Before we were introduced to the ominous HAL 9000, some knew his older, creepy, sexist cousin Mr. Typewriter, personified by a Royal 660 which appears in the 1966 short film/advertisement Successful Secretary presented by Royal Office Typewriters and directed by Carl A. Carbone.
While there is some heavily gendered blather juxtaposed with some entertaining and atmosphere filling late-1960s jazz, the star of the short film is Mr. Typewriter who incessantly “sells” him self to a contemporaneous mannequin secretary.
This commercial for a 1966 Royal 660 electric typewriter predates Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey by two years. But based on the scripting, pacing, composition, and even some of the character, it seems like Kubrick was heavily inspired by this short film.
HAL 9000’s tone in 2001 seems to have come straight from Mr. Typewriter and even some of the typewriter/computer personification particularly in the camera angles on the machines seems stark and heavily familiar. One can’t help but notice how Mr. Typewriter looms over the viewer at the 7 minute mark as it delivers it’s “helpful” advice.
“I think you’ll like the half sheet better. It is faster.” —Mr. Typewriter, [timestamp 6:59]
Litton Business Systems, Inc. was a subsidiary of Litton Industries, Inc., an American defense contractor that specialized in shipbuilding, aerospace, electronic components, and information technology. They had bought out Royal Typewriters and had created the electric Royal 660 (released in 1966) specifically to compete with the IBM Selectric (introduced July 1961). Given the time period Litton would have been a potentially more ominous corporate parent than IBM.
Movie buffs have often speculated that the letters of H.A.L.’s name were a one letter increment from I.B.M. Kubrick was known to have corresponded with IBM in relation to the film, but perhaps this was a macguffin to cover up the inspiration from Royal and Litton?
Here, Mr. Typewriter in a calm voice makes suggestions to a secretary about his usefulness while HAL does it for a male astronaut (a heroic figure of the space race in that time period). Suddenly the populace feels the more mysterious computer might be a bad actor compared to the typewriter which was slowly being supplanted.
With any luck, Mr. Typewriter wasn’t sexually harassing anyone in the office, but it’s highly unlikely any of the audience at the time was dwelling on such issues until Colin Higgins’ 9 to 5 (Twentieth Century Fox, 1980) which uncoincidentally featured a row of Royal electric typewriters in it’s trailer.
Intriguingly it bears mentioning that the voice over on the 9 to 5 trailer sounds like William Schallert, who portrayed the avuncular Professor Quigley in The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes (Walt Disney Productions, 1969), another film of the period which has something to say about personifying information systems and the coming era of artificial intelligence, though this time as embedded into the brain of a young Kurt Russell.
While the gendered roles portrayed at the time are atrocious (a male machine represented by a male voice is now directing the woman’s work in the office instead of her too-busy, jet-setting male boss), you have to love the techno-utopianism engendered by Successful Secretary:
“We’re living in an electric world, more speed and less effort.”—Mr. Typewriter
Dan Allosso’s (Obsidisan) Book Club will be reading Bob Doto‘s book A System for Writing (2024) as their next selection. Discussion meetings are via Zoom for 2 hours on Saturdays starting on 2024-10-19 to 11-02 from 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific. New comers and veterans are all welcome to attend.
The book is broken up into 3 parts (approximately 50-75 pages each) and we’ll discuss each on succeeding weeks. The group has several inveterate note takers who are well-acquainted with Zettelkasten methods.
If you’d like access to the Obsidian vault, please email danallosso at icloud dot com with your preferred email address to connect to the Dropbox repository.
DM either Dan or myself for the Zoom link for the video meetings.
Miles (1905) has some interesting things to say with respect to collecting, “business-like brevity” (aka atomic notes), annotations for thinking/arranging/marking cards, summarizing, etc.
Miles, Eustace Hamilton. How to Prepare Essays, Lectures, Articles, Books, Speeches and Letters, with Hints on Writing for the Press. London: Rivingtons, 1905. http://archive.org/details/howtoprepareessa00mileuoft.
For my wife’s birthday, I got myself an early 1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe that I’ve had on my list for a while. It has a lovely additional feature that’s also been on my list too…
In the second lecture of David Blight’s Devane Lecture Series 2024 entitled “Can It Happen Here Again? Yale, Slavery, the Civil War and Their Legacies”, he makes a passing mention of historian, professor, and prolific writer Paul Conkin’s office desk and side tables being covered in index cards full of notes. Further, he says that Conkin admonished students that for every hour they spend reading, they should spend an hour in reflection. The comment is followed by a mention that no one does this with the implication that information overload and the pressures of time don’t allow this.
Of course those with a card index or zettelkasten-based reading and note making practice will realize that they’re probably automatically following the advice of this towering figure of American intellectual history as a dint of their note making system.
Ever thought about studying mathematics for fun?!?
As a reminder for local Los Angeles area hobbyist mathematicians and physicists, Dr. Miller will be teaching Fundamentals of Point-Set Topology at UCLA starting September 24th. I hope some new folks will join our merry band for some math fun this fall. First time taking some math after high school/college? I’ve got some tips here.
It’s not as refined or as compartmentalized as Niklas Luhmann’s process, but art historian Victor Margolin broadly outlines his note taking and writing process in reasonable detail in this excellent three minute video. (This may be one of the shortest and best produced encapsulations of these reading/note taking/writing methods I’ve ever seen.)
Though he indicates it was a “process [he] developed”, it is broadly similar to that of the influential “historical method” laid out by Ernst Bernheim and later Seignobos/Langlois in the late 1800s.
Victor Margolin’s note taking and writing process
Collecting materials and bibliographies in files based on categories (for chapters)
Reads material, excerpts/note making on 5 x 7″ note cards
Generally with a title (based on visual in video)
excerpts have page number references (much like literature notes, the refinement linking and outlining happens separately later in his mapping and writing processes)
filed in a box with tabbed index cards by chapter number with name
video indicates that he does write on both sides of cards breaking the usual rule to write only on one side
Uses large pad of newsprint (roughly 18″ x 24″ based on visualization) to map out each chapter in visual form using his cards in a non-linear way. Out of the diagrams and clusters he creates a linear narrative form.
Tapes diagrams to wall
Writes in text editor on computer as he references the index cards and the visual map.
I’ve developed a way of working to make this huge project of a world history of design manageable.
—Victor Margolin
Notice here that Victor Margolin doesn’t indicate that it was a process that he was taught, but rather “I’ve developed”. Of course he was likely taught or influenced on the method, particularly as a historian, and that what he really means to communicate is that this is how he’s evolved that process.
I begin with a large amount of information.
—Victor Margolin
As I begin to write a story begins to emerge because, in fact, I’ve already rehearsed this story in several different ways by getting the information for the cards, mapping it out and of course the writing is then the third way of telling the story the one that will ultimately result in the finished chapters.
—Victor Margolin
On July 15, 2024 I acquired an oak filing cabinet with 16 drawers for 3 x 5 inch index card storage. It’s a warm and lovely piece of antique furniture as well as an excellent example of an early 20th century card index cabinet designed for business use and a paper-based pre-cursor of our more modern computer databases.
From the exterior, there were none of the typical metal badging or decals printed on the filing cabinet to give an idea of the manufacturer of which there were several dozens in the early 1900s.
It wasn’t until I began dismantling the cabinet for cleaning and some restoration that I found one of the four sectional inserts stamped with the words “Macey Inter-Inter / [unintelligible] / No. 1535 C.I.”. The three others had partial versions of a similar stamp, but only the “No. 1535 C.I.” portion is easily discerned without better imaging. Without needing to look it up, I immediately recognized the Macey name as the early 1900s mail order furniture company of Fred Macey which was renamed The Macey Co. and which also helped to get the still extant Steelcase company off the ground. This was a nice thrill for me as I didn’t have any Macey Company furniture in my collection yet.
My new-to-me filing cabinet is a Macey Company No. 15 Cabinet with four inserts of the No. 1535 C.I. card index frames which each hold 4 drawers for 3 x 5 inch index cards. This gives me an additional 16 drawers of storage each of which has a linear capacity of 16.25 inches for the drawers with card stops. (5 of the drawers are sadly missing either the metal slide hardware and/or card stops altogether.)
The cabinet frame is 61.1 pounds and each 1535 C.I. section (including its 4 drawers) is 17.9 pounds. This gives the entire cabinet in my configuration a curb weight of 132.7 pounds when empty.
A Macey Company catalog No. 4206 “Macey Filing Appliances” from 1906 lists the shipping weight of the filing cabinet frame at 75 pounds and sold it for $7.00. Each of the No. 1535-C.I. sections had shipping weights of 30 pounds and listed for $4.00. The complete case with 16 drawers was listed for $22.00. Adjusted for inflation from 1906 to 2024, this would be roughly $770.00.
Page 16 of the Macey Filing Appliances catalog from 1906
The catalog listed the capacity of their 16 inch drawers at 1,950 light (or thin) cards, 1,550 medium cards, or 1,200 heavy cards plus 40 thicker divider cards.
For most of the (modern) index cards I tend to use, I’m guestimating that I can get 2,250 cards in each drawer giving me an approximate capacity of 36,000 for the entire cabinet. With a quick back-of-the-index card calculation, this would add about 110 pounds to the weight of the cabinet when full.
16 3 x 5 inch index card drawers lined up for cleaning.
The catalog describes the cabinet as made of “quarter sawed oak” with “velvet gold finish” and solid cast brass trimmings. This roughly squares with the materials on my version. The catalog indicated that versions with card rods were available for an additional 25 cents per drawer, but mine doesn’t have any present. The metal clamps on the card stops do have an appropriately spaced hole in them which should make it easy to drill holes in both the front of the drawer and the card stop itself to install rods pretty quickly and easily at the factory.
The Macey Company had been around just before the turn of the century under the name Fred Macey Furniture, Ltd., so without better catalogs with parts numbers, the best range I can currently give to date my card index is roughly about 1900-1940. It couldn’t have been manufactured after 1940 as this was when The Macey Company went out of business.
The “Inter-Inter” brand marking on my drawers is a shortening of “Interchangeable Interiors” a method of sectional filing cabinetry as described in the company’s catalog. One would first select an outer cabinet or shell from one of four widths. After this, they would select the sorts of storage they needed within that shell from a variety of options including: vertical letter file drawer, deep storage drawer (for stationery and supplies), 3 x 5 card index drawers, 8 x 5 card index drawers, medium storage drawers (11″ x 2 3/4″ x 17 1/4″), legal blank drawers (for legal blanks, electrotypes, drawings, etc.), small or large cupboards with doors, flat letter file drawers, document file drawers, check file drawers, vertical cap file drawers (“suitable for filing legal blanks, legal documents (without folding) large photographs, blue prints, etc.”), deep storage drawers, 4 x 6 card index drawers, and etc.
Inter-Inter Filing Cabinets
The modularity of the system allows for a wide variety of storage needs. It also likely accounts for some difference in the drawers within my particular unit which may have been ordered a few years apart and mixed-and-matched over time as the original owner’s needs changed.
Now that I know about this modular system, I’ll be on the look out for other versions and alternate inserts in the secondary market. (I’m still looking for that 4 x 6 inch version…) Based on the systematic numbering in the catalog, the insert pieces seem to be the labeled with the width in inches of the exterior case followed by the numbers for the dimensions of the index cards. Thus the 3 x 5 inch index card sectional for a 15 inch cabinet is 1535 C.I. where the initials indicate “Card Index”. Thus we could correctly presume the 4 x 6 inch card index insert would be 1846 C.I. since the 4 x 6 modular insert fits into their 18 inch wide cabinet.
The Purchase
In the late spring of 2024, I saw what I thought was a 4 x 6 inch oak card index cabinet pop up in the listings on Facebook Marketplace for over $1,000 in Studio City, CA. Knowing that it was likely to sit unloved at that price, I bookmarked and waited. It quickly came down several times over a few weeks to the point I worried someone might actually snipe it. Watching the price reduction over a few weeks, I knew the seller was motivated, so I sent her a message with some data about actual sales of these and made an offer which was promptly accepted. A half hour later I was on my way to pick it up.
Of course I had been searching for an oak 4 x 6 inch card index filing cabinet for a while, but I was disappointed after seeing the details in her listing that the drawers were each 6-1/8″ wide x 4-6/8″ high to see that it was actually a 3 x 5 inch card index. (Her measurements were for the outside and not the inside.) Knowing that the piece was lovely and special, I succumbed anyway and took it.
I had double-checked the larger cabinet measurements before leaving to pick it up, but I was surprised to see that it barely fit into the back seat of my Lexus ES350!
History
While owned—though probably not heavily used—for about 42 years by a production manager in Studio City, this cabinet was previously used as a set decoration on the 1982 NBC television series Cassie & Co. starring Angie Dickinson. With the tag line “Ex-cop. New private eye. All woman!”, the show could be viewed as a follow up of Dickinson’s popular NBC show Police Woman (1974-1978). It appeared as a mid-season pick up following on the heels of the female two-hander Cagney and Lacey (1981-1988) and appeared in the Winter before NBC’s Remington Steele (1982-1987)—also featuring a female private detective—that premiered in the fall of 1982. Sadly Cassie & Co. only ran for 13 episodes before shuttering.
Here was part of the sales description for the cabinet when I purchased it:
This lovely old file cabinet is 52″ high x 14-3/4″ wide x 27-1/2″ deep. Each drawer is 6-1/8″ wide x 4-6/8″ high x 18-1/4″ deep. It has a few scratches on the side, but nothing that can’t be touched up. Otherwise, it’s in good condition. In the early 80’s, I worked on a TV series called “Cassie & Co.” starring Angie Dickinson. This (and another antique file cabinet) was purchased and used as set dressing in Angie/Cassie’s office. When the show was canceled, I bought the cabinets and have had them ever since. I don’t have specific background info on them.
Appearing before the release of the popular Apple IIe computer, the broad public would have expected to see not only filing cabinets but card index cabinets in a business office, so it would have blended right into the decor of the time.
Restoration
Naturally as a filing cabinet that is likely over 100 years old, it has seen some things. (And like Burt Bacharach and Frank Sinatra, it had a relationship with Angie Dickinson.) There are a number of scratches and dings in the top where pulling out drawers and setting them on top has obviously occurred. There were several white scuffs where the cabinet has rubbed up against painted walls or other furniture.
Prior to discovering the manufacturer and knowing about the modularity, I instinctively knew to remove the four screws in the front of the cabinet to see what they were attaching to and how. This led to the ability to pull out the four modular sections to see the interior of the cabinet which, in turn, led to identifying the manufacturer.
Based on the magnificently dirty and dusty internal condition of the cabinet, I think I’ve been the only person to open them up in over half a century. This took a few hours of vacuuming and careful cleaning to properly mitigate.
I then spent some time tapping several dozen nails back into place with an awl and re-gluing some of the loose dovetail joins. I’ve also filled in a few of the scratches and scuffs, given the full cabinet a complete cleaning, and followed up with a thorough polish.
One missing piece that I’ll have to recreate is a 26 inch strip of hardwood which serves a sled-like function for moving/sliding the cabinet. It’s missing from the bottom left hand side of the filing cabinet frame, but fortunately has a complete version on the right hand side that I can use to recreate the missing portion. It’s not necessary for regular use, but it does help to protect the bottom edge of the filing cabinet from wear and chipping.
There are surely a few more small issues here or there that will require some additional attention as I begin using it, but in general, this cabinet is ready for another century of use.
Typewriter Storage?
Naturally, while removing the drawers and internal sectional pieces, I noticed that the openings in the cabinet were just the right size and depth that each of the four sectional openings is capable of storing two portable typewriters each.
While I’ll be using this as a traditional card index, I could easily see someone removing one or more of the four sections to store their office typewriter. As a decorative test, I moved the cabinet next to my library card cabinet and loaded it up with some Olympia, Smith-Corona, Remington, and Royal typewriters. One could certainly do worse. After all, Fred Macy did custom manufacture desks for typewriter specific use.
New Grand Total
Recalculating from my collection of card indexes, I think this new cabinet brings our total up to 9 “boxes” with a total of 77 drawers featuring almost 125 linear feet of index card storage space. This comes out to the possibility of storing 208,183 index cards, with a cost per drawer hovering around $12.70 and still dropping.
In solid quarter sawn oak with solid cast brass fittings, it certainly classes up the collection significantly.
Now I just need to negotiate with my partner where this lovely piece of furniture will live in the house… or what will become relegated to the garage? At the moment, maybe this spot works?
What should I put into it first? Maybe since I’m not using X (fka Twitter) anymore, I’ll print all my tweets out and archive them in one of the drawers? Feel free to send me your favorite recipes on index cards as I’ve now got some extra space for them.
Photo Gallery
Below are some additional photos from the acquisition and cleaning process.
Items found hiding inside the Macey Co. card index when I purchased it.
I was cleaning and doing some restoration work on a new card index and realized that this Fred Macey Company cabinet body was the perfect size to hold up to 8 typewriters inside for a mix of both storage and display!
I started the process of cleaning my green 1958 Olympia SM3 to bring it back up to speed. Things are generally moving apace although the mixture of eraser shavings and old oil has tarnished the carriage rails. Spent some time with some metal polish trying to bring them back to their old glory. Should be able to finish flushing out tomorrow and getting it back together and properly adjusted.
![Several wooden slats glued together with a faint black ink stamp on them that reads: "MACEY / INTER-INTER / [unintelligible] / NO. 1535 C.I."](https://i0.wp.com/boffosocko.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/wp-17254227881654347772868053808571-e1725517903559.jpg?resize=660%2C495&ssl=1)
