Elvis has left the building

Elvis has left the building is an American phrase that means the show is over, do not wait for any further encores. The term Elvis has left the building was first uttered in 1956 by announcer Horace Lee Logan at the Louisiana Hayride Radio Program. Logan was pleading with the faithful teenage Elvis Presley fans to take their seats and remain quiet, as no amount of screaming would bring Elvis back to the stage for an encore. The full quote is: “All right, all right, Elvis has left the building. I’ve told you absolutely straight up to this point. You know that. He has left the building. He left the stage and went out the back with the policeman and he is now gone… Please take your seats.”

Over his career, Elvis Presley inspired unremitting fervor in his fans, and they were willing to scream for encores for as long as Elvis Presley was willing to oblige them. Elvis has left the building became the signal that any further calls for an encore were useless, as Elvis Presley had physically left the show venue. Today, Elvis has left the building has come to figuratively mean that something is finished.

Examples

And as he walked out of the defensive backs meeting room in Rutgers’ Hale Center, Locksley left with one more message in his deep baritone: “Elvis has left the building.” (The Carroll County Times)

Elvis Presley Enterprises continues to sue long after Elvis has left the building (The Christian Science Monitor)

Standing under a whiteboard with the epigraph “Elvis has left the building” scrawled across it, James Wilkinson flipped down for the last time the light switch in the laboratory where he’d worked for 41 years. (The Natchez Democrat)

Be sure and check their Instagram, @primerataza, or call in advance to check availability, because once the bread is gone, Elvis has left the building. (Los Angeles Magazine)