The Go In Esso

The Esso name was primarily used by its predecessor Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The name Esso is the phonetic pronunciation of the initials 'S' and 'O' in the name Standard Oil. Standard Oil of New Jersey started marketing its products under the Esso brand in 1926. In most states the company used the Enco (Energy Company) brand name, and in a few, the Humble Oil brand name. Esso Gas Stations were primarily found in the eastern United States and some states in the midwest. By 1972, the name Esso was largely replaced in the U.S. by the Exxon brand after the Standard Oil of New Jersey bought Humble. The Esso name remained widely used elsewhere. In most of the world, the Esso brand and the Mobil brand are the primary brand names of ExxonMobil, while the Exxon brand is used only in the United States alongside Mobil. The Esso brand name was discontinued in the U.S. by 1977, yet Europe continues the brand name. Today it is a trading name for ExxonMobil.

Note: Above, an Esso gasoline tanker, pulled by the bulldog of trucks, Mack, filling the tank at its namesake station in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1943. 

Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

When It Positively Has to Be There

A dramatic staged photo illustration of a 1940s Mack semi pulling a Fruehauf Corporation (1918-1996) trailer near Greenville, Alabama. Mack Trucks gained a reputation for dependable service. In the early Thirties, their famous icon and logo, a tenacious Bulldog, began appearing on the hood of the trucks. "Built Like a Mack Truck" became common slang for anything indestructible. 

In 1900, the three Mack brothers opened their first bus manufacturing plant to complete an order from a sightseeing company. The first "Mack bus" was delivered. Two years later The Mack Brothers Company moved to Brooklyn and in 1905 moved their headquarters to Allentown, Pennsylvania, remaining there for over a century until their relocation in 2009 to Greensboro, North Carolina, home of its parent company, Volvo. 
 
Photo by John Vachon via shorpy dot com

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

PETER BROCCO (1903-1992) was an American film, television, and stage actor. He has over 300 credits during his sixty-year career. Typically uncredited in his pre-television roles, it was in this medium that he became a frequent actor in Westerns, dramas and comedies. 

Brocco kept busy from the late 1930s through the 1980s with various ethnic and supporting roles as a clerk, a shop owner, a bartender, a doctor, or a villain. There was always a spot in films where he could fill a scripted character. His supporting role in Spartacus (1960) is of note as is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) as the wheelchair-bound patient.

But Brocco was most visible on the more intimate small screen, like displaying a comedic talent portraying Peter The Waiter for eight episodes of The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show (1955–1956). He was cast in criminal roles for The Adventures of Superman, as an Organian council member in a Star Trek episode. He appeared three times in the police drama, Adam-12, and three times in The Rockford Files. For the television miniseries, The Winds of War (1983) he played the father of Ali MacGraw's character. He kept working until 1991, a little over a year before his death.

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television. 

BARTLETT ROBINSON (1912-1986) 

Robinson was an American actor who performed on radio, stage, film, and television for five decades. The mustachioed Robinson and his recognizable voice were often cast in mostly serious roles of authority such as military officers, wealthy ranchers, sheriffs, corporate executives, doctors, and judges whether in Westerns, dramas, or playing the straight man in comedies.

Despicable Them

There is a long list of villains in Western films. They represented the timeless battle between evil and good. The mainstream popularity of television beginning in the mid-fifties offered a daily or weekly dose of characters deserving of a house slipper thrown in their direction. Several women were cast as rotten individuals, of course, but my focus centers on bull-headed male characters and the actors who portrayed them.

These villains "owned" the townsfolk by intimidation. They were self-centered, devious, narrow-minded, and filled with hate. They ignored truth and refused to acknowledge facts: selective deafness. They could rouse a bunch of spineless citizens--likely after an extended saloon visit--to immediately try to hang an innocent man.

I have chosen six of the most widely recognized television Western "bad guys" who worked the small screen about the same era. Their careers are indelibly etched as villains though each had their turn in modern dramas and as decent men. 

Beginning clockwise from the upper left:

Robert J. Wilke  (1914-1989) was considered the best golfer in Hollywood during the 1950s. His demeanor on the links changed completely, however, when given a script, and was likely television's most hated Western villain. His grizzled voice, rustic dental grille, and curling lip made him the villain's poster child. Wilke could be a disgruntled rancher, a leader of outlaws, or just looking to start trouble.

John Anderson (1922-1992) portrayed President Abraham Lincoln three times due to his overall facial resemblance. The versatile actor was quite repetitive when it came to the Western, however. Anderson might play a widowed patriarch who takes Bible passages out of context to justify his actions. One of his errant sons may be accidentally killed in a shoot-out and he is dead-set on getting his own justice, refusing to listen to reason.

Harry Lauter (1914-1990) devoted much of his later life to his own painting and the operation of an art gallery. He knew how to perform routine stunt work, learning from a master, stuntman/actor, Jock Mahoney. Lauter sort of set the groundwork for Myron Healey who advanced the belligerent, smirking trouble-maker for the Western genre. He might come off initially as a sweetheart but his ulterior motive soon reveals his true persona.

R. G. Armstrong  (1917-2012) was a frustrated writer and playwright but found the better-paying job of acting much easier. Armstrong might portray a land owner, often with limited education, with a singular purpose: keep strangers off his land. Whether a crooked sheriff or a Bible-toting townsman, he refuses to hear another point of view. His mind is made up. 

Leo Gordon (1922-2000) was a screenwriter when he was not acting. He was typically a hired gun or essentially the same as a ranch foreman. The towering Gordon, with his furrowed brow, slit eyes, no lips, and an angry baritone delivery, was a force to be reckoned with. Especially in black.

Myron Healey (1923-2005) continued his WW2 airman duties to retire as a captain in the United States Air Force Reserve in the early 1960s. But that discipline of cooperating with his fellow airmen disappeared when playing rotten characters behind studio cameras. Healey could be despicable as the town bully, double-crosser, or stirring up trouble with an easily swayed crowd. His condescending attitude was his trademark.

Getting Your Bearings

The above 1940s Timken promotional advertisement showcases a futuristic design for the truck of the future, a concept created by NYC industrial designer Lurelle Guild (1898-1985). He was quite optimistic about manufacturers bringing his truck concept to reality. Only with Timken axles, of course. Among his designs displayed in art museums was his iconic cylindrical design of the 1937 Electrolux vacuum cleaner. A modified model even became a laser weapon prop in the movie, Superman and The Mole Men (1951).

 
The German-born Henry Timken (1831-1909), could not possibly have imagined such fantastic transportation in 1888. But one cannot move a wheel without bearings. He obtained a patent for an improved tapered roller bearing, and in 1899 incorporated The Timken Roller Bearing Axle Company in St. Louis. The company moved to Canton, Ohio in 1901 as the automobile industry began to overtake the carriage industry. 

Timken entered international markets in the early 1900s initially in Great Britain, France and Germany. The performance of Timken bearings in the First World War made an impression on the European bearing market. Timken production increased dramatically during the Second World War to keep up with wartime demand. Every U.S. jeep was built using 24 Timken bearings. It resulted in delivering more than 15.8 million bearings for those vehicles over the course of the war.

Starting in the 1960s, Timken saw greater worldwide expansion. With the purchase of a major competitor, the company doubled in size in the early twenty-first century. Today, the Timken Company is a global manufacturer of bearings and power transmission products operating in forty-two countries. Apparently Guild's "future truck" is yet to come.

Synopsis: Thrust Into Television

Many movie character actors found steady work and arguably more exposure with the advent of television.

MORRIS ANKRUM (1897-1964) was an American radio, television, and film character actor appearing in countless films from the 1930s to the mid-1950s. His credits were largely concentrated in the Western and Science-Fiction genres, often as authority figures, scientists, numerous military figures, judges, bankers, and even psychiatrists in more than 270 films and television episodes. His portrayal of Native Americans was less believable, however. Because of his commanding facial countenance, Ankrum could also play believable villains. Between numerous and varied television appearances, he could be seen as a judge on twenty-two episodes of Perry Mason. Somewhat ironic since Ankrum had a law degree from The University of Southern California. A career he pursued before getting the acting bug.

Discover more about Ankrum's career at IMDB.