R.I.P. Elwood Edwards, AOL's "You've Got Mail" voice
Elwood Edwards has died. A voice actor, radio announcer, advertising pitchman, and even, briefly, a weatherman, Edwards is most famous for exactly 13 words he recorded into a cassette deck at the dawn of the internet era—most notably, "You've got mail." As the voice performer for AOL's early voice interface, done for $200 in 1989 as a favor to his wife, Edwards' voice emerged from millions of computer speakers during the early years of online life. Per WKYC in Cleveland—where Edwards worked for many years as a graphics guy and jack of all trades—he died this week after a long illness. Edwards was 74.
According to The New York Times, Edwards got his start in local radio while still just a teenager, before branching out into TV, spending many years working in the industry. In 1989, his wife, Karen Edwards, was working at a company called Q-Link when she learned that CEO Steve Case was looking for someone to record voice files for the company's services, and she pitched her husband for the gig. Edwards recorded just four lines into a cassette deck: "Welcome," "You've got mail," "File's done," and "Goodbye." And thus was history made. (In later life, Edwards said his most-asked question about his strange claim to fame was whether he got any royalties for the work; no, in case you were curious.)
Still, it's the rare person who can lend his voice to an entire generation of evolving technology—or appear on The Tonight Show or The Simpsons for his association with the rise of online life. In later years, Edwards (who worked as an Uber driver after retiring from WKYC in 2016) also operated a small sideline where he'd record personalized versions of his famous lines. (They cost five bucks extra if you wanted them burnt onto a CD.) And despite that lack of royalties, he doesn't seem to have been bitter or unhappy about his strange role in the pop culture landscape of the late 20th century, telling documentary company Great Big Story that "Being associated with AOL has been gratifying," and expressing his delight at being able to greet the world every day.