Tap Contest: 1926

Leroy Anderson's "The Typewriter" is what I heard. Just think of all the cultural references current for nearly a century (including plenty of gags in animated cartoons) that are increasingly garnering blank stares rather than chuckles.

The Typewriter Song by Leroy Anderson. There is a generation of folks who wouldn't know what the sound is if they heard it. Just like the generations growing up that won't think, "Heigh Ho Silver!" when they hear the William Tell Overture.

I can imagine these three typing away to the tune of "Dueling Banjos." The newest tech gadgets make an electronic click, trying hard to duplicate the satisfying thwack of key on roller, marking the paper betwixt.

Gaaah! How can they type while all those eyes are watching them? I'm a fast, accurate typist but when someone is standing over my shoulder I make mistakes. I'd be lucky to hit 20 wpm in this contest.

I had forgotten about those wall-sized 'rollscreen' world maps. Thanks Shorpy.

What about the short guy with the ill-fitting wig in the back row?

is on the girl on the left. She's the only one awake.

Helen Sullivan won the typing contest in both 1926 and 1927. Miss Sullivan was a fierce competitor, also winning the bureau's bowling tournament in 1926.

The semi-final tests in the typewriting contest which the Bureau of Aeronautics is sponsoring were held on Monday afternoon. The following from the Bureau of Aeronautics are entered into the competition. Miss Bertha Baker, Gertrude Baker, Mrs. Marion Grady, Miss Marion Grady, Miss Elsie Grant, Mr. A.M. MacInnes, Miss P. O'Malley, Miss Rachel Parham, Miss Alma Quisenberry, Miss Gladys Smith and Miss Helen Sullivan.

Washington Post, May 16, 1926