…and by that, I mean the stars recorded the messages, not that these messages appeared on stars' machines.
You may remember answering machine messages. Nowadays, it's unfashionable and downright geeky to have your voice mail say anything more than "Hi, I'm not in right now. Leave a message." It's insulting to the caller if you even say "wait for the beep" because everyone with a third of a brain in their heads knows you're supposed to wait for the beep.
But back when we all first got answering machines, we were all producing these elaborate, amusing outgoing messages to put on them. Cecil B. DeMille did not work as hard on some of his movies as acquaintances of mine did on their outgoing announcements…and frankly, some of what Mr. DeMille produced was not as entertaining. I wrote an intricate poem for my first machine, and I knew people who recorded songs or incorporated sound effects. Occasionally, professional recording studios were even involved. It was almost a sign of achievement to be able to say, "My friends just call to hear the message. They're disappointed if I'm home and I answer."
My current message is as bland and quick as can be…but back in the eighties, I had a series of messages recorded by the great voices of the cartoon business. Since I consider these some of their greatest performances, I'm going to share them with the world. Here's the first one…
