All photos are frame grabs from video below.
Undated, but we’ll assume 1939 from that cameo of a ’39 Chevrolet Master 85 or De Luxe Sedan.
Just how do petroleum products make the jump from their ba-zillion-year “subterranean slumber” to your car’s gas tank to power you to the next cruise-in? Good question: and we’ve invited Lowell Thomas from his own subterranean slumber to explain it. He begins with the drilling process, where we meet a swell crew of “roughnecks… roustabouts… and rope-chokers.”
On to the oil refinery, with its “technological towers… minarets of science… forests of stacks… and masses of strangely wrought steel.” But what’s all this talk of cracking furnaces and bubble towers? Sounds suspiciously drug-related, but that can’t be right.
You’ll be pleased to know that these scientists share a co-ed laboratory, putting them well ahead of the curve of most workplaces of the time. And a few contemporary ones.
Oops, well, our un-named, petro-chemical sponsor must have appreciated the inclusion of this randomly selected clip of railroad tanker cars. Full disclosure: Hemmings has an affiliation with this same corporate entity. But to their credit, they kept product placement and brand affiliation at near-subliminal levels in this production, except maybe for the title screen diamond-and-arrow motif.
Public domain archival footage courtesy of the Internet Moving Images Archive, in association with Prelinger Archives.
Suddenly, the SUN is out and O boy, do we feel like topping off the gas tank and driving to Colorado, which uses the postal abbreviation CO by the way. Lucky for us, there’s a filling station — which shall remain nameless — right next door to our editorial offices.
See original article at" http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2015/12/23/midweek-matinee-more-power-to-you-1939-ish/
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