Jay Jay Chevrolet and the Yellow Cab Company of Gulfport as they were in the 1950s
This early 1950s photo seems to be a promotion shot for Jay Jay Chevrolet and the Yellow Cab Company in Gulfport.
Jay Jay Chevrolet began operating in Gulfport about 1932 at 1812 25th Avenue.
The business shut down during the 1980s. The Yellow Cab Company began service in Biloxi in 1922. It was listed as a Biloxi-Gulfport company during the 1930s and early 1940s, but the Sept. 26, 1946 Daily Herald published the Charter of Incorporation of the Yellow Cab Company of Gulfport, a new and separate company located on 26th Ave.
In July 1948 the Gulfport Yellow Cab Company expanded its operation by purchasing the Bell Cab Company. A Yellow Cab spokesman predicted there would be 26 cabs on the streets of Gulfport by September.
Yellow Cab proved to be a civic-minded concern. In March of 1950, the company began a driving school free of charge for anyone who was interested. Later that year, Yellow Cab, in tandem with the Gulfport Photo-Movie Service, produced the film “Devil on Wheels,” a safety film aimed at teenagers and admission was free.
The Yellow Cab Company joined the March of Dimes in January 1952. Any person hailing a specially marked Yellow Cab could ride without charge.
The fee that a person would have normally paid was donated to the polio drive by the cab company. Yellow Cab continued its support of good causes, such as the Red Cross blood drive in March 1954. A cab ride could be had without payment if the person’s destination was the Bloodmobile in downtown Gulfport.
Murella H. Powell, a local historian, writes the weekly Flashback column. Do you have a local photograph to submit to Flashback? It can be of any subject or event in the Coast’s distant or recent past. Please send a description with your name, address and phone number to Flashback, the Sun Herald, P.O. Box 4567, Biloxi MS 39535; call 896-2424; or email living@sunherald.com.
This story was originally published February 12, 2017 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Jay Jay Chevrolet and the Yellow Cab Company of Gulfport as they were in the 1950s."