Voice of AOL’s “You’ve Got Mail” Now an Uber Driver in Cleveland
If you’re old enough to recognize the cacophony of screeches and beeping noises that once signaled the start of your dial-up Internet connection, no doubt you also recognize the famous AOL sign-on greeting, “You’ve got mail!”
The phrase entered the popular lexicon during the 1990s, at one time being heard more than 35 million times a day, and even inspiring a so-so 1998 romcom starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan (and if you’d like another blast from the past, check out that movie’s still-active official website).
The man who originally recorded the iconic “You’ve got mail” (along with “Welcome,” “File’s done,” and “Goodbye”) was broadcaster Elwood Edwards, whose wife was working for the company that would eventually become America On-Line. In 1989, he recorded the four phrases that would become the voice of the early Internet, and was paid $200 for the gig.
Now, over 35 years later, it turns out that Edwards is still part of the gig economy. A viral video posted on Twitter shows that he’s currently working as an Uber driver in Cleveland, Ohio:
OMG OMG my @Uber driver in Ohio was the You’ve Got Mail voice Elwood Edwards!!! I made him say it in this video #GOTVforHRC pic.twitter.com/Jgcl7v040D
— Brandee Barker (@brandee) November 5, 2016
Brandee Barker, co-founder of tech PR firm the Pramana Collective, is currently in Cleveland canvassing the swing state of Ohio for Hillary Clinton. By a stroke of luck, the Uber driver she used to get around East Cleveland on November 5th turned out to be Elwood Edwards, the voice of AOL.
Barker doesn’t say in her tweet whether or not Elwood is #WithHer, or even if they discussed politics during the ride, but she certainly seemed excited by the chance encounter.
As Mark Twain once said, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. So by that logic, thirty years from now, someone will be campaigning in Columbus for President Chelsea Clinton, and they’ll be delighted to discover that their Lyft driver is none other than Susan “Siri” Bennett.
Actually, Lyft cars will definitely be self-driving by then. Hopefully Bennett asked Apple for more than $200…
Via: The AV Club
Patrick Grieve was born in Southwestern Ohio and has lived there all of his life, with the exception of a few years spent getting a Creative Writing degree in Southeastern Ohio. He loves to take road trips, sometimes to places as distant as Northeastern or even Northwestern Ohio. Patrick also enjoys old movies, shopping at thrift stores, going to ballgames, writing about those things, and watching Law & Order reruns. He just watches the original series, though, none of the spin-offs. And also only the ones they made before Jerry Orbach died. Season five was really the peak, in his opinion. See more articles by Patrick.