ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association No. 120 • Spring 2018

In This Issue

Editor’s Notes 2 Fiction by Typewriter 3 The Tale of the Erika 7 Typewriters at the Exposition 8 Collectors’ Corner 16 The Shooting of Dewayne Cantrell 18 New on the Shelf 21 Around the World 24 Letters 24

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 1 ETCetera Journal of the Early Typewriter Collectors’ Association Editor’s No. 120 • Spring 2018 Notes Editor Richard Polt peter weil has been one of the most 4745 Winton Rd. dedicated and erudite contributors to Cincinnati, OH 45232 USA this magazine for the last dozen years— 513.591.1226 and many of us have noticed the thanks [email protected] that he so often gave to his wife, Corne- lia “Corny” Weil, for her editorial help Secretary-Treasurer with his “Ephemera” columns and other Herman Price articles. I am sad to report that Corny passed away on January 24. Board of Directors Peter writes, “Corny was my in- Bert Kerschbaumer house editor for as long as she was able Robert Messenger to read and function as an editor, which Richard Polt is around 51-52 years of our 55-year Cornelia “Corny” Weil Peter Weil marriage. She went over about 37 of the Reinmar Wochinz 46 ‘Ephemera’ columns I have written (including part 3 of the world’s fairs Design series) and three of six other articles Nick Tauriainen I have done for our magazine. Thus, she made a significant contribution to Translation my work for ETCetera and thus to any German: Lars Borrmann and quality it had. Moreover, she sat with Norbert Schwarz me patiently while I researched and Spanish: Luis Galiano worked on the drafts of much of the material, responding to my exclama- Proofreading tions and comments and, at times, mak- Whitney Carnahan ing suggestions about different angles on the subjects. She always looked for- etconline.org ward to the arrival of the actual printed Bob Nelson magazine, exclaiming on its beauty ETCetera welcomes submissions that here, what she would have done differ- shed new light on typewriter history, ently about layout there. She loved the toon, “Orberts Typo’s,” in a few issues. based on original sources and firsthand whole process.” Richard Boydstun remembers that Bob experience. Material not previously Corny was well equipped to advise Pe- “sent me boxes of parts that I never published elsewhere will have priority. ter, as she was a journalist and the long- requested, that he thought I might need time managing editor of the University someday. He was fondly known as the ©2017 ETCA. Published quarterly. of Delaware Messenger. She also shared ‘Hammond King.’” Calendar year subscription: $35, North Peter’s enthusiasm for typewriters, and Ray Gorden of Fond Du Lac, Wiscon- America; $40 elsewhere. Payment: was able to enjoy his present of a bright sin, passed away on February 9 at age check or PayPal. Herman J. Price, 195 red Olivetti MP1 last Christmas. All of the 86. Dennis Clark recalls, “At its peak, Greenbag Rd, Morgantown, WV 26501, directors of ETCA and all those involved his collection hit a high of about 400 USA. [email protected] with ETCetera offer Peter their condo- machines. Although his collection is lences. We also take inspiration from this long gone, he still loved to talk at length ISSN 1062-9645 story of a happy marriage. about antique typewriters.” I have also learned that two more long- Let’s remember these members of our time typewriter enthusiasts died recently. community and keep in mind that while On the Cover Bob Nelson passed away on October typewriters are fun, what really makes 12 at age 71. Bob was an active Southern the hobby meaningful is the chance to See Page 23. California collector who contributed share it with fellow collectors, friends, to ETCetera, even appearing in a car- and loved ones. ■

2 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 Fiction by Typewriter An Interview with Three Writers and Some Additional Thoughts

by frederic s. durbin what draws me the most to type- ers since age 10, when she had a little gray orally and also how a reader reads stories, writers is the fact that they’re writing Royal Signet portable. (She now owns an so I think something written that way is tools. I am a professional fiction writer, a exact duplicate whose key sounds and more likely to make sense. The piece can life-long lover of purposefully arranged bell make her heart flutter with memo- be modified later, but using a typewriter words, and these are machines built for ries.) Her most recent book is Train of forces a writer to write from beginning to doing what I do. Like many readers of this Thought: Travel Essays from a One-Track end. Even if it needs a lot of revision, you magazine, I stand comfortably astride the Mind, Vicious Circle Publishing, 2017. are at least left with something complete. technology of the present and the past: I Taylor Harbin’s fantasy and science- use both computers and typewriters every fiction stories have appeared in Bards and day, appreciating each well-built piece of Sages Quarterly. He has also contributed equipment for its beauty and effective- essays on the publishing industry to ness. I have no trouble switching back and Re:Fiction. A tour guide at a historic site forth between typewriter and computer by day, he writes at night on his novel. keys. Usually without conscious thought, I Mark Petersen describes himself as even space once between sentences on my a young writer and poet from Virginia, digital screen, twice when I’m thwacking currently working on a classic monster inked words onto paper. novel and a collection of poetry about But although I navigate between coal mining. I would add that Mark gives these two worlds with joyful exuber- me great hope for the future of the typo- ance, each medium, for me, has its own sphere: for one so young, he is already distinct uses: my typewriters are for a fount of knowledge about typewriters notes, ideas, lists, checks, journaling, and and their history. copious correspondence; my computer FSD: What advantage does the type- and AlphaSmart Neo are for fiction writ- writer give you over writing either long- Linda: I have an unnatural soft spot ing. I confess it freely: I think with my hand or by computer? for putzing around online when I should fingers as well as my head. I tweak the be working. It’s an ugly habit. My first first draft as I’m laying it down; I change NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing things, move parts around. See, I came of Month) in November 2004 was done on age with word processors. They had just an AlphaSmart 2000, a sort of plastic, arrived—elegant and convenient—when electronic, LCD-screen “typewriter.” You I was learning to be a working writer. I can see only four lines of text on the tiny love the fluidity they provide. The com- screen, and it has no ties to the online puter, for all its speed, has done nothing world. I still use AlphaSmarts (later mod- to alter the fact that I am a slow, deliber- els) when I need distraction-free writ- ate writer who thinks carefully about ing outside the house. But since I work each sentence. My system has worked for from home, I can often find time to write me through three published novels and fiction here. That’s when I break out the a slew of short stories and articles—and typewriters. They have the added fun of reams of work still on the drawing board. letting me see paper move through the And if it ain’t broke, as the saying goes... machine, plus solid, loud clickety-clacking That’s me. But there are writers out noises. By midway through the month, I there—dare I say a growing number can see a tidy stack of paper piling up. No of them?—who have rediscovered the Mark: Intentionality and linearity. You Facebook sucking my life away. No Twit- typewriter as the best tool for producing must be intentional because you cannot ter tweeting in my ear. Just the clickety- at least some of their creative literary undo anything already written. Instead, clack of the Selectric keys. All month long. work. I offer here my interview with you have to carefully consider it before put- It’s glorious. I can scribble notes and ideas three of them. ting it to the page. Because you cannot go longhand on paper, but I’ve been typing Linda M. Au is a humorist and novelist back and add things easily, you must think since age 10, so speed helps me get ideas who has been faithfully using typewrit- in a linear way, which is how we tell stories down as fast as I can think them.

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 3 reach the keys.) Both of these machines is being used for something else at the use the “golf-ball” type [elements] that moment. And who’s going to steal a spiral Selectrics are known for, so I can change notebook? Once the first draft is done, the look of my typing anytime I want. I scan it into my computer and convert Taylor: I’m partial to the Olympia it to a word-processor file using ABBYY brand in general, but I’ve put more words FineReader Pro. The hard copy goes into through my SG1 than any other machine. a filing cabinet to cool. A week or so It has a good touch and the font is the later, I get it out and reread it, mark it up small elite type. This, combined with the with corrections, and depending on how 1.5-inch spacing option, lets me fit a daily extensive the corrections are, I’ll retype quota of 1,000 words onto two pieces of it. If it’s only a few spelling errors and paper. It’s a standard model and keeps a few words switched around here and the paper high, closer to your face than a there, I’ll go straight to the computer. But portable, which is important for comfort if it’s a matter of adding entire sections during long sessions. Finally, the ma- and other major changes, I’ll retype the chine is fast. Sometimes I’ll be working whole thing. Final editing is done on the on a story and it gets hot. My mind races, computer, and after this I send it out to crying out, “Yes, this is how it should be! readers for feedback. Taylor: I’ve written about this in my Don’t let it get away!” Using the SG1 (and essay “A Steel Symphony,” which is post- proper technique), my hands can keep ed on Richard Polt’s website [The Classic up with my brain, which is the major Typewriter Page] under “Typewriter advantage over handwriting. Sometimes Tributes.” I was diagnosed with severe when the story’s hot I look away and juvenile-onset rheumatoid arthritis touch-type the sentence/paragraph, like when I was eleven. My wrists and fingers a man conducting an orchestra or a pot- were in constant pain due to inflamma- ter molding his dish. tion. As a result, handwriting became Mark: I use my 1941 Royal Aristocrat something I avoided. Computers weren’t more than anything else. It was an early much better. By the time I switched to a favorite because I like the touch and I typewriter, I was twenty-three and the like to look at it, and as I used it more and disease was well under control, but I im- more it also became the typewriter I am mediately noticed a difference. Not only most comfortable on. is [typewriting] more comfortable, it’s FSD: Please tell us about your process. neater than my hand. Typewriters put Taylor: Every project takes on a life perfect words on the paper, and that’s es- of its own, but what I usually do is write sential when you need to read and revise the idea/germ of a story in my notebook, a story. There have been times when I asking vital questions: who, what, where, looked at my own chicken scratches and when, why, etc. This is also the part in thought, “What did I mean by that?” Be- which I do research if I think it’s neces- sides, it’s a lot more fun than a computer sary to help solidify the raw idea into a and frees me from countless distractions. premise upon which I can lay the foun- Mark: The bulk of my work is in draft FSD: Do you have a favorite typewriter dation for a narrative. Sometimes this stage, a lot of it unfinished, and all of for writing fiction on? produces a scant outline with a work- that is typewritten. I will rewrite entire Linda: Sometimes I wish my favor- ing title, character names, and a broad pieces, especially poems but even short ites were some of the beautiful antiques overview of how the plot goes. Other stories or sections of my novel, over and others use. But I admit no shame in using times it’s crammed full of details, and my over until they feel close to finished. Selectrics most of the time. My favorite is notebook starts to look like an encyclope- Then I will retype them again into a com- the big, blue Selectric II with the film rib- dia. Once that’s done, I’ll start the draft. puter and can edit from there. I like mak- bon. The text scans beautifully, and the I’ve been using a notebook more and ing edits with a pen on a real page, and I machine itself doesn’t have any quirks or more, but only for short stories. Note- believe rewriting something increases its issues, so I can sail along at quite a clip. books have two key advantages over the quality. Even if you think a piece is good, But I also love the smaller “baby Selec- typewriter: expediency and discretion. in retyping it, you notice little things you tric,” as I call it. It’s a more demure beige, I can’t carry a portable everywhere I go, can improve, whereas editing on a com- and it uses a fabric ribbon, but it fits especially into public places. A notebook, puter, one might be tempted to lazily edit nicely on an antique typing desk I have in however, allows me to write in the doc- only the weaker parts. my office. (The beauty of this is that the tor’s office, airport, library, or in bed. I Linda: Since 2004, I’ve used National shelf for the typewriter is low, meaning only do this when the story is bursting Novel Writing Month in November to short little Linda doesn’t have to perch to get out and I won’t have access to a start a new novel. That nets me the first up on a pillow on a high desk chair just to typewriter for a while, or maybe my SG1 50,000 words of the story, which is never

4 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 actually done at that point. In theory, I was typing on it. The crunching sound Royal 440. My grandparents-in-law both use the rest of the year to finish the story that emanated from the poor thing still died very suddenly in 2014. During fu- (usually ending around 75,000 words). haunts me. (The typewriter, not my neral preparations I heard about the flo- Yes, the first draft almost always comes daughter.) Shipping a monstrosity like rist shop they owned, and then two years from a typewriter, though after NaNo- a Selectric from eBay is a daunting task, later my mother-in-law said, “Taylor, WriMo I do sometimes use the Alpha- and another Selectric arrived in a non- I just now remembered that they used Smart Neo (especially if I’m in a cof- working condition. The right platen knob an old typewriter to fill out labels and fee shop or library where the Selectric was also smashed, unbeknownst to me, customer orders. You should go down would be a bit cumbersome and unap- and when I first lifted the machine out of there and ask if they still have it.” Sure, preciated). The stuff that starts out on a the box, I scraped a sharp broken edge of I thought. Like the new owners didn’t typewriter has a sort of flow to it that I the knob down the side of my right hand. clean out everything the day they moved find hard to duplicate on a computer. So I have a two-inch scar on my hand to this into the building. Probably sold it to the why even try? day. Yes, I actually sustained a permanent closest antique store. We called the place. FSD: What do you love most about the typewriter-related injury! I wear it with Lo and behold, they hadn’t sold it! It’d experience of writing on a typewriter? been in storage upstairs the whole time Mark: I love suddenly “waking up” because no one knew what to do with it! and realizing it is 2018, and wondering I offered them money for the trouble, but where I have just been the last hour or they insisted on giving it to us. It’s been two I have been writing. Sometimes it’s cleaned up and with a restored platen something like a text message that stirs from J. J. Short, it is like typing on a giant me out of my time-traveling trance. Quiet Deluxe. Plain and regular working Linda: Sometimes you just gotta see machine, but so were they, and we’re very the paper move. Also, I’m old enough to glad to have a memento from them. have fond introvert memories of holing Mark: I bought the Aristocrat at an myself up in my bedroom as a teenager— antique store, and remember approach- Billy Joel albums blaring through my ing it and expecting it to be $120 or more. stereo headphones, Gene Wilder movie It was only $40, and identical to my favor- posters on my walls—daydreaming and ite machine which I was afraid to touch typing stories on my little gray Royal for fear of wearing it out. That one sits on Signet portable. A piece of paper sitting the shelf mostly, except for the rare mo- in a typewriter exudes a sense of poten- ments I treat myself (it is slightly nicer tial yet unrealized. A blank word proces- than my default machine). I do intention- sor screen on the computer, on the other ally choose different machines, though, hand, doesn’t exude much more than and have already used more than fifteen backlit eyestrain. I find that blank screen different ones on my manuscript of my far more intimidating than a blank piece novel. Each time I write, I include the of paper in a typewriter. Especially a date, location, and machine at the bottom humming Selectric . . . almost like it’s somewhere. calmly marking time waiting for me to pride. I suffer for my art. FSD: Do you have a preferred writing etch words onto the paper against its Taylor: I bought my SG1 from Vern at space? A favorite time of day or night for platen. Jones Typewriter in St. Louis a few years writing? Taylor: It is a tactile experience that back for $100. I don’t know anything Taylor: I tend to do my best work in my unfolds before you, and only because of about its past. My favorite collector’s spare bedroom, my “office.” I have an old you. The machine on my desk will sit items have names attached. My Hermes oak desk with a folding typewriter table quietly until I animate it with my life’s Baby had a name tag inside the guts, that comes out of a cabinet on the left side, energy. Not only is it fun, as I’ve said identifying the owner as one John Jones, which I’m convinced was designed specifi- many times before, but I truly feel as if a veteran of the 1st Cavalry Division. The cally for big standards like the SG1. The I’m creating something. tag has a forwarding address on it for machine sits on top of a vintage ITC typ- FSD: Do you have a good story about mail going to Southeast Asia. I’m fairly ing pad, and I have an old banker’s lamp. how you acquired that favorite writing certain he was in Vietnam, and the type- I prefer writing with the overhead lights typewriter? Do you know anything about writer might have gone with him. My off. My job is very demanding, especially its history? Royal Quiet Deluxe was from a Warren in the summer when tourist season is at Linda: I actually own four Selectrics, Kopfe of Topeka, but I bought it in Dallas its peak. My off days are usually not back- all of which were acquired through eBay, and taught my wife, Courtney, to type on to-back, because we are short-handed. though only two of them are currently it. And I found my mother’s cursive SCM I get up at 5 a.m. and try to write some functioning. My first Selectric II became Classic 12 under a bed at my grandmoth- before work and then continue once I a parts machine for the big blue mon- er’s house. It is one of my favorite ma- come home. Morning writing has become ster after my daughter and I dropped a chines for writing letters. One machine important to me. That way, I’ll know I got paper clip into its innards while someone in particular has a nice tale behind it: my something done and won’t feel bad if I’m

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 5 too tired to work later that night. the best ways they know how. It seems to the craft of writing with the machines Mark: I write best out of the house, me that they’re onto something in their Smith-Corona made when they’d har- where there are no chores or things I can choices of writing equipment. One critic nessed lightning. Writing became some- be doing. Looking at a blank page can feel of the recent film California Typewriter thing intangible, disembodied, silent, unproductive a lot of the time, but when describes how the production treats fluid ... so ephemeral that the slightest you are “trapped” at a bar or coffee shop, these machines as almost holy objects; if surge or ebb of electrical impulse could you have to just stare at it until you write. that is true, it seems to me a fair and nat- obliterate all of it, hours of work spent Plus, I don’t have a lot of money, so if I ural way to treat them, for they represent nailing mist to fog. With the rest of so- spend $4 on a cup of coffee or a beer, I feel a balance of functionality and beauty ciety, I rocketed into the future, zapping like I need to write something for that that, for the appreciative writer or col- my words through cables, through the air to have been worth it, and that pressure lector, approaches the sublime. They are itself, storing them in tiny chips. helps. When you sit in public somewhere iconic writing machines in much the way Computer technology is, of course, with a typewriter, there is nothing to do that the sword is the iconic weapon. One astoundingly convenient. Yet I count my- other point of commonality with the an- self blessed that my roots are anchored cestral sword is that, whereas we writers in a deeper stratum, that my sensi- use a series of computers in our lives, the bilities were formed in a time of greater typical typewriter “sees” quite a series of simplicity. Like most (I suspect) in the human owners during its long “life.” The typosphere, I am able to leave the roaring typewriter comes to us already old and thoroughfare and step back into quieter rich with decades of use, exposure, and lanes where the traffic is slower, where travel. It bears a legacy of scents, scuffs, scenery and stillness remain. dents, and battle scars. If we are faithful An old Arab proverb declares, “Man curators, it will stand ready to serve our fears Time, but Time fears the Pyra- successors when we have left the world mids.” It seems clear that Time also has a behind. Is that service, that longevity not healthy respect for the Typewriters. My a form of holiness? L. C. Smith is waiting here, and others The first typewriter I ever saw was a of its ilk. They are waiting for us, these 1937 L. C. Smith 8 that my Aunt Ruth had elegant tools of the past—waiting for us bought when it was new and she was who choose to make them a part of the fresh out of high school, moving into the present. Few human endeavors share the workforce. In my childhood, through the capacity of story to endure; if, then, our seventies and eighties, that typewriter fictions at their best outlast us by many lived in our house, left behind by the generations, it seems natural that the adults but still respected, and more or enduring machines we love should have except to write! less given to me. I played with it, wrote an honored part in their writing. ■ Linda: My home office is a large my little stories on it, touched its keys, bedroom, about 17 x 20 feet. It’s ridicu- breathed its essence, and pushed my lously big, and I love to personalize my face close, my wide eyes peering into the work spaces, so in the five years we’ve shadowy depths of type basket, spring, lived in this house, I’ve moved and rear- lever, and gear, into that dim chamber of ranged the furniture till I’ve feng-shuied mechanical ingenuity from which words the entire place right into exhaustion. poured. Even then I understood, mostly Still, it gives me the flexibility to work by intuition, that this piece of engineer- in a variety of ways: typewriters are on ing, housed within its glossy panels, had the antique typewriter desk and also the sat upon desks when the country strug- desk with a hutch (which started as a gled to recover from Depression, when dining-room table with no hutch). Both Zeroes screamed down upon Pearl Har- of those are Selectrics. For other types bor. Those keys had ridden with human of work and play in my office, I have my fingertips when cars had giant tailfins main desk (a wooden dining table 3 x 5.5 and hippies converged on Woodstock. Frederic S. Durbin’s latest novel, A Green feet) with my dual-monitor computer, a Those slugs had flung trails of words and Ancient Light, was named a Reading couch, and now an exercise bike with a when Dr. King had a dream, when blood List Honor Book by the American Library desk surface attached. If I can’t get work flowed in Vietnam, in Korea, and when Association and a Best Fantasy Novel of 2016 done in this room, it’s been a bad day man stepped across space from Earth to by Publishers Weekly. In addition to writing indeed and it’s probably time to head out the moon. This very instrument, I knew: fiction for both adults and children, he is a of the house completely. this dark, miraculous chamber of metal frequent presenter of writing workshops, a So there you have it, the testimony of parts—this machine was writing then. learning facilitator at a community college, three writers who are out there writing, I left that L. C. Smith in the shadows of and an ardent typewriter enthusiast. day after day, setting down their words in that dim, comfortable house and learned

6 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 The Tale of the Erika

by hans-peter günther

the lady of the house asked me to stood up and went to the door. But as I a personal number onto my outfit. wait in the office for her husband, Herr pushed the handle down, I heard it again: “But then fate had something less nice Schlesinger, the notary. He’d be with me “Hello, here I am.” in store for me. One day, if I remember right away; she had already heard the ga- But now I knew where the voice was correctly—it must have been a Monday, rage door opening. She led me to a dark, coming from. Next to the bookshelves because the day before, it was very quiet oaken door with a brightly polished brass that took up a whole wall there stood a in the big house—I was put into a wood- plaque reading “Office.” small, reddish-brown case. The voice en crate with some of my other brothers As I entered the room, it was quiet—so was coming from it. I carefully took up and sisters and brought to the Dresden eerily quiet that even the swinging of the little case with its leather handle and freight depot. The journey started. We the pendulum of the grandfather clock placed it on the round table. Hopefully, no- were headed to Berlin. When we arrived, felt like an annoying noise. You could body will walk into the room right now. He’d I was heaved, not very gently, onto a have heard the proverbial pin drop, if definitely wonder what I was up to here, as a horse-drawn carriage, and then left on there had been one, but I had no use for a guest in the house. the street—the Kuh-damm, I think that’s pin just then. So I closed the heavy door There it was again, that timid “hello.” what it was called*—next to the Schenk behind me and I was alone in the big of- I raised the latch on the case, slid the Office Machine Company. fice—or so I thought. round button to the side, gently lifted the “But I didn’t have to stay there for But then I heard a faint, almost plain- top, and caught sight of a small, maroon, long. A young man (to judge from his tive “Hello,” as if someone wanted to talk wood-grained Erika typewriter. It looked voice) brought me into the shop and without really opening their mouth. I at me in a very friendly way. It looked so freed me from my awkward situation. I looked all around me, but to my amaze- charming, with its little maroon dress did have to stand the whole time, which ment, no one was in the room. And then, and its youthful bosom—if only those was a bit unpleasant. And after they’d again, “Hello”—a little louder now, as if ugly, black ribbon spools hadn’t been unpacked me, they drilled two painful to say: someone has to hear me. sitting on it. But its four white “rows of little holes in my ‘backside,’ just to attach But this was crazy. If I’m hearing voices teeth” were smiling, and they captured their name there.” when nobody’s there, I’m in a bad way. May- me with their charm. Mostly to myself, I “So then what happened to you?” be there’s a perfectly simple explanation. murmured: “But a typewriter can’t talk, “What happened? Well, I was put in I cautiously looked around again, even after all.” the shop window. In the blazing sun, next under the big writing desk. Was a child “Yes, I can,” came the voice from the to all the other machines, and I didn’t hiding there and playing a practical joke case. “And that’s why I want to get out know any of them. Some of them even on me? But there was no human being to of here.” claimed that they could calculate. What be found, neither under the huge writing “So who are you?” nonsense—what machine can calculate!” desk that dominated the room nor under “See for yourself. My name is Erika. I “But you can write, and even talk.” any other piece of furniture. I wanted to was born in 1934 in Hamburger Strasse “But that’s completely different. After leave, but I heard it again, this time quite 19, in Dresden. I was the granddaughter all, I’m Erika from Dresden. Anyway, I clearly: “Hello, doesn’t anyone hear me? of Bruno Naumann, and my Papa was didn’t have to stay in the sun for long. Someone is there, I know.” Paul Käppler. I don’t know my Mama. I After three or four days, a young man This was getting ridiculous. I wanted grew up with lots and lots of brothers came into the shop with his Papa. He in- to know the meaning of this. Either I’m and sisters in the Seidel & Naumann troduced himself as a law student, and he hallucinating and I need a doctor, or there’s family, in a huge house, and I was lov- was looking for a small typewriter that some explanation. I sat very quietly and ingly cared for and dressed. Many of wasn’t too heavy. Naturally, with my ‘size carefully on one of the leather chairs my siblings got a little black dress, but I 36 dress,’ I appealed to him immediately, that stood around the small round table, must have been something special for my e (continued on page 23) and listened. Aside from the creaking of Grandpa—otherwise he wouldn’t have the chair, there was nothing to be heard. let me take this pretty red dress from the *The Kurfürstendamm, nicknamed Kudamm, is a major avenue in Berlin. The name means Nothing. Deathly silence. Not a sound, closet. Then, so that I could always be “Prince-Electors’ Boulevard,” but Erika thinks it and no “hello.” So am I nuts after all? I found again, Meister Hermann stamped means “Cow Boulevard.” —Trans.

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 7 ephemera : by peter weil TYPEWRITERS AT THE Writing Machines at the Louisiana Purchase EXPOSITION and the Panama-Pacific Expositions

Louisiana Purchase Exposition facturers and one business school. These lights tinted by the colored glass of the the louisiana purchase exposition included Arithmograph (Fay-Sholes), surface of the display, the firm showed (LPE) at St. Louis, three years after the Blickensderfer, Caligraph, Densmore, a dozen machines. Six were mounted on Pan-American in Buffalo, was a major Elliott-Fisher, Fay-Sholes, Hammond, pedestals for demonstrations by staff one for the history of typewriters. Some Monarch, Oliver, Simplex, Smith Pre- and visiting expert typists. Variants of important typewriters were introduced, mier, Remington (Brown’s Business models 3, 4, and 5 were included as ten such as the Monarch, the Elliott-Fisher College), and Underwood. The largest of the machines. Two of the additional book typewriter, and the Rem-Sho-based displays documented were those created typewriters were the latest form of the Arithmograph. It also was the last hur- by Underwood (see ETCetera No. 119, p. remotely-operated electric one intro- rah in such a venue for such upstrike 10) and Smith Premier. 1 But the smaller duced at The Pan. One modification was machines as the Smith Premier and the booths mounted by other companies the substitution of paper automatically Densmore. The typewriter companies contained some gems of interest because fed from a roll in place of individual had a much larger audience, in terms of some of the new machines and related sheets. The latest version of the Model 5 of both attendees and the total number technological innovations in them. included the new “Tabular Key.” One of of non-typewriter companies at the Densmore gained the coveted title of the premiums distributed at the display event, than the audience at The Pan. As “Official Typewriter” of the fair.¹ As soon was this trade catalog featuring its par- such, the event was another major step as Densmore received the “Official” ap- ticipation at the exposition. 3 The Jury towards the establishment of the type- pointment, they widely advertised a pub- of Awards granted Underwood a Grand writer as a normal part of industrial life. lic contest to design emblematic advertis- Prize. The body’s justification noted A factor in this effect were the technolog- ing of the typewriter’s official status. The the Underwood’s “utter freedom from ical innovations demonstrated at many resulting winning images were used on attachments, its easy adaptability to all of the typewriter booths that reinforced pamphlets and newspaper and magazine classes of work, its perfect mechanical the idea that typewriters were part of the ads. Here is one example. 2 construction, and its absolute durability.” leading edge of “progress.” A total of at As noted in Part 2 of this series, the The company capitalized on the award by least a dozen brands were displayed in Underwood booth was the most spec- subsequently touting the achievement in booths mounted by 11 typewriter manu- tacular one at the fair. Under its bright print ads and by distributing this trade

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8 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 3 card in showrooms and offices of its potential customers. 4 The other three typewriter company booths near Underwood’s were those from Fox, Fay-Sholes, and Blickensderfer. Fox promoted its booth in ads such as this one. 5 Included in the booth were a dis- play on the back wall showing the several different sizes of the platens available for Fox machines. In addition, there was a Fox covered desktop that included a ma- chine with a Fox copyholder attachment. A primary attraction of the Fay- Sholes booth was its version, now based on a Fay-Sho, of the Arithmograph. 6 The round sign advertising it is just vis- ible hanging from the ceiling inside the 4 6 Fay-Sholes booth (as shown in ETCetera No. 119, p. 10). Blickensderfer’s booth, behind the Fay-Sholes display, made up for its relatively small size with its exciting contents. Beyond the latest versions of its Models 5 and 7, they demonstrated the latest version of their Electric. The machine alone so impressed the awards jury that it granted the small typewriter firm a silver medal. The booth also may have displayed a Model 5 made especially for the event. It was painted white, the only known Blick of that color, and has a serial number, #1904w, that is far too low for a Model 5 with its design charac- teristics that are typical for the 1903-1905 period.² The year of the LPE was 1904, as in the serial number. 7 Beyond the booth, a Blickensderfer 5 gained even more popular fame in the press and books as the typewriter owned and used by Chief Antonio, leader of a group of Bontok Igorot communities in Northern Luzon, an island in the Philippines. As 5 part of the U.S. government’s support for the LPE, it required that the new position of the U.S. on the world’s stage that had been created by the country’s winning of the Spanish-American War be expressed in some exhibits. Part of the result of this mandate was the bringing of a series of non-Western peoples to the fairgrounds, where they were to build villages, perform dances, and undertake other activities for the visitors to the fair. In the context of the ideas about western superiority, related to the alleged prog- ress achieved by the U.S. in particular, this kind of display was thought to be acceptable, even celebrated. Using these ideas, the organizers miscalculated

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Antonio’s intelligence and capacity to learn. He made it a condition for organiz- ing the building of a village for the LPE that a working telephone be installed in his hut. Early on, after seeing dignitaries the Education Building, where Lottie Sul- offer copies of their signatures to visi- livan, a blind typist, demonstrated her tors, he saved up his money earned in typing skills on it and on a Kleidograph, a his village dances to purchase his Blick. typewriter that had been developed a de- other had been used to type the terms He persuaded one of the staff at the LPE cade earlier by the New York Institute for of the peace treaty between the U.S. and to teach him the letters of his name, the Blind that used a system of symbols Spain at the end of the war. Guests at the and, began typing it on small pieces of called “New York Point.” booth were offered as a gift an advertis- paper on his machine and selling them In Smith Premier’s impressive dis- ing diary with blank pages that could to visitors attending the performances play (see 14 ), the firm presented its three be used to record their experiences at he organized. He told one reporter that main models — 2, 4, and 6. Perhaps the fair. Smith Premier designed it to be his goal was to purchase an automobile. because they were little changed from mailed to the visitor’s home. Here, from One day, while he was typing his name, those displayed three years earlier, its one example, is the cover page and a dia- a later famous glass-plate photographer, star attractions were two machines from ry entry about the fair’s electric lighting, Jessie Tarbox Beals, took this photograph the Spanish-American war. The first had which the diarist writes was the “most of Antonio that was later to be one of been dredged up from the sunken Battle- beautiful sight I have ever seen.” 9 10 the emblematic images of the fair.³ 8 A ship Maine, the sinking of which was the Hammond’s display included its seven Blickensderfer 5 was also on display at justification for starting the war, and the Model 2-based machines, but it also in-

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troduced the new 12, with its technology from its form at its introduction six focused more narrowly on its product, that made possible true visibility of the years before. To draw visitors, the com- giving away this purse mirror with an line being typed, eliminating the need pany dazzled onlookers with “several” image of the New Century model in the for the front tab on the previous de- typewriters made of “massive” gold. A center. 17 And Simplex offered a special sign. 11 Women visiting the booth were German source stated in 1904 that each version of its current Model 1 to visitors gifted a Hammond hat pin topped by a machine was worth 4500 Marks ($28,000 that included images of Thomas Jefferson nickel and brass cap with the double- each in today’s money). And each visitor and Napoleon, leaders of the countries hemisphere Hammond logo cast into it.⁴ was offered a wine-testing kit like this that agreed on the purchase by the U.S. of 12 Other visitors to the display were sent one as a reminder of the wonders of the the Louisiana Territory from France.⁷ 18 home with a sample of the typing from a Oliver display.⁶ 15 Hammond that demonstrated the tech- Three of the typewriter displays at the Panama-Pacific nology’s versatility through interchange- exposition — Monarch, Elliott-Fisher, International Exposition able type.⁵ 13 Hammond’s efforts won it a and Simplex — are documented exclu- there were only ten typewriter “First Gold Medal,” an honor which they sively through the souvenirs they distrib- booths at the Panama-Pacific Interna- advertised throughout the industrial uted. Monarch, which was introducing tional Exposition (PPIE) in San Fran- world through media such as this French its new, visible typewriter, gave away this cisco in 1915. In a setting of a reported polychrome advertising postcard show- advertising postcard featuring Theo- 31,000 exhibitors in a fair taking place ing an international award jury amazed dore Roosevelt, then widely esteemed in an area 1.25 square miles in size, this by the new Hammond. 14 as the hero of the Battle of San Juan Hill number sounds miniscule. However, Oliver Typewriter Company offered and running as the incumbent in the that small number of writing machine its Model 3, which was little changed U.S. presidential election. 16 Caligraph company booths had an outsized impact,

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especially the efforts of Remington and distributing worldwide a pamphlet and the last version of the Sholes and Glid- Underwood. The typewriter displays related poster stamps based on its cover, den, was featured. The machine was also included those from Corona, Ham- both promoting the PPIE. 20 Moreover, a part of Remington’s assertion of leader- mond, Monarch, Oliver, Secor, Sun, and large electric sign near the Market Street ship in the technology of the typewriter Victor. The theme of the exposition was entrance to the fairgrounds announced from the beginning to the new models centered on the opening of the U.S.- the official status of Remington that it was displaying. One section alone was controlled Panama Canal, but the larger aided in attracting visitors to its booth. devoted to its foreign language machines, theme was associated with the implica- The company’s two-floor display was one which were asserted to be offered in 156 tions of that event for the new attain- of the largest mounted by any typewriter languages other than English. Displayed ment of an expanded concept of the company, and probably at least as large were models with keyboards to type asserted “manifest destiny” of the U.S. as any of the other commercial ones. 22 Sanskrit, Thai, Marathi, and Katakana in the Pacific and the world in general. The first floor presented the company’s Japanese. The latter was regularly dem- These characteristics of the fair’s con- several models based on the no.s 10 and onstrated by a Japanese typist, and ad- ception can be seen in this artwork from 11 and the Junior, a semi-portable model vertising postcards printed in color were a special 1915 issue of Remington Notes. introduced the year before, in subsec- given to those who watched the typing 19 The positioning of the exposition on tions related to their functions in differ- demonstrations. 21 In addition, visitors the edge of the Pacific near a harbor oc- ent types of office settings. For example, to the first floor of the booth were given cupied by American battleships and the there was a subsection dedicated to the official pamphlet and the poster Wright Flyer-like airplane above it all are “Municipal Accounting” where Model stamp mentioned above. The upper floor just some of the symbolic elements that 11-based machines with Wahl Adders was centered on a palm garden and in- evoke the themes in the image. creating up to 40 columns and other cluded a restroom. Visitors to the second Remington, early in the planning for accounting-related accessories were floor were entertained by music from the event, secured the “Official Type- demonstrated. In addition, an example a record player that primarily blared writer” title, in part, by paying for and of the original Remington, the “Model 1,” marches from the Remington Works

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Band. Services there also included those the exhibition exclusively used Reming- of a stenographer and a telegrapher. ton machines, and Remington asserted Beyond the Remington exhibit, Reming- that most of the non-typewriter exhibi- ton built and staffed stenographic booths tors also used Remington typewriters at throughout the fairgrounds, such as this the event. In another building, the Palace one. 23 Moreover, the administration of of Education, Remington organized,

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 13 staffed and contributed typewriters to tion as real typewriters. The company’s development of the typewriter from 1843 the Standard Commercial School, where booth literally was organized around the to 1915. Trefzger was joined on Liberal locally recruited students were trained. colossus that was positioned in a space Arts Day by Margaret B. Owen, the new Lastly, Remington chaired Liberal Arts that was 116 feet by 60 feet.⁸ 24 The four world champion typist, to demonstrate Day in November and gave away a Rem- electric motors that controlled the giant the high speed of their typing. She had ington Junior as a prize for the best guess were activated by a remote Model 5. This won her title just the month before, and by an attendee of the total number of dynamic was a scaling up with additional after the special day, she stayed to be one visitors that day to the Palace of Liberal power of the technology that the compa- of the regular attractions to the booth. Arts. Perhaps as a result of these many ny had demonstrated at the two previous The Corona booth, painted bright efforts by Remington, it was awarded fairs. Each morning, the day’s schedule of white and accented with redwood and the PPIE’s Grand Prize for “Excellence the exposition was typed on the machine eucalyptus, displayed its newest version of Product,” a Gold Medal for its add- as a reference for visitors. Underwood of the model 3, which was the first ver- ing and subtracting typewriter, another made the big machine emblematic of its sion with a solid type segment, improving Gold Medal for its ribbons and carbons, a presence at the fair, and offered visitors the alignment of its type. 27 7A variety of Medal of Honor for “educational value,” paper pinbacks like this one and color versions of this new model were shown to and a Special Diploma of Honor for “forty postcards of it, one of which is shown demonstrate the several keyboard options years of sustained excellence.” here, as premiums. 25 26 Today, this post- it offered. Also introduced at the booth In its own way, Underwood’s booth card and the other Underwood PPIE ones was Corona’s folding typing stand. The was equally spectacular. How could it not are in my experience the most commonly device was immediately in high demand be, with its display centered on a 14-ton found surviving ephemera showing by military forces in North America and working leviathan of a Model 5? While typewriters at any world’s fair. Other Europe as a facilitator of field communi- Underwood had made large versions attractions at the Underwood display cations and by journalists and others who of its keystone machine in the years included speed typing demonstrations by often needed to type outside office set- since it was introduced in 1901, they World Champion Emil A. Trefzger and a tings. None of the typewriters on display were parade floats that did not func- presentation of five scenes showing the in the booth were sold, but many orders

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27 Acknowledgements

I was assisted in several ways in preparing this article by Tyler Anderson, Gabe Burbano, Tony Casillo, Bert Kersch- baumer, Gregory Megee (Special Collections Research Cen- ter, Henry Madden Library, California State University, Fresno, California), and Alessandro Pezzati (Archivist, University of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, Penn- sylvania). I also want to thank my wife, Cornelia, for her editorial suggestions.

Endnotes

1. At the time, the Densmore company was still part of the Union Trust controlled by Remington. Remington’s not competing for the honor and supporting Densmore in doing so probably was part of an attempt to keep on promoting upstrike typewriters in the face of the rapidly rising sales by Underwood. In a similar strategy, it allowed Smith Premier to mount its booth on its own, even after the Smith brothers had left the Smith Premier company and the trust to form their own firm that would ultimately produce the L. C. Smith visible typewriters, with the first introduced

14 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 were taken by the staff. Corona received over 40 inches long. The machine had Remington and Underwood, had an out- the PPIE Gold Medal of Honor, the highest 40 totalizers and typed 40 columns, each sized influence on what it meant to own award given for a portable typewriter. with up to six figures per column. The or use a typewriter. Visibility of the typed Hammond’s display introduced a Galesburg Writing Machine Co. booth word was required by most business and new typewriter, the aluminum portable was distinguished by its display of its new home consumers, four-bank QWERTY Multiplex with a Universal Keyboard. aluminum version of the Chicago No. 2. keyboards were nearly established as the The only part that folded on the new, And Oliver introduced its Model 9, which norm, and dependability was required. light machine was the spacebar; the more the company first seriously marketed Another trend over the three events is the famous Hammond portable with the the following year. The new machine further establishment of the typewriter folding keyboard was not to be intro- included its by-now emblematic typeface, as an essential technology for business, duced until 1921. In addition, the new Printype, which it had first offered on a and, as part of that, the introduction of versions of the regular Multiplex models Model 5 in 1910. Although not new, it was more typewriters with more complex were shown with metal covers over their Officer Printype, the logo for the typeface, technologies for accounting purposes. typelevers and towers. Hammond offered that graced the front of a poster stamp These technologies, in turn, became part new keyboards on the Multiplex models. that was given to visitors at the Oliver of the leading representations of type- One of these included a keyboard with display. 29 These three American world’s writer firms to the business world and the Arabic, French, and English symbols. 28 fairs individually had important mean- general visitors. Both saw in these inno- The carriage could be reversed for typ- ings for the typewriter companies and the vations the role of typewriters in creating ing Arabic. Arabic was typed on its own visitors to their booths and, seen together, the future. I leave it to other researchers shuttle and English and French were were steps in embedding typewriters in to explain why Underwood’s development typed on a single (four-row) shuttle. the everyday lives of a large proportion of of tour-de-force electric typewriters in These three languages were commonly the industrial world. We can get some pal- 1901 (and further in 1904 and 1915) did used in the colonies of England and pable sense of the individual experiences not result in the firm’s manufacturing France, and the machine was mainly to from ephemera, such as the visitor’s com- and marketing an electric until 1947.⁹ be marketed in those countries. ments in the Smith Premier diary that Meanwhile, I hope that this window into While less is known about the details the owner filled and sent to a relative to the efforts of typewriter firms, including of the booths of Monarch, Chicago, and share her experiences. And that sense is their products and their ephemera, at Oliver, there are small tidbits of informa- increased for many of us by the fact that these expositions has been as much fun tion available. Monarch attracted visitors virtually all the ephemera presented here for you as it has been for me in writing with what it claimed to be the largest were kept by those given them, and even it. To understand more about the history regular typewriter built to that date. The their descendants, as objects that meant and meanings of the machines we love, width, depth and height were 44 inches something to them in their lives. We join me in doing what the title song from each. The platen took paper 43 inches also can see that by as early as 1915, the a mid-century movie about the LPE put so wide and the machine typed a line just preeminent positions of two companies, well: “Meet me at the fair.” ■

the same year of the LPE, 1904. And Rem- 4. The same hatpin was distributed at the Ham- The following note was intended to appear in connec- ington did this, even as it secretly created mond booth located in the Madison Square tion with the discussion of the Wellington on p. 14 of and funded the “independent” Monarch Garden Office Furniture Exhibit a few months our previous issue: Typewriter Co. as a maker of the frontstrike, later. The bottom of the oval is marked differ- visible Monarch Model 1. Also, it should be ently for each of these venues. Hammond, as There is a model of the Wellington 2 that was noted that, although the L. C. Smith company was the case for several of the typewriter com- exported to Latin American markets that is called introduced its first machine in the year of the panies, moved the same booth they had used at the “Pan-American Wellington.” The marketing to LPE, 1904, no evidence was found that they the LPE to the New York show. those areas alone could explain the special name, mounted a display at the fair to introduce it. 5. The typing sample presented here was saved but it might also stem from the Williams Compa- 2. The unique white Blickensderfer with serial by the descendants of Mayme Moore of San ny’s presentation at the Pan-American Exhibition. number #1904w often is referred to by collec- Bernardino, California. The Hammond type The Pan partly justified its name as a stimulus to tors as the “Moby Blick.” It is in Herman Price’s sample was used as one sheet of a letter hand- trade throughout the Western Hemisphere. There collection, and he shared the photograph in written to her by her sister. The sister visited is no evidence concerning that possibility beyond Figure 20. the St. Louis World’s Fair in July, 1904. the early serial models of some of the Wellingtons 3. The original photograph of Chief Antonio 6. The Oliver wine-testing kit is from the Herman with the “Pan American” decal on them. The low- using his Blickensderfer Model 5 at the Loui- Price collection. est serial number identified for this Wellington siana Purchase Exposition in 1904 is owned 7. No direct evidence of a Simplex display at the version is #9280. Moreover, the closest document- by and curated in the archives of the Univer- exposition was found, but many references ed serial number for a regular Wellington is #6530 sity of Pennsylvania Museum, Philadelphia, assume that, because the word “souvenir” in 1899. The #9280 is logically possible as a 1901 Pennsylvania. The archives include most of appears on the special model, the company date, but there are no definitive data to prove that. the glass negatives created by Jessie Tarbox was present. Moreover, it is not clear whether More research is needed to clarify this issue. Beals, who, soon after the photo here was Simplex gave away or sold the souvenir type- taken, became the head photographer for writers to visitors. the exposition. Permission to use the image 8. Gabe Burbano collection. (UPM image #76148) here is for a single- 9. The first Underwood electric intended for time use. Any other publication of the photo regular manufacturing and marketing was requires the express written permission of introduced in 1946, but none were delivered its owner. until the next year.

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 15 Collector’s Corner Danny Jordan

In this installment of Collector’s Corner, ers. After collecting for about a year, So are you looking to narrow your Mark and Christina Albrecht interview Dan- I found the Facebook group [Antique focus? ny Jordan. Danny has a vast collection rang- Typewriter Collectors]. That group It is very difficult to set aside a par- ing from antique to mid-century machines has allowed people that have similar ticular manufacturer. At first I started in all their wonderful colors. His collecting interests to get together and share. The wanting to get the prime examples of includes not only typewriters but radios, computer allows for easy access and each of them, standards or portables— phonographs and various other items. validation in my collecting. I see the like the Royal O and P, Remington Noise- collecting group as a support group less, the Smith-Corona 3-series Silent Danny, how did you get started col- and a big enabler. I had always enjoyed and Super. After a few years of that, I lecting typewriters? typewriters, and finally I found my way settled on several focused lines of Royal It started with mechanical things back and jumped in. mid-century machines. in my teens, with phonographs, a few What direction is your collecting I love the color palette of the Royals, typewriters and a fascination with going in? and that is why I love the mid-century. things that did not rely on electric- People start collecting and they do not The antique machines were primarily ity. The design and the engineering is have a direction. You know what you like black, some with optional colors at an so precise, and it was all done with- and don’t like, but there is no real direc- additional cost. To collect each color is out computers: the creator just used tion. It takes a while to figure out what important; it does not change the shape, machines and knowledge of how to use your preferences will be. It’s an evolu- but it changes the tone of the machine those machines to get it accurate. When tion. I look for the design, and it must be and can affect how that machine was I was 17, I fell for a 1930s Underwood appealing. I love mid-century modern used. It tells a lot about who the owners portable in shiny black—that started it. design. This does not mean that I cannot were. For example, who bought the gold- Soon it was joined by a Canadian-made appreciate all designs; my background is plated ones? Who purchased them, and Royal 10 with an English/French key- in art and art history, and you have to be for what reasons were they purchased? board which I still have, and after a 45- open to all things. Were they seen as symbols of accom- year hiatus, I rekindled my interest and How has your collection evolved plishment and status? Why would some- started re-collecting with a vengeance over the last five years? one buy this color or that color? They about five years ago. Having been an antique dealer, I started had reasons that related to that person’s So why did you take 45 years off? with the older ones (late ’20s and ’30s ma- personal design aesthetic. I moved from one country to an- chines), but that quickly evolved into what So, you started off collecting other, and in doing so, I had to get rid of I found appealing, and I did not feel like I non-electrics, but that seems to have everything I had collected. Eventually, needed to be confined to the antique ma- changed. Why? I owned an antique store in Chicago chines. Today, I have so many that I have to It has changed a lot. Because of elec- which reignited the collecting bug. start looking at why my house has basical- tricity, print has evolved. Typewriters After moving to Columbus, Ohio, then ly become a typewriter museum. Let me span most of the history of print. I used retiring, I started collecting typewrit- partially chalk that one up to obsession. to work on some very large typesetting

16 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 systems. They were screenless keyboards never know what the future holds, of if of older machines, so the Royal colored with tape running through them. You they appeal to other collectors. portables of earlier decades are well rep- had to code your copy, then print it out, How big is your collection? resented. A friend described one room read it on a tiny “green screen” and see It is in the 340 range, with electrics ac- of the collection as “walking into a room what changes you had to make. What re- counting for about 25 and growing. IBMs full of Skittles.” ally got me going on electric typewriters are starting to grow as well. What are some of your dream was the computer. Computers were really What was your most memorable find? machines? the demise of the typewriter. Not only An R. C. Allen Electrite. I had pur- I’d love to run across the following, did people get rid of typewriters, but chased, sight unseen, an Electress and hopefully in unappreciated environ- the businesses all got rid of typewriters. went to pick it up out in the countryside ments: Williams no. 1, Yost no. 1, a Cahill These machines were phased out very at what turned out to be, of all places, electric or a Blick Electric—the one that quickly. Most offices had IBM Selectrics, a pinball business/warehouse. The everyone wants! A 1925 Remington stan- but not even those could stand up to com- Electress was great, white and Double dard electric is in the pipeline as long as puters. So most electric standards were Gothic! However, a dishevelled ma- the stars align. scrapped. For instance, Smith-Corona chine sat on a cart with five or so other Do you ever use typewriters, or do office typewriters are almost impossible poorly-kept business machines that the you just put them on the shelf? to find. Any electric standard that is not owner had purchased in Kentucky from At my age, I have used typewriters for an IBM is difficult to find. I think it is a closed business. It turned out to be an many years, even as a cold typesetter. But important to seek them out, find them, extremely elusive Electrite, without a these days, not so much—in fact, hardly and save them. typebar cover. ever. What writing I do is primarily cor- Do you feel like collectors under- What was your best deal? respondence, and I prefer handwriting value the electrics? A Pittsburgh Visible no. 10 found for a that. However, that could change in a I think it is twofold: in general collec- whopping $80! heartbeat! tors like portable machines more than What kinds of machines especially Do you repair your machines? standards, and out of the standards, I fascinate you? Yes, although I believe that I am better think the electrics are given the least at- I find that machines with an unusual at the cosmetics of repair and restora- tention. I am focused on creating a time- striking method capture my attention in tion. The engineering is fascinating, but line of electric machines. Electrics were a big way—any upstrikes and of course often requires something that I am short around, but did not take off in popularity Olivers, Williams, Emerson, and Blick, to on: patience. until after the Second World War. The name a few. Thank you, Danny, for allowing us ones that I really like are those from the What are some favorites in your a view into your world of collecting. ■ 1950s and on, and of course, the colors. I collection? have restricted myself to machines that My Blicks, the VisOmatics, and of Up next in Collector’s Corner, we meet an use ribbon spools. So far I have kept away course, the designs and colors of the entire family of typewriter collectors: the from the cartridge machines, but you ’50s, like the Futura 800s. I am still a fan Brumfields.

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 17 portables, etcetera : by robert messenger

The Shooting of Dewayne Cantrell An End to Mayhem in Typewriters’ Industrial History

dewayne lee cantrell, 59, lives in An incident which put an end to Denham Springs, Louisiana, and has a this epoch of strife might have seemed .22-caliber long-rifle, copper-sheathed inevitable: a life-threatening injury to bullet lodged deep in his brain. He is an innocent young bystander. The strap the surviving legacy of the lowest point across the banner headline on the lead reached in the long and bitter history article on page one of the Springfield Dai- of industrial upheaval in the American ly News on March 27, 1969, summed up typewriter industry. what happened: “Boy Labor Fuss Victim.” This often bloody history began and The main heading was “Shooting Nets ended with shootings. Early on in the in- Mayhem Count.” famous 1936-40 Remington Rand strikes, At 10:45 on the night of March 25, a on August 11, 1936, Syracuse factory sleeping 10-year-old Dewayne Cantrell toolmaker Warren Eugene McMahon, the was shot in the head during an unplanned 30-year-old son of the New York Tele- union raid on his non-striking father’s phone Company’s Ithaca manager, was home in Brookline, outside Springfield. riddled with 175 birdshot pellets when The cause: three weeks earlier, James Stewart issued his own statement shot by Herbert Palmer, one of Pearl Ber- Leroy Cantrell had crossed picket lines to from his New York office, saying, “We goff’s thugs masquerading as a security continue working in the plating depart- are closing out plant immediately. Ha- guard outside the home of strikebreaker ment of the Royal factory on East Sunshine rassment and threats to our employees Fremont Thorneley. McMahon later sued Street. During the union raid, the boy was for the past few weeks have finally cul- Remington for $50,000, but died of a hit by a stray slug when the Cantrell house minated in a senseless attack which has heart attack in Syracuse on April 27, 1941, was peppered with small arms fire. Two caused serious injury to the 10-year-old aged just 35. Thorneley’s loyalty, mean- men had left the Union Hall strike head- son of one of our employees. Therefore while was rewarded with his promotion quarters, reportedly intoxicated, intent we feel we can no longer operate safely to executive in charge of typewriter qual- on spreading tacks on the driveway of the in such a labor environment of contin- ity control at Elmira. Cantrell property. It all got horribly out of ued intimidation and violence.” The The 33 years after 1936 were marked, hand. “It’s a pretty low thing to do,” Jimmie company offered $5,000 for information in particular, by three violent and pro- Cantrell later lamented. on the shooting. tracted strikes, two on either side of As the critically injured Dewayne An Allied Industrial Workers member, World War II involving Remington Rand, underwent surgery in St John’s Hospi- ex-World War II GI Earl Hiram Murray, the third at Royal’s factory in Springfield, tal’s intensive care unit, with the bullet readily confessed the morning after the Missouri, in 1969. The Royal dispute was lodged three inches inside his brain, the shooting and was charged with mayhem. started by a clumsy attempt to repeat the Springfield Daily News reported “produc- He was eventually sentenced to three discredited tactics employed by Rem- tion of typewriters slowed to a halt at the years’ jail. Murray was a Brookline neigh- ington just before war, and concerned Royal plant.” Industrial relations manag- bor of the Cantrell family. “It’s a shame,” majority union representation status on er Edgar A. Vogus announced, “The Royal police reported Murray as saying when the factory floor. Typewriter Company plant at Springfield he was arrested. An accomplice, union has been closed to ensure the safety of official Richard Vernon Brown, received a Royal employees effective at 5pm today two-year prison sentence. (March 26). The plant will remain closed The Springfield strike, which started until further notice, according to Robert at midnight on February 21, ended on Stewart, president of Royal.” May 9, but the Allied Industrial Work-

18 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 The strong International Association of Machinists (IAM), then affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL), began organizing skilled Remington workers at Elmira, New York (as well as at the Underwood factory in Hartford, Connecticut) in March 1934, setting off two years of increasingly acrimonious negotiations toward a 40-hour week and 5% pay rise. The bitterness eventually extended to seven Remington factories. Remington president James H. Rand refused to bargain with the new orga- nization. On May 8, 1934, 6,500 workers struck and forced Remington to rec- ognize the union and sign a collective bargaining agreement. Rand, however, continued a policy of harrassment and obstruction. In May 1936, Remington spread false news that its plants were to be sold to a company that would not recognize the union. It then announced it had purchased a typewriter plant in Elmira and might close the Tonawanda and Syracuse, New York facilities. In fact, Remington had already contracted with millwrights to dismantle these plants and, within days of the start of the strike, began crating plant machinery at Syracuse and Tonawanda, as well as in Middletown, Connecticut. It also ers continued to fight a $520,825 dam- was mentioned during the hearing and fired 19 union activists (labeling them ages suit pursued by Jimmie and Mary Jo in the subsequent findings. The matter “agitators”) in Syracuse, Tonawanda and Cantrell over the shooting. They settled was decided on March 31, 1976: Royal Ilion, New York. On May 25, workers in out of court for $60,000 in October 1972. was found to have committed unfair Syracuse and Tonawanda walked off the At that end of a grim spring, Royal closed practices in connection with contract job, followed the next day by 1000 at the the factory, at the cost of 1,200 jobs, with negotiations at Springfield. Noiseless typewriter plant in Middle- the company citing “excess capacity and The Springfield shooting was the nadir town, and by other employees in Mari- price deterioration.” of an era in which typewriter companies etta and Norwood, Ohio. By then the Cantrells had left Brook- and their employees were often seen to be Rand brought in “scab” labor and line for Kansas. Dewayne survived, at each other’s throats. The ugly 1936-40 hired the notorious strikebreaker Pearl and in 2000, started an Internet stock Remington strikes are still regarded as Bergoff, at a cost of $25,850. “Bergoff’s investment advice service from his home being among the most violent in the tur- Technique,” later revised as the reviled in Louisiana. “The bullet is still in the bulent history of U.S. industrial relations. “Mohawk Valley Formula,” was a cor- middle of my brain,” he said at the time. porate plan to discredit union leaders, “Surgeons can’t get at it. I get headaches frighten the public with the threat of from it, but it’s just something I have to violence, use police and vigilantes to live with.” intimidate strikers, form puppet asso- On January 7, 1975, Royal went up ciations of “loyal employees” to influ- against the National Labor Relations ence public debate, fortify workplaces, Board (NLRB) and the Allied Industrial employ large numbers of strikebreakers, Workers in unfair labor practice pro- and threaten to close plants if work was ceedings in the United States Court of not resumed. The formula was described Appeals, having failed to award back by Rand himself in an article published and vacation pay, restore a pension plan in the National Association of Manufac- and order reimbursement for strike turers Labor Relations Bulletin in the benefits, union dues, legal expenses and fourth month of the strikes. Bergoff’s costs. The shooting of Dewayne Cantrell so-called “security deputies” were armed

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 19 with Remington handguns and billy a wide array of aggressive anti-union On July 14, vicious fighting broke out clubs. State and municipal police and the tactics. They also exposed company-law at the Ilion plant, and two days later the National Guard were called in to restore enforcement collusion. Together, these three plants there were closed. Unions law and order. On July 22, Connecticut revelations cost Remington whatever brought in members from other facto- Governor Wilbur L. Cross asked Gover- sympathy and support it had garnered ries in a bid to bolster picket lines and nor Martin L. Davey of Ohio and Gover- through the “Mohawk Valley Formula.” stop strikebreakers. The confrontation nor Herman H. Lehman of New York to The November 1937 issue of Consum- reached its zenith in Benton Harbor on join him in meeting Rand to discuss an ers Union Reports quoted the NLRB as July 23, when the plant was closed and end to the strikes, but with Rand de- saying “the company’s grim determina- those who wanted to return to work manding to set the agenda, the plan met tion not to bargain collectively [was an were turned away. with no success. attempt] to settle the issue by force.” It The strike came to an end on July 28 On March 13, 1937, the NLRB issued called the “Mohawk Valley Formula” “a at all plants but Elmira — where the a 120-page decision finding Remington battle plan for industrial war” and said 6,500 IAM members settled on August guilty of violating federal labor law. Rand exhibited “a callous, imperturbable 1 for 11½ cents an hour. Other union It highlighted the anti-union tactics disregard of the rights of his employees members voted to accept a two-year Remington had used and accused Rand that is medieval in its assumption of contract in return for a raise of 8 cents of putting himself above the law and power over the lives of men and shocking an hour plus six paid holidays, but this wantonly violating the National Labor in its concept of the status of the modern soon rose to the asked-for 15 cents. Be- Relations Act. In the board’s view, this industrial worker.” fore the raise, workers averaged $54 for amounted to open economic and class With the scars from the pre-war a 40-hour week. warfare. It ordered Remington to rein- disputes still very raw, Remington work- As he had done during the dispute a state, with back pay, the 30 sacked union ers again heard the “call to arms” (as decade earlier, James Rand laid low. The leaders, reinstate 4,000 workers still on one union official labeled it) during an final agreement to end the 1947 strikes strike, dismantle “counter unions” estab- almost equally nasty eight-week series came through ship-to-shore radio tele- lished by the company, and recognize the of strikes starting at the end of May 1947. phone negotiations between Rand, on his AFL-IAM union in its six existing plants, This time eight Remington plants were yacht in Long Island Sound, and Albert J. as well as the new plant in Elmira. Rand affected. Trouble first erupted at Elmira, Fitzgerald, president of United Electrical, refused to obey and fewer than 300 of where 6,500 members of the now- in New York City. the 4,000 strikers were re-employed, independent International Association Minority stockholders sued Reming- none of the union leaders. The U.S. Labor of Machinists succeeded in closing the ton officials and directors for “recklessly Department was asked to intervene as factory after their claim for a 15-cents- provoking” the strikes, “intimidating, the NLRB sought a federal court ruling to an-hour pay rise was met with a 7 cents coercing and threatening employees” make Rand toe the line. As well, a federal offer. The workers, including more and wasting $1 million on “illegal and grand jury indicted Rand and Bergoff for than 1,000 war veterans, demonstrated improper” expenditure on “anti-labor” violating the Byrnes Act by transport- against company claims of violent as- policies. The stockholders argued direc- ing strikebreakers interstate (they were saults on non-strikers. tors had acted against the best inter- later acquitted). The battle spread to Syracuse, where ests of the company, dating back to the On February 14, 1938, Judge Billings on June 13, a union official, toolmaker 1936-40 disputes, and had lost prestige, Learned Hand, writing for a unanimous Monroe W. Milliman, was sacked and customers and sales. But in early De- court, ruled that Remington had to obey 1,400 workers walked off the job. By June cember the NLRB decertified the United the terms of the NLRB’s decision. Rem- 18, another 6,000 members of the United Electrical union at Remington plants ington appealed to the U.S. Supreme Electrical, Radio and Machine Work- over a refusal by union leaders to sign Court, which refused to grant certio- ers of America-Congress of Industrial non-Communist affidavits. rari. By the end of the year Remington Organisations had joined the dispute. In More to the point, I suppose, is that began closing down the Middletown all, 14,000 unionists — from Tonawanda, Remington announced that sales for the factory anyway, and production of the North Tonawanda, Ilion, Herkimer, Elmi- eight months to the end of November 1947 Noiseless was moved to Elmira and ra, Syracuse and Benton Harbor — were had reached $100 million, up $13 million Ilion. The strike settlement was not involved in industrial action. Picket-line from the previous year, and the com- fully implemented until mid-1940, after violence intensified from Ilion to Benton pany’s 32 plants were operating at 85% workers at Tonawanda struck again, the Harbor, and by July 23 Berrien County capacity. No wonder the minority share- strike spread and violence returned to Sheriff Erwin Kubath was asking State holders were unhappy with Rand. He’d Remington’s plants. Remington finally Governor Kim Sigler for help in what been trying to throttle a golden goose. ■ agreed to dismantle its company “coun- Kubath called a “state of insurrection.” ter unions” when the NLRB filed suit to Sigler ordered state police to furnish have Remington declared in contempt “whatever assistance is needed to main- of court. tain law and order.” At North Tonawanda, Federal investigations found the level Mayor Miles W. Joyce declared a state of of violence in the strikes had been delib- emergency after a picketer was clubbed erately manipulated by Remington, with by a policeman.

20 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 3 6 New on the Shelf

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Uwe Bethmann: Halda 8 #5592 w/ nickel-rimmed key tops nental portable #R033424, 10 Mercedes Lars Borrmann: S-P Blick, Flexowriter Thomas Kramer: Minerva Braille Superba S #16141371 11 Automatic Perforator, 1 Dactyle 3 writer #278 5 Ron Ronzio: gold-plated Royal Quiet De Richard Boydstun: Hammond 1 #246 Flavio Mantelli: Duplex #1096, 6 Postal 7 Luxe with stand 2 Franz Pehmer: Royal 10, Merz 1, Rem- Joe Scheidegger: Spanish Remington Don Feldman: Hammond 1 3 ington Std. 5 w/ French QWKRTZ kbd. 7 Port. 1 #NA00157 Thomas Fürtig: Olympia SGE Excellence Richard Polt: pink Hispano-Olivetti Dale Schellenger: Commercial Vis- (proportional spacing) Pluma 22, Olivetti Editor 2 ible 6 #24088, 12 Sun 2 #16396, Dactyle Glenn Gravatt: Oliver 9 #920416 4 Herman Price: Granville Automatic, #505, Imperial B #19985, 13 Remington Martin Howard: Hall 1 New York #803 America 5 (Odell), white Underwood 4 8 2 #43699, Hammond 26 folding w/ math w/ all nickel-plated parts, Munson 1 Javier Romano: Victoria 5 #0053, 9 red keyboard #F249589G2 #1959 w/ black lacquered wooden ribbon garnet Corona Four Ethan Singree: Yost 4 #56360, Densmore spools, Rem-Sho 1 #3178, Caligraph 2 Manfred Rommel: green marble Conti- 2 parts machine, Remington 10 #RV09893

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 21 9 12 15

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18 Sirvent brothers: Bar-Lock portable #2723, 14 Gyrus 15 Maxim Suravegin: Kanzler 3, Odell 1, Odell 2, Helios-Klimax, Moskva 2 & 4 & 5, Munson 1, Fox 4, Peoples, Hammond 1, Mercedes 3 Fraktur, Imperial B, New Century, Pittsburg, National 1, Chicago, Ideal A Polyglott #97839 (1913) w/ math- Wanted ematical keyboard 16 Peter Weil: white Remington 2 Deluxe Wanted: A pair of ribbon spools for a Portable #NC57126 (1925), 17 red Olivetti Columbia Bar-Lock Model 14. Giti Samar, MP1 ICO #17281 (1934) 18 [email protected].

22 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 Tale of the Erika (continued from page 7) On Our Cover: and before I knew it, I was able to leave the shop and the sunny window. Dietz, Beer, and a Bennett “How happy I was. The only thing I didn’t care for was his rough way of handling me. He smacked the letters onto the paper pretty violently. I believe he’d never had a young lady in his presence. But I survived without any injuries. Twice I visited a ‘typewriter doctor,’ but I was never really sick. Once a ‘tooth’ fell out, and once my platen got too hard.” “But what are you and I supposed to do now?” “I think you should pay Mr. Notary a little ransom and take me with you. He’s forgotten about me anyway. Now he’d rather play with his computer—a really impersonal relationship. Then, we’ll go to your house and I can relax in your display case after my exciting life.” And that’s just what we did. That’s how I met my girlfriend Erika. Many say it’s just a typewriter, and what I wanted from Notary Schlesinger surely isn’t so important. But I’m smitten with her every time I see her again on the shelf, in her little red dress. ■

Translated by Richard Polt

J. A. Collins (left) and Carl Dietz (right)

Here is a follow-up to Robert Messen- was an extremely rare miniature type- ger’s report in ETCetera No. 111 that Carl writer, a Bennett. At the time (and even Dietz received a Bennett in exchange for today), Brownwood was a major produc- a barrel of beer. tion area for pecans. This is a wire photo dated March 15, It was the Depression, and money for 1935. By that time, Dietz was on the board such things as early typewriters was hard of the Milwaukee Public Museum. While to come by. So Dietz and Collins negoti- the museum had some of the earliest ated a deal. Collins and his Veterans of typewriters, especially Sholes & Glid- Foreign Wars post would exchange the dens, it had little else. So Dietz went out rare typewriter for a barrel of Milwaukee on a mission to stock the collection with beer. Dietz persuaded Schlitz to supply it. other early typewriters. Of course, there And, to promote their main crop, the VFW was no Internet and newspapers tended also threw in some bags of pecans. It is not to stay local, so finding early writing clear whether the VFW actually bought machines was difficult. the typewriter from Collins or not. The author as a young apprentice at the Once, while in Brownwood, Texas, he The Bennett is still at the museum, but, Triumph factory in Nuremberg. happened to go into a store owned by J. well, you know where the beer has gone. A. Collins. There he saw what he thought —Peter Weil

ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018 • 23 d the W un or ro ld A HBw-Aktuell ifhb.de

January 2018 typewriterdatabase.com • eBay highlights • Early calculators Updated pages on typewriterdatabase.com: Dong-Ah Precision, Hammond, K-Mek, February 2018 Underwood, IBM, Royal, Blickensderfer, Historische Burowelt • Early pencil sharpeners Hermes, Adler, Smith Corona, ABC, An- ifhb.de tares, Brosette March 2018 No. 110, December 2017 • Type alignment tool Typewriter repair manual reprints • Olympia Traveller • Board of Directors’ report from Theodore Munk: • Third DMG typewriter found (Search for “Munk” at • Friden computer incorporating www.thebookpatch.com/SiteSearch) Flexowriter The 1970 Ames Standard & Electric Type- writer Repair Manual The Hermes Baby and Rocket Typewriter Repair Bible The Manual Typewriter Repair Bible The Noiseless Standard Typewriter Repair Bible typexnews.com The Olivetti Lettera 22 Typewriter Repair Bible The Olympia SG1 Typewriter Repair Bible Vol. 30, No. 1, February 2018 The Olympia SM 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7 Type- [email protected] • Typewriter on a submarine writer Repair Bible • Nov. 2017 Breker auction highlights The Smith-Corona 6YC Series Typewriter No. 71, December 2017 • JFK’s Smith-Corona electric portable Repair Manual • Zerograph (story in Italian & English) • Displaying your collection in a The Smith-Corona Floating Shift Typewriter • Olivetti designer Mario Bellini small space Repair Bible

Letters Congrats on another great issue! I espe- their vicinity. You must, however, use other cially like the variety of topics: a new type- means to contact those collectors. —Ed. writer, meetings, ephemera, repairs, show and tell, book reviews, etc. However, I am greatly disappointed in the new format of the roster. One of the foremost goals of our group is to stimulate interaction between members. Also, listing by country and even by individual states makes finding a per- son harder. If some people want privacy, then accommodate them by not providing their direct contact info in their listing. I came across the “Tweaking Your Olym- —Hoby Van Deusen pia SM” story in the September 2011 Lakeville, Connecticut ETCetera, with the suggestion to take up I read with interest [Herman Price’s] some of the slack in the spacebar linkage comments on the last page [of issue 119]. We had a few complaints about the roster by bending the tip of the actuator. Here’s [“Two members of the original group in the past from members who did not want an alternative for people who are intimi- are still members today, Jim Rauen and their personal information disclosed, and at dated by the prospect of bending metal: a Darryl Rehr.”] How come I feel left out or this time of increased concern about privacy, small (4-inch) zip tie will just fill most of maybe even deceased? all organizations are being held to higher the gap between the actuator and the es- —Alan Chamberlain standards for protecting such information. capement release, eliminating dead travel (ETCA Charter Member #3) The ETCA board of directors concluded that from the spacebar linkage. If it’s a little too Vista, California the best solution, though it cannot please ev- thick, you can use a nail file to thin down eryone, is to omit most personal information the zip tie before it’s snugged in place. We apologize for the omission and are de- from the roster, but give members an easy —Garrett Lai lighted to have you with us. —Ed. way to find the names of other collectors in Orange County, California

24 • ETCetera No. 120 • Spring 2018