Texaco — backtothefuture

The Texaco star logo as seen in 1985 and 2015.

" Next to Roy's was a Texaco filling station with a large hand-printed sign that proclaimed: PRICE WAR 19½¢ GALLON. Chuckling to himself, Marty walked close to the two pumps. One, green and silver, contained Sky Chief "super" gasoline for 21.9 cents; the red pump offered regular gas for just 19.9 cents per gallon. A cigarette machine against the front of the building advertised cigarettes for "20¢ a pack all brands" while a soft drink machine offered Pepsi Cola for a dime. "

—From Back to the Future by George Gipe (quote, page 83)

"There was still a gas station on the corner, too, only now it was on the second story, above a Seven-Eleven! A car landed on the upper deck, and a dozen robot arms appeared, pumping gas, checking the tires, washing the windows."

—From Back to the Future Part II by Craig Shaw Gardner (quote, page 25)

The Texaco service station in Courthouse Square supplied a variety of fuels for automobiles in the 20th and early 21st centuries.

History

1885

From January to early September 1885, in the timeline where Dr. Emmett Brown was a resident, his livery stable and blacksmith's workshop stood on the site which would later become that of the service station.

Where cars would someday be repaired, Doc's services included shoeing horses and fixing wagons, at a time when horses were the most common form of transportation, other than walking. It was on this site here that Doc told Marty, "There’s not going to be a gas station around here until some time in the next century."

1931

The livery stable is replaced by the Hill Valley Police Station in its place in the early 20th century. It was later demolished and replaced by the service station ten years later.

1955

In 1955, the station was full-service with four attendants who washed the car windshield and filled up the tank.

A red tow truck that Terry used to tow Biff Tannen's Ford Super De Luxe Convertible was usually parked outside, and a soda vending machine with bottles of Pepsi was on the outside wall of Roy's Records next door.

A red Texaco tank truck was also present, indicating there had been a delivery of gasoline.

The price for gas on the Texaco sign in 1955 was stated as .19 9/10¢

1985

By 1985, the station was self-service with a convenience store and customers filling up their own cars, then going inside to pay.

It was here that Marty McFly first saw the Toyota 4x4 truck that he wanted, which was on a flatbed delivery truck pulling in front of the gas station.

The prices on the Texaco sign in 1985 were stated as:

Regular $1.09 9/10

Unleaded $1.19 9/10

Super Unleaded $1.31 9/10.

2015

2015 brought a new level of automation to the station with robot arms filling the tank with Havoline and checking the landing gear on the upper level for flying cars, and a 7-Eleven store below it.

The station offered Compu-Serve as a payment option.

The prices on the Texaco sign in 2015 were stated as:

Fusion Gold $6.95 9/10

Super Fusion Plus+ $7.62 9/10

Liquid Hydrogen $8.10 9/10

Regular Unleaded $8.37 9/10

Super Unleaded Plus+ $8.99 9/10

Other services offered by the station — shown on one of the noticeboards — were mag-lev adjustments, aero-dynamic kits and certified retro-fitting services.

Behind the scenes

Marty (on the far right) watches the service station attendants at work in 1955. Are they going to start singing? "Oh, we're the men of Texaco, we work from Maine to Mexico, there's nothing like this Texaco of ours. ..."

Originally, the script called for only one service station attendant when Marty entered downtown for the first time in 1955. Robert Zemeckis thought of a joke while on the set,^[1] and asked his crew to find three more uniforms, so they would resemble the four singing Texaco attendants who would introduce Milton Berle at the beginning of the Texaco Star Theater television show (1948-1956).^[2]^[3]
The scene was also a comment about how daily life had changed between 1955 and 1985. Before self-service gas pumps became popular, it was not uncommon for a service station attendant to clean the windshield, check the oil and transmission fluid levels, put air in the tires, check the brakes, and to do other services while filling the tank.
By 1985, even a full-service station offered little more than an attendant pumping gas; as Marty skated past the Texaco station on his way to school, an elderly woman was filling her gas tank while an employee looked on.
By 2015, it was envisioned that machines would do what full service attendants had once done, with a computerized voice saying "Checking oil. Checking landing gear." Texaco's 1962 slogan, "You can trust your car to the man who wears the star", had been updated to "You can trust your car to the system with the star." In Craig Shaw Gardner's novelisation, there is no computerized voice at the automated service station; this was presumably added for the movie so the audience would know what was happening during this scene.
In LEGO Dimensions, the service station is renamed Maxxom, possibly due to copyright laws.
Texaco Oil Company was co-founded by Lewis Henry Lapham, who happens to be the maternal grandfather of Christopher Lloyd.
Texaco was originally called the Texas Fuel Company when it was founded in Beaumont, Texas, in 1901 — with the name Texaco deriving from "the Texas Company".

Actuality (2015)

Automated service stations like that seen in Back to the Future Part II have yet to be invented. At the moment, customers still have to fill up their vehicles manually, but a facility which gives them the option to either pay at the adjoining kiosk/convenience store or at the gas pump using a credit or debit card — the latter being useful for people who are in a hurry — is already in use at some service stations.
The Fusion Gold and Super Fusion Plus+ fuels are fictional. Although Liquid Hydrogen exists in real life, it's used in rockets rather than flying cars.^[4]
Automated robotic charging systems for electric vehicles such as the Tesla Model S have been demonstrated in the laboratory.^[5]
Before 2015, Texaco was largely absorbed by Shell. They would eventually merge with Chevron and primarily serve the American South (including California) and Texas region of the United States as a Chevron brand, with all of Texaco's former assets (which extended as far northeast as Maine) sold to Shell.

Appearances

References

↑ BTTF audio commentary by Bob Gale and Neil Canton.
↑ See the "Men of Texaco" video at National Public Radio
↑ Texaco Star Theater
↑ Gas Prices - Back to the Predictions (see 'External links' below)
↑ Charger prototype finding its way to Model S - YouTube

External links

[1] BTTF audio commentary by Bob Gale and Neil Canton.

[2] See the "Men of Texaco" video at National Public Radio

[3] Texaco Star Theater

[4] Gas Prices - Back to the Predictions (see 'External links' below)

[5] Charger prototype finding its way to Model S - YouTube

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