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L.T. Hanlon

Typewriters highlight museum exhibit

June 22, 2019June 22, 2019 L.T. Hanlon4 Comments
Photo of several people using some of the eight typewriters available for visitors to try out at the American Writers Museum in Chicago.
Test driving typewriters is a big attraction at Chicago’s American Writers Museum, which just opened its “Tools of the Trade” exhibit.

Oops! Never mind my comment below about the birthyear of Gwendolyn Brooks’ Hermes Rocket. I totally misread that as “1954.” It actually is from 1964 — and I wish I were of a similar vintage!

This photo of a typewritten page shows the following. Saturday, June 22, 2019, Chicago, USA. Smith-Corona Silent—Super; 1954; Pica. Museum exhibit is just my type. Thanks to my ex-boss Laura Strom, I got to accompany her to the preview of a new exhibit at Chicago's American Writers Museum called Tools of the Trade. It’s about typewriters mostly. In addition, visitors can test drive the actual models that are featured in most of the displays. I especially enjoyed trying out an Olympia SG—1 and appreciated its snappy, powerful operation. Another outstanding model on view for testing was a Smith—Corona Super Sterling whose incredible response surprised me. As for the behind—glass typewriters once owned by famous folks, the most amazing one was a 1902 Bar-Lock owned by Jack London. The thing looks like an Enigma machine — there are separate keys for upper- and lower-case letters. There's a 1926 Underwood 4-Bank once owned by Orson Welles that I found particularly interesting since its keys are so tiny that I can’t possibly imagine Orson managing to have plunged his sausage snappers onto them with any degree of accuracy. Other celebrity machines on view once were the prized possessions of Truman Capote, Gore Vidal, Ray Bradbury, and Mae West. My favorite celebrity typewriter was the Hermes Rocket owned by Gwendolyn Brooks — made in 1954 just like me! There’s also a 1939 Royal Portable DeLuxe owned by Jerry Siegel, co—creator of Superman. This exhibit is definitely worth seeing.

Museum display shows Gwendolyn Brooks' Hermes Rocket typewriter. The typewriter is streamlined and graceful, just like Brooks' writing.

Museum display shows Jack London's 1902 Bar-Lock typewriter. This machine bears little resemblence to later typewriters and has separate keys for uppercase and lowercase letters, as well as keys for numbers seemingly scattered at random. It could pass for a spy coding and decoding device.

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They rubbered me the right way!

June 14, 2019 L.T. Hanlon6 Comments
Photo of a Smith-Corona Silent-Super portable typewriter. It is painted in what the manufacturercalled desert sand and on the left front bears a decal indicating that at some point in its life the typewriter was sold or serviced by Windward Office Machines, a company on the island of Oahu, Hawaii.
Thanks to J.J. Short Associates Inc., my Smith-Corona Silent-Super manufactured in 1954 is ready to keep making good impressions on readers for another 65 years.

This photo of a typewritten page contains the following text. Friday, June 14, 2019. Chicago, USA. Smith-Corona Silent-Super, 1954, Pica. Free enterprise in action. Even when a vintage typewriter Is In near—perfect condition there’s always one item that's likely to be in bad shape: the rubber platen. Old platen coatings become hard and contribute to noisy typing and poor letter impressions. Typing with a second sheet or even a plastic piece behind your main paper can be partial and temporary solutions. But a permanent fix requires replacing the rubber. Some folks have managed to do the job themselves using rubber hose cut to fit and then heat-shrunk. But that’s way beyond my technical capabilities, so I was dee-lited to learn that J. J. Short Associates Inc., a family—owned company Just outside Rochester, N.Y., has risen to the occasion and is now replacing rubber for typewriter platens, feed rollers, and other components. The company completed my platen’s recoating quickly and at a reasonable price. This is a great example of free enterprise!

Need your platen stripped and re-rubberized?
J.J. Short Associates Inc. is ready to do the job.

 

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‘High Chaparral’ improves with age

June 10, 2019June 9, 2019 L.T. HanlonLeave a comment

Frame grab of opening title for The High Chaparral shows a bright orange slowing rider on a rearing horse with the show's title superimposed in a white, western-style typeface.

Photo of a typewritten page with the following text. Lately, I've been watching all available episodes of The High Chaparral on YouTube and have a new appreciation for this series. Seeing the show all these decades later is really amazing. What I didn't know the first time around is that the story is inspired by the life and times of a real historical character, Pete Kitchen. What's really astonishing is that long before political correctness and diversity were rammed down popular culture's throat with a toilet plunger, The High Chaparral depicted essentially a blended family of European-Americans, Mexicans and Indians. In an era in which Mexicans were generally portrayed as hopeless stereotypes, Victoria and her brother, Manolito, are characters with depth and subtlety. In one of my favorite episodes, an English nobleman comes to the Arizona Territory to try to get Victoria to return to England as his wife. It turns out the guy had met Victoria and her bother in Paris years ago, where their father, Don Sebastian Montoya, had sent them to school. I sometimes forget how long ago this show was made, since the producers were even able to get Cochise's 94-year-old grandson, Nino Cochise, to portray the Apache leader.

 

“The High Chaparral” on YouTube.

Fan website devoted to the series.

Arizona rancher Pete Kitchen, who provided much of the inspiration for the show.

Note: An earlier version of this post appeared in a blog of mine several years ago.

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My favorite country song

June 9, 2019June 9, 2019 L.T. Hanlon1 Comment

One of my all-time favorite country songs is Red River Valley. The tune's been covered by hundreds of performers in dozens of genres; one of the best is the duet above by Stevie Nicks and Chris Isaak. I've given considerable thought to the enduring popularity of this song, whose origins are variously traced to Manitoba, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and even Europe, and have concluded that Red River Valley touches something deep in us because it speaks a sad and uncomfortable truth that one way or another we will lose everything in this world that we love. The song's message comes through even when sung by Warren Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway owns several Western bootmakers, including Justin and Tony Lama.

Note: An earlier version of this post was published on a blog of mine several years ago.

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Paper, rubber, imperfection

June 7, 2019 L.T. Hanlon8 Comments

 

Photo of a box of Southworth Businessd 100 Percent Cotton Paper
I really like this Southport 100% Cotton Business Paper. It’s less than $20 on Amazon.

 

Photo of a typewritten page with the following text. Chicago, Friday, June 7, 2019. Just a mixed bag of updates this time. Paper -- I've found a nice paper with a surface compatible with both typewriters and hand-writing tools such as pencils, ballpoints, gel points, and more. Another fun plus is that the paper, Southport, Business 100% Cotton, feels sort of like money after you’ve crumpled it multiple times. Rubber stamps -- Lately, I’ve enjoyed personalizing my correspondence with rubber stamps. I especially like the Chicago flag stamp I’ve used here. Non-perfection -- A fear of being less than perfect has hamstrung my freelance writing efforts but I’ve put that behind me and am pounding away once more. Nothing can be per fect -- not even this mechanical wonder I 'm typing on right now. Its unique character registration would, in fact, ensure my quick apprehension were I to use this typewriter to create a ransom note!

 

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Guinea pig snacks for everyone!

June 5, 2019June 5, 2019 L.T. Hanlon1 Comment

 

Journalist Marc Singer stands with his back to us as he videotapes a giant alien flyinf saucer gliding over a river in El Salvador.
More than 35 years later, the slow-moving, almost-documentary style special effects in the original “V” miniseries remain effective.

Photo is of the following typewritten text. Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Chicago, USA. Those lizards still work! Today I binge-watched the original V miniseries first telecast in 1983. Surprisingly, the production holds up really well. In fact, many of its set pieces created the template for subsequent cinematic ventures into alien threats. Much of the reason why V remains visually impressive is that the special effects rejected a frenetic approach to depicting alien technology. The Visitors' gigantic saucers sweep over earth gracefully, slowly, even slower than the ships in 1996’s Independence Day. Even the Visiors' smaller craft move little faster than terrestrial helicopters when chasing humans. The only thing that doesn't work for me in V is its derivative score. Composer Joe Harnell gets a wave-through for cribbing Wagner's The Ride of the Valkyries and Gustav Holst's Mars, The Bringer of War (everybody does those), but rubberstamping Bernard Herrmann's main theme from North By Northwest makes me expect Cary Grant, James Mason, and Eva Marie Saint to show up. Still a good time, however. The shocker everybody talked about at work the next day was, of course, watching Jane Badler enjoying a rodent snack.

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Warning about that keyboard

June 5, 2019June 5, 2019 L.T. Hanlon4 Comments

This is a photo of a typewritten page containing the following text. Wednesday, June 5, 2019. Chicago, USA. The danger of typewritten letters. This will be a short one but it's a vital message nonetheless. Keep track of what's in the letters you type and mail. At least once this month a friend has emailed to tell me that I’d already described an incident once before in a previous letter. Writing letters with a typewriter isn't like using email, which offers an archive of your letters. So be careful.

 

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