A call distributor for use with a plurality of telephone lines is described which includes an automatic telephone answering machine which interrogates the calling party with a prerecorded message and transmits the calling party's response to this message to a recorder. The recorded response is then replayed to an operator who intercepts the call in order to converse with the calling party after auditing the recorded response. The call distributor of this invention thereby combines the flexibility of an operator assisted call distributor with the efficiency of automatic interrogation of the calling party.