1920: The Corona Personal Writing Machine

I have to admit that this possibly looks like the most perfect job either. Imagine sitting up close to the game with your portable, typing copy for the late edition’s sports section, and getting paid for the privilege. I know, the life of a sports writer isn’t week-day double-headers and enjoying the game, but I can’t help hearing the sound of the peanut vendor and smelling the freshly cut grass and thinking it’d be a pretty good job to have.

 

This Corona ad comes from the August 1920 issue of Popular Mechanics, hence the male-centric sports writer angle. Corona produced a number of customized small typewriters with a variety of accessories including a tripod with a folding note table that would let the typewriter literally be used in the field. In 1926 Corona merged with the L.C. Smith Typewriter Company and form the Smith-Corona company was born. In 2000 Smith-Corona would file for bankruptcy and by 2005 a nearly 100 year history of producing typewriters came to an end.

Nothing stays the same. Mechanical typewriters gave way to electric ones, then came the era of computer-typewriter hybrids, finally the personal computer killed the typewriter all together. Somehow this ad wouldn’t be the same if our straw-hatted sports hack was one-fingering a laptop and uploading his copy to some corporate-owned server via the internet. Sure, I’ll admit that I don’t want to go back to the era of whiteout and correction tape, but I can’t help feeling that the wheels of progress crush the good along with the bad. Mental note to enjoy a day game, a box of Cracker Jacks, and a warm summer day before every game is played on an air-conditioned holographic field under a simulated sun.

An interesting note about this ad, the scrap of text shown mentions Kopf’s triple in game two of the World Series. This is the infamous “Black Sox” game when members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing games. Larry Kopf played shortstop on the opposing Cincinnati Reds during that series and a quote given in his obituary indicated he had doubts about the validity of the scandal. When this issue of Popular Mechanics hit the racks the controversy about the Sox hung in the air over any park where the Chicago team played. Eventually eight Sox players would be banned from professional baseball for life.