Indy 500 - Pyroil (Again) - 1934

Another Pyroil ad this morning, this time an earlier one. In 1934 the company wasn't claiming to have won six of the ten Indianapolis 500 races and they didn't have a dog spokesperson. My favorite is Barney Oldfield who gained fame for driving an Allis-Chalmers tractor at over 64 mph. Sounds like he was a big hit at the La Crosse county fair!

New Yorker Louis Meyer went on to be the first ever three-time Indy 500 winner, claiming the trophy as a rookie in 1928, in 1933, and in 1936 and he's credited with starting the tradition of drinking milk in the winner's circle. Meyer also was the first winner to receive a gift of the pace car, another tradition that continues to date.

Bill Cummings was an Indianapolis native who competed in nine Indy 500's, only winning in 1934. I'm not quite sure why the geniuses at the ad agency decided not to mention that he won the actual race in '34, opting instead for the brilliant statement that he won the Pyroil trophy using Pyroil. The Borg Warner trophy was commissioned in 1935 and wouldn't be presented to the winner of the 500 until the 1936 season.

Indy 500 - Pyroil Scores Again!

Pyroil seems to have a problem with counting. In the ad copy they state "Six of the ten winners of the 500 mile Memorial Day race at Indianapolis kept their racing machines lubricated with the help of Pyroil." The problem? Well, in 1947 when this ad ran in Popular Mechanics there had been 31 winners of the Indy 500, not ten.

There isn't much in the way of history for Pyroil online. My search only turned up more ads and a few MSDS sheets, but nothing in the way of when the company was founded or by whom. We do know it was located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, but not much more. Pyroil products are still available, now marketed under the Valvoline brand.

Jerry the talking dog was sort of the animal equivalent of a side-show act, barking words for the boys in veteran's hospitals around the US at the behest of his Pyroil masters. Didn't find too much on Jerry, either, but I did locate a site with a good (autographed no less) photo of the little whippet!

By the way, I'm not exactly sure how many cans of Pyroil for Aircraft Engines the company sold, but it seems a little strange that they'd run an ad for it in Popular Mechanics. Back in '47 were there that many people with their own planes in need of lubrication?