In one of the first American viral videos of 2011, Ted Williams, a homeless man, is taped while begging for money with a rich, baritone radio voice. The fifty-three year old former radio announcer came upon unfortunate times as a result of drugs and alcohol. The Columbus Dispatch Newspaper posted the video on Monday, and it spread like wildfire. By Thursday, Williams was featured on morning news programs including The Today Show, on which he discussed new voice-over job offers with the Cleveland Cavaliers, as well as his unbelievably sudden rise to fame.
“I feel like Susan Boyle,” he said, “or Justin Bieber.” He went on to say that the attention is “outrageous. It’s just phenomenal. There is no way in the world that I could ever have imagined… all of this.” He shared that he had become known among drivers in Columbus, and they would drive by just to hear his “God-given gift of voice.” When asked about treatment of the homeless he simply said “don’t judge a book by its cover, everybody has their own little story.”