Cincinnati type-in & film report

Try your hand(s) at the typing competition. Can you beat Leigh's 14.2 net wpm?


The sounds of typing:

A typist's thoughts:



Then it was time for the movie:






The movie was a hit—everyone laughed, oohed and ahhed, and made the sounds you make when you recognize truths. Afterwards, there was an interesting discussion and we heard an excellent poem from one of WordPlay's young writers about the power of the pen.

The Super-G raised $100 for WordPlay. (You can donate too.)

What a great day!

PS: I really should have subtracted 5 wpm per error before dividing by minutes. The method used for this competition was really punitive!

PPS: Libby Hunter of WordPlay announced that over 5 years, my typewriter efforts have raised $30,000 for them. How about that!

Cincinnati type-in and film on November 5

There will be a silent auction for a Smith-Corona Super-G, with proceeds benefiting WordPlay. Starting at the type-in, continuing in the theater lobby. Winner will be announced before the film.

Berkeley, CA type-in on September 26

There's a type-in coming up at the real California Typewriter, in conjunction with the theatrical release of the film! Be there if you can, and please spread the word.

A mini type-in

Herb Permillion and Gigi Clark:

Herb checks out the Music Writer:

Ken had just the right ribbon spools:

Gigi's pink ABC and baby blue Cole-Steel:

Her 6-pitch Magnatype teaching Remington 5:

Ray Chavez checks out Gigi's Torpedo 18, her favorite for writing. (Ray was the photographer for the story; Angela Hill was the reporter. Here is the story.)

Some of the treasures at the shop:

Ken and Carmen recently had a table at a "fix-it fair." The typewriters they brought, including an early Royal 10, were a major attraction for visitors—especially kids—and other repair people, including the many who were offering to fix iPhones. This manifesto is perfect!

Detail of an unusual Quiet-Riter at the shop. The "Cr$" stands for Brazilian cruzeiros. (According to Wikipedia the symbol was used 1970-1986, but the typewriter dates from the '50s. Was it updated?)

Carmen Permillion, Herb Permillion, and Ken Alexander:

Typewriter shops of America: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California

I was inspired by Tony Mindling's account of his visit to Kehlet Business Machines to do something I've been idly wondering about: tour the typewriter repair shops of America.

No, I can't take a year off and visit them all in person, wonderful though that would be. (Can you imagine the typecast travelogues, interviews, and photos?)

The next best thing is to use our modern panopticon, Google Street View.

This will be a series of posts. Our first installment takes us to four states. I used the list of typewriter repair shops I've compiled over the years (based purely on information sent in by visitors to my website), and tried entering known street addresses into Google Maps. Sometimes I couldn't find the shop, it appeared to be closed, or the picture was too fuzzy to be sure. In many cases, it was a private residence; many older repairmen are doing odd jobs from their homes. I'm not showing any of those.

What we can see here is a collection of modest, independently-owned businesses that are persisting in keeping the typewriting world alive. Some, I know, are reaping deserved profits from having held out this long. Others, in places where the typewriter insurgency is in its infancy, are probably just scraping by. I encourage everyone to patronize your local typewriter repair shop, if you have one. You are bound to learn a lot and hear some wonderful stories.

The date of these images is usually provided in the lower left corner (often 2011). They are snapshots of an aspect of mechanographical Americana that I hope will survive for years to come.

You can enlarge each of these photos by clicking on them; the name of the image is the name of the shop, and you can get more information about the shop on my list.

Alabama

Alaska

Arizona

California

(see some old photos of Anderson's here)