Jane Barbe, a Georgia actress and voice actress, became known as the “Time and Temperature Lady” for recording time, temperature, and weather for Audichron in 1963. She also did professional voice-over work and founded the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. She died in 2003.
Jane Barbe was a Georgia drama actress and voice actress who, while not at all known by looks, has one of the most infamous and widely heard voices of all time. Beginning a vocal recording career for the Audichron Company (now ETC) in 1963, Jane Barbe became known as the “Time and Temperature Lady” or simply “Telephone Lady”. Hers is the voice everyone in America has gotten used to hearing when dialing a number that has been disconnected, changed, or no longer in service.
Born in Florida in 1928, Jane Barbe grew up in Atlanta, Georgia and studied acting at the University of Georgia, where she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts. You recorded her first commercial while working as a copywriter. She began recording time, temperature and weather for Audichron in 1963 and also recorded outgoing messages for early voice mail systems. In the 1980s, Jane Barbe was the voice of recorded messages on telephone services in the United States.
Although she has had a Southern dialect of her own since growing up in Georgia, her study of theater and drama has allowed her to maintain a more generic dialect. She has also dubbed recordings used outside the United States. In addition to her work as a “phone lady,” Jane Barbe has also done professional voice-over work in radio and television. Barbe has also performed as a singer with the Buddy Morrow Orchestra, where she met her husband John. In 1988, she voiced Margaret Mitchell as the narrator in the documentary film The Making of a Legend: Gone with the Wind.
Jane Barbe also founded the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Though she was rarely known only face-to-face, people made an instant connection whenever they found out who she was. Married to John Barbe with two children, Jane Barbe died of complications from cancer in July 2003 at the age of 74.
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