Newspaper piece on collecting typewriters

Automatic Washer - The world's coolest Washing Machines, Dryers and Dishwashers

Help Support :

lordkenmore

lordkenmore

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 13, 2009
Messages
4,069
Location
The Laundry Room
I found this local newspaper piece on typewriter collecting interesting.

 

Quote:

 

I had no intention of becoming a typewriter collector. None. Yes I wanted one, but collecting them? That’s crazy. The portable models are 10-15 pounds, desktops over 30—who collects something like that?

 

Another quote:

 

In less than three months I had gone from laughing at crazy typewriter collectors to being one, and I had to ask myself why.

Read more here: https://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/editorials/article214843540.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/editorials/article214843540.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: https://www.thenewstribune.com/opinion/editorials/article214843540.html#storylink=cpy

 

 
I'm of the age (50) where I remember typewriters going out and PCs and word processors coming in.

 

I got a dot-matrix printer for my Atari 800 in 1983.  It wasn't great quality but I did all my school papers on it.  We still took a typing class in high-school (on IBM Selectric models with the rotating element.)  But at the same time, the school was just starting to offer word processing classes on the first IBM PCs with WordStar software.  (Forget that WYSIWYG nonsense, it was control-characters all the way.)

 

We also had a typewriter in the house, an Olivetti model.  I just looked it up, I had no idea it was from the late 1960s.  My mother must have gotten it used from someone, there's no way we would have had a new one that nice.  I remember using it to type labels for diskettes and cassette tapes when I wanted them to look neat.  It struck me as a quiet, high-quality machine.

 

I still keep a small mono laser printer ready to go, although it get used less and less these days.  Once every couple months if it's lucky.

 

iowabear-2018071720475700724_1.jpg
 
 
We had a few typewriters that I can recall but the details are hazy.  I think there was a Remington that dad may have gotten from home.  It may be the one I saw at my aunt's house recently when she asked me to change the ribbon on a SC (she has three typewriters in her office room, one is a more modern "word processor" type of unit).

I recall dad buying one at a parish picnic auction many years ago, maybe a Royal?

He bought an Adler manual when I took typing in HS.  Not sure if they still have it.

I had two years of typing in HS.  Placed either 1st or 3rd (sad that I don't recall, LOL) at UIL district, then not so well at the regional meet.  Used a Selectric for competition.

I had both the Atari 1025 dot-matrix printer and the 1027 letter-quality model (which was very slow and clunky).  The 1025 was also slow in that it was uni-directional.
 
I was a teenager in the 80s. I first encountered word processing in 8th grade, and I was interested in reading an article about how to get started with word processing for $500 IIRC (using a Commodore C64 as an example) when I was in 11th grade. I was able to use an Apple IIe at school to word process stuff starting in 12th grade. But I was stuck with typewriters at home. My parents had a Smith-Corona electric (bought new in the 70s), but, by 10th grade, I'd acquired a couple of manual typewriters at yard sales (a Jessica Fletcher-style Royal and an even older Underwood).

 

Then I got my first computer...and pretty much lost interest in anything but word processing...

 
 
I remember using it to type labels for diskettes and cassette tapes when I wanted them to look neat.

 

I also remember liking the neatness of a typewritten label.


 

I still keep a small mono laser printer ready to go, although it get used less and less these days.

 

I mostly use a cheap, ancient Canon inkjet at the moment that must be 20+ years old... Most printing isn't that important. I sometimes use an old Apple LaserWriter (early/mid 1990s IIRC)...but I only use it when quality matters. I only have cables to support it on an older Macintosh. It's a pain printing--partly because the file needs to be moved over on a floppy disk, and partly because the files need to a format that works for an old OS running on old hardware.

 
 
I’ve owned many typewriters over the years, beginning with the Underwood #5 that my aunt, who was a HS typing teacher, gave me for my 11th birthday. From as early as I can remember I loved typewriters. My father was an attorney, and every Saturday he would take one of us kids with him to his office while he caught up on work. We were given free reign and could play with all the office machines. It was great fun.

I was given a new Royal Safari portable for my 13th birthday, but it was nowhere as good a typewriter as the old Underwood.

I haven’t owned a typewriter now since 2005, when I got rid of an Underwood Portable that was about a 1950-51 model.

I have to admit, using the computer has spoiled me! If I make and error, the correction is SO MUCH easier! Back when I took typing in 1966 we only had erasers, and it was a real hassle. Then we got white out, and next the corrrection tape, which was really a boon!

I was still using carbon paper until about 2003 when we got our first iMac and a Canon printer. I’ll bet most people now wouldn’t even know what to do with carbon paper! Or that cc, stands for “carbon copy”,LOL. I told a young women this once, and her eyes got so wide as she said, “really!”

Back in the old days, before computers, and even photo copiers, a good typist was worth their weight in gold. It wasn’t uncommon for a pool typist to have to make 5 carbon copies at a time. You damn well had better have been very accurate, because making a correction to an original and 5 cc’s with an eraser was an onerous process!

My Mom worked for a country doctor in the 60’s after my Dad died. She was his office and clerical assistant. The doctor dictated his patient notes on a dictaphone and Mom would sit at the typewriter, first an Adler manual, and later one of the first IBM Selectrics, wearing headphones with her cigerette in the ashtray next to the typewriter and transcribe all the days patient notes. She was very fast and efficient. She did this, ran the front office, answered the phone, assisted the doctor with minor procedures, took the xrays and did the ekg’s, kind of a “Jackie of all trades”. I was very proud of her, she had a great work ethic, never missed a day of work, and loved what she did.

Eddie
 
I have to admit, using the computer has spoiled me! If I make and error, the correction is SO MUCH easier!

 

I know that feeling...

 

When I got my first computer, I thought I'd continue using the typewriter for some things. I suppose I did...but those some things ended up being trivial (e.g., typing the address on an envelope). The convenience of word processing quickly spoiled me, even for very short/non-critical writing.

 

I even have to wonder if I could even use a typewriter (as I once did) to write something from scratch (apart from things like envelopes). I'm so used to being able to quickly edit/change.

 

Back when I took typing in 1966 we only had erasers, and it was a real hassle. Then we got white out, and next the corrrection tape, which was really a boon!

 

I remember my HS typing teacher claiming that erasers were the only correct way of fixing mistakes. This was in the 1980s. I got an eraser...but quickly got lured over to the dark side of correction strips, which were so much easier.


 

My parents loved Liquid Paper, but one problem with the stuff was that it could end up on the typewriter itself if one wasn't careful 100% of the time.

 

You damn well had better have been very accurate, because making a correction to an original and 5 cc’s with an eraser was an onerous process!

 

Or worse yet there were times when apparently mistakes were unacceptable. I was told of a situation where a dissertation needed to be 100% perfect--and if there were typos, the page had to be completely retyped from scratch.
 
I have about 30 typewriters.. They've become quite collectible and prices have skyrocketed online and in antique stores but there are still plenty of decent machines to be had for next to nothing or really cheap. This Tom Hanks movie documentary sort of started it all . He's a typewriter collector .



californiatypewritermovie.com

California Typewriter Documentary

The official website of the California Typewriter feature documentary. See the trailer, read the synopsis, and see stills from the film.
californiatypewritermovie.com californiatypewritermovie.com

petek-2018071800100405666_1.jpg

petek-2018071800100405666_2.jpg
 
I've picked up a few typewriters over the past few years.  One was a barely used Corona portable from about 1940, found at the Salvation Army for $10 before prices for these machines began to spike.  I gave that one to a friend who actually uses it.

 

Then I found a nice Smith Corona portable that typed in script.  I had an aunt who typed all of her recipes on cards in script.  That one was cheap too, so I grabbed it.

 

I stopped after I brought an Olivetti home.  It's a low use portable, but it's big.  It includes a soft pad to place under it, two covers, and a cleaning/tool kit.  Its case is a lot bigger than the SCM that sits next to it.  I was hoping it would have the big schoolbook type in pica, but alas, it's elite, with some sort of pedestrian "courier" type.   Regardless, I agree with Jim that Olivetti put out some quality machines.

 

I brought both of those machines with me in our recent move.  Why I don't know.  I'm so spoiled by a keyboard that I'd never go back to typing.  Just the key travel on a manual typewriter is enough to make one tired, and I don't think they even make erasable bond typing paper anymore.
 
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Like to find a home for my Smith Corona memory-correcting electric.  Shoot, I don't even own a printer and for the most part don't miss it, so never use the S-C again. </span>

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> </span>

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Shame, not so much as a scuff on it except one case handle let go.  No sign of wear, not even dusty, whole life in the case.  Not sure who I'd trust to pack & ship it.  Weighs around 40#.</span>
 
I learnt to type in school but with Mavis Beacon on a classic Mac.

The only typewriter I’ve ever seen in actual use was in a doctor’s office and not all that many years ago.
It was one of those big old electric IBM machines - an old secretary taking dictation on peddle operated dictaphone - half moon glasses, typing away at huge speed and pausing every so often when a patient approached her window to give them that kind of upidy, glaring response that only medical administrators know how to do!
 
I love the sound of an IBM Selectric.  It was on a Selectric that I was introduced to the crisp copy of  disposable ribbons that a cloth ribbon could never achieve, and you can't beat the versatility of being able to change the typeface.  If I ever come across a correcting model in working order, I might grab it.  Much as I like the compact size of the early models, correcting would be a must.  I'm too spoiled by keyboarding to type with any level of accuracy anymore.

 

The last thing I ever used a typewriter for (a tiny Brother portable from the early '70s) was jukebox title strips.  I had to get perforated sheets of strips from Tower Records in San Francisco, and when I was down to the last strip, it was nearly impossible to keep it properly aligned to type on.  Some typewritten strips survive in my Rock-Ola, but these days I can pull up a web page, enter the title and artist, then hit "print" and I'm done.

 
When I was a kid we had an old Underwood from the 40's that my mom had got from someplace she worked - I'm thinking the phone co. in MS. We had it until around 1991 when we sold it.

I got a SCM Smith-Corona manual portable for Christmas - I think it was '71. I still have it at storage.

For Christmas of '94, my parents bought me a Smith-Corona word processor, which was the last present I got from my mom, as she passed away the next May. I also have it in storage.

I took 2 years of typing in HS - had an excellent teacher for the first, and a terrible one for the second. Good thing I learned a lot from the first!
 
I have an old Smith-Corona portable in the attic and took 2 years of typing in high school. Problem with newspapers now, since I worked for one for 25 years, is most got their paper now from Canadian mills, since all the US ones have closed. There is one newsprint tariff free in Washington still operating. But almost all of the dozens of paper mills in this state are gone. I remember every reporter banging out a story to be printed on cut up newsprint on their typewriter.
 
I just looked and found some ads for that typewriter from 1973.  $170 to $180.  Would be like $1000 today!

 

Darn nice gift I would say and awesome that you still have it.
 

Similar threads

S
Creda 37405 tumble dryer timer; strip, clean, and working again.
Replies
0
Views
6
slpj
S
chachp
Roasting Coffee Beans
Replies
9
Views
10
rp2813
rp2813
richardc1983
Fisher & Paykel DH9060FS1 9Kg Heat Pump Tumble Dryer Review: Truly innovative technology
2
Replies
25
Views
43
lavamat_jon
L
maranoman
Maytag Wringer Model 60 vs Model 90
Replies
7
Views
8
maranoman
maranoman
P
The Neptunes & Me
2
Replies
20
Views
21
iowabear
I

Latest posts

Back
Top