Old gas stations

[Fading Fast]

⇧ I'm no car guy, but that looks like a very late '40s Lincoln to me (script on side made the Lincoln part easy).

 

[Fading Fast]

The license plate appears either not to be there at all, or is blacked out to prevent it from being identified. The red thing is possibly a fire department plate topper, attached to the bottom plate mounting bolts -- many small-town fire departments issued these toppers, which were usually either red with white lettering or white with red lettering, in order to ensure that the vehicles owned by members could get emergency parking without being towed or ticketed. The top row of lettering is probably the name of the town, while the bottom row might say "FIRE DEPT."

The station is a generic concrete block building remodeled into the Teague Texaco format -- probably a paint lease.

Clearly staged, so for whatever reason, I guess, they chose to block out the license plate for some legal reason.

 

[2jakes]

The license plate appears either not to be there at all, or is blacked out to prevent it from being identified. The red thing is possibly a fire department plate topper, attached to the bottom plate mounting bolts -- many small-town fire departments issued these toppers, which were usually either red with white lettering or white with red lettering, in order to ensure that the vehicles owned by members could get emergency parking without being towed or ticketed. The top row of lettering is probably the name of the town, while the bottom row might say "FIRE DEPT."

The station is a generic concrete block building remodeled into the Teague Texaco format -- probably a paint lease.

Lizzie, this forum would not be the same without you!
Thank You.

 

[ChiTownScion]

The Esso-Exxon situation stems from the consent decree which broke up the Standard Oil Company in 1911. Each of the "Baby Standards" was given the right to use the Standard Oil trademark in a specific geographical area in the US, and Standard of New Jersey was confined to the Eastern Seaboard as well as Louisiana, Arkansas and Tennessee. They began using the Esso trademark -- a phonetic rendering of S. O. for Standard Oil -- in hopes that it would circumvent this restriction, but when it tried to move into the territory of other Standard companies it was usually sued, the only real exception being New England-New York, where they snuck past Socony long enough to get established.

Standard of New Jersey wanted to become a national marketer along the lines of Gulf and Texaco, but it was hamstrung every step of the way by the trademark issue, and ended up selling in states outside its territory under a variety of alternative trademarks with Humble and Enco being the most prominent. Finally in the early 70s they came up with "Exxon" as a trademark acceptable in all fifty states and began using it in late 1972 with a big splashy ad campaign featuring the Esso Tiger declaring "We've changed out name -- but not our stripes!"

Since they weren't bound by the consent decree anywhere else in the world, though, they kept using Esso everywhere else. A couple years back a court ruling declared that enough time has passed that their use of Esso in the US wouldn't cause confusion in the marketplace, so technically they're free to use it again. But Exxon no longer markets in all fifty states, and there hasn't been any movement to change the logo back to Esso in those where it does.

I can recall, early 60's, when the "Oklahoma" line of gasoline stations became "Enco." Skywriters emblazoned the blue skies over Chicago with "ENCO." At age six, I was quite impressed.

 

[Fading Fast]

Re the above discussion: growing up on the '60s and '70s the brand of gas seemed important to many (we shopped mainly on price, but even so, we avoided a few brands - but were mainly price driven), but it doesn't seem that way anymore as most people today buy their gas based on convenience and price not brand. What happened - did people get wise or did the brands (the oil companies) find that investing in their brand / advertising wasn't paying off?

 

[LizzieMaine]

The best of the "We're Changing Our Name" commercials, which ran on local stations in the fall of 1972. Because of the different brands being eliminated, there were multiple soundtracks mentioning the "Esso Tiger," the "Enco Tiger," and the "Humble Tiger," but the same animation was used for each version. This is the "Humble Tiger" version, which ran in Ohio -- where Sohio refused to allow anything even remotely close to "Esso."

 

[LizzieMaine]

Re the above discussion: growing up on the '60s and '70s the brand of gas seemed important to many (we shopped mainly on price, but even so, we avoided a few brands - but were mainly price driven), but it doesn't seem that way anymore as most people today buy their gas based on convenience and price not brand. What happened - did people get wise or did the brands (the oil companies) find that investing in their brand / advertising wasn't paying off?

I think it was a combination of both. The energy crisis killed off thousands of marginal stations in the 1970s, which forced all of the national brands to start pulling out of various territories, and the idea of a nationally-marketed brand identity therefore became less important. And without the advertising reinforcing the idea that there were differences in brands of gasoline meant that people came to look at price and location as more important than brand identity.

 

[Fading Fast]

The best of the "We're Changing Our Name" commercials, which ran on local stations in the fall of 1972. Because of the different brands being eliminated, there were multiple soundtracks mentioning the "Esso Tiger," the "Enco Tiger," and the "Humble Tiger," but the same animation was used for each version. This is the "Humble Tiger" version, which ran in Ohio -- where Sohio refused to allow anything even remotely close to "Esso."

⇧ that's fantastic. I image it cost a lot to get all the licensing approvals.

 

[GHT]

The S.O. Esso connection is common knowledge, but the rest is an amazing history, more of American litigation than that of it's oil companies.

London has swallowed up much of the borders of it's neighbouring counties. The town of Beckenham, once in Kent is a case in point. Back in the day when Beckenham really was in Kent it had a fabulous petrol station, it was said that the staff all wore Oriental clothing.

 

[BobHufford]

Rob -- that last one is in Waynesville, MO and I think the owners were related to my Mom somehow (maiden name Rigsby from nearby Dixon, MO).

 

[Ghostsoldier]

That's awesome, Bob!

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Joe Jackson on the right.

 

[GHT]

Is Joe's car a Packard?

This photo of Member of Parliament, Tom Williams, shows that there was self service back in the day. This photo is dated 1935. Note the name of the fuel. Coalene, was a petroleum product produced from coal.

 

[2jakes]

Is Joe's car a Packard?

"Greensboro, N.C., April 10 – I met a poor old rich man yesterday.
In his garage he has a Packard and a Buick, and he owns the finest
mansion in Greenville, S.C., but he’s busted, broke — broken-hearted.
He’s sick, and he’s afraid he’s going to die in what for 20 years has been
his disgrace.” S. Povich.

 

[GHT]

Here's the reason for the Packard question, can you see the right hand drive steering wheel?:

 

[Fading Fast]

Is Joe's car a Packard?

This photo of Member of Parliament, Tom Williams, shows that there was self service back in the day. This photo is dated 1935. Note the name of the fuel. Coalene, was a petroleum product produced from coal.
View attachment 85045

I'm sure the '35 version of gasoline-from-coal burned nice and clean.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There were a lot of alternative fuels being explored in the thirties. Gasohol had a big vogue as a way of keeping corn farmers happy, not unlike today.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Been to where that gas station used to be....it was Joe's favorite station, and he knew the owner well (the guy in the photo). It's all gone.

Also went to one of the modest homes where he and Kate lived in Greenville, which is still there, but empty; I picked up some brick fragments from the property, and a cutting from one of the older trees on the lot.

The "new" house, where he lived when he died, is the one most people know of...it was moved to its current location to avoid it being destroyed, and it's now the Joe Jackson Museum.

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Pepper Ethyl, another view

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Thanks to Ghostsoldier.
Makes me go on the search engine when I see something of interest.

"TWO CARRS STATION WAS ON N BROADWAY LOUDON AVE BEHIND IT WAS THE RUSSELL CAVE RD (HARD
TO SEE) BEHIND THE COKE BOX , TRUCK AND CAR. BELT LINE AVE IS A STREET THAT HAVE NO
INTERSECTIONS OR CLOSE TO THE STATION. WE OPERATED THE STATION BEFORE CECIL REED FOR A SHORT TIME .
WE PRESENTLY OPERATION THE STATION ON W. NEW CIRCLE RD SINCE APRIL 1954. NEW CIRCLE RD WAS ORIGINALY
CALL THE BELT LINE OR THE 25 BY PASS.” Joe Duff @ Old Motors.