Soboroff Typewriter Collection at The Paley

Steve Soboroff has compiled the world’s most important collection of twenty-eight original typewriters from famous (and infamous) authors and personalities, including:

• The 1932 Royal Model P that Ernest Hemingway used to write letters during his time in Cuba.
• A tiny Imperial Good Companion Model T on which John Lennon banged out song lyrics years before the Beatles invaded America.
• The snappy red Underwood 4-Bank portable on which Orson Welles created the cinematic masterpiece Citizen Kane..
• Jerry Siegel’s Royal Portable Quiet Deluxe. Jerry said that "one of the little known stories of Superman is that he owes a lot of his existence to this typewriter…it was the only portable I ever had or used.".

To Soboroff, a typewriter carries more meaning than the story of the hands that have touched the keys of the machine. "What the typewriter symbolizes now is timelessness, and also a slower, more thoughtful way of life," he said. "What is made these days that will be used 60, 70, 80, 100 years from now? I don't think there's anything, and these typewriters have hundreds of years to go."

"I love people who are the best at what they do," Soboroff said. "The idea that geniuses sat there and accomplished what they accomplished on these typewriters … it gives me chills."

Wednesdays to Sundays 12:00 to 5:00 pm at The Paley Center for Media.

This exhibit is free and open to the public.