Good evening, ladies and gents. Today’s sermon is for those who are newly inducted into the exciting world of collecting and admiring the writing machines of the past century. A bold journey awaits you, hidden on dusty shelves in thrift and antique stores, baking in the hot sun on rickety card tables at garage sales, […]
Drago, the 1920 Underwood #5
Speaking of new blogs being discovered, here’s one that’s a couple years old, but the guy has a lotta machines: John E. Simmons, who offers Underwood manuals online: Underwood Repair Manual (1920) Underwood Standard (1930 – #3, 4 and 5) He also offers a bunch more manuals and documentation.
1920 Underwood #5?
Ok, well, I *think* it’s a #5, but as the machine has a fairly thick coat of paint applied over the original labels and I know diddly jack about old Underwoods, it’s at best a semi-educated guess. I found this machine at a yard sale this morning, carriage frozen almost solid, tab key jammed into […]
Spreading the Word…
Adventures with Ollie 21
I’ve got the Olivetti 21 cleaned up and ready to trade/sell, and yesterday I dropped by Mesa Typewriter Exchange to see if Bill would swap me the old Hermes Ambassador that he has collecting dust on his back shelf for it. No dice on that one – as soon as we pulled the Hermes off […]
Olivetti 21 *NAKED*, and appeal for help from the Typosphere…
It may sound like I’m pushing typewriter porn, but this post is really just an appeal for help. You see, I took the cover off of this Studio 21 to clean a small bit of gunk off of the escapement that was causing the tabulator function to not be able to zippily move from one […]
Olivetti-Underwood Studio 21
It’s hard to believe my luck sometimes. After months and months of coming up dry on my thrift store runs, the past couple of weeks have been like Moses striking the stone and having a steady stream pour forth. Lately, I’ve been only hitting the most convenient Goodwill every three or four days – the […]
Phoenix Typewriter Round-Up and a Wedding…
What a whirlwind of a Saturday! I woke up Saturday morning with a burning desire to discover the true identity of the Clark Nova from “Naked Lunch”, for some utterly pointless reason – it had just been bothering me for weeks and I had to know. Well, OK. So I load up the film in […]
The Typewriters of Naked Lunch
There’s been some uncertainty about what typewriters were used in the movie “Naked Lunch” by David Cronenberg. I’ve remembered them as a Smith-Corona Super-5 body from the 50’s (Bill Lee’s Clark Nova), a 60’s Olivetti Lettera 22 (Tom Frost’s Martinelli) and an Oliver (Tom Frost’s Mujahideen arabic machine). Recently I got into a conversation over […]
Type-in and wedding tomorrow!
Time is a mover, she never slows down…
Letterhead of the Apocalypse
The First of March Twenty-Eleven
Typecast from the newly rediscovered Remmie Model 1, Whose name is now Kipling, and who sports a new ribbon.
1938 Remington-Rand Model 1
Is it possible to totally and completely forget that you own a particular typewriter? Apparently you can, if you bought it long enough ago and have enough others to occupy your attention. I totally forgot I owned this 1938 Remington-Rand Model 1, and just found it today whilst cleaning out a closet. It was a […]
Typewriters Under Glass…
Nifty! I found a place to display the typewriters from my collection which are not in my current typing rotation at home. The 9 machines that I was keeping stored at the office are now on display in the reception area. From top left to bottom right they are: “Blair” (Olympia Socialite), “Indy” (Tower Skyriter), […]
Promises, promises…
Wherein I show off some of my old handcrafted stationery and make vague promises to write real letters to more people. What looks like a sickly bluish color in this scan is actually metallic silver. It looks sort of trippy in real life.
1968 Olympia SM 9 Deluxe
Wow, it must be Olympia week at Goodwill! After my great find of the 1966 SM-9 yesterday, I hit up the other two Goodwill stores today, and lo and behold, I find another Oly SM-9, this time a 1968 model, for $9. Sadly, the case was missing, so I at first passed it up. Later, […]
Doris Day, the 1966 Olympia SM 9 De Luxe
Some strange force compelled me to stop by the local Goodwill store yesterday after work, a force that whispered insistently “There’ll be a nice, shiny black Voss waiting for you, i guarantee it!” (This voice has popped up regularly since I saw the pics of Duffy Moon’s beautiful Voss). Well, the voice lied, sorta. There […]
To Type, Shoot Straight, and Speak the Truth…
I was thinking up names for this blog and I think I have one I like. It’s the title of this post! It’s inspired, of course by the title of Jeff Cooper‘s “To Ride, Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth“, which was one of his best books and required reading around the ranchito. I don’t […]
Einstein, the 1955 Smith-Corona Silent
Found at a Goodwill store many years ago for $10, this Silent served as my “loaner” typewriter for quite some time. I’d loan him out to certain friends as incentive to get them to write. Sometimes it works and I never see that typewriter again because the recipient falls in love with the machine and […]
Easy, the 1964 Hermes 3000
I had not bought a typewriter in 5 years when the bug bit me again. I was happy with my Royal and Remington, plus a couple of Smith Coronas to lend out to people who saw my typers and wanted to try out the typewriter thing. But I’ve seen Naked Lunch, and I know perfectly […]
Nick Charles, the 1956 Empire Aristocrat
Picked up on Ebay for $19.60 plus shipping, “Nick Charles” was a bargain next to what Hermes Rockets are going for, and it’s pretty much the same machine. Produced by British Typewriters, Ltd. in Bromwich, England, the Aristocrat was made under a license from Hermes and seems to differ from the Rocket/Baby only in color: […]
Boswell, the 1956 Smith-Corona Skyriter
Found on Ebay for about $17 plus shipping, “Boswell” has become my go-to typewriter for addressing envelopes. He’s always next to my desk (or on it) when I need to address an envelope, and envelopes seem to feed well in him, so He usually gets the job when it comes up. He’s also a smooth […]
Indiana Jones, the 1957 Tower Skyriter
Picked up on Ebay for 32 cents plus shipping, “Indy” proved to be a good project machine. He works fine for the most part, but has a lot of small issues related to his previous life as a pre-teen girl’s adventure companion around 1984. Prior to that adventurous time (evidence suggests she had a long-haired […]