Victory Auto Wreckers

Former American wrecking yard corporation

Victory Auto Wreckers was 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."

Victory Auto Wreckers was founded in the 1940s by a pair of World War II veterans. The company was purchased by Kenneth Weisner in 1967 and is now owned by his son, Kyle. Victory purchased wrecked or decommissioned vehicles and then allowed customers to browse through their lots in search of workable parts. Any unusable parts were crushed and sold to scrap metal dealers. As of 2005, the facility was processing approximately 14,000 automobiles every year. 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.

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." Victory introduced some changes to the commercial between 1985 and 2015; later versions had new announcers (including Dean Richards for airings on WGN and Rich Koz for airings on WCIU TV and MeTV) and some new graphics, along with several area code updates to the on screen phone number and eventually, Victory's web address. However, the footage remained the same, as evidenced by Zajdel's period clothing and hairstyle. 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."