Clara Peller

Born in Polotsk{{Efn|Spelled "Politska" on immigration documents{{Cite book |last=Necheles |first=Marlene |title=Clara Peller: An American Icon |publisher=Xlibris, Corp. |year=2010 |isbn=978-1450017312}}}} in Imperial Russia, in 1902, one of eight or nine children born to Wolf Swerdlove (originally Swerdlov/Sverdlov; died 1949) and Yudis (aka "Julia" or "Judith") Tilkin (or Tilken; died 1952), young Clara spent most of her early life in Chicago. Her father left Russia in February 1906 when he was being drafted for the second time, and after arriving in Boston, Massachusetts, they settled down in Illinois. At age 20, Clara married a local jeweler, William Peller. They had a son (Leslie) and a daughter (Marlene), but later divorced. She never remarried. She worked for 35 years as a manicurist at a Chicago beauty salon, and later moved to the suburban North Shore area to be near her daughter, Marlene Necheles.{{Cite book |last=Necheles |first=Marlene |title=Clara Peller: An American Icon |publisher= |year=2010 |isbn=978-1450017312}}

At age 80, Peller was hired as a temporary manicurist for a television commercial set in a Chicago barbershop. Impressed by her no-nonsense manners and unique voice, the agency later asked her to sign a contract as an actress for the agency. Though hard of hearing and suffering from emphysema, which limited her ability to speak long lines of dialogue, Peller was quickly used in a number of TV spot advertisements. She first attracted attention as a comical cleaning lady in an advertisement for the new Massachusetts State Lottery game "Megabucks",Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/A9Sl4eaBiu0 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20200429222310/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Sl4eaBiu0&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web | url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9Sl4eaBiu0 |via=YouTube |title=Megabucks TV spot|date=February 26, 2015 }}{{cbignore}} and later nationally in a series of commercials for the Wendy's restaurant chain.Seger, Linda, Creating Unforgettable Characters, New York: Macmillan Press (1990), {{ISBN|0-8050-1171-4}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8050-1171-5}}, p. 25

First airing on January 10, 1984, the Wendy's commercial portrayed a fictional fast-food competitor named "Big Bun", where three elderly ladies are served an enormous hamburger bun containing a minuscule hamburger patty. While two of the women are commenting on the size of the bun, they are interrupted by an irascible Peller, who looks around in vain for customer assistance while making the outraged demand: "Where's the beef?"{{cite web | url=http://rememberingmatters.blogspot.com/2008/02/wheres-beef.html|title=Where's The Beef Commercial |website=Remembering Matters |date=February 23, 2008}} Sequels featured a crotchety Peller yelling her famous line in various scenes, such as storming drive-thru counters,{{cite web |url=http://www.splendad.com/ads/show/330-Wendys-Wheres-the-beef-Drive-Thru |title=Where's The Beef – Drive-Thru Commercial |website=SplendAd}} or in telephone calls to a fast-food executive attempting to relax on his yacht, the S.S. Big Bun.{{cite magazine |magazine=Time | title=Prime Ribbing | date=March 26, 1984}}

Peller's "Where's the beef?" line instantly became a catchphrase across the United States and Canada. The diminutive octogenarian actress made the three-word phrase a cultural phenomenon, and herself a cult star. At Wendy's, sales jumped 31% to $945 million in 1985 worldwide.[https://web.archive.org/web/20090217083119/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,964845,00.html Investments: An Affirmative Action; Advertising: It's Over There, in the Spaghetti] Time, April 1, 1985 Wendy's senior vice president for communications, Denny Lynch, stated at the time that "with Clara we accomplished as much in five weeks as we did in {{Fraction|14|1|2}} years." Former Vice President Walter Mondale also used the line against rival Senator Gary Hart in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 1984 campaign.{{cite web |author1=Germond, Jack |author2=Witcover, Jules |author3=Goldman, Peter |author4=Fuller, Tony |author5=Henry, William A. III |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_v17/ai_3959886/ |title=Why Gary Hart Lost |date=October 1985 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206195151/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_v17/ai_3959886 |archive-date=February 6, 2008 |access-date=June 7, 2009 |url-status=live }}

While hugely popular, the advertising campaign proved to be short-lived, at least for Wendy's. Peller had made actor-scale wages — $317.40 per day — for the initial Wendy's TV commercial of the campaign in January 1984.{{cite news|work=The New York Times | title=Clara Peller – The Actress in Where's The Beef TV Ads, Obituary |date=August 12, 1987}} Her fee for subsequent work as a Wendy's spokesperson was not disclosed, though Peller acknowledged in an interview with People magazine that she had earned $30,000 from the first two commercials and profits from product tie-in sales.{{cite magazine |author1=Armstrong, Lois |title=Here's The Beef |magazine=People |date=April 2, 1984|issue= 21–13}} Wendy's later stated that the company had paid Peller a total of $500,000 for her work on the campaign, though Peller denied earning that much.

Per the terms of her Screen Actors Guild union contract, the actress was free to participate in any commercials for products, goods or services, which did not directly compete with Wendy's hamburgers. She subsequently signed a contract with the Campbell Soup Company to appear in an advertisement for Prego Pasta Plus spaghetti sauce. In the Prego commercial, Peller examines the Prego sauce and after wondering "Where's the beef?" declares, "I found it! I really found it". However, after the Prego commercial aired on television in 1985, Wendy's management decided to terminate her contract, contending that the Prego commercial implies "that Clara found the beef at somewhere other than Wendy's restaurants".{{cite magazine |magazine=Time |title=Investments: An Affirmative Action; Advertising: It's Over There, in the Spaghetti|date=April 1, 1985}} In announcing the dismissal, Wendy's Denny Lynch stated, "Clara can find the beef only in one place, and that is Wendy's".{{cite web |url=http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_clarapeller.htm | title=Clara Peller | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130204225535/http://www.tvacres.com/admascots_clarapeller.htm |archive-date=February 4, 2013|format=Advertising Mascots-People |website=TV Acres.com}} Peller responded, "I've made them millions, and they don't appreciate me."

Following the conclusion of the "Where's the beef?" campaign, Wendy's Restaurants entered a two-year sales slump.{{cite web |title=Wendy's Shuffles Command; High Level Execs Put In Charge Of Store Groups|website= Nation's Restaurant News |date=May 18, 1987|url=https://www.nrn.com/search/node}} Vice President Lynch later admitted that consumer awareness of the Wendy's brand did not recover for another five years, with the advent of a new, humorous line of TV commercials featuring the brand's founder, Dave Thomas.{{cite news |author1=Foltz, Kim |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/08/22/business/the-media-business-advertising-at-wendy-s-folksiness-is-effective.html |title=The Media Business: Advertising; At Wendy's, Folksiness Is Effective |work=The New York Times |date=August 22, 1990}}

Despite the setback with Wendy's, Peller continued to make the most of her newfound fame, granting numerous press interviews and making several guest TV appearances. She regularly amused interviewers and friends by claiming not to know exactly how old she was, once telling a frustrated Social Security clerk (who was given three different ages by Peller) that she was "whichever one will get me Social Security."

File:Grave of Clara Peller (1902–1987) at Waldheim Cemetery Co., Forest Park, IL.jpg

On April 14, 1984, Peller made an uncredited cameo appearance on Saturday Night Live which was hosted that night by 1972 Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern. She also made an appearance in the low-budget 1985 Neal Israel comedy Moving Violations. In Larry Cohen's The Stuff, she appeared with Abe Vigoda in a commercial. In the "Remote Control Man" episode of the Steven Spielberg show Amazing Stories, she had a cameo as a disgruntled motorist. On April 7, 1986, she made an appearance at WrestleMania 2 at Chicago's Rosemont Horizon, where she was the guest timekeeper for the 20-man invitational over-the top-rope battle royal involving both wrestlers and NFL players of the 1970s and 1980s.{{Citation |title=Clara Peller of "Where's the beef?" fame messes up her line: WrestleMania 2 |url=https://www.wwe.com/videos/clara-peller-of-where-s-the-beef-fame-messes-up-her-line-wrestlemania-2 |access-date=2023-09-09 |language=en}}

Peller died on August 11, 1987, in Chicago, one week after her 85th birthday, from congestive heart failure. She is buried at Waldheim Jewish Cemetery in Forest Park, Illinois.{{cite web |url=https://www.fold3.com/page/94111890-clara-peller/facts|title=Clara Peller - Facts |website=Fold3}}

Daughter Marlene Necheles published a biography in 2010, Clara Peller: An American Icon, then collaborated with Geoff Shell on a musical, Clara and the Beef, based on her biography.{{cite web |title=Clara and the Beef |url=https://www.wheresthebeefmusical.com/ |website=Clara and the Beef |access-date=2023-02-17 |ref=WTBMUS}} Peller's grandson, who is the son of Marlene, is a pediatrician in Chicago.{{cite web |title=Jonathan W. Necheles, MD Jonathan W. Necheles, MD |url=https://www.nm.org/doctors/1518916220 |website=Northwestern Health Care |publisher=Northwestern University |access-date=2023-02-17 |ref=NU}}

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{{Portal|Biography|1980s}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0671050|name=Clara Peller}}
• [http://www.graveyards.com/IL/Cook/waldheim/clarapeller.html Clara Peller at graveyards.com]

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Category:1902 births

Category:1987 deaths

Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to the United States

Category:People from Polotsk

Category:Actresses from Chicago

Category:American film actresses

Category:American television actresses

Category:Jewish American actresses

Category:Wendy's International

Category:20th-century American actresses

Category:Burials in Forest Park, Illinois

Category:20th-century American Jews

Category:American people of Russian-Jewish descent

Category:American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent