What happened when Tom Hanks' typewriter showed up at a Bremerton repair shop

A lot of surprises come through Bremerton Office Machine Company, one of the last remaining typewriter repair shops in the Northwest. There are typewriters from different eras, with different fonts and languages, even machines that type musical notation.

Still, shop owner Paul Lundy was stunned when a typewriter of an uncommon type recently arrived in the mail — a typewriter previously owned and signed by actor Tom Hanks, a 1940 Remington 5 portable.

It came with a Playtone towel (Hanks' production company), and a letter from the actor.

"The typewriter arrived, as many do, unannounced. I was expecting a customer machine and yep, that was in the arrival stack. Then one with a Santa Monica, Calif. address," Lundy said. "I opened the box and the first thing I spied was a dark green Playtone towel — how odd. In a beautiful, deep dark green envelope was Tom’s note donating this Remington 5 portable typewriter to [Bremerton Office Machine Company]. Everyone in the shop was so thrilled to be honored."

Hanks is known for his typewriter fervor and has amassed a personal collection of hundreds of the writing machines. It appears that, lately, he has been freeing up some space on his shelves, to the benefit of small shops across the USA.