Dec. 3, 1955 · Shreveport, LA · Louisiana Hayride

This date is treated here as Johnny Cash’s Louisiana Hayride debut. December 10, 1955 is often cited in secondary sources as Cash’s first Hayride appearance, and Cash is also listed for that date in the Bear Family Louisiana Hayride chronology. However, the original advertisement located for the December 10 Hayride (see this page also) does not list Johnny Cash among the performers. By contrast, Cash is listed for December 3, 1955 in the Bear Family chronology, and the surviving Hayride recordings of “Hey Porter” and “Luther Played the Boogie” are dated December 3, 1955 in Bear Family’s At The Louisiana Hayride Tonight. For that reason, the Johnny Cash Infocenter currently treats December 3, 1955 as the best-supported date for Cash’s Louisiana Hayride debut. No confirmed film or video footage of Johnny Cash’s December 3, 1955 Louisiana Hayride appearance has been located. Audio recordings survive and are dated December 3, 1955 in Bear Family’s At The Louisiana Hayride Tonight, but currently available sources do not identify any surviving moving-image footage from this performance.