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Ethyl - Summer's Comin', folks... (!)


pfloro

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Diamond Service Station, 118 King Street (Mid-Continent Petroleum Corp.), looking up King Street toward the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, with a partial view of the Capitol and Tenney Building.

 

This photograph was taken sometime in 1935 (probably summer)...  It appeared today in a NYT article about Thomas Midgley who invented TEL and CFCs...

 

Groucho Marx:  "To the palace...!  Ride like fury...!  If you run out of gas get Ethyl.  If Ethyl runs out, get Mabel"   ...from Duck Soup (1933).

 

Paul

 

Ethyl Advertisment 01.jpg

Edited by pfloro (see edit history)
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I loved the movie "Duck Soup"! I was never much of a fan of their later movies. They became too pat and formula written. The early films were produced and performed on stage before the best laughs were worked out and then put onto film. My all-time favorite Marx Brothers movie was their first talking comedy, "The Cocoanuts" (also had the best musical interludes which I very much enjoyed!). "Horse Feathers" and "Duck Soup" follow close behind. Every time (I am not kidding!) I see a photo or read a mention of "Ethyl" gasoline? That silly Groucho quote runs through my head!

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23 hours ago, greenie said:

I wonder what those 5 gas pumps would fetch at Hershey?!?

Not to mention how much that neon Diamond sign would fetch these days.

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12 hours ago, greenie said:

If my town had a gas station that looked like that, I’d be there now. 

There was a Sinclair, later BP station right in the middle of our town. Had 2 service bays and a small cashier/waiting area. It was THE hangout for the 'older guys' every morning. I can imagine it was a fun place to hang around and wish there was a place like that now. The building is still there, still a gas station but the 2 bays have been converted to a convenience store. Oil changes and brake jobs are merely a haunt of the past.

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