Elvis debut on Louisiana Hayride October 16, 1954
 March 5th, 1955, Elvis Presley made his TV debut on the regional show "The Louisiana Hayride."
That night Horace Logan strutted across the stage to the microphone.
Offstage Elvis looked on nervously. This was the largest house, by far, that he had played.

Louisiana Hayride October 1954

Horace Logan announced: "Is there anyone from Mississippi? Anyone from Arkansas? Let's hear it from the folks from Oklahoma. Now who's from Louisiana. Now how many of y'all from the great state of Texas?"

The Hayride band struck up its theme, "Raise a Ruckus Tonight," as the crowd joined-in. "Come along, everybody come along, while the moon is shining bright, We're going to have a wonderful time, at the Louisiana Hayride tonight!"

Emcee Frank Page introduced Elvis who was standing against a painted backdrop. The call letters of the station, KWKH, and a Louisiana Hayride banner stretched across the scene. Elvis wearing a pink jacket, black shirt and colorful tie, white pants and two-tone shoes. Scotty Moore and Bill Black were in western shirts.

Frank Page: "Just a few weeks ago a young man from Memphis, Tennessee, recorded a song on the Sun label and, in just a matter of weeks, that record has sky-rocketed right up the charts. It's really doing well all over the country. He is only nineteen years old. He has a new, distinctive style. Elvis Presley. Let's give him a nice hand.

"How are you this evening?" Page
"Just fine. How're you, sir?" replied Elvis
"Are you all geared up with your band" Page
"I'm all geared up" Elvis
"Let's hear your songs?" Page
"Uh, well, I'd just like to say how happy we are to be down here. It's a real honor for us to get a chance to appear on the Louisiana Hayride. We're gonna do a song for ya... " Elvis
"You got anything else to say?" Page
"I'm ready -.We're gonna do a song for ya we got out on Sun Records. It goes something like this."

Elvis sang That's Alright Mama. Whether it was Elvis's stage fright or the originality of his act before a new audience, his performance was flat much like his Grand Ole Opry debut a few weeks previous. Elvis huddled with Sam Phillips during intermission. Sam exhorted Elvis to be himself, do his own kind of show; all he could do was fail and that would happen anyway if he didn't loosen-up.

The second show was different. It was a young crowd hungry for excitement. A huge cheer went up from the first bars of That's Alright Mama. It wasn't country music, it was rock n' roll and the audience loved it. On their feet, clapping and dancing, the crowd rode the thunderous beat. They didn't want Elvis to stop. Gyrating like a dervish, Elvis burned That's Alright Mama and Blue Moon of Kentucky. The Hayride had birthed its greatest star.

On 6 November 1954, Elvis signed a contract to appear on the Louisiana Hayride every Saturday night for a year. Gladys and Vernon Presley came to Shreveport to witness the contract because Elvis was underage. He was nineteen years old.

Elvis was paid $18.00 per performance, Scotty Moore and Bill Black $12.00 each. The Hayride became the foundation of Elvis's early rise to stardom.

Elvis would travel nearly half million miles over the next year, often before audiences that would have heard him first time. During 1955, if it was a Saturday night, Elvis was in Shreveport at the Louisiana Hayride

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October 16, 1954, Elvis appeared for the first time on the Louisiana Hayride, a live Saturday night country music radio show originating in Shreveport, Louisiana, broadcast over KWKH Radio. His first performance that night didn't go that well. The audience was filled with older folks who just didn't understand what all that young energy was about

The second performance of that same night was much better. That audience was made of young folks from Barksdale Air Force Base, which is just across the Red River from Shreveport in Bossier City. On the strength of that second performance Elvis was offered a one year contract with the Louisiana Hayride.

And because the Louisiana Hayride had a booking agency connected with it, that meant Elvis could get paying gigs on the remaining nights of the week. That amazing fact allowed Elvis to immediately quit his day job in Memphis. This was truly the birth of Elvis's career. This was also truly the birth of rock and roll.

CLICK Here to Buy THE RED VELVET ELVIS PRAYER CLOTH

The RVEPC is blessed on the very stage inside Shreveport's Municipal Memorial Auditorium that was the birth of Elvis's career. It's also baptized in the waters of the Red River. Because of the strong and authentic Elvis energy infused into each RVEPC, it's also a unique souvenir of the young Elvis.

The red velvet square (3-3/4 inches x 3-3/4 inches) features a small replica of the poster advertising Elvis’s last appearance on the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport, Louisiana. A metal eyelet makes it easy to attach your prayer cloth to a key chain or guitar case.

The RVEPC comes with a signed Certificate of Authenticity printed on a photograph by Kathryn Usher. The picture features the bronze Elvis statue by Houston artist Eric Kaposta  which stands in the front of the Municipal Memorial Auditorium.