a beautiful machine
I bought this Olivetti Lettera new in 1966 to write my dissertation when I was an undergraduate at Manchester University.
An Italian Olivia Lettera 32 Typewriter. It was used by Francis Ford Cuppola to write the screenplay for the film ‘The Godfather’.
Most students paid to have their dissertation typed professionally. When I found out how much that would cost (£30) I had pause for thought. It doesn’t sound like much today, but accounting for inflation it equates to roughly £600.
A dissertation isn’t optional, so one way or another I had to find the money. Maybe fewer visits to the Students’ Union bar and the take-away curry house. After some probing, I realised that for (probably) less money I could buy a typewriter and do the job myself.
It made sense because once the dissertation was behind me I would still have a valuable piece of equipment that I could either sell or keep. I had never typed before so went into this venture blind. My senior citizen’s mind of today reflects on what a risk I took. I must have struggled at first, yet I have no recollection of the inevitable trials of learning to type - in particular the frustrating need to re-type a page when the mistakes can no longer be hidden - was there Snopake at that time? I doubt it. Over sixty years later I still have it and am amazed at its strikingly stylish contemporary design. It was designed and manufactured in Italy after all!
Francis Ford Coppola must have been impressed by the machine because he used one to write the 1972 screenplay of The Godfather.
When I look at that machine today the years fold away, back to my room in Hall where my desk looked over bright greenery towards Manchester Grammar School. I spent hours there tapping away at the keyboard. Since those days the typewriter has spent most of its life in a cupboard, although, before the days of computers, it was handy to type formal letters when necessary. Thanks to acquiring some level of skill at typing I was ready when the computer age arrived.
Keyboard skills were a given so I only had to struggle with making computers work for me. Computers made the typewriter totally redundant, but I never had the heart to dispose of it. It served me well at a critical time in my life - and It did the job; I got my degree.
