Crazy Fast! Watch Her Type 185 Words A Minute. A World Champion IBM Selectric Typist

[catbyte]

I wish I knew what year this was from. Looks like late 1950s or early 1960s? I remember how thrilled I was when our office got an electronic typewriter -- it stored up to 15 pages of documents! I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. This was in the very early 1980s.

[underpants]

1. Amazing. One of the two things I learned in high school

Typing and Drivers Ed.

[Kaleva]

16. Those were the only two courses in HS I had from which I benefited from

[unc70]

2. Not a Selectric she is using

Impressive typing speed, but that typewriter is not a Selectric, which used the "bouncing" type ball.

[sl8]

8. +1

[catbyte]

10. Don't blame me, it was in the video title and I don't mess with those.

[Skittles]

13. yup

to this day I put that Selectric w/ ball in the top five of my favorite inventions in my lifetime!

[Ferrets are Cool]

3. This is more impressive to me.

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[onethatcares]

4. only ? I have

How fast did she fetch coffee?

Awe, come on folks, I'm kidding.

[mitch96]

5. Did I miss it but what was her accuracy.Some type fast but the accuracy goes right out the window.nt

[Ocelot II]

6. That's not a Selectric, though.

This is a Selectric:

[Meadowoak]

7. +1

[IcyPeas]

21. I loved the feel of these keys.

[sl8]

9. I think that's Stella Pajunas.

If so, she set a record for typing speed in 1946.

Very impressive.

[Kaleva]

18. Here's a video of Stella Pajunas

[sl8]

19. Thank you. nt

[TlalocW]

11. When I was in middle school in the late 80s, Mom re-educated herself

To become a secretary again, which she had been in the late 50s/early 60s. Typing and shorthand, and then learning about computers from me. She insisted all her kids take a typing class in high school. Mine still used typewriters even though we also had computer programming courses at the same time (ah, Apple PASCAL). Anyway, she was right about how important it would become to know your way around a keyboard. One summer in between sophomore and junior years, I stopped at a Manpower office (temporary work). I had just gotten done helping my brother-in-law gut the inside of a building so I was dirty and sweaty. "Are you here to take a manual labor test?" Nope. Secretarial. "Really?" Yep! I blew away their current records with 120 wpm and one mistake... Still wouldn't give me any jobs. Sexists.

[unc70]

14. In the 1960s I was a Clerk Typist one summer

Summer job while in college. Much better than me working in the fields. One task was typing phone bills on a military base for base housing.

[unc70]

12. Many of us could reach 60 on a manual,

Maybe 80 or 90 on an electric. Maybe, but with some errors. What was it? 5 characters for each error?? All of that depended on the keys not jamming together. The Selectric at least eliminated that problem.

Then there was about 15 wpm on the IBM Executive typewriter. What a nightmare. Proportional spacing. Try to center something using that beast!

[ironflange]

15. Jeez, I can't even read that fast!

[a kennedy]

17. I use the line "sent from my IBM Selectric typewriter" for my closing line in my e-mail.

[ProfessorGAC]

20. My Mom Was In That Class

She was an executive secretary for Standard Oil before I was born. Was in a regional office.
She won the senior year (high school) typing medal by typing nearly 1,500 words in 10 minutes, with zero errors on a manual typewriter.
She was a documentation transcriptionist to, literally, the day she died. She could just type out testimony on tape, even well into her 70s.
Because of her, I knew how to touch type on her Remington portable before I knew how to write in cursive.
In college, I was 85-90 wpm, and I sounded like slow-motion compared to her.
Her ability on a typewriter was amazing.

[IcyPeas]

22. who remembers the David Letterman show with the fast typist?

Last edited Tue Sep 6, 2022, 10:20 PM - Edit history (1)

Go to about the 4 minute mark and watch for a few minutes. Hilarious.

Barbara Blackburn, crowned the "World's Fastest Typist," appeared on the January 24 broadcast and participated in a typing contest with Production Assistant Barbara Gaines. Stuff happened, and on the following new show, January 28, top forensic experts demonstrated what went wrong.

[sl8]

25. Nice little mystery, thanks for posting. nt

[3catwoman3]

23. Typing lost out to advanced biology in my last year of high school, and I...

...never did learn. That was in 1969.

To this day, I have to look at the keyboard, and usually use only 6 fingers, and my right thumb on the space bar.

Not being an efficient typist definitely made work a drag when my peds office switched to electronic medical records.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

24. I bought myself a second hand manual typewriter when I was about 13,

along with a "Touch Typing Self Taught" book. I taught myself to type, and earned money in high school typing term papers for other students.