Just As I Thought

The person you have reached is no longer in service. Please make a note of it.

Meanwhile, while the country is being blitzed by the non-stop coverage of the strangely unexpected death of 100-year-old, ill-health icon Bob Hope; there’s another sad death of a ubiquitous voice: Jane Barbe. Barbe is the woman who’s voice you’ve heard for decades when you dial a disconnected number; get stuck in voice mail hell, or call information.

Barbe was the queen of telephone recordings, whose voice was heard an estimated 40 million times a day in the 1980s and early 1990s on everything from automated time and weather messages to hotel wake-up calls.

She was heard on 90 percent of “intercept messages” – the recording played when something is wrong with a phone number – and 60 percent of automated time and temperature calling programs.

During her unusual 40-year career she articulated immortal lines, including, “I’m sorry, the number you have dialed is no longer in service” and “Please press 1 for more options.”

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