“Miss Animal” training typewriter, circa 1935.

www.typewriter.be/missanimal.html

At ‘typewriter artist’ Louise Marler’s “VIRTUAL TYPE-IN” on Saturday, I saw a very rare machine.

Called “MISS ANIMAL”, a lady named Gigi flew in with one.

It’s a Corona typewriter, vintage 1935, that featured animal keys in nine colors.

Kids who wanted to learn how to type would wear nine matching ‘animal rings’.  (“The left thumb is not used”, says the manual.)

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The green rabbit hops to the green  key on the left:  c, d, e and 2 — all decorated with bunnies in different poses.

Left index finger — guides to the ‘bear’ key.

Right elephant thumb goes to the row of elephants on the space bar.

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Corona’s marketing folks hoped wealthy parents would buy it for their children.  It cost $50.  But the Great Depression

swept in … and there are only a few ‘animal Coronas’ left in the world.  And only ONE set of rings, Gigi informed us.

(That’s because after they used them, the kids and teachers would throw them in a drawer somewhere.)

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At the Type-In:  My friend Gloria Gordon hit the keys before Gigi warned her off — we had no idea she stroked an extinct “Miss Animal”.

Now we know.

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