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29-521: Bill Skelly (1878–1957) came to Oklahoma from Pennsylvania in about 1913 where he worked as a mule skinner and tool dresser in the oil fields around Ardmore and Duncan, Oklahoma, prior to partnering with Jack Sanky to form Skelly Sanky Oil Company in Duncan, Oklahoma in 1915. An advertisement in The Pittsburgh Press on January 4, 1922, stated that Skelly Oil Company was formed to take over

58-407: A 40% interest in the company when J. Paul Getty died in 1976. In 1984, after entering into a binding agreement to sell Getty and its 2.3-billion-barrel stockpile of proven oil reserves to Pennzoil , Gordon Getty struck a dramatic deal to sell the company to Texaco . On November 19, 1985, in the case of Texaco, Inc. v. Pennzoil, Co. , Pennzoil won a US$ 10.53 billion verdict against Texaco in

87-403: A financial strain. To reduce the payroll, the company transferred some of its employees to Tidewater Associated Oil Company , which was controlled by J. Paul Getty and his mother, Sarah C. Getty. In the late 1930s these employees were transferred back to Skelly. The Gettys made a cash loan to Skelly Oil, and the company treasury held stock, and some of Mr. Skelly's stock was given as collateral for

116-413: A new penny paper in hopes that it would flourish in a local market full of two- and three-cent dailies. The first issue appeared on June 23, 1884. A corporation was formed, with Bayne as the largest shareholder. Initially called The Evening Penny Press , the newspaper's name changed to The Pittsburg Press on October 19, 1887. The paper referred to the city as "Pittsburg" until August 1921, when

145-421: A role in conversion and fuel fabrication and in recovery and reprocessing for the fledgling nuclear power industry. Skelly was among the leading oil companies to develop a network of truck stops along major highways including the interstate during the 1950s and 1960s. Skelly also had a contract to sell gasoline at most locations of the now-defunct Nickerson Farms restaurant chain during the 1960s and 1970s, which

174-681: The Hearst Corporation 's Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph leaving just itself and the much larger Pittsburgh Press . The agreement was to be managed by the owners of the Pittsburgh Press , E. W. Scripps Company , since the Press had the larger circulation and brand identity. Under the agreement, the Post-Gazette became a six-day morning paper, and the Pittsburgh Press became a six-day afternoon paper in addition to publishing

203-439: The Pittsburgh Press up for sale on October 2, 1992. Block Communications , the owners of the much smaller JOA paper, the Post-Gazette , agreed to purchase the paper, effective November 30, upon the settlement of the strike. The first issue of the newly combined Pittsburgh Post-Gazette , the first in nearly six months, was published on January 18, 1993, as a single combined newspaper incorporating many features and personnel from

232-422: The Press regularly. Although published electronically, the new Press was formatted with a fixed layout replicating that of a traditional printed newspaper, and its font and layout were similar to the original print version of the Press . The experiment ended with the issue of September 25, 2015. Getty Oil Company Getty Oil Company was an American oil marketing company with its origins as part of

261-547: The Press traces back to an effort by Thomas J. Keenan Jr. to buy The Pittsburg Times newspaper, at which he was employed as city editor. Joining Keenan in his endeavor were reporter John S. Ritenour of the Pittsburgh Post , Charles W. Houston of the city clerk's office, and U.S. Representative Thomas M. Bayne . After examining the Times and finding it in a poor state, the group changed course and decided to start

290-584: The Press , which would no longer be published. The loss of the Pittsburgh Press came as a shock to many Pittsburghers, who expected the larger paper to survive the strike. In return for the sale of the Press , Scripps received The Monterey County Herald . The sale required a ruling by the U.S. Department of Justice as the Newspaper Preservation Act of 1970 regulated the JOA. On November 14, 2011, Block Communications announced that it

319-572: The Gulf of Mexico to the Persian Gulf with a foreign presence in Canada, Argentina, Australia, Korea, Libya, Iran, and Mozambique. In addition to its E&P and refining divisions, Skelly Oil Company also had well-established chemical, manufacturing, engineering, and research divisions. It was an early pioneer of LPG products and building upon its base of substantial uranium ore reserves, established

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348-876: The Midland Refining Company in El Dorado, Kansas, in 1922. Throughout much of its history, Skelly was a popular gasoline marketer throughout the Midwestern United States and was a market leader in several cities throughout its marketing area including Tulsa , Oklahoma City , Kansas City , Wichita , Topeka , Omaha , Des Moines , Minneapolis / Saint Paul and other cities. Skelly's branded products included Skelly Skeltane, Regular, 50-50, Special, Keotane and Powermax gasolines; Skelly Supreme, Tagolene, Skelmark and Ranger motor oils; and Skelgas propane products through Skelgas franchised stores. What may have been unique to Skelly, beginning in

377-481: The company, and are buried 25 feet apart in Tulsa's Rose Hill Mausoleum, the same distance as their desks for almost half a century. A 1932 Fortune Magazine article stated that "Skelly Oil Company is a great success because of the different temperaments of its top executives... in this company, William Skelly is the accelerator and Chesley Herndon is the brake." The company entered into the refining business by purchasing

406-464: The increasing rise of electronic media, and more younger readers not reading newspapers, the Press could no longer sustain the union practices of the past. The unions would not budge and did not believe that the previous business model could no longer be sustained and afforded. A short sound bite on national TV by the then-mayor supporting the unions was the death knell, and Scripps-Howard consequently ended

435-467: The initial bargaining with the Teamsters Local 211 union, as well as eight other unions. The unions' contracts with the Press expired on December 31. Negotiations continued into 1992 with no agreement on a new contract. The Teamsters employees finally walked off the job on May 17, effectively putting a halt to the publication of the Press and the Post-Gazette . The Teamsters refused to drive

464-476: The large integrated oil company founded by J. Paul Getty . J. Paul Getty incorporated Getty Oil in 1942. He had previously worked in the oil fields of Oklahoma along with his father George Getty . When George died, he left J. Paul with $ 500,000 and a projection that he would destroy the family business. Starting in 1949, J. Paul Getty negotiated a 30-year concession in the neutral zone between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait . Gordon Getty and his family inherited

493-404: The largest civil verdict in U.S. history as a result of the violation of the binding agreement. Following extensive litigation seeking to overturn the verdict, Texaco filed for bankruptcy, after which Pennzoil agreed to settle the case for $ 3 billion. While the reserves were sold, only some of the refineries changed hands, and Getty continued to exist as a downstream entity. Getty gas stations in

522-451: The late 1950s it offered its female customers a Ladies Credit Card in a shade of light blue. Skelly Oil Company grew to become a major oil company known for its exploration and production expertise as well as the capabilities of its refineries and manufacturing facilities in conjunction with its well-established marketing and distribution network. Skelly Oil Company was an early leader in offshore drilling and production ranging from Alaska and

551-504: The letter 'h' was added. In 1901, Keenan, who had by then gained financial and editorial control of the paper, sold out to a syndicate led by Oliver S. Hershman. Hershman remained the controlling owner until selling to the Scripps-Howard chain in 1923. In 1961, the Press entered into a Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) with the competing Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . The Post-Gazette had previously purchased and merged with

580-503: The loan. When the company was unable to repay the loan when it became due, the stock was transferred to Mission Corporation, a holding company of the Getty's that also controlled Tidewater. Skelly remained as CEO until his death in 1957, and Herndon remained executive vice president until his own death. Thereafter, Skelly executives remained as CEOs for another two decades. In the late 1960s Tidewater became Getty Oil Company . Skelly Oil

609-513: The newspaper. All the union jobs were lost, as were the jobs of over 100 non-union employees of the newspaper. An attempt by both papers to resume distribution, with replacement drivers, began with the July 27 issues of both papers and lasted two days until they halted publication again due to resistance from the public and civic leaders. The second day, July 28, marked the final edition of the Press . After months of failed negotiations, Scripps put

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638-479: The oil properties of Skelly and of the Skelly Sanky company. Chesley Coleman Herndon was a practicing attorney in Tulsa when he won several court victories against William Skelly involving oil leases on Osage Indian land. Skelly summoned Herndon to his office for a meeting after his final loss in court, and shortly thereafter, the two unlikely allies, along with Fred Pielsticker, the son of German immigrants who

667-687: The only Sunday newspaper in Pittsburgh . Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations , 413 U.S. 376 (1973), is a 1973 decision of the United States Supreme Court which upheld an ordinance enacted in Pittsburgh that forbids sex-designated classified advertising for job opportunities, against a claim by the parent company of the Press that the ordinance violated its First Amendment rights. On October 22, 1991, Press management announced significant changes, designed to modernize its distribution system, at

696-422: The small delivery trucks more than half full. In the press room, a union featherbedding provision under which its members had to set up every ad that appeared in the newspaper, even if it ran years before; in the case of advertisements prepared by outside print shops, those ads were still set up in the type used by the Press , and then dismantled. The backlog of such advertisements grew to several years long. With

725-537: Was a major afternoon daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania for over a century, from 1884 to 1992. At the height of its popularity, the Press was the second-largest newspaper in Pennsylvania behind The Philadelphia Inquirer . For four years starting in 2011, the brand was revived and applied to an afternoon online edition of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . The history of

754-451: Was bringing back the Press in an online -only edition for the afternoon, effective immediately. David Shribman, the executive editor of the Post-Gazette , explained his paper's motivation for reviving the Press name, citing the fact that his newspaper still received letters to the editor addressed to the Press instead of the Post-Gazette , and that despite nearly 20 years since its last publication Pittsburgh natives still talked about

783-678: Was eventually merged into Getty Oil in 1977 and the Skelly brand (and associated brands) were discontinued. Many former Skelly gas stations were rebranded to Getty, then to Texaco after Getty was acquired by Texaco in 1984. In 2012, Nimmons-Joliet Development Corp. acquired the rights to the Skelly brand logo and commenced operation of a new company utilizing the Skelly brand logo as a privately held company based in Texas. Pittsburgh Press The Pittsburgh Press , formerly The Pittsburg Press and originally The Evening Penny Press ,

812-709: Was orphaned at age twelve and became a renowned engineer, would form Skelly Oil Company. Herndon was the son of Captain Thomas Herndon, a Civil War veteran who oversaw a family fortune in real estate, tobacco and banking in Tennessee. Captain Herndon's cousin William Herndon was Abraham Lincoln's law partner in Illinois. For the next 37 years, Skelly and Herndon held the number one and two positions in

841-550: Was similar to Texaco's arrangement with Stuckey's . The company was well known as a sponsor of the radio drama series The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen and Captain Midnight . Skelly also sponsored Alex Dreier news broadcasts on ABC radio from Chicago in the late 1940s and early 1950s. William Skelly lost control of the company to J. Paul Getty in the 1930s, when the Great Depression put Skelly in

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