accepted

Palisades News
Page 22 September 16, 2015
Soboroff Collects Famous Typewriters
Story and photos by LAURIE ROSENTHAL
Staff Writer
Steve Soboroff’s entry into collecting typewriters
occurred solely by happenstance. In 2005, with
five kids in private school, the longtime Palisadian
decided to sell his Sandy Koufax glove at a Sotheby’s
auction in New York. The next item up at the auction
was columnist Jim Murray’s typewriter.
“The Dodgers were bidding on it. The Los Angeles
Times was bidding on it,” Soboroff said. “Murray won
the Sportswriter of the Year Award 14 times. Nobody
else has won it twice.”
Soboroff paid $18,000 for the typewrit er—a Remington
Model J—and an expensive new hobby was born.
Since that time, the Soboroff Typewriter Collection
has grown to 33 typewriters, all owned by prominent
people from a variety of fields, including entertainment,
literature and science.
Currently, the collection can be seen at the Paley
Center for Media in Beverly Hills. Each typewriter is
surrounded by ephem era, including magazines, letters,
books, photographs and even a Plastic Ono Band 45
(“Give Peace a Chance”).
Soboroff wrote all the text that is featured in the
exhibit on the old Royal typewriter that sits on his
desk, which is two serial numbers off from the Ernest
Hemingway typewriter that Soboroff owns. His
Jerry Siegel created Superman on this Royal Portable Quiet
DeLuxe.
Photo: Michael Bulbenko
Steve Soboroff’s Royal typewriter, similar to Ernest Hemingway’s, has a place of prominence in his memorabilia-filled office.
typewriter can be found for $250, while he was offered
$250,000 for Hemingway’s. It is one of seven that the
author owned (Soboroff owns another one), and is
the last one he wrote on before killing himself in
1961. Soboroff doesn’t let anyone touch it.
“My populist rule of thumb is if they were on
the cover of Time, Newsweek or Sports Illustrated,
I’m generally interested,” Soboroff said. This
includes a diverse group, from Dr. Maya Angelou to
Theodore Kaczynski, better known as the Unabomber.
His typewriter was taken by the FBI when he was
captured, and eventually sold via a government auction,
where Soboroff picked it up.
When he met fellow Palisadian Tom Hanks, who
is also a typewriter collector and represented in
the collection with a Hermes 3000, Soboroff
told him, “I’d take your typewriter.” It was
delivered the next day, along with two Time
magazine covers featuring the actor.
There is a major difference between the two men’s
collections. “He collects typewriters for the typewriter.
I collect typewriters for who used them,” Soboroff said.
Each typewriter in Soboroff’s collection has its own
tale. Some of the greatest art and historical documents
of the 20th century were created on them.
Scientist Samuel T. Cohen’s typewriter was used
when he worked on the Manhattan Project, the
famed atom-bomb program of the 1940s.
Orson Welles’ typewriter was his constant
companion when he visited Paris. “He would lie on
his back and he’d put the typewriter on his stomach
and type,” Soboroff said.
Jerry Siegel created Superman on his Royal Portable
Quiet DeLuxe typewriter. His daughter, Laura Siegel
Larson, sold it to Soboroff because she wanted to
celebrate what would have been her father’s
100th birthday in 2014.
Other typewriters he has bought from family
members and/or estates include those owned by
John Cheever, Marlene Diet rich, Joe DiMaggio
and Harold Robbins. The heirs are “entrusting me to
celebrate the legacy of who owned the typewriter,”
Soboroff said.
Other featured typewriters include the one that
George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion on, the one that
Andy Rooney had for 60 years and was featured on
a segment on 60 Minutes and the one that John
Len non wrote songs on before Beatlemania.
The Smithsonian contacted Soboroff about
donating one of his two Shirley Temple
typewriters. “If I can donate to the Smithsonian, the
finest museum in the world, it validates my collection.
I gave them one.”
He enthusiastically explains the history of the screen
legend’s typewriter that is on view at the Paley Center.
“That typewriter is 80 years old and prob ably used
for about an hour. That’s like getting a Corvette
from 1953 that somebody sealed hermetically.
Her typewriter is in incredible condition.”
Unlike today’s computers, which offer endless
distractions, typewriters encouraged users to be
extremely focused when they sat down to write.
“Like an athlete, people got in a zone with these
(Continued on Page 23)