Hess Trucks: The Holiday Tradition That Started at a Gas Station

You wake up, put on your Ray-Ban Meta glasses.

You're living all in. You realize you need coffee, so you say, Hey Meta, how do I make a latte? After Meta AI gets you caffeinated, you're ready for some beats. Hey Meta, play hip-hop music.

You head to meet some friends, but can't remember the place. Hey Meta, call Eva. Ray-Ban Meta glasses, the next generation of AI glasses. Just say, Hey Meta, to harness the power of Meta AI.

Shop now at meta.com slash smart glasses. Sometimes life can seem hard and tough to navigate, but what may seem like the smallest tasks such as getting out of bed or even brushing your teeth should be celebrated as a win. And State Farm is here to help you celebrate all your wins. The State Farm Personal Price Plan helps you create an affordable price just for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer.

Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Immerse yourself in a world of over a billion vibrant colors with Vizio's Quantum QLED TVs. No matter where you're sitting, everyone gets the perfect view thanks to wide viewing angle.

Enjoy truly immersive gameplay with 120 FPS at 1080p. You can even stream your favorite songs with the iHeartRadio app ready to go on every Vizio Quantum TV. From movie nights to gaming marathons, the Vizio Quantum TV delivers unparalleled performance and picture.

Head to Walmart to find your Vizio Quantum TV today. From hobby farmers to weekend gardeners and everyone in between. Tractor Supply trusts 5G solutions from T-Mobile for business to make shopping more personal. Together we're connecting over 2200 stores with 5G business internet and powering AI so team members can match shoppers with products faster.

You're all set. This is enriching customer experience. This is Tractor Supply with T-Mobile for business.

Take your business further at T-Mobile.com now. This is Malcolm Gladwell from Revisionist History. Picture this. You're halfway through a DIY car fix. Tools scattered everywhere and boom! You realize you're missing a part.

It's okay because you know whatever it is, it's on eBay. They've got everything. Brakes, headlights, cold air intakes, whatever you need and it's guaranteed to fit which means no more crossing your fingers and hoping you ordered the right thing. All the parts you need at prices you'll love.

Guaranteed to fit every time. eBay. Things people love. And we're back with our American stories. For nearly 60 years, Hess trucks have brought smiles to children and adults up and down the east coast. Today we bring you the story behind this iconic brand both from the Hess toy truck director and a super fan.

Here's Robbie with the story. For many families across the country, the holiday season doesn't start until they hear the Hess jingle come across the airwaves. These green and white toy trucks and race cars and spaceships have been found underneath Christmas trees since 1964.

But where did this all start? Here's Justin Mayer, director of brand marketing and general manager of Hess toy trucks to tell us more. You kind of have to start at the very beginning of where the legacy is and that is really with Leon Hess who is the Hess corporation founder before he started the company. You know his family emigrated here in the early 1900s.

He was born in 1914. His father was originally a butcher but when he came here to the states he actually got into the coal delivery business and as everybody knows as you get into the 20s and the 30s times were a little tough here in America and people are doing what they can to make ends meet. That business went bankrupt and Leon Hess was working for his father at the time.

So here we are in the great depression. The family is not doing well to be frank but in 1933 when his family's business goes bankrupt he essentially reorganizes it and turns it from a coal business into a oil delivery business. He buys a 1926 Chevy 615 gallon tanker truck which is very iconic and people will recognize it because it's a toy that we've produced since then in replicate of that and the original one sits in our corporate offices today but he reorganizes the assets of his father's bankrupt business and he starts this Hess corporation which is really the start in 1933 of Hess today. Over the next couple of years he grows his fleet to a handful of field delivery trucks and he's going door to door seven days a week starting in Perth Amboy New Jersey then World War II comes. Leon enlists and he actually ends up working for General Patton as a fuel delivery logistics expert but he comes back from the war with all of this extra learning about fuel supply and how to move and logistics and he says you know we can do more than just deliver fuel oil. So he starts expanding the fleet of fuel delivery but he also builds his first refinery so that way he can have different types of fuel that he's delivering with all of his truck fleets and then he says oh wow if we can make all these different types of fuel including gasoline why am I just selling that to other people?

I can sell direct to customers if I build gas stations right so it's so entrepreneurial the entrepreneurial spirit right the idea that I can do anything it's the American dream I can build it from scratch and he does. So about 1960 the first Hess gas station is built. Now I say that because many of your listeners may not have never heard of a Hess gas station but what they will recognize around this time because he was so successful with his fuel oil delivery business and then his refinery and then his gas stations is he actually becomes wealthy enough to become a partial owner in what ultimately will become the New York Jets NFL football team. By 1963 he's got a bunch of gas stations in New Jersey he's a partial owner of the of the Titans which become the New York Jets which by the way they're green and white for a reason and the history of the Hess toy truck actually starts at a jet game. The story goes that Leon Hess is at a Jets game with a friend of his long-time friend that he grew up with from the neighborhood of Perth Amboy who happened to be in the toy business.

Mark's Toys was a Virginia-based toy manufacturer very popular in the 50s and 60s they're no longer in business today but apparently during conversation of the game hey Leon have you ever thought about offering something other than gas at your gas stations you know we could make a really cool toy that would be really interesting and so then you can start seeing the wheels turn with Leon he goes well one of the things that always stuck with him as a kid as he later recounted the story was that during the great depression you know he didn't have at the holiday times he saw others didn't have at the holiday times so he wanted a toy then that just was oh I can sell this at my gas station it was something special and different and unique to has it was going to be of quality that nobody could match it was going to be innovative and above all else besides the quality of it it was going to be affordable and so in 1964 the Hess toy truck hits the market for the first time and what is it it's an oil tanker so it's it's a you know a truck with one of those long oil tankers you would see them deliver fuel oil directly into the gas stations and the actual toy itself was really innovative in a couple of ways one it had batteries included which before that time didn't exist people weren't putting batteries in the toys so so one from an affordability standpoint you didn't have to go out and buy extra batteries and two it was really easy to gift because the minute you could open it the kids could play with it now it also had working lights very few toys back then actually had electronics if you can think back to the early 1960s there wasn't like a lot of electronics in any toy vehicles very few in fact and it also had the ability to fill up water into the tank and a hose that could empty the water out of it so it was really something special our history all says that the first retail price is a dollar twenty nine now others will say you know we can't we actually can't find anything other than signs that say a dollar thirty nine is the price so we know that for sure so there's all speculation about where the 129 comes from but let's just call it dollar thirty make make it easy but that was the first you know the first Hess toy truck back in 1964 and because it was such a cool toy and it was so affordable it sold out really fast and so they said wow this is great idea we should do this again next year so they did it again next year wow sold out even faster yeah we should we should yeah we should let's figure out what else we can do here now where do we go with this thing and so what happened was it really created this this you think about the cabbage patch kid type craziness in the 1980s well Hess predated that quite a long time because you couldn't go to Toys R Us or today Walmart or Target or Amazon or whatever the only way you could get the most popular toy was to stand in line at a gas station they would go on sale on Thanksgiving day and so it became this really interesting holiday tradition you know mom would get up and start the turkey and dad would get up you know go to the gas station stand in line with his coffee and he could be out there a couple of hours waiting in line that goes wrapped around the block to get two Hess trucks cash only and if you wanted more back of the line start again and it became this this tradition where families started to look forward to this and and people would meet other families in line and they would get to know these people and every year they would make a tradition out of getting up and sometimes when that when the kids were old enough they would join in on this and they would go out with dad as like this cool tradition like some people go to the Macy's parade other people were going to the Hess locations and and just hanging out for a couple hours until they got their trucks and they would sell out very fast and so people would line up and for the fear of not wanting to to miss out and and what was really also pretty cool about it is for years and years and years it was all in Thanksgiving but it got to the point where the police effectively needed to be involved to mitigate the traffic issues around the Hess stations and so a call from the governor basically saying look please can we do this not on a holiday because like we really don't want to have all of our officers out there it's not fair they want to be home and we said yes we of course we can accommodate that and so we ended up shifting the on-sale date off of the traditional Thanksgiving day out of understanding of the issues that we were creating with all the traffic jams and already very busy travel holiday holiday time but it became this spark for this frantic collectability of these toy trucks and because they were hard to get like anything else that it became really valuable in the resale market and you've been listening to Justin Mayer director of brand marketing and general manager of Hess toy truck and when we come back more of the story of Hess toy trucks here on Our American Stories you wake up put on your Ray-Ban meta glasses classic style innovative tech you're living all in you realize you need coffee desperately so you say hey meta how do i make a latte to make a latte brew two shots of espresso after meta ai gets you caffeinated you start walking to work and you need a soundtrack hey meta play hip-hop music with the built-in camera you snap a pic of a dope mural on the side of a building that you think is worth sharing hey meta text my last photo to Eva sending message after work you had to meet some friends hey nice glasses Ray-Ban meta glasses the next generation of AI glasses just say hey meta to harness the power of meta ai listen to music make hands-free calls with open-air audio and built-in microphones and so much more all while staying present to the world around you shop Ray-Ban meta glasses at meta.com smart glasses small business owners this one's for you chase for business and I heart bring you a podcast series called the unshakable this one-of-a-kind series will shine the spotlight on small business owners like you who faced a do-or-die moment that ultimately made their business what it is today learn more at chase.com business podcast chase make more of what's yours chase mobile app is available for select mobile devices message and data rates may apply jp morgan chase bank na member fdic copyright 2024. Ready to unleash the power of 4k Visio's 4k tv collection has you covered with sizes ranging from 43 inches all the way up to a jaw-dropping 86 inch screen experience stunning clarity like never before bringing your favorite shows and movies to life and with watch free plus built-in you'll enjoy free live and on-demand tv right out of the box you can even stream your favorite songs with the I heart radio app ready to go on every Visio 4k tv upgrade your entertainment head to Walmart to find your Visio 4k tv today all right we're all set for the party I've trimmed the tree hung the mistletoe and paired all those weird shaped knives and forks with the appropriate cheeses and I plugged in the partition partition it's a home cocktail maker that makes over 60 premium cocktails plus a whole lot of seasonal favorites too I just got it for 50 off so how about a Closmopolitan or a mistletoe margarita I'm thirsty watch I just pop in a capsule choose my strength and wow it's beginning to feel more seasonal in here already if your holiday party doesn't have a bartender then you become the bartender unless you've got a Bartesian because Bartesian crafts every cocktail perfectly in as little as 30 seconds and I just got it for $50 off tis the season to be jollier add some holiday flavor to every celebration with the sleek sophisticated home cocktail maker Bartesian get $50 off any cocktail maker at bartesian.com slash cocktail that's b-a-r-t-e-s-i-a-n.com slash cocktail it's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays the Roku channel your home for free and premium TV is giving you access to holiday music and genre bass stations from I heart all for free find the soundtrack of the season with channels like I heart Christmas and North Pole radio the Roku channel is available on all Roku devices web Amazon Fire TV Google TV Samsung TVs and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices so stream what you love and turn up the cheer with I heart radio on the Roku channel happy streaming and we're back with our American stories and the story of Hess toy trucks the east coast holiday phenomenon that is now spread across the country when we last left off we heard how folks would line up around the block to buy a toy truck I did that myself with my brothers and at all places at a gas station and there was not a Hess station in our town we had to go to the next town to do it and walk there back to Justin Mayer director of brand marketing and general manager of Hess toy truck with the rest of the story so early on the goal of the Hess toy truck was to produce a very realistic vehicle that was something that existed in the real Hess business so the example the first one of that oil tanker that would when I say oil tanker I mean one that drives on the road and that's important clarification I'll get to that in a second that you would drive to the gas station and then the fuel jumps into the big containers you know underground so that was the first one and and shortly after that we did the actual ocean freight oil carrier right the tanker as they call it it was the voyager which was really a large vessel an oil vessel carrying boat vessel that has did own and that was that was just highly successful 1967 so it was like this awesome that was like 18 inches long it was ginormous highly detailed had lights really cool in fact if you can get your hands on one of those today they go for like four thousand dollars so really you know a collector's piece today but after that they kept on with other things that has did ranging from fire trucks and people like well what do you fire trucks well at refineries it's really important to have emergency services vehicles so we had fire trucks we had box trucks that we would use that would have little drum barrels of oil that would be used for transportation so they were very popular for a number of years different box trucks and things of that nature all the way really up until the 19 late 1980s and in the late 1980s they said you know kids are sort of they love these toys they love to play with them we should really do something that's a little bit more fun to play with you know we know that the collectors love like yes it's a Hess product but this is made for kids the kids toys so let's do some some cooler things some fun things and we started introducing products that really had nothing to do with the Hess traditional business of you know running gas stations and refineries and drilling for oil or and natural gas and all of that and so you started seeing you know the whole racing thing a lot of race cars came and you know cars came in the years after that and then we started pushing boundaries further and you ended up with all right well now we're not just giving you one toy now we're going to give you two toys so so here's a truck and a race car and so you started seeing all of this sort of innovation and product but again only one toy was released a year and so you didn't know what it was going to be it was top secret till it came out on sale and with this ever expanding type of vehicle what we started seeing was that you know on Christmas morning people weren't just playing with the gift they got that year they would go out dig up all the old ones out of their basement or take them out of the closet and use them either as holiday decoration because they all lit up and they look beautiful under the Christmas tree or on the mantle but then they would play with all of their collection and create this amazing imaginary play world of Hess and because well now I have a fire truck and I have a tanker and I have a race car and I have a helicopter and I have a spaceship all of a sudden it becomes just you know a world of play and so folks think about oh well Lego you can play with it so many different ways and that's why you know it's got staying power well that's really true of the Hess truck fleet too because there's so many different ways to create new play scenarios with it and as your collection grows so does who you play with and I think that's an important point too because what we found was the the trucks not only were they just fun to play with but they became a very emotional bond between the gift recipient and the gift giver somebody had to care enough to wake up on Thanksgiving morning and stand in line in the freezing cold in some parts of the country right and make sure they got you that has truck before it sold out and it became a tradition so every year you know people will come up to me and say oh I used to get it as a kid and the next line is always it was my uncle who or my aunt whatever it's not just the toy it's who gave me the toy and that's something that's really unique and the tradition of that continues today where people are always like well you know my dad passed now but now I carry on the tradition for my kids and their kids and that handing off of the tradition and it sometimes you hear fights within a family over who gets to be the one that gives the Hess toy trucks when the older generation has passed on because it's been almost 60 years we see that that transition it's one thing to talk about customer loyalty and the impact test trucks have had on generations but it's another thing to hear from those people themselves here's Mike Roberto author of the Hess truck encyclopedia here's how my story starts it's 1977 I'm five years old I believe it was like a Wednesday night it was a school night I remember that I was going to probably kindergarten at the time right and my dad didn't get home till about 5 36 o'clock and I remember my mom telling me something about wait until like your dad gets home but in the good way not the oh wait until your dad gets home you know and I remember it was cold and dark and we lived in the Bronx at the time in New York I remember my dad let me sit in the front seat okay which was you know a big thing for a little kid and I remember and he and he took me to he took me to the Hess station to to get a toy truck right and what was interesting is we had a family mechanic his name was Rocco and I remember you know whenever we brought the cars to him because my mom had a car and my dad had a car and I remember everything there was all dirty and greasy and grimy you know it's it's it's a mechanic's garage right and when we got to the station you know everything was just lit up so white and clean and pretty and I remember look asking my dad you know how how could they be so so all like white and clean I mean to me it looked like I was in heaven right and my dad had explained to me uh that he well he said that you know they don't fix cars here they they just sell gas so that's how it can you know be all white and clean and I remember as a five-year-old it blew my mind I understood the reference like it made sense to me you know and I felt I felt like a big kid for that you know and I remember being I remember that moment more than getting the physical truck at the station but I do remember we went inside and there was a guy with a metal desk and and you know they had the trucks inside what they call the fish bowl or the fish tank um so and I remember playing with the toy of course and um so not too long after that uh it my dad um had uh he became terminal um he had uh a form of muscular dystrophy anyway that memory went on to become only one of three positive memories that I have of my dad before he became sick and um you know years later not too long after his passing I remember driving in Long Island because at this point we lived in Queens and um naturally there wasn't many HES stations around where we lived but every time I drove past a HES station you know going to Long Island I always thought of my dad you know and I was like oh you know it was it was a it was that positive neural association the HES fandom truly is something amazing it includes everyone from little boys from the Bronx to Olympic gold medalists and it's amazing like every year I hear of other people who are fans of the HES track and have some relation to the HES track you know I don't know two or three years ago we sold out really early and all of a sudden I get like this this direct DM from Michael Phelps I'm like this has to be like a joke right sure enough no he waited too long and we sold out and he's like I got three boys I bet by whole he grew up in Baltimore on that I never got I gotta get these things what do I do I'm like hey we sold out yeah yeah buy buy fast but it's funny we hear those kinds of stories we get reached out by people all the time that have a strong connection to that a lot of celebrities and so it's just great it's a great tradition that lives on and so many people are part of it that you don't even realize it but it really touches my heart every year when I get you know every day I wake up to a new set of emails or videos I gave it for Hanukkah last night and so it's like I get all these oh look here's my here's a video of my kid opening it and they all just love it um and it's really it's heartwarming it's heartwarming and a special thanks to Robbie on the production of that piece what a delight and a special thanks to Justin Mayer from HES Toy Truck and also a special thanks to Mike Roberto fandom defined right there folks the HES Truck Encyclopedia is his contribution to this world that I know and so many east coast people grew up with what I did not know is the story of Leon has and his father a Lithuanian Jew comes to this country starts a coal delivery company goes into bankruptcy his son takes up the mantle turns it into a oil delivery company a mini empire by the way learned a lot of what he needed to learn from General Patton what a beautiful and big and bold story about a man his dream and how his family kept it going the story of the HES Toy Truck here on Our American Stories. Step into a world of unparalleled brightness and lifelike color with Vizio's Quantum Pro TV. This premium QLED TV available in 65 and 75 inch sizes is designed for those who demand the best in picture quality. Breathtaking brightness brings every scene to life while wide viewing angle delivers the perfect picture from any seat in the room enjoy all your favorite apps built in so you can blast your top songs through the iHeartRadio app straight out of the box head to Walmart to find your Vizio Quantum Pro TV today. It's beginning to sound a lot like the holidays the Roku channel your home for free and premium TV is giving you access to holiday music and genre bass stations from iHeart all for free find the soundtrack of the season with channels like iHeartChristmas and North Pole Radio the Roku channel is available on all Roku devices web Amazon Fire TV Google TV Samsung TVs and the Roku mobile app on iOS and Android devices so stream what you love and turn up the cheer with iHeartRadio on the Roku channel happy streaming. Hello it is Ryan and I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favorite social spin slot games on chumbacassino.com I looked over the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing they're also playing chumbacassino everybody's loving having fun with it chumbacassino is home to hundreds of casino style games that you can play for free anytime anywhere so sign up now at chumbacassino.com that's chumbacassino.com and live the chumba life sponsored by chumbacassino no purchase necessary vgw group void where prohibited by law 18 plus terms and you wake up put on your Ray-Ban meta glasses you're living all in you realize you need coffee so you say hey meta how do i make a latte brew two shots of espresso after meta ai gets you caffeinated you're ready for some beats hey meta play hip-hop music you had to meet some friends but can't remember the place hey meta call eva ray-ban meta glasses the next generation of ai glasses just say hey meta to harness the power of meta ai shop now at meta.com smart glasses take a deep dive into the stories making the news headlines across the world the news agents we're not just here to tell you what's happening but why from me emily mateless and me john sopel with global's award-winning podcast the news agents dropping daily covering everything you need to know about politics and current affairs and the news agents usa listening to the news agents on america's number one podcast network i heart open your free i heart app and search the news agents to start listening you