Yes, they did, but everything was clean...and worked!
I know. As an under five-year-old, I was wont to frequent the ladies lounge, and did so with impunity!
In fact, they were every where, not just at filling stations. And when they worked, you got a clean portion of cloth towelling to dry your hands and face with. A luxury by to-day's standards. Now it's either a hot-air blaster (or an impotent warm-air huffer), or a square of coarse paper that disintegrates into wet shreds in your hands, that is...if the dispenser isn't empty, or too tightly packed to pry one out!
Of course, they didn't always work. They would frequently jam...or the roll would be at it's end...or the spool of towelling would unravel and hang to the floor. Some models came with a built-in mirror, which was probably great in the 1930's when it was new...but I could never see anything in them...unless it was scratches or graffiti.
Those of a certain age know that the bar of soap was not original to the set-up.
The sinks of that era were complemented by a wall-mounted glass orb that dispensed liquid soap into your hand (or onto the floor) simply by pressing up on the protruding button mechanism.
I still have fond memories of the smell of that institutional soap, it was pink as I recall....
Now, if we could just get a shaving soap in that scent, all the old codgers would be in heaven!
Ahh!...institutional soaps, urinal cakes, and advancing towel-rolls. The Millennials ain't got nothin' on us!
And don't forget the ash-trays!
Sorry...what was thread about anyway?
)
..... Ummm, I meant "You Smell!!!!" 
