In this documentary-style video, Joe muses on why and how he came to be a typewriter guy, and what it took to come to terms with them in peaceful coexistence.
Beautiful! Just beautiful and sincere and from the heart.. beautifully filmed in black and white. And answers for me some deep questions I have been trying to understand myself.. just comes for me at the right time. Thank you so much!!
Both aspirational & inspirational. The introspective clarity seems like the key characteristic among those who invest so sincerely in their obsession's soul. He is the happiest who loves his work and work is love made visible. Mike Kirwan - Kenmore, WA
Typewriter collecting is just like classic car collecting, they're beutiful machines that can still easily function yet most are not fully practical in today's modern society, yet they are still highly appreciated by few.
Thanks. Nice video. At the risk of poising you at the edge of another rabbit hole, you seem to me to be the kind of guy who might enjoy ham radio. Enough said. Thinking of getting back into it myself.
One of the best things about typewriters vs. computers? With MANUAL machines especially, your work will never be accidentally "erased" or disappear mysteriously forever into "cyberspace". You can walk away, leaving your page of typing paper in the machine, unattended, and it'll be faithfully waiting for you to continue your ruminations anytime you return to it.
The way I discovered typewriters is I was looking on the the internet and found a picture of an underwood typewriter and I fell in love. I am 11 and have 8 of them.
Your story and my story are very similar, except I'm more an upright (bigley) guy. I find upright manual typing superior in feel and quality. That first machine you described, a Royal FP, is one such superior typewriter. I got into typewriters mainly to have something to fix up and repair more than to write and compose. The closest to the latter even today I've gotten was and is writing letters. I have used them in schoolwork and work at several jobs. I have used typewriters as a claim to fame. In my town I am, yes. Internationally, I am not. While I have made some friends abroad, I have encountered a few individuals who believe they are better than you simply because you're an American and they're not. There was a certain forum I joined where I both made friends and got my ears pinned back, with a jarring kick in the teeth that I was NOT the typewriter guru I thought I was. And, thinking about it, maybe they were right in their disgust at me. Because in all reality, all I ever was was only a nearly forty-year hobbyist who was working with the more popular end of typewriters available in Central Texas, and not the machines they considered closer to finery. It maybe so. But I do have some pretty impressive pieces I have gathered over the years. And this frump of an old fool managed to get himself on television three times in the 1990s for his efforts in typewriters and their repair, despite having no formal training and only the advice of some of the old maestros of days gone by. In fact, I have part of one such maestro's sign nailed proudly up in my bedroom. It's a red and white beauty I always looked forward to seeing each time I went to his shop. That was twenty-five years ago just before he retired and passed on. That is where I felt a torch had been passed down to me. I would much rather see myself this way rather than as some dumpy Americanski who dared do it his way and got slapped in the face for his trouble.
I feel like I collect typewriters because they're art. They're stylish painted cool-ly crafted devices with bodies that have attention to detail just like a car. I also write a lot so it's beyond art because you can't use a painting or a piece of music for anything beyond enjoying it for itself.
Did anyone else get the feeling like this was some sort of intervention? I mean I liked the way he did it. It just felt like one to me for some reason. However, I have two typewriters.
Computers are "dumbing" us down! THEY do the spelling and grammar checks for us now automatically which WE used to have to remember or "look up" in our paper based, bound, desktop reference books and encyclopedias.
Hey Joe, Some of my favorite movies featuring typewriters are: "THE FRONT PAGE" aka "HIS GIRL FRIDAY"... "All The President's Men"... "You've Got Mail" Do you agree or have any others I didn't mention? Sincerely, John PS: Please KEEP doing these reports. (ie. If there's anything left you haven't covered about them?) There are other "clickety-clack" enthusiasts out there but NOBODY else does their reports as well as you do! They certainly DON'T explain the mechanisms with the engineering angle that YOU do.####
Au Populaire is a French-made film about typewriter speed contests, it's a fun film. The more recent film starring Tom Hanks that covers another angle of the Watergate situation also features Washington Post newsroom typewriters. I'm sure there are other films I'm forgetting.
Thanks for sharing this Joe, great insight. I particularly enjoyed where you addressed the issue of "typing speed" and choke point b/w your ears - brilliant - speed does not equate with quality. Things worth doing are worth doing 'slowly'.
I HATE to retype! The one advantage that the computers and word processors have over ALL typewriters is their ability to NEATLY edit your work as you go on what amounts to the finished, polished product. Nobody looking at it will know how much sweat and blood you put into it using the electronic/digital tool. Where as EVERYBODY can see a waste basket next to the desk overflowing with your crumpled, discarded drafts.
Huh, almost exactly 30 years since that warehouse beside the train tracks, and haven't seen M&M since they had a vintage shop in Tempe 20 years ago. I think they eventually moved to NYC. seems an unlikely prospect. (:
