Tom Hanks Gives Typewriter To Family, With Stipulations
A family with a newfound love for typewriters was stunned to not only hear from Tom Hanks, but receive one of his personal typewriters as a gift.
By nowproducerdave on December 19, 2017
Receiving anything from Tom Hanks would make our week, but this family got a pretty awesome gift – a typewriter. I know, I know, “what is this, 1978?” Well no, but the family expressed interest in typewriters, and they somehow got the attention of one of our most favorite actors with a nice letter. Here’s the story.
A few months ago, the de Peyster family saw a documentary in a movie theater. It was called “California Typewriter,” and many Hollywood actors were featured in the film, including Tom Hanks, who still writes with his typewriter, and actually has a really nice collection, if we can geek out for a second.
Nick de Peyster thought that he and his family should write a letter to Tom Hanks. In the letter, they wrote about how they saw the documentary and actually became pretty inspired by it. Nick said that he was going to challenge his son, Rowan, to type a “thank-you” letter to someone at least once per week. Also in the letter, Nick asked Tom Hanks if they could have one of the typewriters from his collection (a vast collection including more than 200 machines). A bold request for sure. That was in September.
This past weekend, nearly 3-months after writing that original letter, a box appeared on the family’s doorstep. Nick was a little confused, since they hadn’t ordered anything and weren’t expecting anything from anyone. Nick looked at the return address, which said “Playtone,” and took a few seconds to realize what it was. Once he remembered that “Playtone” is the name of Tom Hanks’ production company, everything clicked, and excitement ensued.
The family opened the box to discover a basically pristine-condition Olympia typewriter complete with Tom’s autograph, and a letter to the family. The stipulations of the gift were that Rowan is to continue writing one “thank-you” letter per week, and the family has to buy a typewriter for someone else, in a sort of pay-it-forward style gift exchange. Rowan is deep into his thank-you letters, and the family loves having the typewriter around.
Hats off to you, Tom. What a cool thing to do!
