Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Elvis has NOT left the building

We love Shreveport for its haunts, and now we have one more reason to visit.

The Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, which has seen numerous paranormal investigators visit the 1929 building for its assemblage of ghosts, will host five paranormal-themed guided tours during October. Tickets are now on sale for the 90-minute tours, which will be held at 6:30 p.m. Fridays in October (including Oct. 4, 11, 18 and 25, 2019) as well as Halloween night.

Who’s haunting a relatively young auditorium located at 705 Elvis Presley Avenue in downtown Shreveport? Many people swear it’s the ghost of Elvis, who performed in Shreveport with The Louisiana Hayride, a country music variety show and radio broadcast that launched the careers of Presley, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, George Jones and other icons of American music (watch Ken Burn’s new documentary “Country” to learn more).

As for Elvis refusing to leave the building, we think Elvis would have made it home to Graceland and not the site of his early career, but we could be wrong! Regardless, someone is haunting the building. It’s been investigated by paranormal teams like SyFy’s “Ghost Hunters” (June 12, 2013 episode) and Discovery’s “Ghost Lab.”

Check it out yourself. Tickets to the haunted tours are $20 per guest and must be purchased in advance by visiting the “Tours” tab at www.shreveportmunicipalauditorium.com.  

Be sure to walk across the street to Oakland Cemetery, which has ghostly stories of its own, including young Cora Lee Wilson whose grave constantly falls apart, the bricks routinely pushed out — from the inside!  

For more information on the ghosts who haunt other sections of Shreveport, read our past blog post here.

And for more information on upcoming events in Shreveport-Bossier, including dozens of family-friendly Halloween events taking place now through the end of October, visit www.sbfunguide.com. For trip-planning information, contact the Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau at (800) 551-8682 or visit www.Shreveport-Bossier.org.  

Haunted Deep South is written by travel writer Cheré Coen, author of Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana by The History Press. She writes the Viola Valentine paranormal mystery series under the pen name of Cherie Claire. Her next book in the series, Give Up the Ghost, comes out Oct. 13, 2019.