Twin Blends History Hunters Photos from Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS and the Thurman C. Smith Collection

People always ask if we have photos of the Ko-KoMo Drive-Ins that used to be in Shreveport and Bossier City back in the day. We do! During our years of research at the Northwest Louisiana Archives at LSUS, we’ve found several really cool photos of the Kings Highway location (we colorized the first photo, so it’s the first time people have seen it in color). We found pictures of the Shed at the Benton Road location. Our buddy Jonathon Harrison even supplied us with a cool photo of the front of the 2815 East Texas in Bossier location. Not too long ago, while looking through the Thurman C. Smith collection, we found a couple of aerial photos of that location, a couple of aerial images, and a couple of ground photos taken in the back parking lot of the Mansfield Road location. (The building is still there behind Baylis Auto.)

Kings Highway KoKoMo, is now an Autozone.

The East Texas Street KoKoMo is now an empty lot next to Twin Cities Car Wash in Bossier.

A little history: Our buddy Robert Hendrick’s family owned the land on Kings Highway, where that KoKoMo was located, but sold it in the mid-1980s. (We are beginning to think Robert’s family owned most of the land in Shreveport back in the day!) According to one of our followers, Shirley Jacques Bates, her husband’s family once owned the KoKoMos.

She also said, “The KoKoMo at 7202 Mansfield Road (next to Wray Ford) was opened June 1967. At approximately the end of March 1969, the Bates family leased it to Maxcy Howe, and it was called Maxie’s KoKoMo. In approximately September 1971 it was under new management (Roy Myers – who worked for KoKoMo in the 60s) and operated as Roy’s KoKoMo. I do not know the date it finally closed. (We are) still trying to determine when 321 East Kings Highway closed. When the Bates family stopped running it, it was leased to someone else. 1500 Benton Road (Shed and Benton) was still open in 1972; I’m not sure when it closed. 2815 East Texas in Bossier (Highway 80 – the last to close) closed at midnight on April 23, 1981, and the Bates bought Andy’s Camp on Lake Bistineau and renamed it Mid-Lake Marina, which remained open until 2005.” (Shirley even sent us a nice note thanking us for our research along with a donation!) We love learning about the history of iconic places from our past. Please share your memories of these famous drive-ins with us at mikermangham@gmail.com.

The KoKoMo at Shed Road and Benton Road.

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