I noticed that just like Dustin Hoffman as Carl Bernstein in All the President’s Men, Chevy Chase portraying the titular Fletch (Universal Pictures, 1985) has a Royal HH typewriter not only at his Santa Monica apartment, but he also has a matching one at his office at the Los Angeles Globe.
Fletch’s Apartment Office
Interesting to note that Fletch’s home office typewriter has a POLICE sticker on it…This still shot from Fletch’s office at home may be my new Zoom background shot.
Fletch’s Office at the Los Angeles Globe
At the far left of the desk, we see the tell-tale Royal Logo on a brown standard typewriter.
Meanwhile, the poor sap reporter that sits next to Fletch is left pounding away on an Underwood TouchMaster 5.
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Chris Aldrich
I'm a biomedical and electrical engineer with interests in information theory, complexity, evolution, genetics, signal processing, IndieWeb, theoretical mathematics, and big history.
I'm also a talent manager-producer-publisher in the entertainment industry with expertise in representation, distribution, finance, production, content delivery, and new media.
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3 thoughts on “Fletch and his Royal HH Standard Typewriters”
Anytime we watch, well anything, my family is prepared to pause the show so I can inspect any typewriter that comes on screen.
@chrisaldrich I wonder if this is conservation of set dressing or someone being smart enough to reason that a good writer uses the same tools both places. Or maybe even mentioned in the books?
Possibly conservation, though the Royal HH was a fairly ubiquitous office machine, especially in newsrooms across America. All the President’s Men (1976) depicts a Royal HH at Carl Bernstein’s house though most in their newsroom depicted in the movie were Olympia SG3s. In the 1980s, I would suspect it wouldn’t have been hard to source a room full of these from a prop house, so conservation of props probably wouldn’t have been necessary beyond the fact that these are 35 pounds a pop. There were a small handful of different models in Fletch’s newspaper office though. I did take it as a perceived “slight” that the reporter whose chair Fletch stole in the end was using a Underwood Touchmaster 5 or possibly a 6 which weren’t the best machines of that time period, especially compared to the HH.
Typewriters were mentioned only occasionally and passingly throughout the Fletch series of books and only one make by name: an unused Remington in a police station. In the first book, which was adapted for the film, Fletch used an unnamed portable typewriter with a case which he carried to the beach to get statements by Sam and Gummy. It definitely didn’t name a specific make or model in his home or office. But then, as an adaptation, the book and the movie are very different in both tone and execution.
Anytime we watch, well anything, my family is prepared to pause the show so I can inspect any typewriter that comes on screen.
“Dad, What kind is that one?”
@chrisaldrich I wonder if this is conservation of set dressing or someone being smart enough to reason that a good writer uses the same tools both places. Or maybe even mentioned in the books?
Possibly conservation, though the Royal HH was a fairly ubiquitous office machine, especially in newsrooms across America. All the President’s Men (1976) depicts a Royal HH at Carl Bernstein’s house though most in their newsroom depicted in the movie were Olympia SG3s. In the 1980s, I would suspect it wouldn’t have been hard to source a room full of these from a prop house, so conservation of props probably wouldn’t have been necessary beyond the fact that these are 35 pounds a pop. There were a small handful of different models in Fletch’s newspaper office though. I did take it as a perceived “slight” that the reporter whose chair Fletch stole in the end was using a Underwood Touchmaster 5 or possibly a 6 which weren’t the best machines of that time period, especially compared to the HH.
Typewriters were mentioned only occasionally and passingly throughout the Fletch series of books and only one make by name: an unused Remington in a police station. In the first book, which was adapted for the film, Fletch used an unnamed portable typewriter with a case which he carried to the beach to get statements by Sam and Gummy. It definitely didn’t name a specific make or model in his home or office. But then, as an adaptation, the book and the movie are very different in both tone and execution.