Circa 1995, in the days when email and the internet was brand new in offices (and YOUTUBE was still years away) there was the first viral superstar - The Lunch Lady.Sharon Adl-Doost, a cafeteria worker at US Geological Survey in Reston, Virginia, decided to record the daily menu (with her thick southern accent). When the Survey suffered major lay-offs, she started to add songs to boost staff morale. Listening to the menu phone line became a novelty, bringing the Lunch Lady fans and fame all over the country.
The phone number was passed via email around offices from New York to San Francisco and people like Diana Ross, Bruce Willis, Ralph Lauren, Rosie O'Donnell and Donna Karan were calling. Office workers begin calling daily. "Instead of a coffee break, we have a Lunch Lady break," said one.
You can read the entire Lunch Lady saga here:
http://rosegeorge.com/site/one-of-a-kind-the-lunch-lady/
http://www.airservcorp.com/airserv/employees/lunch_lady.html
A documentary was filmed in 2000 called THE LUNCH LADY, A DOCUMENTARY.
She now has a website www.LunchLady.com and does a new daily menu recording (510-351-7654) for her Fan Club President's Convalescent Hospital in Sal Leandro, CA.
Lunchy actually works as a wheelchair passenger assistant at Dulles Airport.
5 comments:
PZ - do you remember back in the 90s (I was still living in NY) when I called her, and she gave me her home number? I would call her, and we'd have these interesting chats. One time, she was singing a Foo Fighters song, so I asked her about it and she told me her son was a fan. She would talk to anyone, really.
I remember y'all turning me on to her!! How fab that there's a doc about her! Life was all so simple then...
Wow. I never knew about that. I'll havet o check it out.
I just called the main number and the put me thru to her. She said, "Oh, hey hon ... wanna talk later?" And she gave me her number at home!
I remember when she associated with a thief named Lonnie. I believe she finally dumped him from her life. He was/is Bad News!!!
Post a Comment