As a 9 year old boy watching the Wendy’s commercial, I never imagined that I would one day be responsible for negotiating the contract for the rights to use the persona of the late Clara Peller as well as her caricature for a t-shirt. The late Clara Peller of Chicago’s north side was made famous overnight from a Wendy’s commercial where three grandmotherly types are looking at another restaurant’s large bun covering a small piece of meat, prompting Peller’s signature cry of “Where’s the beef?”
Wendy’s spokesman Denny Lynch attributes the commercial’s success to the 4-foot-11-inch Peller, who “captured the mood of the country at the time, which was ‘tell it like it is, tell it to me straight.'”
At Beermann LLP, we’ve been known to represent famous entertainers and athletes before, and now – the late Clara Peller? My job gets more interesting every day!
