Early 1970s gray-tone Adler Contessa Deluxe portable typewriter (serial number 10054743) personally-owned and -used by noted screenwriter and playwright Rod Serling of The Twilight Zone fame. Includes its black plastic cover with carrying handle. In fine condition, with some paint stains to the case top, and expected signs of use to the machine. Accompanied by a letter of provenance from Serling’s daughter Jodi, who identifies this typewriter as the last used by her father prior to his death at the age of 50 on June 28, 1975.
It reads, in part: “Writing was easy for my dad when he was at home in California. He had a perfect set-up. A snazzy office with his IBM electric typewriter, his trusty Dictaphone machine and his faithful and adoring secretaries ever ready to field the incessant Hollywood phone calls…But when the family would encamp for Lake Cayuga in the summer months…what did the most famous writer in the world do when he was isolated at the lake house…He would finger pick his ideas, concepts, thoughts, letters and scripts on a manual typewriter. An ancient beast called an Adler Contessa Deluxe was the last machine he used…
It is hard to fathom the great things my dad created on antique word machines but, given his prolific need to write, the output must have been mind boggling. In fact, since dad had already relegated most of his creations to dictation by now, this Adler Contessa Deluxe might have been the last device dad used to actually type out his work, before his passing in 1975. Just like he did in the old days. Therefore, this is a most important and remarkable machine because it was the last typewriter he ever used.”
