"Red Head" and "Getty" gas stations

[adreed24]

I have some questions about 2 gas station chains in my state, Maryland.

When I was a kid in the 1970's, we had a gas station called "Red Head", I think they were a chain of stations. Has anyone ever heard of these stations? Who owned them and were they in other states? What happened to them? I drove past where one was located years ago, and it went from being a "Red Head", to a "Marathon", and now a "Hess" station.

Also, we have a "Getty" station near our house and I was wondering who owns "Getty" stations and how many of them are still in existence, and in what parts of the country?

Thanks in advance!

 

[k1xv]

I know nothing about "Red Head", but the right to market petroleum products and fuels as "Getty" was sold to the Russian oil company, "Lukoil" about 5 years ago. The web site claims 1317 retail locations in the northeastern US.

www.getty.com

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Some Gettys around here have turned into Lukoil (Russian) stations.

If you remember, Getty used to be "Flying A" in the sixties.

 

[Al]

Never heard of Red Head and I've been around for a while.

 

[motorguy222]

I think it was actually,Red Hed.

There used to be a small store/gas station in
my town called this.

It closed many years ago.

Here is their site:

http://www.redhedoil.com/

 

[Gary Allan]

Was Getty Flying A ..or was that Atlantic ..which used to have the "Atlantic Redball service"??

Lukoil has acquired most of the Mobil retail outlets around here. There are still Mobil retailers, but they don't appear to be company owned. I haven't stopped in a Lukoil to see if they market Mobil products ..or their own.

Lukoil Americas, through its subsidiary Getty Petroleum Marketing Inc., proudly flies the flags of its two premier brands Lukoil and Getty. With the recent acquisition of ConocoPhillips premium assets in the states of New Jersey and Pennsylvania (Mobil brand), Lukoil Americas is on it’s way to becoming a major force in the Eastern U.S. market.

LukoilAmericas

 

[k1xv]

Originally posted by Gary Allan:
[QB] Was Getty Flying A ..or was that Atlantic ..which used to have the "Atlantic Redball service"??

================
"Flying A" was "Tydol", short for Tidewater Oil. J. Paul Getty controlled the company. In a fit of megalomania, in the early 1960s the stations were all renamed "Getty" and the signs and trademarks replaced. Exactly why an atom was included on the Getty sign is beyond me. In the late 1960s they went for a marketing niche by only selling premium grade fuel. Actually, most of the big v-8 engines of that era called for premium.

Getty then entered a deal to be absorbed by Pennzoil, but Texaco came in at the 11th hour and grabbed up Getty. (What followed was a civil suit filed against Texaco by Pennzoil, which Pennzoil won, and caused Texaco to declare bankruptcy).

When Getty ceased to exist as an oil company, its marketing trademarks and gas station network was sold to a company called PowerTest, which ran an oil distribution and marketing network out of the New York City area. This ultimately wound up owned by Lukoil.

The oil industry was big in renaming at that time. Anybody remember that "Citgo" used to be "Cities Service"?

As for Atlantic, in the 1950s there was an Atlantic, and a Richfield, and they merged to become Atlantic Richfield. This was ultimately renamed "ARCO". They never had any connection with Tydol or Getty.

 

[GROUCHO MARX]

Axelrod was the "FLYING A" spokesdog. A sad looking basset hound.

 

[k1xv]

quote:

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Originally posted by GROUCHO MARX:
Axelrod was the "FLYING A" spokesdog. A sad looking basset hound.

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==============

And the Tidewater lubricants were branded "Veedol".


In the late 1950s, Chevron was known as Standard Oil of California and marketed in the New York City area as "Calso". They did not have many stations, and those they had often looked rather run down and not very inviting.

This was the era of large tail fin autos. They had a low budget TV commerical cartoon spokesman, "Hy Finn", who made various modest claims for the merits of Calso gasoline. One that I remember best was that it would fit in any size gas tank, and that you could buy as much or as little as you wanted.

 

[JHZR2]

OK, I have to ask... Is the fact that Getty was 'flying A' somehow related to the fact that there is a truckstop chain based out of Utah that is Flying J?

Or mere coincedence?

JMH

 

[k1xv]

I tend to doubt that Flying A and Flying J were related in any way.