Solving a Vintage Mystery

 Executive Meeting at Phillips Petroleum circa 1930's

One of the strangest items in the petroliana collection I am selling is this old framed photograph of some sort of executive meeting at Phillips Petroleum company that looks to be from the 1930s.

At first glance it looks like an ordinary somewhat boring image of some business men, maybe the board of directors? But look more closely and you will see why I call it very strange and began to think of it as a mystery.

In the back lined up on the wall are drawings of men in their underwear. Also in the back on the right hand side are some men standing up against the wall, one of them is partially undressed and another is wearing a whiskey barrel. They both have their hands on the shoulders of another man in between them who is still fully clothed (for the moment?)

The rest of the crowd are all turned toward the camera but they are not looking at it. They seem to be focused on something just out of camera range and whatever it is seems to have their undivided attention.

The more I studied this image trying to understand it the more mysterious it got. 

I Googled the meaning of the whiskey barrel as apparel and found out that during the great depression of the 1930s it was a sign of poverty brought on by bankruptcy. As in, you are so poor you can't even afford clothing.

This prompted me to do a search on the history of Phillips Petroleum company to find out whether they had ever filed for bankruptcy. I found an article on the Oklahoma Historical Society website that mentions how at the beginning of the great depression, the company reported it's first major financial loss of $5.7 million and the value of their stock dropped from $32 to $3 per share.

In addition, the government in 1935 was putting the squeeze on the oil industry trying to limit production and it was only the onset of WWII causing a demand for aviation oil for the war planes that brought the company out of these financial straits.

So, while I cannot prove it, all this information seems to lend an explanation to the weird scene in the photograph above.  This must have been a meeting of the execs to discuss ways to keep the business from going under during hard times. Or perhaps discussing how they could break into the aviation oil sector to keep them from having to file for bankruptcy.

Maybe they needed an illustrated message which would explain the drawings on the wall and the man in the whiskey barrel? Or maybe it was some odd game to drive home the urgency of the need... as in, if the company goes down the employees go with it.  I don't know and I guess it will always partly be an unsolved mystery but in my mind I feel like at least part of the mystery is now solved.

As of this date (9/20/19) you can still purchase this bizarre piece of oil and gas history. I have it listed for sale at my Bonanza Booth.  Click here to view and purchase it.