Back in 2006, a man working in a talent agency got a phone call from someone claiming to be Steve Jobs, and he hung up on him, assuming it was a prank.
It took another phone call and a caller ID check for him to believe it was really the Apple CEO on the phone.
According to Jobs' assistant, this kind of thing happened a lot.
And think about it, if you got a phone call from Jobs in '06, wouldn't you be a little skeptical?
This man's story is part of an amazing thread on Quora, the question-and-answer site, for people to tell stories of the times they "randomly" met Steve Jobs. We've picked out a few of our favorites in the past, but this one was posted recently (hat-tip to The Loop where we first spotted it).
The full post by Matt Rosen is worth a read:
This story comes via a friend who's not on Quora. Certain names withheld.
Let's call it... "That Time My Friend Hung Up On Steve Jobs. Twice."In 2006, my friend was working as an assistant to a very high profile agent at one of the big talent agencies in Los Angeles (Think: Lloyd from "Entourage"). Among the myriad of tasks he performed for his boss, his role as "gatekeeper" on the phone was perhaps the most valuable. You can imagine how many aspiring actors, writers, and other assorted charlatans would try to get his boss's ear on a daily basis. It was my friend's job to deflect the BS calls and make sure only those with important business matters to discuss would get through.
One day, the phone rings and the voice on the other line says "Hi. This is Steve Jobs calling for [agent]."
My friend: "Yeah right, pal. Good try." And hangs up.
The phone rings again.
Voice: "Hi. It's really Steve. Can I please talk to [agent]? I have an important matter to discuss."
My friend: "Seriously, dude. Don't call back again." Click.
The phone rings a third time.
Voice: "Hi. I know you don't believe me, but hang up, look at your Caller ID, do a reverse lookup of the number, and you'll see that it's from Apple. Call that number back and ask my assistant for me."
And he hangs up.
My friend looks up the number and, sure enough, it was a line at Apple. He calls the number back, Steve's assistant answers and says "This happens a lot. He'll be right on."
The reason for the call:
My friend's boss ran the talent division, and Justin Long was one of the agency's clients. The first batch of Mac vs. PC ads, starring Long and John Hodgman, were wildly successful, and Apple wanted to shoot another batch. At the time, Justin was working on a film, so he or his agent had told the creatives working on the campaign that he was unavailable to shoot more. Steve was calling to ask if there was anything my friend's boss could do.
They ended up working something out.And my friend ended up with a great anecdote about the time he hung up on Steve Jobs.
Twice.
