Customer Reviews

Fill 'er Up!: The Great American Gas Station

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Fabulously evocative pictures and well-researched detail on the iconographic gas stations of 20th century America. Equally at home on your references shelves or your retro coffee table and a fascinating slice of social history.

The book is pretty good with tons of pictures of vintage gasoline memorabilia. It also mentions European Gas Station Matters, The book at times is repetitive. But Is a pretty good collection of memorablilia.No memorabilia of D-x/Diamond-X/Sunray DX however, or others that could have been covered.

I don't drive and never have done except for forty or so driving lessons that convinced me I could never be a good motorist. Nevertheless, I've been a passenger often enough to be familiar with the subject of this book, and I'm old enough to remember gas pump attendants, though we Brits use the word petrol instead of gas. This book provides an illustrated history of gas (or petrol) stations, primarily focusing on America but periodically making comparisons with Europe. While America often led the way with new developments, the first self-service stations appeared in Europe. America didn't follow suit immediately, but did so within a few years.

Competition between rival oil corporations provided not only a learning experience for the oil corporations, but also set an example for other types of business including the advertizing industry. In the beginning, the quality of the fuel was the focus, but there came a point where there was no noticeable difference in fuel quality. Other ways were used to attract customers and encourage repeat business, which included everything from the design of buildings and the quality and range of services provided. To avoid upsetting the locals, some early gas stations built in housing estates were even designed to blend in with the surrounding houses.

Advertizing in all its forms gets a fair bit of coverage. Giveaways such as free maps, cards and stamps are all covered. I particularly remember Green Shield stamps, which were very successful for several years. Other notable advertizing campaigns include the sixties campaign to put a tiger in your tank, which I also remember well. Oil corporations learned early on that while (in those days), men drove most of the cars, women usually made the decisions about where to fill up, so a lot of advertizing was directed at women, with the emphasis being placed on the facilities that were of particular concern to them.

Refuelling is one of those mundane tasks that motorists just get on with, but the history is more interesting than one might think, as this book clearly shows.