There is a famous Mandela Effect that Ed McMahon delivered big checks on commercials to people in their houses for the Publisher’s Clearing House.
In reality, it turns out McMahon never did that for the Publisher’s Clearing House. Instead, it was for another organization: The American Family Publishers.
There has been a long running belief that there is no video or photographic evidence to show Ed delivering big checks to people, despite some saying they have memories to the contrary.
Even the Golden Girls has an episode where Rose gets a phone call and it is Ed McMahon on the other line ready to deliver a check from the Publisher’s Clearing House.
Well after all this time and searching, a clipping has finally been found and is online.
The photo is clearly McMahon with a big check for an individual named Leavitt Baker. It was an AP dispatch that ran in several newspapers that week in 1999..
The article reports about Baker, from Maine, striking it rich on the contest..
There was a quote in the article attributed from Baker saying he didn’t believe he struck it rich until he ‘saw Ed McMahon’ show up.
There is a quote also in the same article from Ed McMahon, who said he handed out more than $100 million to people who won the American Family Publishers sweepstakes.
It could certainly be reasonable to conclude that the American Family Publishers is close enough to the Publishers Clearinghouse that confusion could result..
All of this confusion could certainly be explainable.
Look at this commercial from the Publisher’s Clearing House in which SOMEONE is delivering big checks, and consider that your local newspaper at the time was showing Ed McMahon POSING with big checks for people (and you probably missed it was for a completely different organization at the time):
Despite what we say or think, you may still think that all of this is a big fat Mandela Effect. Nothing will change for some..
But Ed with a check in hand is a change for us. Just a tad.
It’s beginning to explain the Mandela memories just a bit more.