Want to buy or sell something? Check the classifieds
  • The Fedora Lounge is supported in part by commission earning affiliate links sitewide. Please support us by using them. You may learn more here.

Old gas stations

LizzieMaine

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,038
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
And if you focus in reeeeeeal close, you'll find the dinosaur on the oil cans.

Sinclair-Opaline-Motor-Oil-Can-Metal-Dino-Quart.jpg


"Mellowed 60 Million Years!"

5871e179833fb41ab5604fc3d73c6390--sinclair-pennsylvania.jpg


"Mellowed 100 Million Years!"

You see, motor oil is really a lot like fine wines and liquors. The finer vintages require time to ripen and mellow, to produce that rich full-bodied flavor that only time can bring. Or something.
 
2jakes

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Dino the dinosaur became the mascot for Sinclair Oils in 1932 when he was registered as a corporate trademark. He was extremely popular, and as Dino’s popularity grew, so did the number of places he was seen. He appeared on the Sinclair gas station globes and signs, and even the name of the gasoline was called Dino or Dino Supreme. Soon after, Dino started to appear on oilcans and maps, along with print advertisements.
24018-sp-e1341599167395-450x235.jpg

The largest promotional event for Sinclair was in 1964. The company sailed nine inflatable dinosaurs down the Hudson River to the New York World’s Fair. Sinclair had 10 million visitors walk through the pavilion to see the exhibit. A wax model of Dino that popped out of a machine was given as a souvenir.
 
2jakes

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
I haven’t found “Dino” atop Sinclair gas stations from the '30s.
Perhaps LizzieMaine can provide us with information or when
they began using the mascot on top of the stations.
Dinoe--gas-station-sinclair.jpg

Btw:
LizzieMaine...I know if you were my inspection officer in the military...
I would’ve flunked inspection for sure.

You have a keen eye for details!
Amazing.
 
Last edited:
LizzieMaine

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,038
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Dinosaurs were mostly in advertising and on product labels until the late 1950s, when the company realized how popular they were with kids. The trapezoidal station sign with the dinosaur first appeared in 1959.

The usual Sinclair dinosaur was what used to be called a brontosaurus, but print ads for the company in the 1930s and early 1940s featured a whole range of dinosaurs, often incorporating dinosaur facts before sidling into the pitch for the product. Tyrannosaurs, triceratopses, and stegosaurs were the most commonly seen dinos in these ads. I have always been miffed that the best dinosaur of all, the ankylosaurus, was rarely if ever featured.

Among other places where the dinos showed up was at the ballpark: the back cover of the Brooklyn Dodgers' scorecard from the mid-thirties to 1957 usually featured a Sinclair ad, and dinosaur motifs were common. The best was probably the 1940 season, which featured a tight closeup of a realistic, grinning tyrannosaurus -- which may have been the first good look many kids got at the King of Dinosaurs.

s-l1600.jpg


There's something about a creature so jovially endorsing a product distilled from the liquefied remains of his own corpse that I find just a bit unsettling. Some things do not bear close examination.

And for that matter, what do you suppose a talking tyrannosaurus doing a motor oil commercial would sound like? This ad works even better if you imagine him doing his lines in the voice of Lionel Stander.
 
2jakes

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
This gas station that Ghostsoldier posted:
I enlarged a bit to see the details... “Flying A wings”.

The combination of camera/lens/film from that time period, lighting
and “art-deco” style decoration, give this photo a surreal look similar
to a “Busby Berkeley” musical number.
Flying A.png

I found this:
"Associated Gas Station, 1940s circa 1949
Henry Pease's Associated service station decorated for Christmas on corner of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, San Francisco.1940s.”

I went to google search/map to see what’s there now,
I’ll just stay with this image. :(
 
Last edited:
Fading Fast

Fading Fast

Messages
16,861
Location
New York City
Dinosaurs_1.jpg

2jakes said:
View attachment 97157 ....
Click to expand...

That ⇧ is fantastic.

2jakes said:
This gas station that Ghostsoldier posted:
I enlarged a bit to see the details... “Flying A wings”.

The combination of camera/lens/film from that time period, lighting
and “art-deco” style decoration, give this photo a surreal look similar
to a “Busby Berkeley” musical number.
View attachment 97161
I found this:
"Associated Gas Station, 1940s circa 1949
Henry Pease's Associated service station decorated for Christmas on corner of Junipero Serra Boulevard and Ocean Avenue, San Francisco.1940s.”

I went to google search/map to see what’s there now,
I’ll just stay with this image. :(
Click to expand...

You and I think alike - see my post a page back where I commented that, that station looks like its the set of a '30s MGM musical.
 
Frunobulax

Frunobulax

Messages
19,119
Location
Funkytown, USA
Re Sinclair and Dino. I distinctly remember a commercial as a kid where, when ARCO merged with Sinclair, they retired Dino. It was an animated spot, and they gave Dino his walking papers and he walked toward the rear of the frame, disappearing. So, when I got older and travelled a bit more, I was surprised to go out west and find Sinclair stations, as I thought they were gone from everywhere.

Couldn't find the spot on Youtube, though.
 
LizzieMaine

LizzieMaine

Bartender
Messages
33,038
Location
Where The Tourists Meet The Sea
Yep, what happened was that Atlantic-Richfield bought out Sinclair in the late sixties with the idea of absorbing it for its midwestern operations, since Arco only operated on the coasts. They were required to sell off all of Sinclair's East Coast operations as part of the deal, which they did -- resulting in all Eastern Sinclair stations converting to the BP brand in the early 70s. They then tried to eliminate the Sinclair brand entirely, turning all the Sinclair operations in the midwest and mountain states to Arco, but never quite managed to complete the job before the energy crisis hit. They decided then that they didn't need Sinclair, and sold it off to a new investor group. That company, which has no connection to Harry F. Sinclair's original Consolidated Oil Company or the Sinclair Oil Company of the 1930s thru the 1960s, is the Sinclair that exists today, still pretty much confined to the midwest/mountain states area.

Sinclair was once one of the major players in the East, right up with Texaco, Esso, Socony, Tydol, and Gulf in terms of the number of stations, and it was weird to see it disappear almost overnight. Suddenly there were BP signs everywhere, and then just as suddenly they disappeared again into another merger deal.
 
Frunobulax

Frunobulax

Messages
19,119
Location
Funkytown, USA
LizzieMaine said:
Yep, what happened was that Atlantic-Richfield bought out Sinclair in the late sixties with the idea of absorbing it for its midwestern operations, since Arco only operated on the coasts. They were required to sell off all of Sinclair's East Coast operations as part of the deal, which they did -- resulting in all Eastern Sinclair stations converting to the BP brand in the early 70s. They then tried to eliminate the Sinclair brand entirely, turning all the Sinclair operations in the midwest and mountain states to Arco, but never quite managed to complete the job before the energy crisis hit. They decided then that they didn't need Sinclair, and sold it off to a new investor group. That company, which has no connection to Harry F. Sinclair's original Consolidated Oil Company or the Sinclair Oil Company of the 1930s thru the 1960s, is the Sinclair that exists today, still pretty much confined to the midwest/mountain states area.

Sinclair was once one of the major players in the East, right up with Texaco, Esso, Socony, Tydol, and Gulf in terms of the number of stations, and it was weird to see it disappear almost overnight. Suddenly there were BP signs everywhere, and then just as suddenly they disappeared again into another merger deal.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the explanation. When I was younger, BP was the mysterious brand that showed up in my Matchbox toy collection. I was pretty much an adult before the made inroads here, Buying out Sohio.

Our local Community College is Sinclair Community College. I actually convinced a few folks they were changing their name to ARCO Community College at one point.

On another note, does anybody in the midwest remember Att-a-Boy service stations? We had a few around here, but I'll be darned if I can find an historical picture of one.
 
2jakes

2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
Fading Fast said:
View attachment 97292

Not sure I can explain it, but this is a fantastic pic.
Click to expand...


Timing!
Once the dust hits the lens...
forget it.
When I have to video a severe rain storm
for the news, I go to the under pass
of the freeway and shoot into the streets.
Other times, I have my reporter drive the news truck while I shoot from the passenger side.
I trust her, she knows what to do
should the vehicle start to hydroplane!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Mighty44
Trade for a Weird Whippet? 7 1/8
Replies
3
Views
551
vincent stuart
vincent stuart
Trenchfriend
Old motorbikes - a huge comeback??
Replies
4
Views
1K
tonyb
tonyb
VansonRider
I need a new suit, and some help…
Replies
7
Views
417
VansonRider
VansonRider
nejc_of_1930s
WTB: 1930s-40s clothes or reproductions
Replies
0
Views
625
nejc_of_1930s
nejc_of_1930s
P
Aero Motorcycle Jacket -- Some Questions
Replies
4
Views
1K
Phil4
P

Members online

... and 9 more.
Total: 5,847 (members: 59, guests: 5,788)

Forum statistics

Threads
107,217
Messages
3,031,316
Members
52,690
Latest member
biker uk
Top