Old gas stations

[1955mercury]

The Pure Oil cottage was designed by Carl Petersen, a man who had no formal architectural training whatever. He had worked for Gulf in the early twenties, and had tried to sell them the cottage concept, but they didn't like it. Petersen landed at Pure in 1925, and they loved the cottage -- they used it or modifications of it for over twenty years. Even when they went to the "oblong icebox" style station in the 1950s, they tried to incorporate an abstract suggestion of the cottage.

Check out that Ford shop truck. Fender skirts and looks like air horns on top of the cab. It's probably got some kind of fancy add on hood ornament also. These were traveling bill boards back then. This photo looks to have been taken in the early 60's. There's a 1961 Chevy on the far right side, a 1959 Ford out front, the shop truck looks to be a 1960 or 61 and the International Harvester truck behind the 59 Ford.

 

[BlueTrain]

Ice that you buy at gas stations are still kept in identical freezers.

 

[LizzieMaine]

A Pure dealer in Corbin, Kentucky expanded his station into a full-fledged motel/restaurant/gas station complex in the late 1930s, and while the complex was not officially built according to Pure's design, it was clearly inspired by the basic "cottage" format.

That dealer focused more and more of his activity on his restaurant operation during the 1940s, especially his pressure-cooker method for preparing fast-fried chicken, and when the motel was bypassed by road construction in the early 1950s, he decided to give up the business and go on the road full time selling his chicken process as a franchise. He put on a white suit, grew a goatee, and became the famous Colonel Harland Sanders, former Pure Oil dealer and future Kentucky Fried Chicken king.

 

[Fading Fast]

⇧ was the advertising of "Steam Heat" emphasizing the superiority of steam heat over another type of heat or the simple fact that the rooms had heat of any type?

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Steam heat" was understood in the Era as a synonym for "central heating," as opposed to heat from a coal, kerosene, or wood stove in the room. While forced-hot-air heat did exist, it was far less popular or common at the time than coal or oil-fired steam systems.

So staying a motel that advertised "Steam Heat" meant you wouldn't be bothered poking a fire in your little room stove if you needed to stay warm. Most "tourist camps" of the 1930s, if they had heat at all, were heated by room stoves, so central heating was a very big deal for potential customers. The Colonel was on the cutting edge of comfort in providing such accomodations to his guests.

 

[BlueTrain]

The picture postcard above is a wonderful illustration. I've seen a lot of postcards like that, typically with a silk finish. I keep wondering how they were produced. Hand-colored black & white photos maybe? All the ones I'm thinking of are of road-side restaurants and "motor courts." Everything looks so neat and clean and new. They even look like that in old photos of other gas stations posted in this thread or practically so. But the one of Sanders is especially interesting.

Notice the flowers near the gas pumps and the lawn chairs, the neat edging to the lawn. I was wondering what that structure was behind the cars and to the right of the sign. But I decided it was stairs and balcony for the second floor. I hate to use a worn-out expression again but was life better then or what?

Then the road was widened or a bypass constructed and the customers stopped coming by and that was it. Life wasn't so good anymore.

Something like that happened near where I live. To drive to Florida on the East Coast, where the elites live, you took U.S. 1. It goes all the way to Key West. Then Interstate 95 was built, although it doesn't go to Key West. It does go to Miami and that's good enough for most people. U.S. 1 used to have lots of motels, tourist courts, gas stations, restaurants, road houses, little amusement parks and so on. Not anymore, although South of the Border is still there. Parts of the highway look very sad. Driving down I-95, though, you can't see anything, almost. But within commuting distance of cities, there has been development and the development of housing always brings the shopping centers and strip malls. It still full of life in some places but it isn't the same. What is?

 

[Fading Fast]

"Steam heat" was understood in the Era as a synonym for "central heating," as opposed to heat from a coal, kerosene, or wood stove in the room. While forced-hot-air heat did exist, it was far less popular or common at the time than coal or oil-fired steam systems.

So staying a motel that advertised "Steam Heat" meant you wouldn't be bothered poking a fire in your little room stove if you needed to stay warm. Most "tourist camps" of the 1930s, if they had heat at all, were heated by room stoves, so central heating was a very big deal for potential customers. The Colonel was on the cutting edge of comfort in providing such accomodations to his guests.

Thank you - kinda figured you'd know the answer and it felt like it was advertised prominently for a reason.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

A Pure dealer in Corbin, Kentucky expanded his station into a full-fledged motel/restaurant/gas station complex in the late 1930s, and while the complex was not officially built according to Pure's design, it was clearly inspired by the basic "cottage" format.

That dealer focused more and more of his activity on his restaurant operation during the 1940s, especially his pressure-cooker method for preparing fast-fried chicken, and when the motel was bypassed by road construction in the early 1950s, he decided to give up the business and go on the road full time selling his chicken process as a franchise. He put on a white suit, grew a goatee, and became the famous Colonel Harland Sanders, former Pure Oil dealer and future Kentucky Fried Chicken king.

Thanks for sharing this info, Lizzie...I love the Colonel (his 11 secret herbs and spices, anyway), and knowing now that he was a Pure Oil man, makes it even neater! [emoji6]

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

A period Texaco...

Rob

 

[LizzieMaine]

A classic late-period Teague. The canopy was only used in the West and South -- they didn't do well under the heavy snowfall in the North.

Texaco stopped building Teagues in 1964, when they went to the "Mattawan" design, but you could still see original Teagues in all their glory up until the mid-1980s, when the company redid its entire color scheme. The surviving Teagues in the system were painted ugly shades of red and grey, like a Korean War general. Our place closed in 1981, so we just ducked that bullet and remained green and white to the very end.

Here's an idealized ad image of a 1960s "Mattawan" station.

The style didn't last long -- it was already dated before the company could roll it out nationally, and it faded out by the early '70s. The company had built more than 20,000 Teague-style stations between 1937 and 1964, and they remained the definitive image for the company until the grey-and-red paint job in the '80s

 

[LizzieMaine]

Another bit of Texaco memorabilia -- here's comedian Sid Stone as the "Texaco Pitchman" on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre in 1951. The hour-long program only featured one commercial each week, which would be blended into Stone's "tell ya what I'm gonna do" routine.

 

[BobHufford]

I liked the triangle awnings of the Phillips 66 stations of the 1960s.

 

[BlueTrain]

The cars don't look that big in the last three photos, only a little more rectangular than they would be now.

 

[Fading Fast]

Another bit of Texaco memorabilia -- here's comedian Sid Stone as the "Texaco Pitchman" on Milton Berle's Texaco Star Theatre in 1951. The hour-long program only featured one commercial each week, which would be blended into Stone's "tell ya what I'm gonna do" routine.

You can feel the Vaudeville influences to that little number. Also, how cool was the little gas pump prop.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I actually have one of those little pumps -- it's actually a penny bank.

Sid Stone was a former burlesque comic who developed the "pitchman" character during his stage days, and was still doing it as late as the 1980s. He and Berle didn't get along at all -- which was no surprise, since Berle wanted to be the only one getting the laughs -- and Berle would often try to sabotage his bit, hence the ad-lib about "Berle did that" when the stooge's toupee comes off.

Stone left the show in 1952, and was replaced by Jimmy Nelson, a ventriloquist, who would do a comedy sales spiel with his dummy Danny O'Day, both of them dressed in Texaco uniforms.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I liked the triangle awnings of the Phillips 66 stations of the 1960s.

Yeah, these were always one of my favorites.

Rob

 

[BobHufford]

Across from Sequiota Park in what was Galloway, Missouri (now part of Springfield).

 

[LizzieMaine]

Ah, the good old days when everything wasn't plastered with advertising.

 

[Fading Fast]

I actually have one of those little pumps -- it's actually a penny bank....[/MEDIA]

That's great. I love stuff like that.

I actually have one of those little pumps -- it's actually a penny bank.

Sid Stone was a former burlesque comic who developed the "pitchman" character during his stage days, and was still doing it as late as the 1980s. He and Berle didn't get along at all -- which was no surprise, since Berle wanted to be the only one getting the laughs -- and Berle would often try to sabotage his bit, hence the ad-lib about "Berle did that" when the stooge's toupee comes off.

Stone left the show in 1952, and was replaced by Jimmy Nelson, a ventriloquist, who would do a comedy sales spiel with his dummy Danny O'Day, both of them dressed in Texaco uniforms.

Despite our seemingly fully advertising-saturated world today, those shows appear to have been even more in bed with the advertisers.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Oh yes, thruout the radio era and well into the television age, programming was owned and controlled by sponsors and advertising agencies. Texaco was actually among the less heavy-handed practitioners of it -- they enjoyed using humorous commercials rather than obnoxious hard sell.

This went all the way back to their first radio show, with comedian Ed Wynn, in 1932, in which Wynn, as "The Fire Chief," would declare he had no use for the product because he was going to stick to his horse. His announcer/straight man Graham McNamee once fluffed a commercial and referred to "Fire Chief gasoloon," and that became a running gag on the program that went on for months.

Texaco had a long history with using top comedians in its advertising. After Wynn, they sponsored Eddie Cantor and his gang --

And then Fred Allen --

(In reality, Allen hated cars and never owned one. Ah, the Boys.)

And then Berle, on both radio and TV --

And then in the '60s and '70s, Jack Benny --

And finally in the '70s and '80s, Bob Hope --

I guess it's no coincidence that Texaco died off as an independent company around the same time as the last of that generation of comedians died off.