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Short Stuff: The Voice of God · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's sitting in for a date. So
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this is short stuff.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Hit it, Chuck in a world where two dufases podcast.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: That's my imitation everybody of Don Lafontaine, And this is
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: a bit of tribute to the man that was known
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: as the voice of God, Don Lafontaine, the movie trailer guy.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: That's right, that's exactly what a lot of people call him,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the movie trailer guy because he has to credit Chuck
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: this eye popping number. I'm gonna take this one, Okay, Yeah,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: let's hear it. Over the course of his career, he
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: recorded more than five thousand film trailers, oh man previews,
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: five thousand previews, seven and fifty thousand television spots like
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: commercials and promos and all that stuff.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: I bet Don Lafontaine when he passed away in two
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: thousand and eight, I think thousand and eight was a
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: very very rich man.
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: I would think so, I would think so. And good
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: for him, sure, I mean he did it with his
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: own hard work. I mean, by the end of his life,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: he was working basically till the end. Yeah, and by
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: the end of his life. He had built out a
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: home office and was averaging seven voiceovers a day, which
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: you if you don't do voiceovers, you're probably like, that
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: doesn't seem like that much. I'd knock that out in
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: like fifteen minutes. Yeah, no, you wouldn't, because it's actually
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: surprisingly difficult, and if you're actually working with the professional company,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: they will make you do that over and over and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: over again, and it is quite it's quite awful. I
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: don't recommend it. Yeahbody who doesn't love voiceover?
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we read our audiobook and it was not fun.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: And this is two guys who talked for a living
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: into a microphone and it was pretty painstaking.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the director was even great.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah. No, everyone did a great job. Everyone was awesome.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: It had nothing to do with that. It was just
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: very monotonous. It just wasn't for us. You know, we're
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: very off the cuff obviously the way we do our show,
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: and did not transfer over to like exact readings of things.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, like exact. It has to be exact
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: or you'll get yelled at all.
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Right, So Don Lafontaine was born in Duluth, Minnesota. He
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: served in the military and the well, he was in
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: the army because he was in the United States Army
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: Band and Chorus and worked as a recording engineer there,
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: and once he got out, he continued engineering at the
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: National Recording Studios in New York City, and in nineteen
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: sixty two he got hooked up with a producer radio
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: producer named Floyd Peterson, and Peterson just happened to be
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: working with Stanley the Great Stanley Kuper Come Doctor Strangelove
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: was creating these kind of radio promos and it was
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: like really successful. So he and Lafontaine hooked up and said,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: all right, we should like be like legit partners from
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: now on.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they did legitimize that. They formed Floyd L. Peterson, Inc.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And I think this is the impression I have is
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: that initially Don la Fontaine just kept doing his engineering thing.
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think so.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: It wasn't until nineteen sixty five, a few years into
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: their partnership that I guess there was some scheduling mix
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: up and a voiceover actor didn't show up on time
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: or for their slot, so Don la Fontan had to
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: step in and record some radio spots for the Gunfighters
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: of Casa Grande for MGM, and MGM said, brother, we
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: are just gonna buy this whole thing outright. This proof
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: of concept is done. You invented the plane with the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: seatback trays and everything right out of the gate.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're like, hey, you with a perfect voice, give
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: this a shot.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: Exactly.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: This is at a time when film production and promotion
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: were all kind of done in house, like you made
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: the movie and then you didn't go to a different
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: company to like cut the trailer or whatever. Like they
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: did it all themselves, right, And they were like, hey,
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: I think we can disrupt this tradition. And they I
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: don't know why that was funny. Why was that funny?
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: Disruptors disruption? It's just such like a twenty thirteen horrible
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Silicon Valley horror show.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I wasn't thinking of it in the terms of disruptors,
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: but they literally disrupted.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: But yeah, you're right, yeah, but no, no, I mean
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I wasn't laughing at you chose.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: No, No, I know you're laughing at people that used
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: were disruptors with a straight face.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and the disruptors themselves.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, sure, all right, so they were disruptors straight faced,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: and they said they kind of developed the modern movie
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: trailer as we know it together. It was you know
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: it was. It was a very creative time for them,
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: and they were the first to create these like catchphrases
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: that are now very ubiquitous across the trailer industry. And
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: you know this example, I think this came from the
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: New York Times Obituary or maybe sag aftra or Don
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Lafontaine dot com. But they listed some of these sort
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: of catchphrases that are now just all over the place,
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: like a one man army or nowhere to run, nowhere
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: to hide and no way out. But of course in
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: a world was the money slogan, and Lafontaine just kind
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: of crystallized it when he was like, it's just a
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: very rapid way to set the scene when you can
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: say in a world where where violence rules, like that
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: kind of says it all. And just a handful of
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: words about what kind of movie you're about.
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: To see, Yeah, because if a ninety minute movie is
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: ideal to have like a nice, steady, crisp clip, yeah,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a trailer has to be evening crisper, even at a
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: steadier clip. You have to be able to, yeah, surmise
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: a bunch of stuff from just a few words, and
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that was a I mean, that was a great innovation.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I saw basically everywhere that he's the one that came
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: up with that. He's certainly credited with. I get the
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: impression no Hollywood historian has actually gone to the trouble
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: of identifying that. Yes, he definitely was the one who
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: pioneered it. Everybody's like, yeah, it was Don la Fontaine.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah all right, Uh, nice caveat, And we'll be back
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: right after this with more on the Voice of God.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: As why why k.
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: All right? So in a world is the kind kind
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: of thing that has been parodied many, many times over
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: the years. Like once it became so ubiquitous, every comedian
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: latched onto it. They were in Geico commercials, The Simpsons
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: movie like used Don Lafontaine and at the end, like
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Homer was talking back to Don Lafontaine as the voice
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: of God and that was kind of fun. So obviously
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: that's the kind of thing that's going to be parodied.
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: But as far as his real career goes, we can
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: go back to nineteen seventy six when he started his
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: own production company, Don Lafontaine Associates, and his first assignment
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: Out of the Gate was Godfather Part two, and two
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: years later, Paramount Pictures said, hey, why don't you just
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: come work for us and run our trailer department.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and he said, katching, I'll be right there. Yes,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I always loved your mountain logo. Yeah, me too, that
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: that was such a great thing. At the beginning of
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: Raiders of the Lost, art dissolves from the Paramount logo
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: into the actual mountain.
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: I knew you're going to say that. I just Disclosure
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: Day the new Spielberg, and I highly recommend it.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: Okay, good. I saw back rooms in the theater twice
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: within three days. Oh wow, I really liked it a lot.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, did you see you twice just because
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: you wanted to? Or you're like, oh I got to
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: take you me back and see.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: This both of those?
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Okay, cool, Yeah, that's fine.
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so but yes, I recommend that as well. I'll
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: go see Disclosure Day. Yeah, you're the second group of
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: people who recommended it.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: I'm a group. You are amazing.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: That's how important you are.
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: All right. So he worked at Paramount for just a
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: few years. Left in eighty one moved to la which
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: is ironically where a Paramount is. And there was an
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: agent named Steve Tisherman who said, hey, you should really
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: like like he wasn't the voice of God, the voice
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: of God yet in nineteen eighty one he were like,
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: you should really just concentrate on this because you're so
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: good at it. Sure, and that was it. That's when
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: he really cemented his legacy as just the voiceover guy.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Real, quick question, Chuck, why does Steve Tisherman's name
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: sound familiar? I did not get a chance to look
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: him up, but I don't know. Is he like a
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: legendary agent?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: I have no idea. Actually it didn't ring familiar to me.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, it did for me for some reason, maybe you know.
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: But yes, don la Fontaine did become the king of voiceovers,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: the voice of God after about that time, starting in
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: the eighties, he became the like the in house I guess,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: voice for all four of the networks in America plus
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: the overlooked fifth one UPN.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: That's right, and TNT and TBS Cartoon Network. I mean,
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: you can hardly name a brand without you know, mentioning
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Donden Lafontaine having voiced for them.
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: You're not going to say all these brands that's funny.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: And then you know, he was sort of the in
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: show announcer for award shows for the Academy Awards at times,
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: and just you know, it was a heck of a career.
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: And I love it when someone can find a niche
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: like that and just like dominate it to that degree.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: It's really kind of fun.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: He definitely did dominate it, and not just dominate it,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: but also make fun of yourself too.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, he had a great sense of humor.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I feel like, Yeah, that Geico commercial, I went back
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and watched it, the one from two thousand and five. Yeah,
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: it is so cute. There's this real Geico customer telling
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: about like this story where they had to, like, you know,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: call Geico and you know, I guess make a claint
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: that's the word I'm looking for sure. And it was
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: just an average everyday story. So they hired Don la
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Fontaine to kind of movie it up, and so he
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: was translating what the woman was saying. It was very cute. Yeah.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: I bet he made some good scratch from them too.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: I hope. So, man, he definitely deserved it. And by
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: the way, if you are if you work in advertising
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: for Geico, you guys have been killing it for the
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: entire century so far.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I think they always put out a pretty fun spot.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Remember the Geico Caveman.
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: That's great.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Did you know that there was a short lived TV
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: show featuring them? Can't remember that.
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: He did it actually come out? I remember it was
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: a yeah, okay, yeah. I didn't know if they actually
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: made it to air, but I knew it. It was
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: a thing. It was rough, Yeah, I mean that probably
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: wasn't Some things are best leftist thirty minute or thirty
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: second ads, you know, right, like most things. Probably.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, America is very fickle, so this is well.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: I don't know if it's surprising or not, because he
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: kind of had that deep baritone. But he was an
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: on and off smoker for a lot of his life
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: and he had quit though for two solid decades. He
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: did the right thing before he was admitted to Cedar
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Sinai very sadly in two thousand and eight with the
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: pulmonary embolism. Was in critical condition the week after that,
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: and his family was like, let's pray for Dawn, Like
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: he needs to hear from everybody, And on September first,
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: two thousand and eight, he passed at the age of
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: sixty eight, ten days into his hospitalization, and he is
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: interned at the fantastic legendary Hollywood Forever Cemetery, which is great.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: Which we did a whole short stuff on itself.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, that's right.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Apparently his last final performance was in a Phineas
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: and ferb episode. I'm pretty sure, and I know it's
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: a cartoon. I'm pretty sure it's Nickelodeon cartoon. The episode
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: is the Chronicles of Meep if you want to go
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: hear him. His final line was in a World there
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: I said it happy. This is a great final line.
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: And they put a little short tribute to him at
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the end of the episode, so good for them.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I wonder if he has a star on the Hollywood
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Walk of Fame, because he totally should.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: If he doesn't, then the Walk of Fame needs to
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: get their act together.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I'm looking that up real quick because that was
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: something that I meant to look up earlier.
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Well, hold on, while you're looking that up, let me
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: mention there's a twenty thirteen movie written and directed by
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Lake Bell. Oh yeah, called a World, and it's about
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: like the voiceover World. I guess. Yeah.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, she's great.
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I haven't seen it. Have you seen it?
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: I have not seen that movie, but I'm a fan
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: of Blake Bell from Children's Hospital. Uh, And I've just learned.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: And of course I don't know if this is right
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: or not. The AI overviews are so bad it's hysterical.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: Sometimes let me just make something.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: Up because that says no. But then I'm seeing a
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: picture of him with a star, so maybe yes. Yesterday
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: I asked, uh, whatever the stupid assistant in my house is, uh,
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: because I wasn't sure if Ireland had made the World
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Cup this year? And I said Ireland in the World
• 13:41
  Speaker 2: Cup and it said no, Ireland is an Ireland.
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: God.
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: Wow, yeah, not a joke. Wow, pretty unbelievable.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: At least it acknowledge that Ireland exists.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it's making everything better.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Right sure? Yeah, but like by this all.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: Right, So I'll do some real research and see if
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: he has that star on the Walk of Fame and
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: I'll report back later.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because ironically, the AI assistant could be right because
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: another AI program created a fake picture of him on
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: with the star. Yeah, what a time to be alive.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: That's it. I guess short stuff's out right short Stuff's Out.
• 14:24
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• 14:27
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