re: How many Louisiana cities do out of state people recognize?

NO is NO. BR gets publicity from LSU games, and also was covered in Katrina.

Lafayette has probably gone up a bit since the 80s, when Cajun food/culture started getting national coverage.

when I was at LSU in the late 80s I met a guy from Shreveport. He might as well have been from Saskatchewan. It's a place I've never thought about, aside from reading about the Hayride, until I came to this board. I've still never set foot in N LA, despite spending most of my life in LA or MS.

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I bet more people know grande isle than Shreveport

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Maybe in the future. Older people definitely know Shreveport and North La. It was a hotspot in the 50's and 60's.

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The Bossier Strip is also located at the center of what musicians once called the Magic Circle,[7] an area extending from Tyler, Texas, to Monroe, Louisiana, and from Hope, Arkansas, to Natchitoches, Louisiana. This area has produced an inordinate number of musical performers that have attained high acclaim for their music. The list of performers who were either born in the area, or who got their start in music in the area, includes such notables as James Burton, Lead Belly, Slim Whitman, Van Cliburn, Tillman Franks, Webb Pierce, Faron Young, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., Johnny Horton, Elvis Presley, John Campbell, Dale Hawkins, Merle Kilgore, and Johnny Cash.[8][9]

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Internationally, New Orleans.

This is how a normal conversation went for me:

“Where in the states ya from, mate?”
“Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”
*blank stare*
*Sigh* “New Orleans.”
“Ahhhhhhhh! The Mardi Grass!”

Once, back in ‘98,was on a bus in Sydney and the surfer types get on. One of them overhears me talking, and scoots over for a conversation. He asks where I’m from in the states (they always called it “The States”), and I told him Louisiana and he looked at me like i suddenly started growing a horn out of my head. I tell him it’s in the south. I see the wheels working in his head and he asks, almost in a whisper, “do you still have the KKK and stuff like that there?” I tell him “Sure! I was at a lynching just this past month!” Conversation ended there.

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“Where in the states ya from, mate?”
“Baton Rouge, Louisiana.”
*blank stare*
*Sigh* “New Orleans.”
“Ahhhhhhhh! The Mardi Grass!”

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When I was at LSU in the 80s a friend of mine was from Michigan. When he told his friends at an upscale HS outside Detroit he was moving to BR, several asked him if he would have to ride a boat through the swamps to school.

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Why do you care?

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Why do you care if he cares?

Touche'

Growing up, I could t tell you the difference between Baton Rouge and Boca Raton

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I bet more people know grande isle than Shreveport

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Most people confuse Shreveport with TX.

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Everyone know Bawcomville

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But no one wants to know how it got its name

I remember Buddy Roemer saying he talked to some Asian businessmen. Said he was from Louisiana and drew blank stares. New Orleans? Oh, yes, they all knew New Orleans.

It surprises me how many folks I run into when traveling the south and west know Shreveport because they have come here to gamble. Gamblers must really get around.