Florida's Gas Station Amusement Park: Super-Test

Loyalty rewards programs and free gifts are not really anything new when it comes to business. You order nine burritos and the tenth is free, you open a bank account and you get a toaster. They come in all types and sizes for all sorts of businesses, and as it turned out that included a gas station chain in Florida in the 1950s that had their very own amusement park. This is the story of the Super-Test Amusement Park
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[@cowboyfrankspersonalvideos8869]

Back in the middle 50s when I was about 4, the Pepsi bottling plant in my home town, Rocky Mount, NC, sponsored Saturday matinees at one of the town's 2 movie theaters. For 10 bottle caps the kid could see a western, a cartoon and have a bit of live entertainment on stage. Pepsi dropped the idea when they realized most of the kids, including me, were getting the bottle caps out of the openers on the soft drink machines and weren't actually buying any Pepsi. Of course you could get in to see the same thing for 10 cents, but at the time my family didn't have 10 cents a week to spare.

[@stevesizemore6274]

Excellenly done. Love old gasoline stations and cars!

[@PoseidonEntertainment]

I'm from Tampa and this was a neat little tidbit about the history that I didn't know about. Thanks for sharing!

[@teenamalanga5342]

It was a cool place! It was out on Dale Mabry, out in the country back then. Al Lang Field was the only place out there.

[@AveryTalksAboutStuff]

Okay, but imagine being one of the competition chains and being super proud of that glassware that you're sure will get you customers and you look over and these extra supertest stations have a zoo?? That had to be annoying. 😂

[@aonmixed]

look at the prices of depression glass on ebay, yowzahs

[@sebastianmiguel9841]

This is peak Florida vibes

[@TheCoolCookieKitchen]

Man you have such a great radio voice I can literally listen to you read the news. And I don't even pay attention to that shit anymore lol.

[@nholt]

Seriously I love his voice

[@Tryingtohaveityall]

I don’t know if you pivoted your channel because you’re not going to the parks anymore due to covid or if this was your plan all along. I miss your park videos but I have to admit this reformat has been so interesting and welcome. You have the incredible ability to educate about topics without it feeling boring. You’re a teacher and you just don’t know it. Keep up the great work

[@ShakeItLittleTina]

“You open a bank account, they give you a toaster.” Is that a James Veitch reference?

[@Fettman07]

I’m not sure but I worked at a bank and we gave away toaster ovens for new checking accounts opened for about two years.

[@bakomusha]

@@Fettman07 My mother and grandmother worked for Bank of America, and they did some crazy promotions for getting people to open accounts. This was on the individual bank mangers initiative, but toasters, ovens, refrigerators, and even guns where offered at the Hemet, California location. (When my mom later worked for Bank of Hemet, they only gave away coupon books to local businesses.)

[@TitoTimTravels]

Never heard of Veitch... but I have seen banks that gave away toasters and such for new accounts. 😎

[@SquirtleEx]

Huge, huge, huge fan of your work Rob. Extremely well researched topics, on subjects that are so unique, yet super facinating all together in a super well edited and entertaing video. The fact you're not getting 100K views per video is an absolute tragedy.

[@dwtpa97]

Great piece of Tampa history ! Going back in the late 1940s, Super Test had sponsored a husband-wife team, Daisy Mae & Old Brother Charlie, who along with their band provided country music every morning on WDAE radio. Later, after the team had divorced, Super-Test continued to sponsor Daisy Mae on WHBO into the mid-1960s. Meanwhile, Super-Test had expanded into the deep South, and as late as the 1970s had a gas station operating in Mount Vernon, KY, right outside of country music park Renfro Valley (where Daisy Mae & Charlie had once worked). The gas stations in the Tampa area were later sold to Eastern Oil and Quik-Pep, who continued to sponsor Daisy Mae for awhile. Again, thanks much for posting this interesting video !

[@tepobori]

Your videos are my favorite, you’re just too good at this idk how or why lol thank you

[@allisongranell25]

One of my family members just sent me this video, so I thought I'd comment. Supertest is still around. I'm the 4th generation. Just less into gas stations and amusement parks and more into marinas, office buildings, apartments, and 1950's motels now. Great video. Thanks for taking the time to research and share :)

[@aonmixed]

Hands down your most creative endeavour to date, love it and welcome back!

[@williamburnett5055]

My Granddad worked for Supertest. After he reached his 60’s his job was to visit schools and pass out free tickets to kids for rides at the park. He always had a supply of tickets on hand.

[@JerseyJoe50]

I don’t think a lot of people know about this. I’m surprised this didn’t happen across the country in the 50s as more interstates were being built & families were traveling by car. This would be the perfect roadside attraction.

[@michaeltaylor1603]

Pretty nifty! Lasted longer than Marco Polo Park (in Daytona) Six Flags Power Plant(Baltimore) & Auto World (Flint) & even Sid & Marty Krofft World(Atlanta) combined!

[@IamSnowbird]

I love your deep dives.

[@JeffFrmJoisey]

Very informative! It's great learning about obscure Amusement Parks. There were a few small amusement parks and 3 public pool parks within a 10-20 minute drive of where I grew up in Northern NJ in the early 1960s, plus the biggie, Palisades Amusement Park about 12 miles away!

[@MrJoeykid55]

Great Video. Seems like they made a Smart Business Decision when it came to move on and quietly brought it to a close instead of putting huge amounts of money in to try and bring it to the next level which wasn't likely to happen unlike so many Companies doing new ventures today.

[@christalbot210]

What I liked about it was they bothered to take out an ad to tell everybody. So many times these days that a business simply closes without any warning.

[@brycevo]

Wow. This is a really cool old park. That's just as interesting as sinclair and their world of dinosaurs

[@astro143_]

A free toaster, with every new account! NO CONDITIONS APPLY! I see what you did there Rob.

[@TikiKrissy]

Great video, Rob. If you’re not a history teacher or an historian in real life, you should be! I love learning stuff from you!

[@kbhasi]

5:53 Yep, as expected for tiny cages like those without much care. Then again, it was the 1950s.

[@TitoTimTravels]

There is a beach resort a couple towns over from us that has a "zoo" that still looks just like that. About 30 cages full.

[@kbhasi]

@@TitoTimTravels I imagine that would hurt (for the animals inside the cages).

[@powerheather]

What a strange concept, and yet, it worked for a time!

[@JorgePerez-wx9cf]

Hey Rob! I have an idea for a video (if you haven’t already). The Oldest Building on Walt Disney World. The Amateur Athletic Union Building on Hotel Plaza Blvd. (formally went by another street name in the early 1970’s) Near Disney Springs, next door to the Reedy Creek Building & safety offices. From what I could find, but not verify, it Opened in 1970. Once the “Welcome Center” for two years leading into Magic Kingdom first opening. It had models of all the planned phases for Walt Disney World up to that point. Models, pamphlets, drawings. A place for the public to come and start stirring up hype. If you could find & dive into that, or debunk it, that would be interesting.

[@justimagine2403]

Older ferris wheels were freakishly fast. The rare double ferris wheel in particular I would call a thrill ride.

[@SaturnCanuck]

That was great Rob. I enjoy these histories

[@LunchboxLaw]

Hey Rob...this is Patrick from Patreon. Great video especially because I live in Tampa.

[@LannyBirch]

Hey Rob, this reminds me a bit of Casa de Fruta, this roadside fruit stand on the way from LA to the Bay Area. They have a train ride and other fun stuff. You should check it out.

[@nholt]

You need to do voice overs in Hollywood. You have a great voice. And your videos are fascinating.

[@teenamalanga5342]

Went there when I was a kid ❤

[@UmmYeahOk]

I love the movie My Summer Story, which was the true sequel to A Christmas Story, even if none of the original actors were still in it. There’s a side story where Ralphie’s mom keeps going to the movie theater because every week, customers were given a different piece of the dinnerware set, only every week they were given gravy boats. They were told that they could bring back the extra gravy boat to exchange for a different piece, only each week was still gravy boats. So, at one point all the house wives lug around dozens of gravy boats each to the theater, but when the owner goes to tell the audience the bad news, they all riot and throw the gravy boats at him! 😂

[@heatherfigueroa5144]

Great video 👍 I am a Tampa native and never knew this existed

[@Taydar]

That's a smart idea. My local petrol station used to give away Disneyland paris pins.

[@DuramaxL5P]

Hi Rob, what are your thoughts on doing a video about the Disney VIP park tours? Maybe highlighting the perks, cost etc.

[@dumpnchase]

Very interesting. Thanks

[@davidthomas283]

Your mention of stamps reminds me of "Green Stamps" remember those?

[@UsedtobeaDuchess]

Interesting! Great video!

[@gordonwilliamson4234]

Another great video.

[@milliecanter1230]

We got tickets from super test gas station and used at the supertest

[@AutMouseLabs]

When I was a teenager in Southern Illinois you could get free admission to Holiday World if you bought enough food at the local Wendy's. But Wendy's didn't own it or anything. Still it seemed similar.

[@rct3isepic]

What bank gives you a toaster? I wanna join!

[@IamSnowbird]

In the 60s and 70s banks gave away all different kinds of things. When I got married in 1977 my husband's grandmother gave us dishes and corning ware sets she got for opening bank accounts.

[@wellesradio]

@@IamSnowbird Unless you were dark-skinned like my grandfather. Dishes? Toaster? He just got shown the door when trying to apply for anything. Had to go to “one of our” banks or has stations.

[@annoying2908]

The UK have a promotion whenever Kellogg’s cereal is bought u get buy one get one free for Adults at any Merlin Entertainment Atrraction-They run all the Sealifes Madame tusanntes legolands and other theme parks here

[@loganhuey1868]

Umm... where did you find the information on the family I’m a little curious

[@UmmYeahOk]

lol, “1940s, cars were getting 15 mpg.” ...I’m lucky if my car gets THAT! Progress. (It’s ok though, I attempt to compensate that car’s large carbon footprint by mainly driving an EV.)

[@chloewilson1240]

Why did you quit MCMagic?

[@elizabethharper9208]

Who is this guy? Is this "Rob" below in the comments? Anyone know his last name? Does he do any other narration? Excellent voice!

[@AndreChavesDamasio]

I really appreciate and enjoy the content you make! Please reconsider referring to segregation as something unfortunate, shameful should be the adjective to describe it

[@nobo1682]

or the free water

[@katherinealvarez9216]

Huh.

[@HT-dy1ns]

Yep, never saw any black folks there.

[@mikelemmick822]

First Loser 🙁 AKA Second Place.

[@sunsetoforlando]

FIRST