corporation industry retail wrecking yard founded 1940s headquarters bensenville illinois usa key people kyle weisner owner and manager products scrap metal used car parts automobiles website www.victoryautowreckers.com victory auto wreckers is an auto salvage yard in bensenville illinois near chicago s o hare international airport . it is well known in the chicago area for its former television commercial in which a young man struggles with a car door that has just detached from its hinges . the commercial aired with limited changes from 1985 to 2015 making it the subject of frequent discussion in the local media . the chicago sun times once described the advertisement as an indelible commercial image known to almost any television viewer . 1 contents 1 business 2 advertising 3 notes 4 see also 5 external links business edit victory auto wreckers was founded in the 1940s by a pair of world war ii veterans . 2 the company was purchased by kenneth weisner in 1967 and is now owned by his son kyle . 3 victory purchases wrecked or decommissioned vehicles and then allows customers to browse through their lots in search of workable parts . any unusable parts are crushed and sold to scrap metal dealers . as of 2005 the 10 acre 40 000 m2 facility was processing approximately 14 000 automobiles every year . 4 in 2002 the bensenville community development commission threatened to close victory auto wreckers within two years as part of a zoning ordinance prohibiting junkyards incinerators and wrecking yards . however appellate court judge robert mclaren ruled that the facility should be considered a recycling center allowing the business to remain in operation . 4 advertising edit victory aired its first television commercial in 1981 . by 1985 the video of the advertisement had deteriorated and victory turned to commercial director ron patris to create a replacement . that replacement commercial filmed on may 20 1985 remained on the air for nearly 30 years with some minor modifications . according to one estimate the spot appeared on wgn tv and other stations up to 30 times per week . television historian steve jajkowski argued that the commercial was as much a part of chicago tv as bozo the clown fahey flynn and svengoolie . 5 the 1985 commercial was filmed in a residential area near the salvage yard . it starred bob zajdel a shaggy haired young man who had been working for victory at the time . in the commercial zajdel attempts to enter his noticeably old and run down car but his car door suddenly detaches from its hinges and falls to the ground . an exasperated zajdel jumps back and sighs in frustration but an announcer advises that the car may be worth money and briefly describes victory s services . in the next scene zajdel receives a pair of 20 bills and a third bill of unclear value when a tow truck from victory arrives to take his car . 6 victory introduced some changes to the commercial between 1985 and 2015 ; later versions had new announcers including dean richards 7 and some new graphics . however the footage remained the same as evidenced by zajdel s period clothing and hairstyle . 5 radio personality steve dahl joked 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 . 6 zajdel was never paid extra for his role in the commercial but he has become a minor local celebrity appearing in several newspaper interviews . he remarked to the chicago tribune i still own the shirt i wore . and i still have the watchband from the commercial ... i should take the watchband and the shirt with a victory t shirt and put them on ebay . i could make some money off it . 5 kyle weisner said of the advertisement there are companies that do a lot of advertising like for example empire but they change their commercials weekly . with us our message is the same so we ve never felt the need to change it . 5 in may 2015 however victory auto wreckers retired their famous commercial in favor of a new spot produced by xpress video productions of northbrook illinois . the new commercial features a computer animated homage to the 1985 footage . 8 notes edit esther cepeda . brains behind popular slogan memorable victory auto wreckers commercial . chicago sun times . october 1 2007 . 57 . jeff coen . junkyard is automobiles last stop . chicago tribune . july 16 1997 . metro 1 . azam ahmed . kenneth weisner 1942 2007 owner of wrecking firm he thought up tv spot that put victory auto wreckers in public eye . chicago tribune . september 30 2007 . 7 . a b justin kmitch . bensenville s loss means legal victory for business . the daily herald du page county . july 20 2005 . 4 . a b c d william hagerman . commercial success after 21 years auto wreckers tv ad never fails to light up the switchboard ; but whatever happened to that poor guy with the beater chicago tribune . january 27 2006 . tempo 1 . a b tom mcnamee . he s been getting cash for that car for 24 yrs . chicago sun times . february 14 2005 . 20 . dean richards . chicago radio spotlight . february 10 2008 . retrieved on october 8 2010 . robert channick . victory auto wreckers rolls out new commercial . chicago tribune . may 1 2015 . retrieved may 2 2015 . see also edit celozzi ettleson chevrolet eagle insurance empire today moo & oink peter francis geraci walter e. smithe harold s chicken shack external links edit the iconic commercial on youtube retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title victory auto wreckers & oldid 743330814 categories culture of chicagobensenville illinois navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 9 october 2016 at 04 18 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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