of finding my own mug up there. But it’s very colorful, very nice. It adds some character.

“I haven’t seen that Janet Jackson photo before,” Weg added, referring to a poster of the singer that dwarfed a publicity shot of her brother Michael. “That’s something new.”

The celebrity theme is an experiment in injecting community ambience into local stations, said Dale J. E. Herbert, area manager for the Van Nuys postal division, which oversees parts of the San Fernando Valley including the Encino station.

“We asked ourselves what the community can relate to and then decorated a lobby around that idea,” said Herbert, who said there are no immediate centralized plans for other themed lobbies, but that individual station managers will make their own decisions. Manager Alex Gonzalez said he may duplicate Seltzer’s idea at his Sherman Oaks station since his postal roster is also packed with notables.

Most stations, Seltzer said, resemble warehouses, decorated only by dusty “Mail Early” and “How to Spot Mail Fraud” poster campaigns. The Encino station, built in 1987, features angled ceilings and skylights, peach and robin’s-egg blue walls and raspberry-colored mini-blinds. “The color beige,” Van Nuys Communications Manager John Conte said, “is a thing of the past.”

Although Herbert said the Encino station is the division’s first lobby with a modern theme, other Valley stations have decked out postal lobbies with local themes through the years. Two giant Tarzan posters are displayed at each end of the Tarzana station on Yolanda Avenue. Edgar Rice Burroughs, creator of the Tarzan character and author of 25 Tarzan books, was a resident of Encino.

Pasadena’s Rose Bowl station underwent a name change in 1985, becoming the Jackie Robinson station, honoring the baseball player and resident. Robinson’s childhood and career photos are kept in a lobby display case.

The downtown Burbank station features murals commissioned in the 1940s by the Works Progress Administration. The main post office on Broadway in Glendale operates a small postal museum containing old carrier satchels and photos, situated just off the postmaster’s office.

Beverly Hills, home to numerous celebrities, apparently does not plan to follow Encino’s lead. Beverly Hills Postmaster Koula Fuller said most of that city’s famous residents prefer to keep a lower profile.

“The general theme here in Beverly Hills is to respect the privacy of celebrities,” Fuller said. “But if we were to commission something like that, our Crescent station would be the likely candidate.”

Located deep within the most desirable Beverly Hills ZIP code, 90210, the Crescent station, designated a national historical site in 1985, is “quite elegant,” Fuller said, “done in the Italian Renaissance style with terra-cotta and limestone patios.”

“The floor is of verde Italian marble,” Fuller said, lowering her voice. “And all the walls are covered with a very warm, golden-colored antique Italian marble. It’s breathtaking.

“Actually, it’s not likely we would hang framed photographs there. It would damage the antique tiles.”

Seltzer (a “Station Manager to the Stars” sign hangs behind his desk) believes that his celebrity wall has helped bring the Encino station up to speed compared to other area stations. “It reflects what is happening now,” said Seltzer, dressed in gunmetal-gray regulation trousers and a violet and orange floral tie. “Celebrities are dropping in all the time.”

Encino postal clerk Ramon Torres, 30, said he has frequent encounters with celebrities. “When we first started the photo wall, Melissa Manchester came in to drop something off. I said, ‘Wow! You have the same name as that singer.’ And she said, ‘Maybe it’s because I am that singer.’

“Most of the time, if someone famous drops by, I just say, ‘Would you like to be up on our wall?’ ”

Excessive gawking in the customer line often causes bottlenecks. “Sometimes we have to yell, ‘Next!’ real loud to get someone’s attention,” Torres said of customers who ask for copies of the photos, which are not available, or bring in cameras to snap pictures.

But Hollywood-sized egos are often the most troublesome element. “The celebrities were great about giving us pictures, but then they started asking for key locations on the wall,” Seltzer said, adding that most photos are simply signed “To Barry” or “Thanks to the Encino P.O.”

TV actress McClanahan added a short note along with her photo. “Here’s two pictures,” the note read. “The only thing I ask is that I keep getting my mail by 12:30.”

True to his TV persona, Jonathan Harris, who played the floundering Dr. Smith on the 1960s show “Lost in Space,” visited the station three successive days last year in search of his photo. “He stood out in the lobby and clapped when we finally put it up,” Seltzer said.

Not everyone was immediately taken with Seltzer’s talents as an interior designer.

“I just don’t get the connection,” said Cherie Tibor, a Tarzana resident who was stocking up on 29-cent stamps during a recent visit. When told that Encino is home to hundreds of celebrities, she said: “Don’t the other people who live here rate? How do I get my picture up there?”