TypeTown #2: This place raises the bar
🥃 Drinking in a typewriter restaurant PLUS medals, tattoos, poets, and TV history
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Hello, hello.
Well, that went better than expected.
A huge thanks to everyone who subscribed or sent encouraging messages since issue #1 went live.
I’ve got the perfect place to celebrate.
Catch a flight and meet me in Tel Aviv’s INK Hotel, where the SunYoung Restaurant and Bar looks just the spot.
Imagine throwing back your favorite tipple here.
The Jerusalem Post has got all the details.
But don’t jump on SkyScanner just yet.
We’ve still got the rest of this newsletter ready and waiting.
Meet Cleo Wade: poet, Instagram star — and typewriter lover
With more than 760k Instagram followers, poet Cleo Wade has certainly made her mark. Her first book, Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life, proved a huge hit. It was also written — in large part — on a pink Smith-Corona Silent Super.
Talking to CN Traveler, she says:
“I used to take my little pink typewriter on trips with me... I brought that thing to freaking Morocco once. And if you can imagine being broke and getting to Morocco means that you've got on probably five connecting flights to get there.”
Vogue has a picture of the machine (check out the scuffed corners — this thing has seen action). It’s also featured in this short video exploring Wade’s NYC apartment.
The true cost of a piece of TV history
What would you give for Don Draper’s typewriter?
Is this the most expensive Smith-Corona Coronet Automatic 12 ever sold?
When Mad Men wrapped up in 2015, an entire set’s worth of furniture, accessories and props needed a new home.
So in came the auctioneers — and up went the bids.
Don Draper’s season 7 machine fetched a cool $9,000.
» See the full prop list — and their auction prices.
Franklin, my dear, I do give a damn
Awarded from 1875 through to 1997, the Elliott Cresson Medal was the highest award given by the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, PA.
Here’s the 1890 Medal, which was presented to James B. Hammond in 1891 to recognise his work in advancing the typewriter.
» See also: the original report of Hammond’s death in the New York Times on 28 January 1913.
Worth pausing the platen
📬 Why the typewriter is due a comeback — The Herald (Scotland)
📬 Just our type: Curator hails an old tech revolution and humble typewriters’ surprising resurgence — The Sunday Post
📬 Florida sidewalk poet on quest to write one million poems — NBC2
📬 My life in typewriters — Mount Desert Islander
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TypeTown is a fortnightly celebration of the typewriter’s place in modern (and not so modern) culture.
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And finally… typewriters in the wild
In this 1986 episode of BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, which stretched the bounds of credibility by describing this machine as a “brand new typewriter”…
In Bombay’s Godrej typewriter factory in 1984, thanks to the brilliant photography of Sooni Taraporevala.
And on the skin of these particularly dedicated typers…
Until next time
PS: Join the club
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