Weren't We just talking about this?

[mreye]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/mcnamee/cst...-mcnamee14.html

 

You're up in the middle of the night watching an "Andy Griffith" rerun -- the one where Barney joins the choir -- when a most excellent Chicago commercial comes on.

 

This skinny guy with long blond hair, circa Judas Priest, steps up to an old green beater and tries to open the driver's door. It falls right off.

 

"That old car may be worth money!"

 

That's what the announcer says and, sitting there in the dark in your underwear, that's what you say along with him because you know every word.

 

"Call Victory Auto Wreckers at 630-860-2000 for a quote!"

 

The skinny guy jumps back when the door falls off. He jiggles his arms, and you notice his huge leather watchband, circa Styx.

 

"Victory will tow it away no matter what condition the car is in!"

 

The skinny guy hands over the car's title to another guy, who gives the skinny guy two $20 bills and a third bill you can't read. You hope it's another $20 because you can see the skinny guy could use it.

 

Then a Victory tow truck drags the beater away and "Andy Griffith" comes back on, and you find out -- if you can believe this -- that Barney can't really sing.

 

But you're still thinking about that commercial. Just how old is it, anyway? And whatever happened to the skinny guy?

 

Time for some serious investigative reporting.

 

'I had to jump'

 

 

 

After an exhaustive morning of legwork that consisted of two quick phone calls, here's the scoop:

 

The Victory Auto commercial has been running on local TV stations nonstop since 1981, sometimes as often as 25 times a week. It may well be the longest-running unchanged commercial in Chicago TV history.

 

And the skinny guy is Bob Zajdel of Elmwood Park. He is 45, drives a truck for a living and says he wasn't acting when he jumped back from that falling door.

 

"That was me just getting away," he says. "I was supposed to give a little fake jump, but when the door came down like a shear, I had to jump or I would have got hit. It could have really cut me."

 

Zajdel was a driver for Victory Auto in 1981 when the company's owner, Ken Weisner, asked him if he wanted to be in a commercial.

 

"We went out there one morning and shot it, and I went back to work," he says. "I was on the clock, so I didn't get paid anything extra. I was stupid enough to sign a waiver. They gave it to me about two minutes before the shooting."

 

Not that Zajdel is complaining. A deal's a deal, and he likes the folks at Victory. They give him a discount on auto parts.

 

"I just figured this thing would run like six months," he says. "I didn't think I'd be on for years."

 

Or decades.

 

The commercial made Zajdel a minor celebrity. Very minor. People in bars bought him drinks. They asked to touch his watchband.

 

"I've always been a fan of the ultra-wide watchband and the mullet -- or perhaps in those days it was called a gypsy shag," says WCKG radio host Steve Dahl, a connoisseur of cheesy commercials. "But in the last decade or so, I've really become fixated on the door that just falls off. That is pure genius."

 

But over the years, as styles have changed, Zajdel's style has not -- not on the commercial -- and there are days when he feels he's living in a time warp.

 

"People find out I'm that guy, and they still kid me," he says. "What's with that weird hairdo? What's with the watchband? But that was the style."

 

Does this mean Zajdel in real life has moved on?

 

"I'm built the same, but the hair's shorter. You wouldn't recognize me."

 

I am glad to hear this. Everybody in Chicago should be glad to hear this. But Zajdel's telling me this on the phone, and I need to see for myself. So I drive out to Elk Grove Village, where he works, and check him out.

 

I shake hands with a middle-age, skinny guy who's looking much better -- more squared away.

 

Or, as Harry Caray used to say about ballplayers and nobody raised an eyebrow: "Well now, folks, that's a fine looking fella there."

 

'Why change it?'

 

 

 

I ask Kyle Weisner, Ken's son and the manager at Victory, if maybe it's time to retire the skinny guy spot.

 

"Why change it?" he replies. "It's effective. We get calls."

 

But, I say, Bob looks like a roadie for a hair band, circa Journey.

 

"At this point, it actually works in our favor not to change," he says. "As soon as you see that grainy shot with Bob standing there with his long hair and his wristband, you know what it is. You might be annoyed, but you know."

 

To be precisely accurate, the ad has been altered once, by two words. When the price of scrap steel dropped, the announcer went from saying "That old car is worth money!" to "That old car may be worth money!"

 

For years, the commercial ran only on WGN-TV. Now, in the non-cable world, it also runs on channels 32, 44, 48 and 50. But to catch it, you usually have to sit through a bunch of other 30-second spots pitching hope to the lost and the broke.

 

You get your bankruptcy lawyer. Your high-risk auto insurance agent. Your personal injury lawyer. Your trade school offering an "exciting new career" in massage therapy or interior decorating.

 

And only then, thoroughly swimming in new possibilities, do you get the skinny guy with the falling door.

 

But what I really want to know is this: How large is that third bill the skinny guy gets, the one you can't see?

 

"Well, that's the big mystery, isn't it?" says Kyle. "No one will ever know. My father won't even tell me what that last bill was."

 

Whatever it was, I think Victory should give it -- and a lot more -- to Zajdel. For real. He's the star of a commercial that's been pulling in business for 24 years.

 

Time to cut him a check.

 

It's Valentine's Day.

 

 

Tom McNamee's "The Chicago Way" runs Mondays in the Sun-Times.

 

"That old car may be worth money!

 

Call . . . for a quote."

[FlaSoxxJim]

Now if only the Harry Schmerler and Burt Wymann Ford Dealership commercials and the Long Chevrolet commercial from that time were still on, it would be a time warp every night. I'm sure the Earl Schibe spots are still on but it's got to cost more than 69.95 to "paint any car any coler" these days, right?

[TheBigHurt35]

Great article.

 

I miss those old Chicago commercials (although Empire Carpet has apparently branched out now). My favorite were the Cellozi-Elltleson Chevrolet commercials. "Where you always save more money!"

[santo=dorf]

Do they still run the Eagle Man commercials?

[mreye]

Do they still run the Eagle Man commercials?

Oh yeah. In Spanish, too.

[SnB]

:

i can't believe there was an article about this.

[knightni]

I remember watching that Victory commerical on WGN when it was fairly new.

 

We first got cable here in 1983 and WGN was on it. Yep. Bozo, Family Classics, Lou Rawls, (Cubs Games ).

 

WFLD was great too. Son of Svengooli, Banana Spilts, Emergency!, Munsters, Brady Bunch, (Sox Games ).

[Rex Kickass]

Empire guy is on in NYC too. I love how they changed the name of the company and kept the jingle with the guy just saying "Today!" at the end.

[knightni]

Yeah, Empire before they never had an 800#.

 

I remember when they parodied the Flintstones "Happy Anniversary" piano bit.

[HuskyCaucasian]

Push it.... Pull it.... Tow it to Golf Mill Ford!

[Kalapse]

Push it.... Pull it.... Tow it to Golf Mill Ford!

With the fat guy, hell ya.

[AngelasDaddy0427]

I still remember seeing this commercial while watching the cartoons in the morning, back when what is now the UPN station actually used to run decent cartoons like darkwing duck. (I can't remember the call letters of the station now, maybe someone can help me out with that.)

It is cool when I go back and visit my moms house I can still see that dopey commercial come on the TV.

 

...and I still miss Svengoolie. Is he still on WCIU? I would give anything for the local station around here to pick him up.

[SleepyWhiteSox]

I'll take the credit for bringing this commercial up, back in the Arby's oven mitt thread...

 

 

I can't possibly imagine their being an older commercial than that one ANYWHERE...