{"id":139451,"date":"2026-03-16T09:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/139451\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T09:28:06","slug":"a-south-philly-typewriter-store-takes-on-its-latest-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/139451\/","title":{"rendered":"A South Philly typewriter store takes on its latest adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Staff were stunned when Bill Rhoda strolled into the Northeast Philadelphia<\/a> Airport one bitterly cold Saturday in December looking for an unusual jet-setter. <\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Did he say a typewriter?\u2019\u201d Rhoda, co-owner of Philly Typewriter<\/a> in South Philadelphia<\/a>, recalled airport personnel musing. \u201c\u2018Why are you here for a typewriter?\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

Escorted by security, Rhoda drove out onto the tarmac for the handoff. From a prop plane emerged the pilot, Barry Partlo, and one of his passengers: an IBM Selectric III in need of repair. <\/p>\n

Philly Typewriter\u2019s latest adventure seems unfurled from the platen of Ian Fleming\u2019s Royal<\/a>: A driven protagonist embarks on a nearly 600-mile airborne journey to deliver a family artifact to the few craftsmen skilled to restore it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt is absurd already \u2014 typewriters \u2014 and now we\u2019re in an airport,\u201d Rhoda recently told The Inquirer. <\/p>\n

A driven protagonist<\/p>\n

Partlo, 66, of Clayton, N.C., kept the IBM Selectric in his office. He inherited it from his late mother, who was a secretary trained in the bygone ways of touch typing and shorthand. <\/p>\n

Nowadays, Partlo\u2019s once-popular mid-1980s model is used sparingly. But months ago, he pulled it out only to discover it wasn\u2019t working. A family historian with a passion for antiquities and a bent for nostalgia, Partlo took to the internet, hunting for a restorationist. He netted two results: Philly Typewriter and a business in Arizona. <\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve it or not, there\u2019s no one that fixes them anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not many people that use them anymore.\u201d <\/p>\n

Rhoda was the first to respond to Partlo\u2019s inquiries. <\/p>\n

Philly Typewriter is a premier dealer and servicer of its namesake<\/a>, housing more than 1,000 machines \u2014 from portable models used to send messages from battlefields to 20th-century office workhorses \u2014 and at any given time, as many as 60 typewriters \u2014 some caked in rust, others soiled by spilled soda \u2014 are undergoing repairs. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Tom Hanks gifted this Philadelphia shop a typewriter from his personal collection<\/a><\/p>\n

A formidable antagonist <\/p>\n

Partlo \u2014 who lives a seven-hour drive away from the company\u2019s East Passyunk<\/a> Avenue storefront \u2014 initially suggested he would mail the Selectric to Rhoda. But Philly Typewriter does not accept or send typewriter shipments, fearing damage in transit. \u201cWe might be the largest typewriter company, but we are still a small business,\u201d Rhoda said. <\/p>\n

Rhoda has accommodated long-distance clients before, from Fairbanks, Alaska, to Honolulu, Hawaii. He immediately started buzzing: \u201cHow can I help this guy?\u201d he remembers thinking. \u201cIs there anybody down there I know?\u201d <\/p>\n

Then Partlo suggested, \u201cWell, what\u2019s your closest regional airport?\u201d <\/p>\n

Partlo has been piloting planes for three decades, and flying half a day \u2014 less than two hours each way \u2014 to have his mother\u2019s typewriter and a Corona foldable machine dating to the 1910s rehabbed seemed like a \u201cvaluable use\u201d of time. He charted his course, filed a flight path, fueled up his A36 Bonanza plane, and waited for a weekend when the Philadelphia winter was tolerable for his Southern disposition. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like an operation,\u201d Rhoda quipped. <\/p>\n

Resolution<\/p>\n

What followed involved about 25 hours of labor, and a complete rebuild of Partlo\u2019s machine. <\/p>\n

At one time, the Selectric was the most successful typewriter in history, a ubiquitous desktop feature, with more than 13 million units sold, according to IBM<\/a>. What set it apart was its \u201cgolf ball\u201d-type mechanism \u2014 which prevented jams, enabled faster typing, and supported nonalphabetic languages, like Hebrew or Braille \u2014 and its \u201ccorrecting\u201d key, which literally lifted mistakes off the page. <\/p>\n

But these features also make it \u201cone of the most extensive, complicated typewriters that was ever built,\u201d with roughly 2,800 parts and 400 adjustments, according to Rhoda. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t do a little of anything \u2014 we actually have to gut the machine,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Philly Typewriter\u2019s clientele is a mix of sentimentalists, like Partlo, and practicalists, like writers wanting to break up with their screens. Beloved actor and known typewriter enthusiast Tom Hanks<\/a> has gushed over the shop and even donated a machine from his collection. Rhoda said that especially around the holidays, there was an uptick in sales to kids and young people. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe wake up in the morning, we look at the small screen,\u201d Rhoda said, \u201cgo to work, we look at a bigger screen. We go home, and we try to look at a big screen, while looking at a little screen at the same time. Then we go to bed looking at a little screen. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople just don\u2019t want it anymore \u2014 we\u2019re looking for something.\u201d <\/p>\n

Digital appetites are shifting with the rise of artificial intelligence, general screen fatigue, and a resurgence of nostalgic, analog, \u201cgrandma\u201d hobbies<\/a>. Last year, physical book sales were up slightly<\/a>, while vinyl sales rose for the 19th consecutive year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt may not mean anything to anyone in the future, but one day a grandchild might go, \u2018Oh, well, that\u2019s cool,\u2019\u201d Partlo said. <\/p>\n

As of early March, Partlo\u2019s typewriters were all fixed up. <\/p>\n

Rhoda is just waiting on his return flight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Staff were stunned when Bill Rhoda strolled into the Northeast Philadelphia Airport one bitterly cold Saturday in December…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[69,71,70,63946],"class_list":{"0":"post-139451","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-philadelphia","9":"tag-philadelphia-headlines","10":"tag-philadelphia-news","11":"tag-south-philadlephia-typewriter-store-passyunk-north-carolina-selectric"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}