American Oil Company

Amoco ( AM-ə-koh) is a brand of fuel stations operating in the United States and owned by British conglomerate BP since 1998. The Amoco Corporation was an American chemical and oil company, founded by Standard Oil Company in 1889 around a refinery in Whiting, Indiana, and was officially the Standard Oil Company of Indiana until 1985. Originally part of the Standard Oil Company trust, it focused on producing gasoline for the new automobile market. In 1911, as part of the break-up of the Standard Oil trust, it became an independent corporation. Incorporated in Indiana, it was headquartered in Chicago, and formally adopted the name Amoco in 1985. Although the Amoco Corporation merged in 1998 into BP Amoco, the Amoco name was resurrected in 2017 as a brand that service station owners could choose to use when they purchased supplies from BP in selected areas of the United States.

In 1925, Standard Oil of Indiana absorbed the American Oil Company, founded in Baltimore in 1910, and incorporated in 1922, by Louis Blaustein and his son Jacob. The combined corporation operated or licensed gas stations under both the Standard name and the American or Amoco name (the latter from American oil company) and its logo using these names became a red, white and blue oval with a torch in the center. By the mid-twentieth century it was ranked the largest oil company in the United States. In 1985, it changed its corporate name to Amoco. Amoco merged with British Petroleum in December 1998 to form BP Amoco, renamed BP in 2001.

The firm's innovations included two essential parts of the modern industry, the gasoline tanker truck and the drive-through filling station. Its "Amoco Super-Premium" lead-free gasoline was marketed decades before environmental concerns led to the eventual phase out of leaded gasoline throughout the United States. Amoco's headquarters were located in the Amoco Building (also called the Standard Oil Building, and nicknamed "Big Stan", now the Aon Center) in Chicago, Illinois.

In October 2017, BP announced reintroduction of the Amoco brand name to select US markets. As of 2021, there were over 100 new Amoco locations in the states of Georgia, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Michigan, Minnesota, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Illinois.

Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1933

Roles Represented in DAHR: sponsor

= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.

Recordings

Company Matrix No. Size First Recording Date Title Primary Performer Description Role Audio
Victor MS-77418 16-in. 8/4/1933 American's front page American Oil Company Radio broadcast sponsor  
Victor MS-77419 16-in. 8/4/1933 American's front page American Oil Company Radio broadcast sponsor  

Citation

Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "American Oil Company," accessed April 25, 2024, https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102819.

American Oil Company. (2024). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved April 25, 2024, from https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102819.

"American Oil Company." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2024. Web. 25 April 2024.

DAHR Persistent Identifier

URI: https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102819

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