Next time your best friend swears this really happened to his aunt, remind him that this story has been around since the 1970s.
Karen, a Midwestern housewife, took her first trip to Las Vegas last year. She had done very well playing the slot machines, winning a bucket full of quarters. Karen needed a break, and she left the casino heading toward the elevators, taking her bucket with her.
She steps into the elevator and before the doors shut, four beefy, leather-clad African-American men step in. Karen (never having spent much time with African Americans) clutches her bucket close to her body.
One of the men says, "Hit the floor, lady," and she does: quarters fly everywhere. The men bust up laughing and they help Karen collect her winnings. One of the men explains that he meant for her to select her floor. They help her collect her quarters and the elevator arrives at her floor. She leaves embarrassed, and the men are still laughing.
Later that evening, a dozen roses are delivered to Karen's room. There is a one hundred dollar bill attached to each rose. The note attached read:
Thank you for the best laugh I've had in years!
Eddie Murphy
Variations:
- Black male celebrities this legend has been told about include: Eddie Murphy, Reggie Jackson, Lionel Richie, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, O.J. Simpson, Mean Joe Greene, Michael Jackson, Jesse Jackson, Lionel Hampton, Jackie Robinson, and Michael Jordan.
- The action happens in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, or New York City.
- Sometimes the black man is alone in the elevator with the frightened woman, but in other tellings he is accompanied by a black male companion or a couple of bodyguards. In a number of these tales, he shows up with an uncontrollable dog whose name we later find out is Lady.
- When the doors don't close quickly enough to suit him, the man gruffly commands the woman to "hit four" (his floor, presumably), an instruction she hears as "hit the floor." Or he tells her to "hit the floor," meaning "press the button for the floor you want." Or in the versions where a dog is present, he commands the excited animal to "Sit, Lady!," an instruction the frightened woman immediately complies with.
- The terrified woman is rewarded by a bouquet of roses delivered to her room the next day. Upon examination of them, she finds a $100 bill wrapped around each stem. Or when she goes to check out she discovers her hotel bill has been taken care of.