Trying To Find Evidence Of The Wendy's Jazz Cap

February 28, 2008 12:35 PM

I'm looking for a photo of a Wendy's Jazz Cap, or even just first-hand recollections of them. These were apparently some type of multicolored painter's cap sold at Wendy's establishments in the late 80's(possibly 1988ish). There seems to be no trace of their existence online. Phone calls to the Wendy's Customer Service hotline have come back with a "try eBay" response. A few good but ultimately fruitless tries to track one down can be found on the comments to my blog. Any information, photos, or recollections would be very much appreciated.
posted by extraface to society & culture (13 comments total)

Is it this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170197848568
posted by hal_c_on at 12:38 PM on February 28, 2008

No, one of my commenters found that too -- I think "Where's The Beef" was an 83-84 campaign. This would have been later, and other than the crazy 80's colors I'm not sure there was anything else written on them. But then again, I don't remember them first-hand so I'm going on hearsay.
posted by extraface at 12:43 PM on February 28, 2008

I don't know if this is authentic (not being a true connoisseur), but that is exactly what they looked like.
posted by iconomy at 12:51 PM on February 28, 2008

I seem to recall a bunch of hideous day-glo patterns (splatter-paint-ish? Hawaiian-shirt-inspired?) that made the McDonalds Big Mac painter's cap look stylish. Hmm. Okay, that's about all I remember. Fast-food promotions of twenty years ago might not be my strong suit.
posted by box at 12:52 PM on February 28, 2008

ico: while the printed pattern looks to be about what I remember, that cap appears to be a six-panel, baseball-style cap, rather than the sort-of-cylindrical painter's-cap fabric pattern.
posted by box at 12:54 PM on February 28, 2008

extraface: just a guess, but I'm thinking that '80s cap,' 'painters cap,' etc. would be more fruitful eBay search phrases than 'jazz cap.'
posted by box at 12:59 PM on February 28, 2008

Here's a recollection of them.
posted by cerebus19 at 12:59 PM on February 28, 2008

Another recollection.
posted by cerebus19 at 1:07 PM on February 28, 2008

We owned the whole set. Iconomy's image is perfect for the fabric, but they were in fact cut like a painter's cap. There was a hawaaian one in teals and pinks, a black and white and red (and green?) geometic one. Two others, one of them possibly orange, the other one I think primarily red with maybe palm frond accents? My brother and I were big fans of the caps and wore them proudly and completely without irony one full summer in either 1987 or 1988.

We have pictures, but I think they exploded from tackiness. Good times.
posted by mochapickle at 1:09 PM on February 28, 2008

A couple more mentions here (search for "jazz").
posted by cerebus19 at 1:10 PM on February 28, 2008

I worked in a daycare center for 6-8 year olds around that time, and, lemme tell you, Jazz caps were the ultimate accessory for that set. I know exactly what you're talking about, at least.
posted by MrMoonPie at 2:08 PM on February 28, 2008

Pretty sure I spent a summer of my youth at Girl Scout Camp in the black-teal-magenta hawaiian print Wendy's cap, while my little brother favored the red and white palm frond version. Pictures do apparently exist, and if one surfaces, I'll scan it for you. Good times, indeed.
posted by KatlaDragon at 10:09 PM on February 28, 2008

Update: This has been answered! I'm happy to report that one of my blog's readers sent in a photo of one.

Thanks to all of you for lending a hand.
posted by extraface at 6:55 AM on April 10, 2008