Nude DaVinci Dude, now with Karate-Chopping Action!

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Ah, Cities Service. A tale that sums up nearly every major development in the last hundred years. Company starts out, grows, innovates - they built the first long-distance high-pressure pipeline - then gets whacked by regulators, is forced to shed one of its core businesses. Rebounds, gets a boost with war contracts, uses a logo that becomes a familiar part of the commercial landscape, then gets a takeover threat, gets sold to one company, which sells the brands to a new gasoline-distribution paradigm, 7-11 - then ends up owned by Venezuela.

What any of this had to do with DaVinci dude I’ve no idea, but his worried, confused expression seems prescient.

Old logo, via Plan59: cool.

Later logo: urgh.

Rarely discussed in the history of the company - not that I’ve eavesdropped on many such conversations or scoured the web for omissions - is the Cities Service building in New York, one of the last great skyscrapers of the Boom, completely overshadowed by the Chrysler and Empire State buildings. It’s still the fifth tallest building in New York. Its most recent occupant? AIG.