Description
Black and white 9 3/4″ x 13 3/4″ ad for Royal Portable Typewriters. This ad starts with the question “Can a typewriter help your child to think?”. That’s a good question, now let’s see what they have to say. “Your first impulsive answer is probably…’No’. The correct answer is…Yes. Modern educators and psychologists have found, through thousands of tests in the nation’s schools, that ‘typewriter’ children do better work…get from 10% to 30% higher grades in many subjects…than those who rely on the old-fashioned method – longhand. Why? Because the greater speed and ease of typing free your child’s energy for thinking…give wings to his eager mind. Moreover, when your child finishes school, his knowledge of typing will be a valuable aid in scores of professions…and it can be a career in itself. The average child readily learns to type faster than he can write.” There are three pictures in this ad with text afterwards. The first is of a teacher looking at a child’s work while he is standing at her desk and the text starts with “Don’t blame the child entirely! He learns from the printed page. Yet he does his homework in longhand. Spelling…punctuation…grammar – all suffer in the translation from one medium to the other. Not so when homework is done on a typewriter! Typewritten work offers direct comparison with the printed page”. The second picture shows a Royal Typewriter and a case and the text starts with the question, “But Why Should You Buy A Royal for your child? Because Royal is the one and only Portable that is actually a replica of a standard office typewriter. In durability, looks, method of operation. Royal alone has a keyboard identical with that on a standard office machine. (One reason why typing teachers recommend the Royal for home use”. And the third picture shows a young girl, smiling as she is typing away on “This Royal Portable contains those same famous features which have helped make the full-sized Royal the World’s Number One typewriter: MAGIC Margin (just flick the lever and your margin’s set)…Touch Control, which automatically adjusts key tension to your particular touch…dust-proof construction…locked bob-less shift, which saves eye-strain, cuts down noise – these are only a few of the many exclusive Royal advantages. Each Royal Portable includes the Royal ‘Self-Teacher,’ at no extra cost. Through its use, even a 10-year-old can learn to type. Yet the Royal costs no more than other portables. And your typewriter dealer is authorized to sell you a Royal for as little as $3 down and $3 a month…no more than the cost of renting one“.
Source: October 28, 1940 Life magazine.
