Holy moly, who knew there was a real actual story behind it? At least they're NOT the annoying Smithe boys. Much better, in fact. Thanks for digging.

If you listen closely to the jingle you can tell that the "800" part was actually tacked on at a later date. It is spliced from one of the 8's in 588 and the hundred in 2-3 hundred.

I had never heard the jingle before I moved to Chicago in 1999, when I was exiled back to Cleveland in 2003 I was happy to find that Empire Carpet is doing business here now, so I still get that jingle stuck in my head.

Don't the Smithe boys have a cameo in the Brown's Chicken commercial? I love it when Chicago-based businesses come together.

And, yes, the original number did not have an "800" in it. I remember somewhere in the '80s they added that in.

Mike is correct. I distinctally (sp?) remember the 588-2300 jingle without the 800. It always sounds off to me when they sing the (800) before the 588-2300 jingle.

Also, I found out on another discussion board that everyone in the country think that Empire is THEIR local company! Sorry, guys, Empire is a Chi-Town original.

I must be as old as Jim W cause I remember that one and National2, nine thowwwwsand.

My grandmother still refers to her phone nember as Hilltop5-XXXX. Why can't we all refer to our phone number like this anymore?

All this talk is giving me flashbacks to Courtship of Eddies father. (Which had to be written by a child molester now that I think about it)

Are the Smithe guys really in a Brown's Chicken commercial? They're definitely in a KFC commercial.

I wasn't sure if it was Brown's or KFC, but I knew it was some chicken chain. I assumed Brown's b/c it's local. Good to know they *are* in fact in the commercial and I'm not seeing Smithe brothers without warrant.

The 800 was definitely added later. Way back in the good ol' days, all of the Chicago area actually had just one area code (312). Then I remember when they used to sing the same jingle, but show both area codes(312/708). As the area kept adding area codes I guess it got unwieldy to acquire all those versions of 588-2300, so they got the 800 number.

Chris, check out ebay for the Empire Carpet Man bobbleheads. I'm not sure if sleeping with the seller will get it for you, but I bet they take PayPal at any rate.

BER-WYN!

just so everyone knows. empire is now national. i knew about empire growing up in massachusetts. i've also checked with other friends that are from other parts of the country and they are all familiar with empire.

I remember one for CET, which I suppose was a television store. But the jingle was "MOhawk 4, four-one hundred; CET. For tel-e-vis-ion"

Okay, geekgrrl, this might make you happy. My dad has worked for Empire Carpeting for 20 years. He's know the actor who plays Mr. Empire (I guess most everyone there does). The "800" addition kills me everytime I hear it. It still feels very foreign.

Several years back, his actual daughter began appearing in the commercials with him as, indeed, his daughter in the commercials.

I have dozens of the bobble heads. Let me know, and I'll see if I can get you one.

Empire's extinct rival: 1st metropolitan carpets. 2-8-2 8-6-Hundred.

What excellent research and discoveries! How about finding who the dude is in that commericial where he goes to open the door to his car, but then it FALLS OFF! That's just pure gold.

Loved this story! I'm a native Chicagoan, clearly remember the pre-800 days, and was at the 1994 Pearl Jam concert (my senior year of high school) at the old Chicago Stadium when the Empire sing-along took place. Good times.

I was in a bar once with a female friend, and some guy asked her for her phone number and she told the guy (who was a drunk out of towner) 588 23 hundred and he wrote it down. I spit my drink out in laughter. She said it so nonchalantly, you would of swore it was her number.

Thanks, everybody, for the most rewarding Chicagoist commentary discussion I've seen yet.  Great nostalgia trip for all of us Gen-X'ers.

Spudart, this one's for you.

He's been getting cash for that car for 24 yrs.; Bob Zajdel is the longest-running TV star you've never known

Chicago Sun-Times
February 14, 2005 Monday
by Tom McNamee

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.

But do you guys remember that bastardized version for about three months when they changed the jingle to "588, 2300, empire today!"? With the 'empire today' being very rushed. I think it might have been around 2002, because when I moved back to NYC from Chicago, they started showing the Empire commericals here, with that jingle, and I was very stressed out. Then they changed it back, and all was right with the world once more.

In other news, Tile Outlet is just three blocks west of the Kennedy Expressway.

Ya I used to hear the really shrill, rushed version of the jingle in NYC. It was much more annoying than the classic version. I am really trying to find the shrill version though. It was hilariously grating on the nerves. Much like the "Head On" cmmercial.

When your thinkin Lincoln Lincoln Carpeting for less call NA2-9000 NA 2-9riiiiiiiiiiing Thousand. Yes that was Mancow who was the guy in the Eagle Insurance commercials

for anyone who thinks that the empire guy is dead, hes not . i just saw him a few days ago feb 7 07. hes a patient at the dentist office i work at. has aged but still recognizable. nice guy.nice teeth.

HIlltop 5-? Would that be anywhere near HIlltop5-4352 (and there never was a doll like you?)

Seems like that was in the old Beverly neighborhood. I used to be over in Roseland as PUllman 5-8773.

Charles

As a kid living in northern Indiana, I always enjoyed the catchy jingles on Chicago stations; The 588-2300 and Hudson 3-2700 being the most notable. When I moved to Indianapolis, in 1990 I needed carpeting. The first thought in my head was the Empire jingle. I called it (knowing the Chicago area code) and asked them if they installed in Indianapolis. The woman who answered said they did not. I was disappointed. About 5 years ago the Empire commercials began appearing on Indianapolis television stations as 800-588-2300 with the 800 also added to the jingle. It is now a national company. I truly believe that the jingle and the "Empire carpet guy" are the sole reasons why it has become a national company.

By the way, a question was asked why it was Hudson 3-2700. When I was a kid, the first two or three numbers were usually words associated with the alphabetical letters with each number. You can read details about this on Straight Dope. Look it up on double u double u(dot)straightdope(dot)com/mailbag/mphoneexchange.htm

i heard that cellozi-ettelson put a contract on the empire carpet guy... is this true???

where you always save more money...