Old gas stations

[2jakes]

After having viewed gas station photos from all years, and I enjoy
them all.
There's always something about the colors from a certain time.

 

[triple-d]

 

[Fading Fast]

The dinosaur on the roof had nothing to do with my liking this one, nope, nothing at all.

Also, note awesome truck.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Gilmore Self-Service Station
LIFE. Oct. 1948

One of first in LA.

Safety instructions to workers. Note coin-changers.

Remember:
"Fire extinguishers are meant to handle only small fires. If a fire becomes too large or the environment
becomes too dangerous, employees should know when and how to evacuate the area."

Hollywood Baseball Club in background.

In the background is car with running boards,
Not many folks were able to upgrade to the latest models, so I was
able to enjoy running boards as a kid when my uncle allowed me to get
on them as he pulled up to the drive-way. My grandma was not too keen on
me doing this.

Every time I see a white Ford convertible, I think of Phil Silver’s 1947 Super Deluxe.

One of my all-time favorite mad-cap comedy films.

Change maker knitting during a lull at the Gilmore self-service gas station according to Life.

 

[2jakes]

Caption:
" Four Barrel Metal Money Coin Changer proven to be the most reliable and indispensable change maker around. Excellent for waitstaff, concessionaires, ice cream vendors, and other businesses where a high volume of change is necessary but a register may not be readily available. Tubes are constructed of nickel plated steel with a tough plastic housing. Rear slide hooks attach easily to a belt for convenient access. These coin changers were set to dispense one coin at a time from any one of the four barrels which hold various coins: 38 quarters, 37 nickels, 56 dimes and 49 pennies.” Pinterest.

I recall bus drivers and the ice-cream man using them.

 

[2jakes]

More Gilmore from LA

(1948)**^ – Aerial view of the area bounded by Beverly, Fairfax, 3rd Street, and
Gardner Avenue. The photo has been annotated and shows the location of Gilmore
"Self-Service" Gas Station.

Although this image has been posted before. I found this:
(ca. 1948)**** - A woman pumping fuel at the Gilmore ‘Self-Service’ Gas Station (one of the nation's first)
near Fairfax and Beverly. Gilmore Field, the home of the Los Angeles Stars minor league team, is visible in
the background."

"Gilmore Self-Service Station located on the south side of Beverly Boulevard east of Fairfax Avenue.
View is looking west toward Fairfax. The Fairfax Theater sign (northwest corner of Fairfax and Beverly)
is seen above and behind the Gilmore sign.
The tower sign for Herbert’s Drive-In Restaurant (southeast corner of Fairfax and Beverly) can barely
be made out in the upper left of photo. CBS Television City would be built at this corner in 1952.”

(ca. 1949) Buick Super Sedanette 1949 at the garage - Southern California's car culture.

Los Angeles

Sorry...went back to the 50s....I’ll be ok!

 

[2jakes]

simply takes my breath away ...

I posted this gal last year. She was full of gas. Haven’t seen her since she lit a Camel!

Now this gal takes my breath away...literally!

 

[LizzieMaine]

The Hollywood Stars baseball team was renowned for its fashion sense.

With Walter F. O'Malley & Co. invading their territory in 1958, the Stars franchise relocated to Salt Lake City, where the wearing of shorts in public was highly frowned upon. The whole Gilmore Field neighborhood was leveled after the team left to make way for CBS Television City, where worse things than shorts were routinely worn.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

The red "O" represents the Flying Red Horse. When Socony-Mobil Oil Corporation dropped Socony from its name in 1965 they had every intention of dropping or at least severely deemphasizing the Horse along with it, given that the mid-sixties were the age of the "sleek, modern wordmark" and intricate logos like the FRH were considered passe and old-fashioned-looking for companies that wanted to seem like part of the Space Age. But in a "nod to tradition" the red O was added to sort of evoke its memory.

In practice, the Horse was never entirely eliminated, but if you look at Mobil packaged products from this period you see that it's been reduced to a tiny representation on the back of the can. The public response to the change was not favorable, and plans to eliminate the logo from station buildings were brought to a fast halt, with newly constructed or renovated buildings getting a new, simplified FRH on an internally-lit white plastic disc. You could still see the old full-size, fully-detailed Horse on many older stations, though -- the one at the end of my childhood street kept it until it closed in 1970, and there were several others in my area that kept them into the early 21st Century.

The 1965 Mobil logo is a good example of the kind of bland pasteurized-process design work that the Boys promulgated in the sixties and seventies -- it expresses no personality of any kind, and seems to have been arrived at after extensive focus-grouping and psychological review intended to eliminate any aspect that might have any kind of negative connotation to anyone anywhere. But it was easily visible on a giant Interstate signpole, and it was probably cheaper to manufacture and maintain as an illuminated plastic sign than the intricately-shaped shield designs that preceded it, and no doubt that made the bean-counters happy.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[2jakes]

^^^^
Candy apple red was very popular.

I wasn't too keen on the metalic color. But I was not about to complain to Santa!

1953 Western Flyer Super Deluxe.

 

[2jakes]

Peoria Shell...

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

Parker Bros. Garage? Did they have a monopoly in their town?

 

[2jakes]

Big sign in St. Louis, 1946

 

[2jakes]

Rob

Nice windows!

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Big sign in St. Louis, 1946
View attachment 108916
View attachment 108917

View attachment 108918

Damn, that's a big sign. [emoji15]

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

That one, and the old station, was torn down in 1959, to be replaced by a new station on the same site with the new Standard of Indiana torch-and-oval logo.

It's still there, although the face was changed in the '70s to say "Amoco," and it continued to say "Amoco" all thru Amoco's absorption by BP in the 1990s. And now the Amoco brand is returning.