I picked up my first, a Royal KMM needing a bit of work, on February 10th, 2012. A good friend of mine, Mark, had been collecting for a little while at this point, and I was jealous of his ever expanding collection. I will stay, I'm still jealous, as he's now set up in a great house with a typewriter room. His blog, TotallyYourType, is definitely worth leaving mine to read.
My machine's serial number was 2359744, putting its manufacture date sometime between January and July of 1939, making it my oldest possession at the time! Weird, right? My biggest reason for liking the machine, other than its being rock solid and a complete champ, was the label from a local (to here) typewriter shop, Cruze Typewriter Co. in Pulaski, VA.
Naturally, I got super curious about the company on the label, mostly because the phone number was unlike any I'd ever seen in my lifetime. The five digit phone number, 5-1482, really clued at how long the shop had been open for (originally opened in 1956) and I started doing research. I ended up going through years and years of newspaper archives (January 1962 through May 1980) and making copies of all the different ads that the company had had published in the local paper as well as the obituary for the owner. Some of their ads really clue in to the demographics they were looking to cater to... These two for example:
For anyone who's interested, I've taken the liberty of uploading all of the unique ads I found (in the near 20 years of newspaper archives I went through) into a single album, here. You'll probably notice I got lazy and didn't join images together for those that are split up top and bottom, sorry!
I really wanted to do this post as a typecast from the typewriter itself, but sadly that's just not possible. I mentioned having picked it up on February 12th, I didn't mention turning 21 a month and a half later on March 27th. A week or so later, I went out on a Friday night at 10pm, came back at 2am, and my KMM was gone. What remained was an empty table, puke on the table, and a microfiber cloth of mine that had both puke and typewriter ribbon ink on it. Sketch.
Anyhow, that was my first experience with typewriter ownership, mixing alcohol and typewriters, and typewriter theft. I've bought several others since then, but I'll save those for another day and another post!
Sounds like you sat at an empty table and cursed a bit. Good post!
ReplyDeleteI remember you said you did research on the ads, I didn't know you had found so many!
Thanks again for the shoutout, and yup! Whole bunch of time and effort was my main reason for being disappointed at it being taken, it's not particularly hard to find a KMM as you and I both know, maybe it'll find its way back to me at some point? That'd make the story end even better.
DeleteWhat an entertaining and creative bunch of ads! I like the one that calls a Royal a "Thinking Machine," the one that refers to "Ten Buck Two" (Timbuktu?), and the one that calls a Selectric "YOU KNOW, THE ONE WITH THE BALL?"
ReplyDeleteWell, that was certainly an unpleasant experience with your former KMM. I suppose the only bright spot is that typewriters are now perceived as worth stealing. The old joke used to be: A typewriter collector was traveling with a rare Royal Grand in the back seat of his car and stopped for dinner. When he came out, he was shocked to see that his car window was broken. He ran over in a panic, but it was too late: someone had stuck another typewriter in the car!
Welcome to the typosphere.
PS: Is that an Oliver in the background?
Thanks for the warm welcome and for adding me to both your personal blog roll and the Typosphere roll! I had a blast finding the ads, found quite a few other gems in the newspapers that were less than politically correct...
DeleteEver the keen eye, it sure is an Oliver. More on that in another post without a doubt ;)
Sorry about the bad experience but it makes a good story. Welcome to the typosphere!
ReplyDeleteGood experience, bad experience, that's all entirely subjective based on other experiences... I still consider it a good experience (first time doing any typewriter repair was on this machine), but I'd definitely say I've had better experiences since then. Thanks for the welcome!
DeleteTypewriter theft? How curious. However, I'm comically imagining a drunken fool stumbling down the street with a 15kg piece of iron and steel - barely able to stand up.
ReplyDeleteI agree. I looked in all the places near my apartment that I would think of dumping something if I were drunk (including the nearby dumpsters), couldn't find it. Kind of a shame, but I learned from the experience and have picked up machines since then that I like better
DeleteWow...someone stealing a monster of a machine like that. I can't even imagine. Of course, when I have a recently acquired machine in my backseat on a day full of flea markets and the like, I always try to conspicuously cover it with a sweatshirt or something...just for the fear it would be stolen. Have fun in the typosphere...there is a lot to do and a lot to learn here. Welcome!
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