Tag: typewriters in media

Close up of a LEGO version of Wednesday Addams dorm room at Nevermore featuring a tiny black LEGO brick typewriter

For fans of the Juwel 3 typewriter that appears in the Netflix series Wednesday, there’s a tiny little simulacra in LEGO set 76781 Wednesday & Enid’s Dorm Room. 

Back of a LEGO box for Wednesday and Enid's dorm room showing the interior contents.

With the recent drop of the second season and Halloween around the corner, I was surprised to see the set on clearance at Target for about $30. 

Fletch and his Royal HH Standard Typewriters

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

Standing, Fletch looks up from his desktop. Behind him in the middle of his home desk sits a Royal HH typewriter.

Fletch with a beer in hand eyes a basketball on the floor. In front of him on the desk is a brown Royal HH standard typewriter.
Interesting to note that Fletch’s home office typewriter has a POLICE sticker on it…
A still shot of Fletch's messy apartment. On the desk we see a Royal HH standard typewriter in the common brown color with a white bumper sticker on the side that reads POLICE.
This still shot from Fletch’s office at home may be my new Zoom background shot.

Fletch’s Office at the Los Angeles Globe

Fletch rolls a sheet of paper into the platen of a Royal HH standard typewriter at his office desk.

Fletch and his boss stand at Fletch's messy desk. Off to the far side we see the back of a brown Royal HH standard typewriter
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.

As Fletch is stealing the chair out beneath the reporter next to him, we see what appears to be an Underwood TouchMaster 5 typewriter on the poor reporter's desk.

 

Bookmarked Jamie Lee Curtis Confirms ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Reboot In Works: “Oh, It’s Happening” by Glenn Garne (Deadline)
Jamie Lee Curtis has officially confirmed she's on the case.
The real question that typewriter enthusiasts want to know is: will the Royal KMM typewriter be making an appearance too?!!!

Or will the new Jessica be using some sort of crappy computer laptop?

If she does use a typewriter, should it be a similar KMM or should she change it to something else, and if so, what?

In season 4, episode 3 “Scallop” of The Bear (FX, 2025), the inimitable Rob Reiner shows up as a business consultant by the name of Albert Schnurr. In his introduction, he’s wearing a black baseball cap featuring a typewriter. A line drawing/outline, it looks a bit like a Corona 3 to me. It’s definitely not the Royal KMG his father was famous for using.

Longer shot of Rob Reiner with a black suite jacket and matching black baseball hat and a blue outline of a typewriter. In the foreground he's talking to Ebraheim whose back is to us.

Medium shot of Rob Reiner wearing a black baseball cap with a blue outline of a typewriter

Close up of Rob Reiner at 78 with a gray beard and moustache and wearing a black hat featuring an outline of a typewriter

Jim Halpert of The Office and a 1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe Typewriter

In an homage to The Da Vinci Code (2006), in season nine of The Office in episode twelve “Customer Loyalty”, Jim Halpert uses a mid-1950s Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter to forge a letter from Robert Dunder which sends Dwight Schrute on a faux quest for the holy grail in what Jim calls “The Dunder Code”.

Jim Halpert in blue shirt and tie is working at his desk in front of a gray Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter. Jim Halpert pulls a sheet of paper out of a Royal Quiet De Luxe typewriter with a flourish. Jim Halpert with a mischevious grin applies an invisible message to a typed letter with lemon juice. To his right side sits a brown Royal Quiet De Luxe typewrtiter.

A Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory Orga Typewriter in my backyard

I was casually browsing vintage typewriters yesterday (as one does) and came across something which immediately jumped out at me.

It was a Weimar era Orga typewriter which looked surprisingly like the 1/2 typewriter Orga Modell 10 (1947) which appears in the movie Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Paramount Pictures, 1971). These typewriters were manufactured in Germany  from 1923-1950 and some were distributed in Britain, typically under the brand name A.M.C.  Given that the film was shot primarily in Germany, this shouldn’t be too surprising.

I’ve yet to see an Orga for sale in the United States much less a Modell 10. Buying and shipping any Orga from Europe is generally quite expensive, and I wouldn’t trust that it would arrive intact. This one was a short drive from me at a fantastic price, so naturally I couldn’t pass it up. It appears to be an older Orga-Privat Model 5 (circa 1928-1933) which is labeled in English as a “New Orga”. (It also reminds me a bit of Francis Bacon’s Novum Organum too.) Rather than the typical German QWERTZ keyboard, this one has an English QWERTY keyboard and appears to be in great condition. Sadly it won’t come with the original case. From what I can see in the typewriter database, it’s one of the few that has English badging with the name Orga on it. This  leads me to believe that it was originally sold in the British market, so it could easily have been the sort of machine that Grandpa Joe might have used.

I’ll be able to pick it up later this week and can’t wait to clean it up. The tougher portion: how to cut it precisely in half!?