ELVIS STATUE UNVEILED AT MUNICIPAL
An
Elvis statue, one of the fifth publicly displayed, was unveiled
in
Shreveport on Friday, October 15, 2004 at the Municipal Auditorium.
The statue and Shreveport will join the ranks of three other cities
that were pivotal in Elvis's life.: his original hometown of Tupelo,
where a statue of Elvis as a youth is displayed at his birthplace
home; his adopted hometown of Memphis, which has two statues of
Elvis depicting him in two eras of his superstardom; and Las Vegas,
where the Las Vegas Hilton has a statue in tribute to Elvis's
years of great success playing their showroom.
Early in his
career as a regionally known artist until soon after national
stardom hit, Elvis performed regularly inside Shreveport Municipal
Memorial Auditorium on The Louisiana Hayride, a national radio
broadcast that played an important role in bringing him to the
attention of a wider audience. Eric Kaposta, a Shreveport native
now living in Houston is the sculptor of the statue, which was
placed in front of the Municipal Auditorium on October 15th, the
day before the 50th anniversary of Elvis Presley's first performance
on The Louisiana Hayride. The statue portrays Elvis during that
early phase of his career.
