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 and Mobil brands are the primary 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 the brand name continues in Europe. 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

Danger Man

Francis Gary Powers entered United States Air Force in 1950, trained as a pilot and was commissioned in 1952. In 1956, 1st Lieutenant Powers was released from the U.S.A.F. to participate in the Central Intelligence Agency’s Project Aquatone. His CIA position soon made Powers world famous when his Lockheed U-2A was shot down over Russia, in 1960. Powers was captured and held prisoner at the notorious Lubyanka Prison where he underwent sixty-two days of interrogation. 

But it gets worse.

On this day in 1977, Powers was killed, along with his photographer for KNBC, while piloting a Bell Ranger "Telecopter." Powers had 7,193 total flight hours, with 381 hours in the Bell 206. Unfortunately, Powers did not stop at two airports for refueling opportunities. Starved of fuel, the copter nose-dived into the ground, killing both instantly.

Reel Character Series

 

Allison Hayes (Mary Jane Hayes 1930-1977) was an American film and television actress often cast either in good or bad women roles. The statuesque brunette was an obvious model candidate and competed in the Miss America pageant in 1949. Like many attractive actresses wanting to get at least a toe through the acting door, her "exposure" led her to Hollywood and Universal Pictures by 1954. She had a small role in the comedy, Francis Joins the WACS, then, via a contract dispute, signed with Columbia Pictures in 1955 with a more significant role in, Chicago Syndicate opposite Dennis O'Keefe. That same year, she was the fiancé of Rod Cameron in, Double Jeopardy She appeared in the 1956 films, Steel Jungle, and Mohawk. That same year she suffered a broken arm after a riding accident during the filming of Gunslinger. After recovering, she began appearing more on television.

In 1958, Hayes' most infamous role—being a blonde notwithstanding—was the female out for revenge in the first woman's lib film, The Attack of The 50 Foot Woman. That same year she was a Communist operative duped by secret agent, Gene Barry, in Hong Kong Confidential and teamed with Barry again for seven episodes of his television series, Bat Masterson. The following year she was the female lead in Counterplot opposite Forest Tucker. It was back to television for five appearances on Perry Mason from 1960-65. She continued her occasional movie bit parts in the 1963 comedy, Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed, and the Elvis Presley musical-comedy, Tickle Me, in 1965. She ended her career with two appearances on, Gomer Pyle: USMC, in 1967.

In spite of the low-budget projects and many secondary roles, she accounted for herself surprisingly well as a professional actress. By the 1970s, Hayes became terminally ill from lead poisoning and was later diagnosed with leukemia. She died at the age of forty-six.

The Cantankerous Housekeeper

Nora Marlowe was born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1915. The hefty American character actress would often be cast as a maid, a nurse, or in a 19th-century setting. She appeared uncredited in a few notable films such as the gun-toting housekeeper in North by Northwest, I'll Cry Tomorrow and The Thomas Crown Affair. But it is her numerous television credits that are unfathomable, whether in a short scene or recurring roles like Law of the Plainsman, The Governor & J.J. and perhaps most famously as Flossie Brimmer, the boarding house owner on The Waltons from 1973 until her death in 1977. That same year, she played an uncompromising maid, Viola, on The Rockford Files (above). She would rearrange items in his trailer [logically] which he could never find. She became fed up with Rockford's messes after thugs repeatedly "rearranged" the trailer's interior. Jim was not all that disappointed when she gave him notice.