The voice behind a well-known New Jersey tourist attraction has filed a lawsuit claiming she was never paid for the use of her voice after she recorded it on a whim for her boyfriend at the time.
Floss Stingel, 84, first recorded the phrase, "Watch the tram car, please," that is used on Wildwood's boardwalk in 1971 as a favor for her then-boyfriend, as reported by NJ.com.
"A man I was dating at the time worked for Ramagosa, who owned the tram cars. And I just spoke into a recorder and it's been used ever since," Stingel said during a news conference on Oct. 22.
In the more than 50 years since, Stingel said that she was never paid for the use of her voice, "except for occasional free tram tickets," the lawsuit stated, according to the Courier-Post.
The lawsuit filed Oct. 21 alleges that Stingel's voice is used more than 6,000 times in the summertime, and argues that the city, public entities and companies have commercially benefited from the recording, as reported by the Courier-Post.
"Every time an operator of the Wildwood Tram Car presses a button to warn pedestrians of the tram car, Ms. Stingel's voice recording plays," Emeka Igwe, Stingel's attorney, wrote in the complaint obtained by NJ.com. "Her voice can be heard on the boardwalk by people passing by and by locals living in the area when the wind blows her voice their way."
Igwe told WPVI-TV that Stingel previously tried to copyright the phrase in 2010, but because the recording was made prior to the Copyright Act of 1972, she was denied.
Over the years, Stingel has been recognized by the boardwalk and was featured at the tram service's 60th birthday, as reported by the Washington Post.
The lawsuit seeks a share of the money earned from the recording, which it estimates about $2.5 million annually as the train carries around 500,000 passengers every year.
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