Ted Williams

By Chanel A. Ahmad, Matthias Phelps & Julius Wolf

Ted Williams was born on September, 22nd 1957 in Columbus, Ohio. He was adopted and never met his real parents. He first became interested in radio and being a DJ when he was 14. On a school trip to a radio station he discovered that a DJ, whom he listened to and still counts as the major inspiration to go into the radio business, who had a deep, smooth voice, was in fact a tiny and odd looking man. He realized that you don't need to be good looking to be on the radio. Ted Williams went on to become one of the major radio personalities in the 70's and 80's. “At the top of my game”, as Williams says, at age 26 his life turns for the worse. He is introduced to Crack and quickly becomes addicted. The first part of his life reads like the Californian dream, as all the promises of a rich easy life are laid out before him. Get rich quick, enjoy these riches and be someone. The second part is a play by play how to lose it all. Due to his addiction he loses his career, his family and later, in 1994, his house. The last 17 years Williams has lived in crack houses, slept in cars, he broke into, tents or just on the street. He went in and out of jail for theft, forgery and other misdemeanors and prostituted his girlfriend in order to satisfy his addiction. At last he was begging for spare change on the ramp of the I-72 in Columbus with a sign advertising his great voice.

We have chosen him as our topic, because his whole life is a perfect example for the making and the fall of a star close to Hollywood proportions. One specific incident in his life, we think, relates a great deal to the ideas we have when we speak of California or especially Hollywood. Though he never spent much time in Hollywood or even lived in California, you could assume upon hearing his story, that it took place there.

On the January, 3rd 2011 the Columbus Dispatch published an interview with Williams which overnight, went viral and made him famous again. The clip shows Dispatch reporter Doral Chenoweth approaching Williams in his car.  - “Work for your dollar” - And Williams does. He amazes the reporter with a perfectly conducted radio promo. A short interview with Williams explaining where it went wrong for him concludes the short video.

Within a week Williams's video is clicked over three million times and has been seen over 25 million times until today. Ted Williams, the crack addict, the homeless man with the “Golden Voice” is rediscovered. Two days after the video hit the internet he is offered a home and a voice over job by the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA basketball team. Kraft Food instantly made him their new voice in a TV commercial. A fundraiser website was set up to support him and he was interviewed by Today and The Early Show all within 5 days. A highly addicted homeless man is catapulted into the glamorous world of the show business again after 27 years. The public is ecstatic as Williams is hauled from one talk show to the next to tell his story.

On the 12th of January, only a week after the video he went to California and talked to Dr. Phil, admitting to drink heavily again. Since then Ted Williams has broken his sobriety twice and went back to rehab. He walked out on his first try on fighting his addiction in a rehab center in Texas. He went, following Dr. Phil's advice, but left after only eight days feeling that his problems were being used to make money by. The support stops. The embracing viewers turn on Williams as if he betrayed each of them personally. Every mood change and every slip up has been closely watched and met with instant condemnation. Although he services the public just by being the observable underdog, he is only tolerated as long as he is on someone's idea of right behavior. If the standards are not met he is likely  to be treated as the “Outcasts of Poker Flats” (Brett Harte).

Ted Williams is not the typical star. But he will be around as long as there is money to be made. In May 2012 the book „A Golden Voice: How Faith, Hard Work, and Humility Brought Me from the Streets to Salvation“ was released, which he has co-written. The book covers the bad years of his life. It is not far-fetched that a follow up about his rise from the ashes is yet to come. As long as there are people looking there will be stories like Ted Williams's. Even if the worship like interest for a person roots in a fluff piece of one minute and thirty-eight seconds, which sole purpose in the first place was to feed the vain concern in other people's misfortune.

For Ted Williams this could turn out great and a Hollywood like society could give him a life in wealth and fame after all. Or it could take it away and bring him to his knees again, just as easily.