Synopsis
An Adventure Called Skelly: A History of Skelly Oil Company Through Fifty Years, 1919–1969 by Roberta Louise Ironside chronicles the rise and evolution of the Skelly Oil Company, a significant player in the American oil industry, from its founding in 1919 to its eventual absorption by Getty Oil in the 1970s. The book centers on the vision and tenacity of William Grove "Bill" Skelly, a driven entrepreneur whose extensive experience in the oil fields shaped the company’s trajectory. Skelly, born in Erie, Pennsylvania, in 1878, began his career in the oil industry as a tool dresser and mule skinner, gaining practical knowledge that informed his later ventures. After working in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Kansas, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1919, where he founded Skelly Oil Company with partners Chesley Coleman Herndon, a Tulsa attorney, and Frederick A. Pielsticker, an engineer. The narrative emphasizes Skelly’s ambition to create a company distinguished by quality, encapsulated in his 1919 declaration that there was no room for “just another oil company” but plenty for one committed to excellence.
The book traces the company’s early years, detailing how Skelly leveraged his prior ventures, such as the Midland Refining Company and the Skelly-Sanky Oil Company, to establish a robust foundation. By 1923, Skelly Oil had become one of the strongest independent producers of crude oil and natural gasoline in the United States, with headquarters in Tulsa, then known as the “Oil Capital of the World.” Ironside highlights the dynamic partnership between Skelly, described as the “accelerator” due to his aggressive expansionist approach, and Herndon, the “brake” who provided cautious, legal, and financial oversight. This balance, noted in a 1932 Fortune magazine article, was key to the company’s success. The acquisition of the Midland Refining Company in El Dorado, Kansas, in 1922 marked Skelly’s entry into refining, expanding its operations beyond exploration and production. The company also became a major marketer of gasoline in the Midwest, with branded products like Skeltane, Powermax, and Skelgas propane, and pioneered innovations such as standardized service station designs and a network of truck stops along interstate highways.
Ironside explores Skelly Oil’s broader contributions, including its early leadership in offshore drilling, with operations spanning Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, and international regions like Canada, Libya, and Iran. The company diversified into chemical, manufacturing, and research divisions, and was an early pioneer in liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) products and uranium processing for the nuclear power industry. The book also covers Skelly’s marketing innovations, such as the introduction of a light blue Ladies Credit Card in the late 1950s and a credit card program that grew to millions of cardholders. However, financial challenges during the Great Depression led to J. Paul Getty acquiring controlling interest in the 1930s, though Getty allowed Skelly to operate independently due to its efficient management. The narrative details Skelly’s cultural impact, including its sponsorship of radio programs like The Air Adventures of Jimmie Allen and Captain Midnight, and its contract to supply gasoline to Nickerson Farms restaurants.
The book also delves into Skelly’s ventures outside oil, notably its foray into aviation. In 1928, Skelly purchased the struggling Mid-Continent Aircraft Company, rebranding it as the Spartan Aircraft Company, and established the Spartan School of Aeronautics to train pilots and boost aircraft sales. This venture, though unrelated to oil, reflected Skelly’s entrepreneurial spirit and his recognition of aviation’s growing importance. During World War II, under Getty’s management, Spartan produced subassemblies for military aircraft and trained thousands of pilots, including those for the Royal Air Force and the Doolittle Raid. The narrative concludes with the company’s decline, noting its full absorption by Getty Oil in 1974, after which the Skelly brand faded, only to be revived in 2012 by Nimmons-Joliet Development Corp. for downstream products.
Spanning 127 pages across nine chapters, the book includes black-and-white photographs, an appendix, and an index, providing a detailed yet concise account of Skelly Oil’s history. Ironside incorporates production statistics, board member details, and anecdotes about Skelly’s work ethic and innovations, such as finding uses for waste products like asphalt, akin to John D. Rockefeller’s strategies. While praised for its factual recounting, some reviews suggest the narrative lacks depth in exploring the personal or emotional dimensions of the company’s story, presenting a straightforward corporate history. Nonetheless, An Adventure Called Skelly offers a comprehensive look at a company that embodied the ambition and innovation of America’s oil industry during its peak, set against the backdrop of Tulsa’s rise as an oil hub.