Tom Hanks doesn’t cast away a promise.
The two-time Oscar winner sent a “much anticipated” vintage German typewriter to a small business owner in Portland, Ore., years after initially pledging to do so.
“Two years ago, Tom Hanks told me he’d send me a typewriter,” Type Space owner Antony Valoppi wrote in an Instagram post on Sept. 12. “Today, that promise finally clattered its way onto my desk—an autographed personal machine straight from Mr. Hanks himself.”
Valoppi posted an image of him unboxing the unique gift and shared a photo with the “Big” actor, which was taken when they first met in 2023.
“We had such a great time when he visited the shop, geeking out over platen knobs, escapements, and all the glorious quirks of these machines,” Valoppi wrote on Instagram. “And true to his word (fashionably late, of course 😅), he’s sent along this beauty.”
The small business owner, who opened his shop in 2021, first met Hanks when the “Forrest Gump” star stopped by while he was in town for his “The Making of Another Major Motion Picture Masterpiece” book tour, according to KGW8 News.
The two “talked about typewriters” for an hour before Hanks, 69, bought an antique typewriter and promised to send Valoppi an autographed machine from his personal collection.
Valoppi admitted he “kind of forgot about it” as the months went by and no gift arrived, the outlet reported.
Recently, the shop owner reached out to the Hollywood star’s manager for an unspecified reason, and that’s when Hanks’ team realized they forgot to send the vintage typewriter.
A signed 1955 Rheinmetall with a German keyboard was on Valoppi’s doorstep days later.
“Sorry collectors – this one’s priceless!” Valoppi wrote in his Instagram post. “Come by and share in the fun—because it isn’t every day you get to say, ‘Yeah, Tom Hanks sent me a typewriter.’”
Hanks’ collection consists of more than 300 typewriters that date back to the early 1900s. In January, he loaned 35 from his personal stash to The Church of Sag Harbor for a three-month exhibition.
This isn’t the first time the “Philadelphia” star has gifted one of these unique items.
In 2020, Hanks sent a Corona-brand typewriter to Corona De Vries, an Australian boy who was bullied for having a name that was similar to the deadly coronavirus pandemic.
“I thought this typewriter would suit you,” Hanks wrote in a letter that came with the gift. “Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back.”
Coincidentally, Hanks and his wife, actress Rita Wilson, spent weeks quarantining in Australia after they tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2020.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
