Arnie Kogen has long been one of the top comedy writers in the business. Among the shows he's written for — and this is a very partial list — are Candid Camera, The Les Crane Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Dean Martin Show, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Rich Little Show, The Tim Conway Show, Donny and Marie, Evening at the Improv, Newhart, Empty Nest and MADtv. He's been nominated for six Emmys and won three, all for The Carol Burnett Show. Personally, I'm more impressed that he began writing for MAD magazine in 1959 and had articles, including some of the best TV and movie satires, in 179 issues.
I mentioned in this piece here that I did my earliest writing, including that naughty book I authored under the revered name of Mary Margaret Underburger, on an Olivetti-Underwood typewriter. That brought the following e-mail last Tuesday from Mr. Kogen, accompanied by a scan of his old business card. Here's Arnie and that card…
My full-time occupation from 1959 to 1963 was typewriter salesman for Olivetti-Underwood.
My part-time occupation was comedy writer for MAD Magazine, Morty Gunty and almost every other stand-up comedian except Stewie Stone. Perhaps that 122 page novel written by Mary Margaret Underburger was typed on an Olivetti sold by Arnold Kogen or one of his associates. If you're still in touch with Ms. Underburger would you ask her if it was written on a Lettera 22 (an award winning portable) or some other Olivetti-Underwood model. Just curious.
Hope all is well, Mark. Enjoy the rest of springtime.
And I thought it was very nice of the man to wish me that on the first day of Summer. The following is what I wrote him in return…
Glad to hear you once had honest work as a typewriter salesman. Frankly, I think this world could do with more typewriter salesmen and fewer comedy writers. I'd be out selling typewriters if I had the necessary skills.
I still have the typewriter of my youth. It was a Lettera 32 and a photo of the actual one I typed on is attached. It was obtained with Blue Chip Stamps, which were like Green Stamps, only blue. So was the Lettera 32.
The Blue Chip Stamps redemption catalog described it only as an Underwood. My mother ordered it and was somewhat upset when it turned out to be an Olivetti, figuring it was from a foreign country and therefore cheaply made and inferior. But it worked well even if the scripts Mary Margaret and I produced on it were cheaply made and inferior.
I would still be using it but it's impossible to buy ribbons for the damned thing, thereby forcing me to use this friggin', more complicated computer. The Olivetti-Underwood could do everything the computer can do except order from Grubhub and blog. It could even — and I'm not sure how it managed this before there was an Internet — download porn.
Arnie wrote back to me and said, "Next time we meet I have a few interesting Olivetti-Underwood stories for you. They're not as hilarious as that Flip Wilson story on the Tonight Show but perhaps more amusing than watching 600 ganache chocolate cakes being made." I don't know about that.
By the way: I do know my readership and many of you are probably searching the 'net already to see if there's anyplace to buy a typewriter ribbon for an Olivetti-Underwood Lettera 32. Well, I beat you to it. Before the Internet, they were impossible to find but today, I can find them and they aren't even that expensive. One online merchant has them for eight bucks, which isn't much more than I paid for them in 1969. I also notice that there are dozens of the typewriters themselves being offered on eBay for a low of about $70 including postage up to $700 and up. It was a fine machine in its day but I can't imagine even addressing an envelope on one today.