The front end on those looks even meaner than the back! Lately, auto makers have been putting lit "frowning eyebrows" over their headlights to make them look meaner. Compared to a 1959 Buick, they look like little kids on a temper tantrum.
Dad had one. A 4door hardtop in Seafoam green. With the little 348 and hydroglide. I got to drive it in the yard at the farm and wash and polish her.
And all are open air. No canopy. Baking in the sun, or the occasional other elements. A very inexpensive and high profit setup.
Must be just before the war, or shortly thereafter, judging from the vehicles (nice pick-em-up truck!), because by the late 1940s, Gilmore was acquired by the Socony-Vacuum Oil group, and eventually ended up merged into Mobil. Probably California So when you see a Mobil station, there's some Gilmore in there! Roar with Gilmore!
I'm curious about "California". SOCONY was the acronym for Standard Oil Company Of New York. I thought most, if not all of its stations were in the northeast US.
A search on the photo says it is in Los Angeles in 1948. Most images are black & white but this image has been colorized (note water mark in lower left corner). Gilmore called it a Gas-A-Teria.
After Standard Oil was broken up under the Sherman Act, Standard of New York and Standard of New Jersey became separate for a time. One became Exxon and the other Mobil, so obviously the Sherman Act is dead, because it's all ExxonMobil now. Both companies were nationwide. Either or both fared better in some places and had trouble getting into other markets. Oklahomans like Phillips and Getty, for example, treated Oklahomans better than any descendants of Rockefeller ever did, so we didn't much enjoy going to Esso or Standard stations. Mobil scarcely did better, even with their cool pegasus logo. But neither was some little bitty regional. Though I don't recall Mobil ever setting up stations around here under the Socony name, they probably did before they ultimately decided the Mobil name had more appeal.
I can vaguely remember that before they changed their name and signage, (the Pegasus fading in prominence), Mobil stations were "Mobilgas". I do remember the signage above the bay doors which read "Mobillube".
Umm, Gas-A-Teria sounds more like the place to go for food that doesn't quite do right by your stomach!
SOCONY owned General Petroleum Co, who sold under the Mobil brand on the West Coast. The same with Magnolia Petroleum in Texas along with White Eagle in the Midwest. Eventually all of those subsidiaries were combine under the Mobil Oil Corp. name.
Eventually some one decided to put a large canopy over those pumps, like the Blakely chain in Arizona which also placed a cashier kiosk on the center island for the attendant.
