Olivetti Continued….

Many thanks to Jill, who left me a lovely comment on yesterdays’ blogpost about the Olivetti Company.

From her message I did a little more research and found this information and images.

In 1955, the Olivetti Corporation mounted one of their typewriters on a stand outside their New York

showroom on fashionable 5th Avenue near 47th Street, and people lined up to try it out.

Life Magazine photographer Michael Rougier set up a hidden camera behind a screen and took pictures

of people typing short messages. Many just typed the standard typewriter test sentence

“Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party,” but others were more imaginative.

The woman shown above, Seventeen stylist Toni Kosover, decided to go for a rhyme and typed

“I’d give up my spaghetti for this here Olivetti.” (In 1974, Kosover wrote a racy novel called

Diary of a New York Career Girl.) Office boy James Collins, who is said to stop by nearly

every day to leave a different message, typed “Marilyn Monroe is a beautiful girl.”

As I’m presently watching series three of ‘Madmen’, the styling and thought process behind this piece

of clever marketing/advertising, is right where I’m at. Thanks to Life Magazine for the images.