Gilmore Classic Service Station
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History of Gilmore Gasoline
Here is a history of the Gilmore Gasoline Company:
THE GILMORE OIL COMPANY
1900-1945
A basic history of a very enthusiastic company
by Alan Darr
REMEMBER SLOGANS like "Blu-Green Gas," "Roar With Gilmore,""Gilmore The Record Breaker?" Remember the "Gilmore Fun Circus" radio show and "That Funny Red Lion Gas Song?" In the 1920s and ’30s these were the sounds of the Gilmore Oil Company of Los Angeles, California. Up and down the West Coast, almost every kid wanted his mom and dad to "fill-‘er-up" at the cream and red service stations with the large impressive lion sign on top the building. The kids were in for a real treat, and as far as they were concerned, it was all free. Gilmore comic books, "Gilmore Cub" news-papers with interesting facts, last week’s gas song winners, all the latest racing news, candy suckers in the shape of a lion and other promotional goodies always were available. If they were very lucky, they might see some live lions, clowns, and a special bodied speedster, known today as the "Gilmore Mystery’ Car." All this was the genius of Earl B. Gilmore, President of the Company.
The Gilmore Oil Company’s inception was about 1900, when the A. F. Gilmore Company was organized as a producing company . In 1923, the Gilmore Oil Company was incorporated under the laws of California as an amalgamation of the business and properties of A. F. Gilmore Company and Gilmore Petroleum Company, a refining and marketing company. The Gilmore Oil Company, Limited refined and marketed oil products in California, Oregon, and Washington and asphalt in Arizona. Later, asphalt operations were expanded to other western states as well. Overseas, they marketed oil products in China and New Zealand. Capital stock was 1,000,000 shares.
By 1929, the company held approximately 2,345 acres of land in fee or under lease and had purchased the former property of Dominion Oil Company, consisting of 920 acres in Santa Maria Field. The company operated four refineries and had interests in three others. They had ten bulk plants distributing through approximately 875 independent dealers, most of which were in California plus a few in Oregon and Washington. Trade names were "Gilmore Blu-Green," "Gilcoat," "Road-amite," "Lionhead," and "Gilmore Motor Oil." The head office was on East 28th Street, Los Angeles, California.
By 1931, the company really started to expand its retail operations to include all of the West Coast. By the mid 1930s, they owned developed property consisting of an additional 884 acres in Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, and Kern counties on which were located sixteen wells. They also owned 50 bulk distributing plants lo-cated in California, Oregon, and Washington, and by this time had 3500independent dealers. Tradenames were: "Gilmore Red Lion," "Gilmore Blu-Green," "Gilmore Fleet," "Gilcoat," "Roadamite," "Gilmore Motor Oil," "Gilmore Lion Head Motor Oil," "Eastoil," "Weston," and "Smacko." Just before World War II, another product was introduced with the trade name "Golden Lion Motor Oil."
In about 1934, they ceased marketing oi products overseas and the word "Limited" was dropped from the company name. In 1936, they sold 97,860,144 gallons of gasoline; 1,776,948 gallons of lubricating oil; 254,195 gallons of kerosene, which was five times greater than their 1930 sales.
The 3500 independent Gilmore stations were among the cleanest and most modern of any company. Each month company representatives toured the stations and recommended ideas to make them better and to pass out the latest company advertising, giveaways, etc. The stations were painted cream and red on a regular basis. The buildings were decorated with checkered flags alarge porcelain signs. The company expected and received top notch dealers, and in retum gave the dealer all the help he needed to make his business a success. The Gilmore Oil Company also absorbed any gasoline price war drop, even though no other oil company did this. By the late 1930s, Gilmore dealers were selling "Gilmore Batteries," "Norwalk Tires," and offered "Gilmore Credit Cards."
Through the years, Gilmore sold four grades of gasoline. First, "Gilmore Blu-Green" was their non-leaded regular grade. Second, "Gil-more Ethyl" was introduced in the late 1920s and was the premium grade sold through Gilmore dealers under the quality control of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation. Third, "Gilmore Red Lion," introduced in 1933, was a good quality regular grade blended with tetraethyl lead purchased from the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation for regular grade use without the trademark and the higher quality control requirements. Fourth, "Gilmore Fleet," introduced by the mid 1930’s, was a non-leaded very low octane grade intended for commercial use in freight trucks. Gilmore used thenormal industry color dyeing procedures, so the "Ethyl" grade was bronze, the leaded "Red Lion" was red, and the "Blu-Green" was blue-green.
To understand how all this came about, let’s look into the background of the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation. The antiknock effectiveness of the pure compound tetraethyl lead was discovered in 1921. The use patent was assigned to the General Motors Research Corporation. By 1924, Standard Oil of New Jersey had a cheap process to produce tetraethyl lead. The Ethyl Gasoline Corporation was formed August 18, 1924 to marry the use patent of G.M. and the process patent of Standard Oil (N.J.). Sales of "Ethyl" had barely started when they were suddenly halted in May, 1925. The immediate cause was a report of 45 dases of lead poisoning with four fatalities, at Jersey Standard’s pilot plant for the ethyl chloride process at its Bayway refinery.
The subsequent publication of findings by the Bureau Of Mines from extensive tests that no health hazard existed from the exhaust of leaded gasoline did not curb the panic. Investigations by a committee appointed by the Surgeon General finally cleared the way to resumption of sales a year later, after Ethyl Gasoline Corporation agreed to make sure that all leaded gasoline was dyed to serve as a warning against its use for cleaning purposes. With this out of the way, the new corporation sold tetraethyl lead to oil refiners (Gilmore included) under an agreement requiring each refiner to put enough tetraethyl lead additive in his "Ethyl" grade of fuel to meet a given antiknock quality, after 1930 expressed in octane numbers. No additive was sold to those who were unwilling to maintain these specified quality levels. The high quality fuels were displayed with the "Ethyl" trade mark (a white/black/yellow triangle within a circle) integrated into the oil company’s own brand identification in a way spelled out in the early sales contracts. A few years later, in 1933, premium fuel quality had risen so far above regular grade that tethaethyl lead fluid was made available for use in regular grade fuels as well, but with the provision in sales agreements that the "Ethyl" trade mark not be associated with the lower octane, and less-controlled fuels. These arrangements ran from 1933 through the end of the patent coverage period, approximately 1945.
By 1940, Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Inc. had acquired 75.56% of the Gilmore Oil Company stock and Gilmore became a subsidiary of Socony-Vacuum whose trade name was "Mobiloil." In 1945, the Gilmore Oil Company was merged into General Petroleum Corporation which was a solely-owned subsidiary of Socony-Vacuum since 1926.
From 1940 to 1942, Gilmore dealers operated just as they always had in the past, selling Gilmore products even though the company was now owned by Socony-Vacuum. In 1942, the company started the transition of stations from Gilmore to Mobil, and by 1945 the task was completed. All leased stations and all 50 bulk plants, 3777 acres of oil property, and two remaining refineries became part of Socony-Vacuum Oil Company, Inc. which is now Mobil Oil Corporation. The 3500 Gilmore dealers were of-
tered Mobil dealerships. Most dealers that were in leased stations stayed with Mobil as well as dealers that owned their stations and property. Some went with another independent company such as Hancock, Veltex, or Signal. It was the end of Gilmore and the magic that went with the name.
Now let’s back up and have a look at some of that magic. From the late 1920s to World War II, Gilmore was very much involved in promotion and advertising. They sponsored racing, land and water speed records, toured the West Coast entertaining kids with live lions and clowns, had a lion farm, radio show, and built Gilmore Stadium in West Hollywood. The name Gilmore was literally in the daily news. Because of this exposure, plus their clean stations and good service, their fine products becam very popular with young and old Mom liked the clean restrooms and courteous attendants’, Dad liked the products, service, latest racing news, and those snazzy looking windshield decals and license plate frames; The kids liked the lions and the giveaways. For the competition, Gilmore Oil Company was hard to beat, but Socony-Vacuum managed to do it by 1940 as mentioned before.
In the 1930s, Gilmore-sponsored cars, boats, motorcycles, and airplanes broke over 500 racing records. In 1932, Gilmore raced their first cars at the Indianapolis 500 Motor Speedway. They also raced at Indy in 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, and 1941. Drivers such as Howdy Wilcox, Stubby Stubblefield, Al Gordon, Mauri Rose, Kelly Petillo, Wilbur Shaw, Rex Mays, Freddie Winnai, Doc MacKenzie, Cliff Bergere, and George Robson all raced Gilmore cars at Indy. In 1935, Kelly Petillo won the "Indy 500" driving the "Gilmore Speedway Special," a Wetteroth-Offenhauser, averaging 106.240 mph. In 1937, Wilbur Shaw won his first "Indy 500" race driving the "Shaw-Gilmore Special," a Shaw-Offenhauser, averaging 113.580 mph. His previous attempt in a Gilmore car was in 1934, but the car lost oil in the 15th lap and was flagged. He also won the "Indy 500" in 1939 and 1940, but not driving Gilmore cars.
In February, 1934, the Gilmore-sponsored "Gilmore Gold Cup Classic" stock car race was held at Mines Field, the present-day site of Los Angeles International Airport. It was won by Stubby Stubblefield in a close decision over Al Gordon. The first ten places went to Ford cars with Chrysler, Chevrolet, Plymouth, and Rockne trailing. The hot little Ford V-8s were hard to beat.
Also in 1934, Rex Mays won the Pacific Coast Championship at the Legion Ascot Speedway driving the "Gilmore Special." The 1931-1932 Champion, Ernie Triplett, was killed in March of that year at a race at El Centro, California. In May 1934, the currently built Gilmore Stadium opened to the fastest growing auto sport in Califomia: midget auto racing. Gilmore Stadium was open from 1934 through 1950. Every major driver in the 1930s, 1940s, and early 1950s raced at Gilmore. Drivers such as Bill Betteridge, Bob Swanson, Curly Mills, Roy Russing, Sam Hanks, Danny Bakes, Fred Friday, Karl Young, Bill Vukovich, and Roger Ward drove there.
Some drivers were not so lucky racing at Gilmore, those killed over the years were Chet Mortemore, Speedy Lockwood, Frankie Lyons, Swede Lindskog, and Ed Haddad. Midget racing was very popular and in the sixteen years of Gilmore Stadium’s existence, and nearly 5,000,000 fans attended. In the 1930s, Gilmore Stadium drew crowds of over 18,000 each race. By the late 1940s, attendance had dropped to less than half unless it was a major race such as a Grand Prix. Faced with the attendance drop, and the knowledge of how much the property had come to be worth in the glamour capital of West Hollywood, the Gilmore management announced the sale of the property to C.B.S. In 1951 the stadium was torn down. Today on the property stand the facilities of Columbia Broadcasting System’s Television City.
Gilmore also sponsored the breaking of land speed records on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah. Drivers such as John Cobb, Tony Goullatta, Sir Malcolm Campbell, and Ab Jenkins all broke records on the Flats, but not always for Gilmore. One Gilmore record was established in 1939 when John Cobb ran through the measured mile at 368.8 mph, driving the "Railton Red Lion." Throughout his career, John Cobb broke many speed records and was known as "The Fastest Man On Earth." In 1952, he was killed on Loch Ness in Scotland when his jet-propelled speedboat broke into pieces at a speed of 205 mph during an attempt to break the world record on water.
By 1930, Gilmore began sponsoring a radio show every Friday evening which aired for several years. It was called the "Gilmore Circus Radio Program." Each week, several comedians were featured and they advertised Gilmore Oil, Gilmore Blu-Green, and after 1933, Red Lion gasoline. Each week verses were added to "Blu-Green The Longest Song In The World" and "That Funny Red Lion Gas Song." The verses were sent in by the radio listeners and the three winners selected each week were given a five dollar coupon book redeemable in oil products through any Gilmore dealer. They also gave one monthly grand prize of one hundred dollars cash. The winning verses were sung during the Gilmore Fun Circus program, and the names of the winners announced. A sample of a few of the verses that were winners from "That Funny Red Lion Gas Song" are Literally hundreds of verses such as the ones above were sent in over the years. The listeners who sent verses that were not added to the song were sent a postcard telling them their verse was very clever, but not chosen as a winner, and to try again. On the back of the postcard was a photo of a Gilmore lion sitting next to trainer Roy Kellogg.
Each year during the 30s, Gilmore sponsored the "Gilmore Grand Canyon Mileage Run" and the "Gilmore Economy Run." Both started from Gilmore Stadium. The Los Angeles area car dealers participated and used the results in their own advertising. The "Gilmore Economy Run" which ran to Yosemite National Park was the most publicized. The car dealer had their cars painted with special Gilmore advertising and the winners were flagged with Gilmore checkered flags for the cameramen.
Another Gilmore publicity idea was the use of an open cockpit airplane, painted Gilmore colors (cream and red which flew the West Coast advertising Gilmore products. It was piloted by Roscoe Turner, and he often flew with a live lion cub. Although they were never needed, both wore parachutes. The cub’s parachute was requested by the Humane Society.
Very popular during the 1930s was a special-built speedster and a truck with lions in cages and a number of clowns which toured the 3500 independent Gilmore dealers in the three West Coast states. They left Los Angeles early in the spring heading north, and returned late in the fall. Every station couldn’t be visited every year, but visits were staggered so just about every station was visited every few years. Each stop was highly advertised in the local newspapers in advance of their arrival. Kids from all over were at the local Gilmore station to greet them. While the clowns and lions performed, the kids were given Red Lion candy suckers an Gilmore comic books. To kids growing up in the depression, the Gilmore traveling circus was the greatest and not much could compare.
At least two custom-built publicity speedsters were in use by Gilmore. The first one in the early 1930s looked something like an Auburn. The second one looked like a Cord but had a fin running down the back. It reminds one of what "Flash Gordon" might have driven. The cars were used on tour, in parades, etc. Both cars were painted cream and trimmed in red with red leather upholstery which had to be replaced on a regular basis because the lion cubs liked to claw and chew it apart. A few years ago, the first speedster disappeared and has since been known as the "Gilmore Mystery Car."
Today, all that remains of the Gilmore Oil Company is the memorabilia of their existence and the memories of former dealers, race car drivers, and the countless thousands who used their products. There still exists plenty of interest among collectors, Gilmore collectibles are constantly sought after. For former Gilmore Stadium race car owners, drivers and mechanics, the annual "Gilmore Roars Again" party is held at Schroeder’s Ranch in the Hollywood Hills. Even the general public can reminisce while visiting the new Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. They have on display in the main hall, next to one of Roscoe Turner’s airplanes, a stuffed lion with a red Gilmore robe over its back.
The memory of Gilmore does indeed Roar Again.
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Ed Arva, Walter Smith and 2 more people faved this
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skram2014 9y
My grandfather owned and operated a Gilmore gas station in Toledo Washingtion when Hyway 99 (this part is known as Jackson Hyway) was the main route prior to I-5. I have two 8×10 pictures on my wall showing the station and the gilmore clowns and the gilmore mystery car with the lions
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GOOSE190 9y
I am from upstate N.Y., and although seperated by some 2700 miles, my grandfather, on my mother’s side was Gilmore. Ernest (Ernie) Gilmore. It would be nice to know the connection
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Fred4hp 9y
My wife remembers her father singing the blue green gas song. Anyone know where to find the music or lyrics or any recordings of this?
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jack Clifford 7y
My Dad traveled in a 1908 Surrey with a fringe on top. as the Sheriff for Gilmore Oil. Went to Pomona Fair and all throughout So and central Calif. He was a regular on the Sunday night "Hi-Jinks" radio program on KFWB
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Ellen Shaver 4y
If anyone can provide me a clean shot of the Gilmore that was in Hawthorne in LA at Denver and Flower , I would be eternally grateful! This was next to the famed Zep diner that was there . I’m trying to re create all three buildings from that corner for a diorama project
