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Let's begin with a digression: I'm not fond of Olivetti typewriters.
Now, I am basing this on my experience with a single machine, the Underwood 319 (sorry for the lack of photo, I have some image hosting problems to work out with some of my older posts, but here's yet another gorgeous shot from Machines of Loving Grace, which will also answer the question I know you have: "But Underwoods aren't Olivettis... are they?").
The 319's keys were aggressively plastic, the type action was sludgy and unsatisfying. The color could not more greatly have resembled the hide of an elephant. No thanks. Since it's just the two of us talking right now, I'll admit something blasphemous, but don't tell the others: I actually set this typewriter out--oh, it worked just fine, and was even clean-- as PC recycle in my building at work. That is how much I hated it.
Yes, I could have hunted a collector down, yes, I could possibly have sold it on eBay for $19.99, but all of that would have required me to further interact with the 319: securely boxing it up, paying a mint to have it shipped, etc. No: I wanted it gone. (Do I imagine that some IT guy marvelled at the find and now has it sitting in his IT basement next to his Simpsons interactive figurines somewhere below the massive corporate complex where I am employed? I do.)
(Allow me to add as a side note that the typing in the Strikethru masthead was done with this departed 319, its final act of service while in my posession).
Thus you may not find me jumping at the opportunity to buy the only apparent model of manual typewriter still being manufactured new: The Olivetti MS 25 Premier Plus Portable. But as for you, perhaps you like your machines fresh off the factory floor? Perhaps you are a typewriter completist who feels it is his or her duty to support the continued manufacture of this anachronistic survivor?
If so, you really must buy it from the Vermont Country Store. Proprieter Lyman Orton makes a delightful videorecorded argument for why you should do just that.
i'm going back one day
58 minutes ago
16 comments:
Though I've never met an Olivetti that I've hated, I do prefer the machines from before the Underwood merger. The Studio 42 and Lettera 22 (disguised as a Tower Chieftain) are must-use typers. The later machines seem flimsy and mushy. (The 2nd-generation Studio 44 and the 21 aren't at all flimsy, but they do feel mushy.)
Admittedly, I've never used the 319. It's pristine, and I look at it knowing that it works perfectly, and I go, "Meh."
I confess that I recently passed up a $2 Olivetti-Underwood Studio 45 at a garage sale because it was freekin' ugly.
Oooooh, isn't that the Olivetti model that's been described as (rhymes with) a "jitty piece of shunk?" I've given away a couple of Olivetti-era Underwoods, as neither was a smooth or precise as the other machines that crossed my hands. But blaspheming against an entire brand? Tsk, I expected more from you, Cheryl. :-)
Zsa Zsa is particularly delightful to type upon, far more responsive than her silhouette suggests. Let's be blunt: she's built like a tank, but she handles like she way made to drive -- er, type -- along the Riviera. She could crush that wimpy Vermont-strocity with her carriage without sloshing a drop of her cappuccino.
I think I need to lie down now.
(verify word: ablesses)
You might have a change of heart, after a spin with one of their Lettera machines. The Lettera 32 remains *the* machine to take everywhere, and to do serious work. Owners of Olivetti Studios rave about them.
No doubt, every brand has its turkeys, here and there, be it cars, cameras, or typewriters. The snazzy Omas fountain pen I have leaks like a fountain. But the street-level Waterman pens are safe in a white shirt pocket.
I borrowed one of these a few weeks back, when I had no functional typewriter and needed to get some work done. It was also very lightly used, and I soon realized I wasn't going to do much to change that. Had neither Olivetti nor Underwood mojo. A sort of loose, imprecise keyfeel. The AMC Pacer of the typewriter world. That being said, is it really still in production?
Two additional thoughts at this point:
1) The Vermont Store rocks. Let's not vilify them for choosing to sell a crappy typewriter. I applaud them for at least offering a manual typewriter. It's probably the only model they are able to purchase from a distributor.
2) Twin Cities columnist and local grouch Joe Soucheray wrote a column the other week praising his Lettera 32.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_12454824
Word verification: "moxestia": the prescription medicine you use to clear up a bad case of moxie.
Agreeing with speculator, I love the living daylights out of my Lettera 32 and I pounded out a good chunk of a zine in a frantic 8-hour rush last Thursday. It's a beautiful thing, way smoother than my Underwood Leader...
My script Lettera 32 is the only one I keep in my office at school. It's fast, lightweight, and dreamy.
At home I rotate the machines from under the bed to On The Desk, but the Olivetti is too good for such playing around.
You just had a crappy new one. Don't give up.
Hear hear to the Lettera 32 love. I wrote most of my NaNo run on mine, and it worked like a dream. Light and portable, yet reliable. Good times.
Word verification: exatin (adj.): How a Brittany Spears describes something filled with excitement.
Ex: Dang, that roller coaster was exatin, y'all."
Olivander is quite right.
I've been to the Vermont Country Store many, many times- as it is along the road to the Weston Priory (and the Appalachian Trail's Greendale site)
They do sell typewriter ribbons (hurray!), along with a cornucopia of wares. And it's a place outside Maine that sells Moxie.
Also standing up to defend Olivetti: my DL/33 is a wonderful machine; one of the best I own.
Boy, you are really sticking your neck out there, Cheryl. I thought *I* was in trouble with the Typewriter Orthodoxy Police.
RE: "Word verification: "moxestia": the prescription medicine you use to clear up a bad case of moxie."
There's no such thing as a bad case of moxie, unless it's on someone else.
(word verif = "chicr", which is the sound of a late Underwood/Olivetti's key being effectuated - sort of a mix between 'chiclet' and 'clicker')
You know you want to.
Word verification: forksi
Folksy forks? Or perhaps having the properties of a fork? Or would that be forkesque?
Oh, my intention was by no means to disrecommend the Vermont Country Store. It looks swell. I am just a little skeptical about Olivettis, but y'all are wearing me down. I may have to get one of those 32's that everyone goes on about... even though I am supposedly on a budget...
I always get useless, nonsense verification words. Rats!
Strikethru, I got my Olivetti on eBay for under twenty dollars. It's totally recession-friendly. ;] You just have to watch for one and resist the urge to buy everything else in sight...
Personally, I don't think modern manuals (Olivetti or otherwise) can compare with the quality of vintage typewriters. There's an elegance & sophistication that was lost in the latter half of the last century.
I have nothing of value to contribute, except the word verification was "refirei", which somehow involves a guy wearing black and white striped clothes, sporting a whistle, standing between two other guys throwing flaming torches back and forth.
Olivander, I enjoyed the story you linked. I think the small portable word processor he was referencing was the Tandy Model 100, teh prototype of today's laptop.
I've never typed on an Olivetti manual, but remember Olivetti electrics in high school typing class, which was a good place to hang out because all the pretty girls went to typing class.
~Joe
Hi,
I live in Poland and my daughter (17) has bought an Olivetti Lettera DL. Beauty!
In fact in very good condition but it needs an adjustment. Simply the rosette doesnt come back upon pressing the capital letter key.
There are 3 springs; 2 verticals and 1 horizontal. May be they are too weak or something needs to be lubricated.
Will you be so kind as to give me some hints where the problem may be?
Best regards
Andy
My email sp9hzx@poczta.onet.pl
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