THE TUBE

High on a shelf above the counter in Al Horvat’s Town Tire auto garage in Los Angeles, a gleaming trophy presides over rows of tires, shocks and struts. But it isn’t an award for mechanical expertise. It’s a Clio, awarded for Horvat’s performance in a TV commercial.

Horvat, 71, brags that he is the only mechanic in town who’s got one. He’s proud that, at an age when most men are retired, he’s stumbled onto a lucrative second career as a TV pitchman for such blue-chip clients as AT&T; and Federal Express. Three years ago, a loyal customer who happens to be a casting director, persuaded Horvat to audition for a promo for WFAN in New York. Horvat landed the role of a ballplayer, wielding a huge baseball glove and mugging for the camera. “Three or four months later,” Horvat says, “the director calls me and says, ‘Al, you won a Clio.’ ‘Yeah?’ I say. ‘What’s a Clio?’ I have actors come in here all the time. They would die for that thing.”

Since then, Horvat has appeared in eight commercials, earning his SAG card by playing lots of regular guys. Once, he rented out his shop as a set and played a mechanic for a bank commercial. And Horvat doesn’t even need an agent--one out of three of his customers is an industry type, and he distributes head shots on request. But the Clio statuette is another matter. “It was on the counter, and I’d see people (trying to) walk out with it,” he says, laughing. “They don’t even know what it is. They think it’s gold.”

But show business will not lure Horvat away from the garage that’s been his career for the past 29 years. “When I go for auditions, it’s fun for me,” he says. “I’m not an actor.”