How a Texas oil giant became the unlikely voice of the Metropolitan Opera

Music · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Before it was synonymous with global fuel, Texaco was a cultural titan. Beyond its gas stations, the company spent decades as the sole sponsor of the Metropolitan Opera’s radio broadcasts and produced legendary variety shows. It was a strange, sprawling empire that bridged the gap between crude oil and high art.

Founded in 1902 in Beaumont, Texas, following the Spindletop oil discovery, Texaco grew from the Texas Fuel Company into a global petroleum powerhouse. By the mid-1940s, it stood as one of the Seven Sisters, a group of companies that exerted immense influence over the international oil market until the 1970s. Its reach was vast, becoming the first U.S. oil firm to sell gasoline under a single brand across all 48 states by 1928.

The company’s marketing strategy was inseparable from its entertainment ventures. Texaco sponsored the Metropolitan Opera’s radio broadcasts for 63 years, a partnership that persists today. In the mid-20th century, it dominated television and radio through the Texaco Star Theater, featuring stars like Milton Berle. These programs were so culturally embedded that Berle famously joked he and a prominent religious leader shared the same boss: Sky Chief, one of Texaco’s high-octane gasoline products.

However, the company’s history is marked by severe controversy. During the Spanish Civil War, Texaco illegally supplied oil to fascist forces, leading to a fine for violating the Neutrality Act of 1937. Later, in the 1990s, the company faced a massive class-action lawsuit from residents of the Ecuadorian Amazon, who alleged that Texaco’s drilling operations dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into the rainforest. These environmental claims, alongside a major 1996 racial discrimination settlement, complicated the legacy of a brand once known for its jingles and opera broadcasts.

In 2001, Chevron acquired Texaco for $36 billion, ending its run as an independent entity. While the Texaco name remains visible on service stations globally, the company’s evolution reflects the volatile intersection of corporate expansion, cultural patronage, and the environmental costs of the 20th-century energy industry.

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