Elvis has left the building

Posted by ESC on October 14, 2002

news.com Retrieved Oct. 14, 2002

Elvis catch-phrase creator dies
October 14, 2002

HORACE Lee Logan, who started the country music radio show, Louisiana Hayride, and first uttered what became the catch-phrase, "Elvis has left the building", has died aged 86.

Logan had pancreatitis and acute respiratory distress syndrome, his wife, Linda said.

Logan began in radio when he was 16, after winning a contest to become an announcer on KWKH-AM in Shreveport, Louisiana, Mrs Logan said.

He began producing the Hayride, a country music show performed before a live KWKH audience in Shreveport's Municipal Auditorium, in 1948. It survived only two years after Logan's departure in 1958.

In between, he introduced a number of country music's top names to America. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Hank Williams were among people who got their first big break on the Hayride.

• Had he really left or was Horace being ironic? Word Camel 10/14/02
  • The rest of the story... ESC 10/14/02