well a local man with a love of oldfashioned typewriters has turned his fondness for the machines into a thriving business KCAL news reporter Alise Martinez shows us the keys to his success in the heart of LA's Arts District a mechanical revolution of sorts is taking shape in a small showroom inside a massive Warehouse Aaron Thell works on a vintage typewriter one of dozens that's surround him you know these things still hold purpose especially like in this era of you know technology that we hav
e where everybody just focused in on their screens this typewriter repair man and salesman says his interest in the archaic machines was peaked while taking out the trash what I thought was a uh vintage Suitcase by the um dumpster and there was a perfectly good working 1950s Royal uh quiet Deluxe typewriter inside like that just sparked my the fact that somebody would be thrown away a piece of History frell started typewriter connection 10 years ago and is making a living renting selling and rep
airing these old school devices I think from the 1920s 1930s 1800s these are like relics of the past that have just told so many different stories while he doesn't like to name drop he will tell you about one Hollywood actor whom he counts as a regular customer in the typewriter Community one of of our big mascots is um actor Tom Hank I've been working on his collection for quite a while now I probably have 250 plus typewriters in my collection Tom Hanks loves typewriters so much he appeared in
the documentary California typewriter Hanks signed and donated this typewriter to the's collection which theough travels far and wide to a Mass for the all getting people to use typewriters is the key to preserving them getting people excited about typewriters is so that the typewriters just going to live on in Downtown LA Elise Martinez Kow news there's nothing like the feel of a typewriter until you make a mistake exactly you the out or the white out strips back up yeah oh yeah that was tough
Comments
I still love using a typewriter
I took typing in junior high and high school. The L.A. City Schools had classrooms of electric typewriters in both schools. I never got very fast. The teachers kept telling me not to look at the keys. I had to look at the keys to keep from making too many mistakes. I typed good enough for a "B." It was always the girls in class that got "A's." Now, with computers, I do type faster. I know I'm putting my fingers on the wrong keys, but I don't need to look at the keys very much. It works for me, but my teachers would be having a fit. With smartphones, it's different. I'm typing with one finger. When I was in France, I was stuck in front of a computer keyboard. It was like I never learned to type, but worse. The letters and symbols were in different places. I was screwed.
I have an old Woodstock typewriter, that my dad got for painting a garage in about 1945. My understanding is Woodstock Typewriters later became Underwood Typewriters, but I don't know.