Flying Red Horse

I got an e-mail from my son Richard again reminding me that I have not been keeping up on my blog. He says I need to be putting on current events and past events. I was pretty good at that for awhile but it seems to be getting harder to find things to write about, but, Richard, I will try. Richard says I am the best Historian for the family. If this is true, I think the family is in trouble. Richard give me some suggestions about things to write. We took a picture of the Flying Red Horse when we went to the Museum in Dallas. I think all of you are too young to remember when the Flying Red Horse was on all the Exxon Mobil gas stations. Not only do I remember all those stations but what fascinated me more when I was a child was to watch the gas being pumped from the big glass pumps.


So now I will give you all a little history lesson about the Flying Horse (Pegasus). According to Greek Mythology, when Perseus cut of the snake-covered head of Medusa, Pegasus the flying horse leaped full-grown from the blood soaked ground.

To tame Pegasus, the goddess Athena provided the mighty horse trainer, Bellerophon with a magical golden bridle. Bellerophon and Pegasus performed many deeds including the slaying of the fire-breathing Chimera. Unfortunately, when the ego-driven Bellerophon tried to fly Pegasus to Mount Olympus to join the gods, the winged-steed bolted and cast Bellerophon to Earth, where he spent the rest of his life wandering the planet shunned by both gods and man. Pegasus now resides in the heavens as a constellation of stars.

In the 20th century, the Pegasus character was used as the winged mascot for the Exxon Mobil Corporation. Their flying red Pegasus symbol was used as early as 1911 and adopted as a trademark in the U.S. shortly after the organization of Socony-Vacuum in 1931. **

The Pegasus logo, a symbol of "speed and power" was first colored red by the Mobil Sekiyu in Japan. In 1934, Magnolia Petroleum Company (Exxon Mobil Corporation's predecessor) erected a "oil derrick" atop the 29 story Magnolia Hotel building. It supported two 30 by 50 foot red neon signs made in the image of Pegasus, the flying red horse.

A restored version of the original revolving Pegasus was reinstated as a part of the Dallas Millennium Celebration where a $600,000 duplicate flying red horse neon sign was relit at midnight to bring in 2000.

** In 1931, Socony merged with Vacuum Oil to form Socony-Vacuum. In 1955, Socony Vacuum was renamed Socony Mobil Oil Co. In 1963, it changed it's trade name to Socony Mobile. To celebrate it's 100th anniversary in 1966, "Socony" was dropped from the corporate name.