The phrase has become so ingrained in American pop culture that it may show up in anything from a documentary on Elvis Presley to a science fiction movie.
In the alien invasion movie "Independence Day," a hero speeds away from an exploding alien mothership with the announcement, "Elvis has left the building."But where did the phrase begin?
"I can't say that anyone has ever specifically asked," says Todd Morgan, creative services director for Graceland and Elvis Presley Enterprises. But he says he has heard that the left-the-building expression goes back to Elvis' 1950s performances on the old Louisiana Hayride show in Shreveport, La.
He suggests Elvis' backup singers, the Jordanaires, might know. In Nashville, tenor Gordon Stoker, who still tours with the Jordanaires, says the group didn't start working with Elvis until 1956, after his appearances on Louisiana Hayride. By then, the phrase was in use, he says.
Stoker says he consulted with Scotty Moore, an original Elvis bandsman, and they remember an announcer named Oscar Davis using the phrase in the late '50s. "He didn't say it with a big booming voice. It was just as if to say, `Get your butts out of here.' It was to get people out of the building."
Stoker says the phrase was never an attempt to fool people into thinking that Elvis had left. "It was for real because we left with him."
The minute Elvis left the stage, he ran to a waiting car to speed away before crowds could catch up to him, Stoker says. The announcer then used the phrase to disperse the crowd. It was a standard by the time the Jordainaires left Presley, Stoker says.
Former Elvis drummer D.J. Fontana agrees with Stoker that the phrase was used in all honesty. "And it worked. It really did."
Fontana says band members, including himself, could never leave immediately after a show because they had to spend up to three hours packing and loading equipment after concerts. "We didn't have roadies back then. But Elvis would leave, sure enough, in a police car or whatever."
The "left-the-building" phrase became so widely known, everyone wants to claim it. Chicagoan Al Dvorin says he came up with the phrase. "I used to be band director for Elvis in the early years, director of the show, booking agent. I had worked with the colonel (manager Col. Tom Parker) before Elvis ever came around."
One day at a concert in Minneapolis, Parker decided to switch announcers, says Dvorin, who adds that he was drafted at the last minute.
"I ran down to the dressing room and locked the doors. I was scared. I looked in the mirror and practiced saying things like, `Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.' "
At the end of the show, as Elvis jumped off the stage, Dvorin says he jumped on and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, Elvis has left the building."
"Elvis got a kick out of it. Even the colonel got a kick out of it. Now I can't go anywhere in the world without people asking me to repeat it."
Dvorin continued as announcer during the '70s, and his booming delivery makes him the man most associated with the phrase. In fact, Dvorin has enlisted an attorney to talk to Graceland about possible compensation for use of his voice on Elvis recordings. "The only one using my voice and not paying me anything is Graceland."
Morgan says the phrase is not trademarked and that neither Graceland nor Elvis Presley Enterprises had a recording contract with Elvis. "If it's on a record, he probably should talk to RCA about it."
He also could talk to NBC about it. On "Frasier," a concluding voiceover borrows from the Elvis original by announcing, "Ladies and gentlemen, Frasier has left the building."