On my way out one evening last week I looked in the rear view mirror and what did I see, but one of these! A rare and famed Mercedes 300SL. I wished I could have followed the car but it turned off and was gone. I’ve only ever seen one of these in the wild before, and that was decades ago in Montreal, where the German owner of a local gas station owned one. I can still recall the growl the engine made as the owner roared off in it. Other than that I’ve seen a few here and there, but always in a showroom, never on the road. So the mystery remains as to whose car that was.
Coincidentally, I picked up a fairly rare and famed typewriter last week, and the case reminded me of the car.
Now what does this have to do with that? Maybe nothing! But it struck me that the styling of the case of this typewriter, the 1956 Olympia SM3, was very similar to the style of the Mercedes 300SL of the same era. In any “case”, this particular case didn’t last long because the next version of the SM, #4, had a new box shaped case and that was the end of the “300SL” case, as far as I know. So, make your own mind up about whether or not the typewriter case was inspired by the car or not, but it sure seems suspicious to me. Here’s a front view of the car:
Now do you believe it? Can there be any other explanation? Well, here are some pics of the typewriter that was in the case. It’s a 1956, as I said, and a prime example of good typewriter design, but for the fact that the rubber they used on the platen is invariably rock hard. Why Olympia didn’t use better rubber is puzzling, because Remingtons of 1956 have soft platens even today. I know because I own one and the platen rubber is as soft as a new one. By putting two sheets of heavy paper in the roller, the noise of the slugs hitting the paper is significantly reduced, but the slugs still emboss the paper right through two sheets! As far as ease of use goes, I say this is the best machine ever made by Olympia, surpassing the much praised SM9. If I owned a 300SL I would keep a matching SM3 handy in the trunk as I drove around from cafe to cafe, writing my next novel.
This one came from New York City all the way over to the West Coast of Canada, where it had several owners, one presumes, since I got it from a young woman who bought it used when she was in high school. She didn’t say who owned it previously, but it was an American import according to the plate fixed to the back of it, and of course the vendor label shows the store where it was sold in New York.
nathanguitars 