Sound of Deceit

Over the telephone, as well as in the courtroom, alibis often tend to fall apart. A phone call to the wife pleading late work at the office, for example, is less than convincing with the noisy hilarity of a swinging singles bar audible in the background. Similarly, the hospital-visit-to-an-ailing-aunt ploy is apt to prove a dud with a boss whose receiver is also picking up the strains of a jukebox or the cries of a ballpark hot dog vendor. To prevent such pretexts from collapsing, help is finally at hand: alibi tapes.

Devised by a Manhattan recording production firm, Leisure Data, Inc., the tapes--available as cassettes or cartridges--supply the proper noisy backdrop for eight separate situations. The familiar noises of a traffic jam, the jet whines and flight announcements of a busy airport, the sounds of a crowded lobby, a phone booth at Grand Central Station or Macy's department store, an array of long-distance operators from major U.S. cities, a hospital or office milieu--the whole lot can be had for $16.95.

The idea that led to alibi tapes came to Leisure Data President Steve Lichtenstein when he saw the movie The Owl and the Pussycat. "George Segal had this tape of a barking dog," he remembers, "and I suddenly saw the possibilities. The whole country is paranoid, especially city apartment dwellers. So I got an attack dog and taped him trying to chew me up. It began selling 1,000 copies a week all over the country, just so people could switch it on when the doorbell rang." Soon Lichtenstein's out-of-work friends asked him to tape a selection of office background noise, the better to telephone for job interviews without betraying that they were at home and unemployed.

Alibi Cartridges. There are different reels for different deals. One businessman, according to Lichtenstein, established a reputation as a highly mobile go-getter and "destroyed his competitor by calling an account from five different cities in the space of one day." The wild-party tape has its advocates. "A guy wanted this girl to come over to his place," Lichtenstein fondly recalls. "She thought there was a party, but when she got there, there were only the two of them." A major liquor distiller has ordered 500 sets of alibi cartridges and tape players to be installed in bars throughout Manhattan for the coming Christmas season. Signs will offer them to customers, compliments of the company. The tapes will enable long-staying patrons to have one for the road while providing an alibi that is sound.

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