I'm sure most of you remember Gordon's Gulf Station, which stood for years at the northeast corner of Cooper and Central. If the place sounds vaguely familiar to you, well, that's because I wrote about it in our November issue.
In my suitable-for-award-winning column, I mentioned that Devane Douglas Gordon bought an older station in the 1940s, ran it for a few years, and then held a grand opening in April 1955 for the new and improved Gulf station that was erected to replace the old one. The original building — a white wooden structure with a massive "canopy" (as they call the roof that extends out over the pumps) — had a certain architectural charm, but the new building followed the gleaming white porcelain style that Gulf was using on its stations across the country.
Anyway, Carol Gordon Wildman, Gordon's granddaughter, turned up this old newspaper ad announcing the grand opening, so I thought I'd share it with you. Not only does it have a pretty good image of Gordon himself, and his "sparkling new" station, but gosh-a-mighty look at all the promotions he (or Gulf) came up with to lure customers to the new place.
In my magazine column, I mentioned all the free gasoline they were offering customers, along with the puppies. And not just any mutts, but "three AKC registered cocker spaniels."
For the kiddies, Gordon provided lollipops and something called "whistling rockets," which really doesn't sound like the best thing to be playing with around a gas station, but what do I know? But he also tossed in a "big super-deluxe Coca-Cola drink box" and even a "three-piece set of ladies' matched luggage."
What's curious — at least to me — though, is that buried in all this ad copy, it says, "Be sure to visit one of these two newly modernized Gulf stations during this special event" and yet the ad shows only one station: D.D. Gordon's Gulf Service, at Central and Cooper.
Well, look. Just call the phone number they helpfully provided, and I'm sure someone will tell you the location of the other place. Simply dial 36-6618.
