Tiki Gas Station

Today I found an old heavy plastic sign from Chevron Gas called "Chevron Island" that looks like it belongs on a hut. I wish I knew more of this promo. Did they dress up the gas pumps to look like tikis and have hula girl pump jockeys? It would have been nice to fill up at this station before going to the Tiki McDonald's in Ohio

[ Edited by: naugatiki 2006-06-03 20:21 ]

I'm pretty sure Chevron Island was a promotion/decorating scheme used by Chevron stations in the 1960's. There are lots of maps out there that say "Come to Chevron Island in ______" and feature a silhouette of a palm tree and a hula dancer atop a gas pump. I have an Arizona one somewhere- I'll post a picture if I can find it.

[ Edited by: tikitucson 2006-06-03 19:15 ]

That's a wonderful find, naugatiki.

I knew about the United Airlines tiki promotional items. I had no idea there was similar stuff from Chevron. Very cool.

Sabu

Cool find. Love to see some vintage pics

Viva La Google!

oldgas.com has some information. "The Chevron Island promotion was advertised nationally...They had a tropical girl dressed in a hula skirt. She attended all of the regional dealer meetings...Chevron Island license plates...were given away at grand openings while this promotion was going on."

At the bottom ofthis page there is a 1970 photo where a Chevron Island sign can be seen over the pumps. Also a different metal one used for dealer meetings and some of the promo license plates.

This page has the same photos and some auction estimates for it.

The posts at oldgas.com estimate the signs were used in the late 60s, outdoors. "This plastic was very fragile and not meant to last. This sign is very hard to find in one piece."

Thanks for all the info guys, I see one of those hula dancer maps is on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/1969-CHEVRON-ISLAND-Road-Map-CALIFORNIA-Lake-Tahoe-Hula_W0QQitemZ7162152013QQcategoryZ838QQcmdZViewItem

and while I was adjusting it in my backyard my neighbor spotted it and remembered the radio spot and started singing the jingle "Come to Chevron Island and get some gas.". Not the most original ad but I was grateful for the tidbit.

When they refer to 'Chevron Island', are they referring to a destination somewhere down the road - a road trip to make in your car, using Chevron gasoline? (once you reach the shore, you would then have to take a boat, or a plane, or drive over a long bridge, to reach the actual island)

Or are they referring to the actual physical 'raised curb' island on which sit the actual gasoline pumps at the gas station. In this case, the gas station itself would be the final destination (Come to Chevron Island). The juxtaposition of a hula girl (seashore and sand) and a greasy car mechanic (lots of concrete and asphalt) are about as 180 degrees apart as one can get.

Vern

Great research, guys! That map is a classic, they should have dressed the gas pumps as Tikis!
Not to deter from this thread, but it reminded me of the fact that I still have no material on a Gas station/car wash that was called TIKI car wash or something up in Seattle in the 60s/70s. Anybody ever heard about it?

ikitnrev wrote:
When they refer to 'Chevron Island', are they referring to a destination somewhere down the road - a road trip to make in your car, using Chevron gasoline? (once you reach the shore, you would then have to take a boat, or a plane, or drive over a long bridge, to reach the actual island)

Or are they referring to the actual physical 'raised curb' island on which sit the actual gasoline pumps at the gas station. In this case, the gas station itself would be the final destination (Come to Chevron Island). The juxtaposition of a hula girl (seashore and sand) and a greasy car mechanic (lots of concrete and asphalt) are about as 180 degrees apart as one can get.

I would assume (uh, oh) that they were trying to create the image of an "oasis" that stood
out from the other, run-of-the-mill, gas stations. Remember, back then, most gas stations
sold gas & oil and often serviced your car and MIGHT have a soft drink machine and a small
selection of candy bars IF you were lucky. Gas stations were a place to get gas and that
was about it and IMAGE was what determined where at least some people got their gas. Heck,
Shell used to give out glassware with a fill-up if I remember right. And I DEFINATELY re-
member Union 76 giving out flourescent orange antenna balls.

Oh, man, I wish someone had the old Chevron Island television commercial on video so I could watch it. My brother and I used to sing the song, which I believe was set to a tune from South Pacific.

Lyrics went something like:

Come to Chevron Island
Near to where you are
A friendly kind of island
(Something) for your car.

Man, I REALLY want to hear it again. Haven't seen it online anywhere . . .

Wish no more!:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lWlbxZRksc

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Great video !!!
I have a road map from this promotion - not at home now but will post a photo when I am.

[ Edited by: tikitabby 2012-03-20 07:08 ]

Bigbro,

That is a great ad and nice find on the video. I had missed this post before, another cool old advertising theme.

Here is the Chevron Island map.

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And another B & W ad with the Chevron Island hula girl.

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DC

That's the map I have! And I looooove the chevron on her grass skirt - hilarious!

I dug up some more cool stuff from the Chevron Island ad campaign.

Here is another hula girl ad - great artwork.

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A service station poster.

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Another poster advertising the Hula Dollars game.

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A service station sign

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And a photo with the sign at the pump.

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This ad is from the kick-off of the Hula Dollars campaign in 1968.

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Another ad for Hula Dollars.

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You could win an Orchid aerial topper for your antenna.

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Looks like they even dressed up the service station attendants with aloha shirts and leis.
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There was also a drawing for a trip to Hawaii.

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Finally, there was a program where you could get Hawaiian wood bowls for 49 cents at the service station.

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A lot of Aloha in this cool ad campaign.

DC

Hula Dollars!?! So just how many hulas did you get for your Hula Dollar? Did you get the girl too? Was there like, you know, a "gold standard" for these things, or was the Hula Dollar an easily devalued fiat currency?

This could be a concept worth reviving for tiki events...

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Toto, j'ai l'impression que nous ne sommes plus au Kansas !

[ Edited by: Club Nouméa 2012-03-20 18:58 ]

Nice digging there, DC. I think that serving ware was actually faux wood plastic - appropriately so. That would be hard to find now...

The Hula girl is Irene Tsu, who also starred in Paradise Hawaiian Style...

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...and another important cinematic milestone (for Grog), Women of the Prehistoric Planet!

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Thank you BigBroTiki et al for the blast from my past. The Chevron Island material is as iconic as the Smokey Bear cigarette snuffer my old man kept stuck on the dashboard of the Buick. Ironically, Smokey melted!

found these cool photos that may be of interest here

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[ Edited by: komohana 2012-08-26 19:39 ]

Komohana,

Those are some GREAT photos. Can you imagine pulling the old Chevy into a gas station and getting your tanked filled by that lovely Wahine!

I saw this old banner for sale on ebay a while back.

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DC

A few more entries:

A giant Chevron Island billboard.
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And a 70's mod-looking magazine advertisement.
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DC

I picked up this postcard from Chevron that was used as a thank you card for car service. The card features the lovely Irene Tsu who did the Chevron Island TV commercial that Bigbro posted earlier.

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Funny thing is the card was published in Canada, so I guess Chevron Island went multi-national.

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DC

Happy Halloween!

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A 1969 Chevron Island bag for trick-or-treating!

Bonus billboard...
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who needs dollars when they'll give you gold! And when did they replace the grass hula skirt with the dress?

aloha, tikicoma

Anyone have one of those free Orchid Aerial Toppers?