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Monday 28 September 2015

Hunter S.Thompson's Smith-Corona Series 5 Portable Typewriter

Hunter S.Thompson photographed at his Smith-Corona Series 5
portable typewriter in Rio de Janiero in 1962.
The image was taken by Thompson's photojournalist friend Robert W. (Bob) Bone.
For a year from May 1962, Hunter S. Thompson worked in South America as a  roving correspondent for the Dow Jones-owned weekly newspaper, The National Observer. See some of his stories here.
During that time, Thompson was also a reporter for the Brazil Herald, Brazil's oldest English-language daily, based in Rio de Janeiro. His longtime girlfriend Sandra Dawn Conklin joined him in Rio and they later married. 
Bone, Thompson and Conklin on Copacabana Beach in Rio in 1963.
In another photograph taken by Bone, Thompson can be seen carrying his Smith-Corona portable typewriter case. He is with Conklin.
Bone first met Thompson when they worked as reporters for the Middletown Daily Record in New York in 1958. They later worked together at the San Juan Star and were reunited in Rio, where Bone worked for Brazilian Business magazine.
Bone as News editor of  Popular Photography, New York City, 1962
Thompson photographed by Bone.
Bone photographed by Thompson in their Thompson Street, 
Greenwich Village apartment.
Thompson in 1956 at the Eglin Air Force Base near Fort Walton Beach, Florida, where he was sports editor of the The Command Courier.
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5 comments:

  1. Richard P28 September 2015 at 01:58

    Interesting. I knew nothing about HST's early career.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bill M28 September 2015 at 01:59

    Thompson seems like a very interesting fellow. I remember the Observer and reading it. However, even as today, will read through a periodical or newspaper, read in interesting-to-me story in detail, and seldom notice the author or look into the author's life.

    ReplyDelete
  3. rino breebaart28 September 2015 at 20:53

    Nicely sourced pictures there, Rob.
    I guess The Rum Diaries is the main window into this phase of HST now... but there's something about that ubiquitous pipe that I find so true to form.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nick Bodemer28 September 2015 at 23:54

    I think that the case in the photo with Conklin belongs to a mid-50s Royal Portable, likely a pre 1955 model.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nick Bodemer30 September 2015 at 03:08

    I think the last picture has either an Olympia SM3 SM4 or SM5 in a gloss color.

    ReplyDelete

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