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Monday 23 May 2016

Typewriters in Transit

My "Portables, Etc" column in the next edition of ETCetera reveals the fascinating and multi-talented man behind the design of the "All New Remington Personal Portable", launched in August 1949. He also designed the revolutionary keytops which appear on the model seen above. The model is on the lap of the squinting secretary of millionaire constructor Hal Hays. Hays is most famous these days for his affair with actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, who Hays made a senior vice-president and a voting board member of his company. He also gave her a massive platinum, 25-carat diamond engagement ring, costing $250,000. Zsa Zsa caused a scandal when she turned up at a Beverly Hills party for Henry Ford II given by Hays' former fiancée, Merle Oberon, who falsely claimed to be Tasmanian-born. 
 An Acehnese police officer uses an Olympia SM 18 portable typewriter to record a complaint at the back of her police car in Lhoknga, Banda Aceh, Indonesia, in February 2005. Most of the police stations in Lhoknga were destroyed by the tsunami on Boxing Day 2004.
Olympia Traveller De Luxe
1956 Triumph Gabriele
Above, Berlin Police Director Dr Werner Togotzes on the way to the scene 0f a crime in 1938.
Below, more German police work.

 Corona 4 portable typewriter used in a "mobile working station", Los Angeles, 1930.
 The Presidency, a luxury Simca car equipped with a telephone, television, radio and an Olivetti Lettera 22 portable typewriter, Paris 1958.
Corona Skyriter portable typewriter in a Cadillac at the National Automobile Show at the LA Coliseum.
 Actor Clark Gable at a Royal portable typewriter, 1960.
 French sports journalist uses a Remington Model 2 portable typewriter in a BMW convertible, Paris, 1934.
 Underwood 5 typewriter, British Pathé newsreel, 1936.
 Above and below, Olivetti DL portable typewriter, Jensen Interceptor car at Harrods show, London, 1969.

 Hungarian-born photographer 'Weegee' (Arthur Fellig, 1899-1968) on an Underwood Noiseless portable typewriter in the trunk of his Chevrolet, 1942.
 Will Rogers with Remington Model 2 portable typewriter.
Lady Gaga with Underwood Universal portable typewriter.

5 comments:

Bill M said...

I've got to add a typewriter shelf to my truck and get a driver so I can type while riding.
Those are some really fascinating photos of mobile typing.

Joe V said...

Thank you, Robert. This gives me further inspiration for mobile typing. Great photos.

David Lawrence said...

Typo?
That's a Jensen Interceptor. The F1 world champion Jenson Button was named after it! [With a slight change in spelling]

Richard P said...

What a fun theme! Quarters look a bit cramped in most of these shots ... How did they manage a car phone in 1958?

Rob Bowker said...

Thanks for an entertaining post! The Weegee picture is amazing - these day's he'd have a builder's van. It sort of makes me wonder if the photographer of this photographer had a typewriter in his 'trunk'.