PORTLAND, Oregon — Actor Tom Hanks has long shared his enthusiasm for typewriters, and one person who knows this firsthand is an Oregonian typewriter shop owner named Tony Valoppi.
You may recognize Valoppi from a bit of press last week after he finally received an autographed typewriter from the two-time Oscar winner, more than two years after it was promised.
This all began in May 2023. One Friday afternoon, Valoppi got a call from Hanks’ team that he would like to visit his shop in Portland, called The Type Space. The next day, an SUV pulled in and suddenly the “Forrest Gump” actor was standing in his store, ready to talk typewriters.
Valoppi said he started geeking out. In fact, he said he really won Hanks over when he had a special model Hanks had been searching for.
While he was there, the “Cast Away” star promised to send an autographed typewriter from his collection and, more than two years later, Valoppi decided to just casually bring up to his team that it had never arrived.
Valoppi recalled, “She said, ‘Oh, my God, we never sent that type project. Did we?'”
Valoppi said, within a few days, a 1955 German typewriter arrived from California.
He didn’t seem too mad about the delay. “I’ve had a few clients in today write their friends letters. Hey, I’m typing this letter on Tom Hanks’ typewriter,” he said.
Valoppi also gave Hanks something — a special gold watch. If you look at photos from the Cannes Film Festival that year, Valoppi said that’s his gold watch on Hanks’ left wrist.
Tom Hanks and others pose for photographers at the premiere of the film ‘Asteroid City’ at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Tuesday, May 23, 2023.
Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP
