Many of you know Tom Hanks as an Academy Award-winning actor, director and producer. But did you know that Hanks has been a passionate typewriter collector since the 1970s?
In fact, in the film California Typewriter that was released in 2017, Hanks said he probably has about 250 plus typewriters in his collection and “that 90% of them are in perfect working order.”
indeed, what is it about the typewriter that Hanks loves ?
“ What thrills me about typewriters, is that they are meant to do one thing and one thing lone and with the tiniest sum of campaign, maintenance, it will last a thousand years, ” he explained in an interview during the London Literature Festival with Gabby Wood, literary director of the Booker Prize Foundation and writer for the Telegraph. here is the interview in its entirety featured on YouTube published by Penguin Books UK. so where did his passion begin ?
How a Conversation in a
Cleveland Shop Sparked a Life-time Passion
Hanks was given his first typewriter from a ally who had decided to part ways with it to buy a fresh Olivetti electronic typewriter. When the time came to get it serviced in 1978, Hanks took it to a business machine store in Cleveland, only to be told by the owner that it was not worth fixing. “ He explained to me that I was in possession of a dally. It was a thing that looked like a typewriter but it was made of plastic. It was a hunk of debris. It was badly designed, ill manufactured. And then he showed me a wall of his portable typewriters and I ended up walking out of his storehouse with a Hermes 2000 which he sold me for $ 45, ” Hanks told WBEZ in an interview. That conversation sparked an reason of the art of communicating with a typewriter — and a cryptic appreciation. “ That guy altered my concept of the place a typewriter can hold in your life, ” Hanks stated in an interview with NPR. In his bible of abruptly stories titled : “ Uncommon Type, ” Hanks captured that same conversation in the floor “ These Are The Meditations Of My Heart, ” where one of his characters takes her typewriter to a rectify shop to be serviced. While the typewriters mentioned in the script are not the independent theme of the 17 short stories, they provide a corroborate function. In an interview with Lee Cowan on CBS Sunday Morning, Hanks said that he added the typewriters into each musical composition on purpose : “ It helped me formulate each narrative, ” he explained in the interview, adding that each typewriter has a personality .
So, What Does Hanks
Look for in a Typewriter?
For Hanks, it ’ s not equitable one matter that he looks for when buying a typewriter. It ’ s the exhilarate of the hunt, the mechanics, the haptic experience, the permanence of type on newspaper, the unique sounds — the shook and the click-clack-ding — that alone a typewriter can give. “ If the drums are the spine of any rock ‘n’ roll band. The voice of a typewriter is the strait of productivity, ” he explained to Cowan. While Hanks doesn ’ t have “ one ” favorite typewriter, he did reveal a few of his favorites in an consultation with Tribune-Review News Service Writer Nicole Brodeur. “ Any Smith-Corona greatest or Silent is a jewel. Any Hermes, either the greens or tan, all work like lightning. I have a thing for my Olivetti Lettera 22 ’ s, as they are masterpieces of design, the legal action is brainsick fast and light up, and the typewriter is in the Museum of Modern Art. ” Hanks uses his typewriters to create memos, patronize lists and reminders but admits to using a calculator for writing longer works like his book “ Uncommon Type. ”
Was That Tom Hanks That
Just Walked In?
When looking for a typewriter, it ’ s not uncommon to see Hanks at a swap meet or perusing a typewriter workshop. In fact, four years ago, Hanks stopped by our Typewriters.com facility in Tucker, Ga., to check out our extensive inventory of typewriters. 
Tom Hanks stands with Typewriters.com collapse Jim Riegert. “ Tom Hanks came into my store and said that he liked collecting typewriters and equitable wanted to look about. He thought I had a lot of interest things and ended up picking out a 1970s Smith Corona typewriter that I fixed up and sold to him, ” recalls Jim. “ I did n’t realize how passionate he was about typewriters to have the HanxWriter web site. But he was fair a decent, down-to-earth ridicule, and talked to everybody here, and walked in the back with the staff to check out the stock. It was an concern experience. ” Hanks has besides stopped in typewriter shops across the country like California Typewriter Company ( the shop featured in the film “ California Typewriter ” ), arsenic well as early shops in New York City and Philadelphia. But, there are besides other ways that Hanks acquires his typewriters … sometimes he has people give them to him. such was the sheath with “ Talking Dead ” host and Nerdist founder Chris Hardwick, who learned that the perfect way to get Tom Hanks to appear as a node on his podcast was to send him a 1934 Corona Silent typewriter. And guess what, it worked ! Tom Hanks reply was, well, great. You can read the letter to Hardwick and his staff here .
Tom Hanks Inspires
Others to Use Typewriters
The film “ California Typewriters, ” and the book “ Uncommon Type ” have been popular not equitable among typewriter collectors and others who like a dependable report, but besides among the younger genesis. After seeing the film and reading Hanks ’ collection of stories, one Sugar Land, Texas, student ’ s teacher gave her a capital idea : to write Tom Hanks. To her surprise, a well as her teachers and classmates, Tom Hanks actually sent her a Royal Typewriter, along with a hand-typed letter with words of encouragement, in a video recording displayed in the Houston Chronicle. You can read the article and watch the video here. Another recipient of a typewriter from Tom Hanks was Nick de Peyster, his wife Julie de Peyster and their two sons from Wellesley, Massachusetts., who decided to start a plan of writing thank you notes. After they besides saw the film “ California Typewriter, ” the de Peyster class thought it would be a big idea to write the letters on one of Hanks ’ typewriters. In an interview with The Boston Globe, Nick de Peyster said that in the letter he wrote to Tom Hanks, he and his family would pledge to :
- Maintain the Typewriter he would send us
- Write at least once a week and that it would go out
- Buy a typewriter for another family for them to do it
also
so, what happened next ? Tom Hanks sent them a typewriter, an Olympia De Luxe from the former 1960s, along with a type letter to the de Peyster ’ s son Rowan, encouraging him to learn how to use it. If you need a bite more convincing to give a typewriter a sample, Hanks breaks it down into 11 convert and amusing reasons why you should use a typewriter, which he wrote in the ahead of the koran “ Typewriters. ” Visit the Chronicle Books Blog to find out what those 11 reasons are.
Read more: Mania For Trading Cards Causes Issues
Taking a Love for Type
into the Digital World
As a typewriter aficionado, Hanks decided to take his rage to the next grade — and created an App entirely for Apple. Turning an iPad or iPhone into a typewriter, the HanxWriter App mimics the sound and feel of using an antique typewriter, providing the most authentic have that is possible with a digital device. The singular sounds of each typewriter, along with an inspire passenger car render, character hammers and key iron, make the Hanx Writer App worth checking out. Users of the App can besides turn off the Delete Key feature, can try out some of Hanks ’ custom-made fonts, and tied transfer typewriters. The App besides gives users the ability to print and partake their creation, vitamin a well as do multiple documents. What ’ s even more cool about downloading the App is that you get a hand-typed letter from Tom Hanks ! What ’ s not to love about that ?
Are You Using a
Typewriter or Has This Article Inspired You to Use a Typewriter?
If so, we would love to assist you in answering any questions or selecting a typewriter. At Typewriters.com, we have a wide kind or typewriters and supplies. Our extensive product survival includes : IBM, Nakajima and Brother typewriters, along with the full-line of General Ribbon Company ( GRC ) typewriter supplies that includes nylon ribbons, correctable ribbons and lift-off tapes, ampere well as printwheels for major brands like IBM, Nakajima and Brother.
Just give us a call at ( 404 ) 377-1884 or email at [ e-mail protected ] so that we can discuss your particular needs .
