Dashing Brylcreemed Heroes of Our Youth
There was possibly a time and a place at which the beaming smile of Denis Charles Scott Compton bearing down upon me might not have seemed so incongruous. But now that it does so, from a pinboard above...
View ArticlePrinters of the Lost Art: 1950 Australian Printers' Handbook
There seems to be quite a bit of interest out there in the Typosphere about old-style printing and publishing - the terminology, the technology and the history (so pleased that printers were expected...
View ArticleSinging the Praises of Eleanor, ETCetera
Eleanor Kerr Eleanor BoardmanEleanor RooseveltEleanor MitchellEleanor Dark's typewriterAbove, Eleanor Roosevelt's typewriter; below, Mrs Roosevelt in New Zealand in 1910The great Lou Gehrig with his...
View ArticleAll-American Rugger Bert 'Stubby' Stolz, the Snark, Oakland's Jack London,...
Oakland author Jack London (1876-1916, seated right), his wife and self-proclaimed "typewriter" Clara Charmian Kittredge London (1871-1955), and the then 20-year-old US rugby union player and "ship's...
View ArticlePaddy O’Dea, Flying, Lying, Kicking Kangaroo Who Knocked Back Dame Nellie...
This suave, smooth-typewriting young man is Patrick John O'Dea (1872-1962), an Australian who was one of the first "superstars" of American football - a Wisconsin wizard and a record-breaker dubbed the...
View ArticleA Curious Mix: Smith Premier Junior Portable Typewriter with French for Egypt...
I spotted this unusual Smith Premier"Junior" portable typewriter - very similar to a Remette - in an antiques store in Fyshwick, Canberra, yesterday. The sellers claim it has a French keyboard, but it...
View ArticleNakajima A-T 3002 Portable Typewriter
The standard models of the humble Nakajima portable typewriter have been sold in many guises - most notably in this country under the Litton brands Royal and Imperial (but also locally rebranded by CFM...
View ArticleThe Very Ordinary Brother EP-22 Electronic Typewriter: For the Benefit of Mr...
Ted Munk found my blog post of July 2013 called Flight of Wedges (Electronic Typewriters). Ted asked, "If you still have that Brother EP-22 baby wedge and haven't given it a try, maybe you could at...
View ArticleIt Pays To Advertise: 1931 Torpedo 15 Portable Typewriter
On this day last week, Tuesday, September 8th, I was out and about with a list of tasks, including having a look at that Smith Premier Junior portable with the Egyptian-French keyboard in an antique...
View ArticleTypewriter Update September 2015
Forty Years of Fawlty TypersI don't believe it! It will be 40 years on Saturday since the first episode of Fawlty Towers, unquestionably the funniest series ever to appear on television, was shown (on...
View ArticleRIP Jackie Collins (1937-2015)
Jackie Collins at her Torpedo Blue Bird portable typewriter in 1970. She is with her then three-year-old daughter Tiffany Lerman. Tiffany's father was art gallery and nightclub owner Oscar Lerman,...
View ArticleJessica Fletcher and Our New PM
What links the baby pounding the Mercedes Prima portable in the top image and the lady at the Royal KMM standard in the bottom?One is the new Prime Minister of Australia, former journalist Malcolm...
View ArticleWhy J B Hi-Fi Can Go To Hell
This beautiful Brisbane boy in a typewriter T-shirt was denied entry to an electronics store because "Down Syndrome people look the same". James Milne's sister Victoria told the story on Facebook: "I...
View ArticleSunset for Jimmy Olsen and his Corona Skyriter: 'I Don't Want to be Known as...
Truth, Justiceand the Cute SkyriterJack Edward Larson, who played cub reporter-photographer Jimmy Olsen in the Adventures of Superman TV series, has died in Brentwood, Los Angeles, aged 87.Born in Los...
View ArticleKumar Ji Gets a New Typewriter
Sixty-five-year-old Indian street typist Kishan Kumar with his new typewriter on a street in Lucknow this week, after he was presented with the new machine following the September 19 destruction of his...
View ArticleHunter S.Thompson's Smith-Corona Series 5 Portable Typewriter
Hunter S.Thompson photographed at his Smith-Corona Series 5portable typewriter in Rio de Janiero in 1962.The image was taken by Thompson's photojournalist friend Robert W. (Bob) Bone.For a year from...
View ArticleTypewriter Update
Typescript survives 84 yearsFurther evidence of the durability of typewritten copy comes with the publication in Ireland this week of The Master's Choice, by John Arthur Nix (1884-1956). That this...
View ArticleDeath of the Obituary
Mike Gibson, centre, with his cousin John Jensen, left, Pat Oliphant and acting editor of the Sydney Sun, Derryn Hinch, in March 1976.In the early hours of the morning I first left Australia for...
View ArticleTrust the Modern Media? How Can I? It's Too Tidy!
Ex-Reuters journalist Jack Shafer (1957-) writes a media column called "Fourth Estate" (an expression which most commonly refers to the news media, especially print journalism or the Press) for...
View Article