Louisiana hayride collection
Contributors: Kent, David, 1923-1992; McEachern, Langston, 1918-2004
Published: 1904
Language: eng
Number of pages: 4375
Subjects: Country music; Rockabilly music; KWKH (Radio station : Shreveport, La.); Radio; Louisiana hayride (Radio program); Country music radio stations; Honky-tonk music
Description: The Louisiana Hayride collection documents radio history in Shreveport, Louisiana, with emphasis on the Louisiana Hayride country music program. Major topics include the earliest radio broadcasts in Shreveport, the founding and growth of KWKH radio under owner/broadcaster W.K. Henderson, and legendary performances from the Louisiana Hayride program, which was broadcast live from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium. A series that documents Elvis Presley's years at the Hayride (1954-1956) is notable for photographs of Presley performing with Scotty Moore, D.J. Fontana, Bill Black, and the Jordanaires, as well as interacting with fans and production staff backstage. There are also photographs of hosts Horace Logan, Frank Page, and Norm Bale; businessman and radio personality David Kent; and Hayride performers Johnny Horton, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Jimmie Davis, early '80s Hayride star Micki Fuhrman, and many others.
Notes: Textual and graphic materials in the Louisiana Hayride Collection are open for research. Advance notice is required; contact a reference librarian in the Recorded Sound Reference Center, Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-record.html

The 203 sound recordings and 37 videocassettes that are also included in the collection are not yet available to researchers. Following preservation duplication and cataloging, the materials will be accessible through the collection finding aid and the Library of Congress Online Catalog.

[Container number, eg., Box 3] or [Audio tape number, eg., RYB 2480], Louisiana Hayride Collection, Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress.

Restrictions may exist on copying, quoting, or publishing materials included in the collection. For additional information, contact a reference librarian in the Recorded Sound Reference Center, Library of Congress. http://www.loc.gov/rr/askalib/ask-record.html

Purchase, Joey Kent, 2009.

During the1920s Shreveport radio station KWKH was managed by William Kennon Henderson, who frequently broadcast recordings of "hillbilly" music and recruited local talent to perform for the station's listeners. Henderson sold KWKH in 1932, but the station continued to support regional music, and in 1948 the weekly Louisiana Hayride program began its first run on KWKH. Broadcast live from the Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, the Hayride featured not only country and western music but also rockabilly and even early rock. Regular performers included Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Johnny Horton, Faron Young, George Jones, Merle Kilgore, Webb Pierce, and the Maddox Brothers & Rose, among others, and from 1954 to 1956, a young Elvis Presley was part of the weekly lineup. After 1960 the program was broadcast only sporadically, but in 1974 the Hayride started a thirteen-year run as a syndicated radio program under Shreveport businessman David Kent.

A finding aid to the collection is available in the Recorded Sound Reference Center and at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsrs/eadmbrs.rs010002

Joey Kent inherited collection materials from his father, David Kent, who bought the Louisiana Hayride name and archives from KWKH in the mid 1970s.