California Typewriter Page #4

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would talk to you,

but they actually do.

(minimalist piano music)

- One of the odd things about

the end of the 19th century

is you have this 30

year period or so,

where all of the major forms

of electromechanical media

are invented and more or

less at the same time,

we get the final form of the

typewriter, motion pictures.

telegraphy, all this stuff

sort of happens at once.

The other thing that

was happening in

America at that moment

was there was this

interest in spiritualism,

and sances, and table

tapping, and poltergeists,

and all of those

kinds of things.

It's a moment in history when

death is a lot more present

than it is now.

You could send a telegram

to someone and, you know,

it might take a couple

of weeks to get to them

and by the time they receive it,

either you might be dead

or they might be dead.

It was a pretty natural

question to ask,

well, with all of these

new forms of media,

is there any way that we

can receive communications

from the dead?

In a weird kind of way,

typewriting is haunted.

There's this sense that the

writing somehow comes to you

through the machine.

Someone or something gives

you something to type

and the machine

kind of mediates it.

Is the typewriter

pulling the strings

and making the

author do the work?

The typewriter has to be working

almost before thinking

starts happening.

Once that process gets going,

it's like a little machine.

The writing comes out of it, but

the question of cause and

effect is a lot more tricky

than you might first imagine.

- I don't ever feel nervous

that the words won't come.

This, this is beautiful.

'Cause I don't feel like

I'm in control of it

most of the time.

(clicking)

I just trust there will

be words that come.

And thankfully there

always have been,

and I hope that it continues.

I often think about

what I do as counseling,

because people come to

me with some big stuff.

I write a lot of

poems about death

and about people who've died.

I wrote a poem for a man

who had lost his wife

three months ago and they'd

been married for 43 years.

And when he made his request,

he could barely talk.

Somebody's desire

for words sometimes

is a desire for something more.

(minimalist piano music)

A man had gone to the

Golden Gate Bridge to jump

and was saved by the police.

that was about his secret

nobody in his life knew.

I was so grateful to him

for unloading it on me.

If you were to ask

me to speak a poem,

I couldn't do it,

but if you put me

in front of a

typewriter, it happens.

It's like maybe that's one

of the reasons I never allow

anybody else to use

this particular machine.

My typewriter is like the

truest love of my life.

- That is clean.

- There's something about

it that is so built well.

And if you care for it, it's

just gonna keep working.

I do worry that some day

there might not be somebody

who knows how to fix it.

(clicking)

(downtempo festive piano)

- [Jeremy] Once a month,

there's a flea market in Alameda

at the old naval base.

People come from all

over the Bay Area,

it's mostly antiques

and they have a

ton of typewriters.

Herb and I will go,

and we're both lookin'

for the same thing.

- How much is your typewriter?

- [Seller] $75.

- Mm-hmm.

- She's pretty.

- [Herb] Yeah, not bad.

- How much is it?

- $75.

- Nah, that's too much.

- Yes, absolutely.

- [Jeremy] I'm looking

for typewriters that

I can take apart.

- I had people

stoppin' by the shop,

they're just hustlers, you know.

Had a bunch of typewriters

and other stuff,

they had like 15 Selectrics.

If you need a

couple more, just...

- Alright.

- Yeah, 'cause I've been

turning 'em down, honestly.

- [Jeremy] Herb's

looking for something

that he can make a little nicer,

or something that's

already pretty immaculate.

An L.C. Smith.

That's sold.

So we help each other

spot all the typewriters.

Ooh, a Clipper.

We're both looking for a deal,

which is harder to

get these days because

there's so many more people

interested in typewriters

than there were

10, 15 years ago.

- Not exactly.

- [Jeremy] How much?

- [Herb] $75 for that Clipper

and that Underwood was...

- [Jeremy] How

much was that one?

- [Herb] That was $68.

- [Jeremy] I don't

see many of those.

- I got about two or three

of 'em already in line.

- And what are those worth?

- $200, $300 bucks, somewhere

in that neighborhood.

Catch the right party,

maybe you could go a

little more than that.

You can put some

rubber parts on it

and a wash job on it and hey.

Yeah, if I get desperate and

can't find anything else,

I might come back to it.

Ooh, how much your...

- Typewriter?

- Yes.

- $150.

- [Herb] Oh, okay.

Maybe we could negotiate a

little bit like that on there?

and she paid a lot

for it out of a job.

- Hmm.

Know anything about

whether it works or not?

(clicking)

(blues music)

Yeah, definitely

needs some attention.

(chuckles)

(clicks)

I'll take it.

- [Jeremy] That's a good one.

- Had it been any color but red,

I'd have passed right by it

for $150, I guarantee you that.

Red is sort of a hot color

and it's an easy, easy

mover so to speak.

Let's rock and roll.

(blues music)

(appreciative noises)

- Yeah, it seems

a little touchy up there.

(clicking)

- Yeah, no, I feel something

for these machines.

I'll look at 'em and

my mind just goes

where has this machine been at?

If it could talk, man

could it tell some stories.

You never know where these

typewriters come from.

You know, they come

from all over the world.

One could've been in some famous

person's library somewhere

halfway across the

world and now it made it

to this shop over

here in Berkeley.

- Christopher Latham Sholes

is a very interesting man.

He was an editor, a

publisher, and for a while

he was a state senator.

He was also a keen inventor.

And in Milwaukee, a few

years after the Civil War,

he invented his typewriter.

(oompah music)

'Scuse me sir, can

I ask you a question.

I'm looking for the location

of the historical plaque

that talks about the

invention of the typewriter,

somewhere nearby I believe.

(oompah music)

"At 318 Sate Street,

"approximately 300

feet northeast of here,

"Christopher Latham

Sholes perfected

"the first practical

typewriter in September 1869

"in the machine shop

of C.S. Kleinsteuber."

300 feet northeast of here.

(car engine rumbling)

(oompah music)

17,18,19,20".

295, 296, 297, 298, 299...

(cars whooshing)

I've come to Milwaukee

to get my hands

on a Sholes and Glidden.

(click)

To be able to get

close to the source

of the very first typewriter

is something I've dreamed

about for a long time.

Today, perhaps, there are only

175 that are known to exist.

Good morning.

So nice to meet you.

- Hi, good to meet you.

- It's wonderful.

Many of those are in museums,

a few are held in private hands.

This has been a pilgrimage

I've wanted to make for years.

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