Elvis Presley MADE FAMOUS HERE in 1955 on the Louisiana Hayride ORIGINAL BUILDING | Elvis History

ELVIS PRESLEY Made Famous Here in 1955 on the Louisiana Hayride ORIGINAL BUILDING | Elvis History. Today we’re in the city of Shreveport, LA at the famous and historic Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium! This building hosted the Louisiana Hayride and where Elvis got his first start in 1955!

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Louisiana Hayride was a radio and later television country music show broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana, that during its heyday from 1948 to 1960 helped to launch the careers of some of the greatest names in American country and western music. Hank Williams began performing on the Hayride in 1948 after his initial rejection from the Grand Ole Opry. After being fired from the Opry on August 11, 1952, Williams returned to the Hayride briefly before his death on New Years Day 1953. Elvis Presley performed on the radio version of the program in 1954 and made his first television appearance on the television version of Louisiana Hayride on March 3, 1955.
By mid-1954, a special 30-minute portion of Louisiana Hayride was being broadcast every Saturday on the AFN Pacific channel of the United Kingdom Scottish Forces Radio Network. On October 16 of that year, Elvis Presley appeared on the radio program. Presley’s performance of his debut release on the Sun Records label, “That’s All Right”, brought a tepid response, according to former Hayride emcee Frank Page (1925-2013). Nonetheless, Presley was signed to a one-year contract for future appearances. Presley became so popular that after his final appearance on Hayride in 1956, emcee Horace Logan announced to the crowd a phrase that would become famous: “Elvis has left the building.”
The immediate and enormous demand for more of Presley’s new kind of rockabilly music actually resulted in a sharp decline in the popularity of the Louisiana Hayride that until that point had been strictly a country music venue. On March 3, 1955, Presley made his first television appearance on the television version of The Louisiana Hayride, carried by KSLA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Shreveport.

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