8 Matching Annotations
  1. Aug 2025
    1. Reply to Joe Van Cleave at https://typewriterdatabase.com/show.21270.typewriter

      It's probably a subtle difference, but is this machine provide the standard 6 lines per vertical inch or due to the taller ascenders/descenders is it a 4 lines per vertical inch machine?

      If you need a "name" for this machine, I might suggest "Satchmo". In doing some research on Louis Armstrong's 5 series Smith Corona, I'm pretty sure his 5 series also had this same vertical script. None of the features on any of the photos I could find of his machine are subtle enough to distinguish which particular model of Smith-Corona he was using. If we find a good direct photo of the machine itself, I'm sure I could puzzle out which version he used. By 1955 he had at least one machine with a script face (see: https://www.louisarmstronghouse.org/virtual-exhibits/my-fifty-fifth-birthday-celebration-happy-birthday-louis-armstrong/). It doesn't appear to be Smith-Corona's common Script (Artistic) No. 75 , but more like Script No. 46. Based on a version of this photo (https://www.usatoday.com/gcdn/presto/2019/07/15/USAT/d815dddc-c0b8-4c54-b9b5-719886d4a0cc-02_Armstrong_Louis_16.jpg?width=1292&height=1320&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp) it would seem that it's the Smith-Corona that was the script machine (as opposed to his earlier Remington).

      According to Ted Munk's post on the S-C Vertical script: "Smith Corona is offering the [vertical] typeface as 'Script No. 46', 10 Pitch by 1954."

      Joe's video of his 1952 Smith-Corona this with the same vertical script https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EH6mwmoN_LI

      See also: https://www.reddit.com/r/typewriters/comments/1mo4wbg/what_typewriter/

      Somewhat interesting that Louis Armstrong played cornet, wrote on a Smith-Corona, and lived in the Corona neighborhood of Queens, NY.

  2. Aug 2023
  3. Jun 2023
  4. Apr 2023
  5. Jun 2022
  6. Jul 2021
    1. Billy: And jazz helped me discover that because it's like a chain. African American people help each other out through their music, that helped other people out, that helped me out. Eventually I took my friend out of a heroin addiction because of that, because of the music. And I started crying when he told me. He was like, "Dude, I just wanted to thank you because you took me out of my heroin addiction." I actually did something. So that music was really important for me. It gave me an identity.Anita: So, you were attracted to African American blues and jazz?Billy: Yeah, because my brother was listening to it and so I'm like, "Dude, what are you listening to? This is weird We usually listen to rock." He's like, "Man, this is called blues, bro. This is a really cool music, and it has to do with African American people back in the day and it tells the story of America."Billy: So, I just looked into it and I became obsessed with it. I couldn't stop. Once I discovered Louis Armstrong, that was just it. I could not stop playing jazz and so yeah, in North Carolina, I was just feeling kinda crappy and that music came at the perfect time.

      Time in the US, Pastimes, Music; Feelings, Despair, Hope