Voice of Wildwood Boardwalk Sues to Bar Future Use of Iconic Recording
WILDWOOD – “Watch the tram car, please,” Floss Stingel said into a tape recorder in 1971. And the rest is history.
But the iconic Wildwoods saying may soon become a thing of the past, as a result of a suit Stingel filed earlier this week in Cape May County Superior Court, claiming she was never compensated for uttering the phrase.
In addition to unspecified compensatory damages and attorney fees, Stingel seeks injunctive relief, asking the court to order that her voice not be used to clear pedestrians from the boardwalk tram car’s path in the future without her authorization.
Stingel, the voice of the tram car, sued the City of Wildwood, the City of North Wildwood, the Wildwood Business Improvement District, the Wildwood Special Improvement District, St. George’s Shops and Morey’s Piers, charging misappropriation of likeness, unjust enrichment and violation of her right of publicity under a common law theory of liability.
An earlier version of the suit named the Wildwood Historical Society and the George F. Boyer Museum, but it was amended a day later to remove them as a defendant.
According to the amended complaint, filed Wednesday, Oct. 23, S.B. Ramagosa purchased in 1949 the electric-powered tram cars, which had debuted at the 1939 New York City World’s Fair. Stingel, who had experience doing commercial voice recordings, taped the tram car warning in 1971, at the request of her boyfriend at the time, who worked for the Ramagosa family.
The trams have traveled up and down the Wildwood boardwalk for 76 years, from North Wildwood to Wildwood’s border with Wildwood Crest, shuttling tourists to the various attractions along the span. According to the pleading, Stingel’s voice can be heard emanating from the trams an estimated 6,000 times per day.
St. George’s owns the Wildwood Gift Shop, which sells tram car “plushy” toys, according to the suit. The toys also reportedly include a button to activate Stingel’s recorded voice, though she claims she never authorized its use.
Representatives of St. George’s didn’t immediately respond to a reporter’s inquiry.
In 2007, the suit states, replica versions of the original 1939 trams were manufactured, but her often-imitated warning announcement remained at operators’ fingertips, with a button in the cab of the trackless shuttle activating her voice.
The Wildwood Special Improvement District and Wildwood Business Improvement District are private, nonprofit management corporations that oversee certain aspects of the business communities in North Wildwood and Wildwood, including tram car operations.
Patrick Rosenello, North Wildwood’s mayor and the executive director of those entities, declined to comment on the litigation.
“We have not been served with the lawsuit yet. Therefore, our attorneys have not had a chance to look at it,” Rosenello said in an email Thursday, Oct. 24.
In 2015, Rosenello took legal action against the operator of an Atlantic City tram car, on behalf of the Special Improvement District, which acquired the trams from the Ramagosa family in 2004, according to an article in The Press of Atlantic City, which Stingel cites in her brief.
Then, Rosenello reportedly said the Special Improvement District has “proprietary ownership of the recording,” equating its use in Atlantic City to “plagiarism.”
As a result of that legal posturing, the Atlantic City tram began to play a new, original recording.
Morey’s Piers is also a named defendant in Stingel’s suit, though the circumstances surrounding its alleged liability aren’t made clear in the complaint. A spokesperson for the organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The City of Wildwood, another defendant, declined to comment through a spokesperson.
The tram car provides about a half-million rides annually for a $5 fare, making about $2.5 million per year, according to the suit. Stingel complains she’s gotten nothing more than some free tickets for her part in it.
Emeka Igwe, a lawyer with an office in Philadelphia, filed the complaint on behalf of Stingel.
Contact the reporter, Shay Roddy, at sroddy@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 142.
