Louis Marler speaks with her friend Evangeline Whitlock about their fathers’ common typewriter collections, how they met, their art, and how they plan to blend the collections after Evangeline’s father passed away from COVID-19.
SUBJECT LOG / TIME CODE
TRANSCRIPT
00:06 Hi, I am Louise and Marler. I will be 58 in April 11th. I’m in St. Louis Missouri. And it is Thursday, March 25th, 2021. My partner’s name is Evangeline and we are friends.
00:30 And I am Evangeline Rose Whitlock and I will be 38 on April 5th. I am in St. Louis Missouri. And it is Thursday, March 25th, 2021. I am virtually here with Louise and we are friends.
00:51 All right. I am going to read a letter. I typed and mailed with a postage stamp to my mom. The same day that I met Evangeline.
01:04 October 11th, 2020. Dear Mom. What an amazing old to Dad in the marlar family experienced business and so much more. It was to open the type of sphere on the sixth anniversary of Lawrence Earl Marler, Jr. Passing out of this life. A life. We all centered around instinctually. I decided to open that day. It was in the DNA. Despite the pandemic, our worries about health and commingling the volatility of racism and politics. All the good reasons not to open to the public. We did it anyway.
01:53 With our champagne frankoma Cornucopia in the best museum style display of manual. Typewriters with my 21st century, contemporary photo-based, mixed media art work. We brought it home, where it all started and where it will continue perhaps end.
02:16 Alpha and Omega full circle.
02:20 Thanks to you. I was able to live and I sent it light and do this in a way that is unique to us. And me, the greatest love. Always Louise.
02:33 October 2020. I was walking down, Antique Row on Cherokee Street. I was on a hunt for some vintage furniture for my new apartment and I had just been down there over Labor Day weekend, with my dad, who was an avid antique. ER, and I have been trying to think of where I could take him over that long weekend and everyone in St. Louis had recommended that we visit Antique Row. So in October, I went back to do a little more hunting around on my own and I saw a sign for your shop Louise and all the artwork in the window and this interesting print of a typewriter and I don’t recall seeing it before. So I walked in and and discovered this magical Little Treasure Trove of antique typewriters and interesting artwork and then of course met you and you were really cool.
03:33 And this fabulous artist and had all of these typewriters of all things. And I and I remember that I asked you when you had opened because I told you about my dad and how he was a typewriter collector and I asked when you open because I knew there was no way that my dad and I would have blocked by that shop without going in and you said yesterday was my first day and so I just remember that being such a joyful meeting. And I remember that when I left
04:08 I called my dad basically as soon as I walked out of the shop. And I first thing I said, was Dad. I just had a vision of my life in 30 years when you die, and he laughed because I was thinking about his collection of 115 typewriters and, and thinking about what it’s cool things to do with the typewriters that you had described where part of your father’s life business. And so, I was just thinking about your life, as an artist and, and all of the typewriters and how you found this, blend of your art with your dad’s work and all these ways to engage Community through it. And so, I was telling my dad about all of this and I said, dad, you have to come and visit the shop the next time you come and visit me in St. Louis. It’s amazing and and then I hung up and that is the phone call that I had with my dad on the first day that I met you.
05:08 Yeah, so you walked in, and you had this cool style and you seem to really connect with it. And I was so excited that a New Yorker had just relocated to St. Louis like me.
05:24 And so did you actually make a date with your dad at that time to come back? We didn’t and sadly 30 years that I had described on the phone. Came just a few months later. My dad never made it back to St. Louis. He became infected with covid in mid-november and went into the hospital on November 29th. When my mom realized that he was still having trouble breathing and wasn’t getting any better the way that she was getting better because she had gotten sick around the same time. And then he went into the I see you on December 5th.
06:09 And the next time I saw him was in the ICU on December 26th, my mom called that morning to say that he had been emergency intubated overnight. And that I should probably come up there because they didn’t know what was going to happen.
06:24 I live in Rockford, which is about a four-hour drive north of St. Louis. I made it up there just in time to suit up into full PPE and be escorted into his little. I see you and be able to say my goodbyes with my mom and my sister and my brother-in-law.
06:43 And I’ve been thinking about your letter that you wrote. Were you described so beautifully. He passed out of this life.
06:53 So, all of a sudden that 30 years from now became now.
06:59 And a few days after he passed and we were doing all the things you have to do. After someone dies, that you don’t even know you’re going to have to do my sister. And I found this little stack of note cards in one of his office drawers. And they have all these different. What seems to be goals, and hopes, and dreams for these different facets of his life.
07:24 And one of them says, I’m just going to read it. Typewriter restoration repair, use use? Means. I need to write something during the league essays on what’s going through my head letters, short stories. Maybe, what do I want from? This? Just collect restore and sell everything. I acquire. I want to get or be prepared to be in working condition.
07:54 And so just in the aftermath trying to think about now, what are we going to do with a hundred and fifty and typewriters? I knew that I had to come back and had to see you and see if you wanted to be a part of helping me figure out what to do with all of these typewriters.
08:17 So then on a cold and dark gray, deepest hour of January 2021, you walked back through the door again, not exactly sure. Only having met. Once we had Mass. Our hair was all grown out and was soft eyes. You shared the loss of your father.
08:41 And that you were trying to figure out what to do with a hundred and fifteen typewriters.
08:48 And we discovered our bond was more than the Intrigue with her dad’s collections deeper than how to unload this suddenly residual hobby. You felt, I could help you share his passion and more meaningful ways. So we agreed to be typewriter sisters. The pandemic accelerated, our futures into now. It’s fast-tracked personal purpose. Actually this mini typewriter Museum was a future plan for me, too. I thought it would happen in 10 years when my sturdy mom would be 95.
09:31 It was 30 years for you and 10 years for me. Which both became present day.
09:40 Yeah.
09:42 I’ve been thinking about that that acceleration that you talk about which really is sums up this feeling of immediacy and the urgency that the pandemic I think sent certainly sent me into and talking with you that that day about the typewriters and and learning more about your life at. It helps me really understand that and I’ve been thinking about my work in theater in my my years of just the uncertainty of what life as a freelancer means. In fact, sometimes I I say that my life is a freelance artist at the guarantee of certain uncertainty.
10:27 And so there’s a level of some comfortable with you that I had with that. But the pandemic challenge that even more and I never thought that it would impact my life in this immediate way. And I’m so grateful that that were able to have this conversation and and start to think about how to to, to dream a new ways. And I’m wondering if you can talk a little bit about why you came to st. Louis at the time, you did. Because I think that’s an interesting part of the synchronicity of our stories. Well, there were a few times during this year of quarantine. I actually was relating to people who entered World War II.
11:14 The ones that got word and quickly pack a bag and fled to safer places and that’s what I did. The spur-of-the-moment primarily because of my mother and my sister.
11:29 At the Advent of the pandemic. When the Santa Monica, Art, Walk was cancelled. Our trip to New Orleans with canceled. Easter was cancelled Easter a high holiday for us.
11:45 The crash and my big lies in hearing about how this could be the darkest winter of Our Lives. I made the best decision. I could at the moment to manifest the mini Museum of typewriters in St. Louis. Well, because there were a hundred years of typewriter collecting that happened here in storage, and I wanted to put it all together in the same room with my original typewriter Art and Novelty gifts. So
12:19 I brought it to Antique Row in the mighty Midwest.
12:25 And I realize this could be a productive self entertaining season because on top of not being supposed to go out though. The weather would keep me confined. So it was going to facilitate me. Not interacting and, you know, it’s like a force, slow down, let go and spend a lot of introspection, which could be very creative. So, I embraced a newfound time and space and allowed myself to do things. I thought might be in another lifetime.
13:06 Now.
13:09 Well, I think it’s interesting the timing of you coming to St. Louis in the way that you described it because my story is really.
13:24 I mean different, but there it was a similar sort of like I never thought that I wouldn’t I would land here after living on Coast for 12 years and the pandemic is you talked about earlier. But accelerated, it something that I did not imagine what happened. And basically with an opportunity came up for a job here in St. Louis. And I have family, and my sister, and my brother-in-law live here and my mom and my dad used to living up in Illinois. So it seems like a really great opportunity to to start a new life and I think it’s, it’s interesting.
14:14 And really exciting that.
14:17 But even despite the pandemic, despite being in global lockdown, despite all the uncertainty that I, that I described and that we talked about. I feel like I’ve found a creativity here that I
14:37 That I have been able to really come into my own as an artist and be able to explore new mediums. And and even thinking about this note card that I found from my dad. You know, he talks so much in here about wanting to write something and wanting to write more which is something which is something that I’ve been exploring a lot more and I and I I think that our meeting and finding this connection through such a weird machine, like a typewriter like who would think that that is something that that people in this way with connect about and
15:28 At the same time through both of our work as artists and then through this discovery that both of us have lost fathers and and have now settled in this city.
15:44 Can you, can you tell me this about how the the artwork that you do, which is inspired by your father’s life work? But isn’t his life work. Can you tell me how that began for you? And, and where that started?
16:03 Well, you know, I was seeking inspiration and I
16:11 We had typewriters in the living room and in the office as objects of Art. And so, once I got a digital camera right around the turn of the century, I started photographing the typewriters. I have been surrounded by them my whole life and I’m very familiar with them and they were available to me. So I felt like some of them actually look like. They had like little happy faces and hold the camera and digital gave me an opportunity to do. A lot of Photography in a way that I was not able to do prior because of the expense of the camera and film and developing in
17:00 And so, the digital camera gave me an opportunity for that. And I have a Graphic Design background. So I made them very colorful and Photoshop is my digital dark room. So, I also spend a bunch of time with these clever captions, you know, I worked in advertising, so, there was sort of a really commercial Vibe about it, and that’s how it came about. My dad did not really embrace it. He sort of had this very traditional patriarchal ideology, and didn’t really think that it was an extension of his business agenda, which is why he had with the machine.
17:52 We actually collected over a hundred machines that I have on display. Now, as trade-ins through the typewriter business, in a, you would buy a new machine and bring your old one to get it some money off of it, the price of the new one.
18:10 So,
18:12 Went collected all of these and the cooler ones were like on the desk or side table.
18:22 So that’s how it came about.
18:25 I think it’s interesting that your dad didn’t understand the connection or see the relevance and that you had to
18:39 I mean, I guess work a little bit to help him understand because I’m going to share a story with you. The sum I my parents have always been supportive of my work in theater and majored in theater and in college and and my dad has driven back and forth across the country to help me move in the different apartments for different phases of my life. And I remember, when I was getting ready to move from Michigan to San Diego, California to go to graduate school to continue studying towards a career in theater. And my dad was going to drive out there with me, and do this whole cross-country road trip and, you know, great father-daughter bonding time, and I can’t remember it. Now. I don’t even remember now, what, what he said, or what I said that that may be tipped us off, but something that he said,
19:39 Made me realize that maybe, maybe he was concerned or worried and I had that had never even crossed my mind and all of my fears to that weight of working in theater. And so I, I said that are you worried about me and he said, oh Evangeline. I’ve been worried about you. Since the day you said you were going to become a theater major and you seem to have done. All right for yourself. And so I feel like I think in, in hearing you just how you came into your work as an artist.
20:19 I’m realizing the fat.
20:23 Like what a gift that was that my dad gave it. Definitely. My dad was afraid that if I were an artist that I would be poor and you know, perhaps in need of a relationship that was not the best thing for me, you know, it makes you feel sort of this. He considered it this way, that they should.
21:03 So I stay connected to him and my repairman uncle’s through this work. And I only refer to the typewriter repair men that I’ve met in New York Palm Springs. La St. Louis as my uncle’s because they were repair in so interacting with them. Just feels like a big family still.
21:36 Or should we talk about our mom’s meeting us? Let’s Lewis to the women. I say so.
21:52 When are my my sister and his mom? Obviously, she came down for the day early, March, and I told her all about you. And I said, Mom, you have to meet this fabulous person. She’s an artist who’s really cool. She has really cool shot down on on Cherokee Street. And I think this is what I want to try to do something with dads typewriters. And so I was just want you to meet her and because again in the in the aftermath of dealing with everything in the wake of the of my dad passing and all the stuff that has to happen, my sister and my brother-in-law had decided that they would deal with all of the finances and all of the bills and the credit cards and closing all that. So, you know, all that stuff that has to happen. And I was like, okay, I’ll deal with the typewriter.
22:52 So I so I knew that I wanted my mom to sign off on whatever it is. We were going to try to do in terms of these machines. And so so we brought her down at 2 to meet you and surprised that your mom also happened to be in the shop that day and it was a really, it was a really fun. Like, you know, I think right now emotions are so strange. The process of grief is so strange. How do you
23:32 Go through this process of of the constant undercurrent of sadness. And then these moments of joy and of beauty and relationships growing, and continuing, which is something, you know, that we share in our relationship certainly, and it was. So it was this really lovely moment of introducing my mom to you and then our mom’s being able to meet each other. And then my sister being there, who is 7 months pregnant. So there was this site multi-generational moment that happened. And and seeing I think at that same day, they’re like, at least two or three or four people walked into the shop. It was a beautiful day outside. So the door was propped open and and, and your shop is so just light-filled and
24:32 Funny because of the big windows. And so it was a really beautiful day and people coming in and out of the shop and and sitting down at the typewriters and and an undercurrent of noise in the background of the typewriters rolling. While you and my mom were talking about things and and your mom, and the customers were talking about things and my sister and I realized what they were really hungry. We need to figure out how to use conversation so that we can go get food. And, you know, it’s another one of those moments I have just like,
25:17 Discovering that there.
25:20 There is.
25:23 There can be joy in the midst of of incredible sadness and and realizing, I think also in that moment.
25:33 Realizing.
25:35 Just the way that.
25:40 You get prepared for things months in advance that you don’t even know if you’re going to have to be prepared for. And I think the move here for me.
25:52 I mean, I never like I can’t imagine living in New York right now and having to be going through everything that I’m going through. And so yes, thank you for, for that day. I’m talking with my mom and your mom had a lot to say, you know, but this is my insight because you know, my mother and father were married 55 years and
26:26 She and her sisters all lost their husbands, the same year. So they were transformed. They had never been adult single females and their entire life. So your mom is probably going to experience the same thing where she’s had someone to talk to all day everyday every evening, you know, there’s been a routine where she’s been horribly disrupted and you probably going to need to be more available to her to fill that Gap. So
27:04 She’s going to need companionship in new ways.
27:08 And I thought she was lovely. So it was really special. It was sort of like being in grade school where your mom’s meet that that’s really good advice and it’s something I’ve been thinking about a lot to just that.
27:31 Eminem quote, I’m close with both my parents, but, but thinking about, like, my dad was always the one that I would call. Like if I was calling a parent was, usually, my dad was the first parent that I would call. And and I’ve I’ve been thinking about like, how is my relationship with my mom? Going to change it likes and something that at in at the age I am now didn’t hadn’t really consciously thought about. And so, you know something that is is really like I had this moment couple weeks ago or I was like, oh
28:13 I actually have more experience in this area than my mom does in terms of living living in a single life. And in, obviously it’s going to be different for my mom, but I do feel like
28:28 You’re right. That that companionship will change and that I I know how to move through the world in this way. And I know what it means to live alone. And I know what it is just to live without without defining Yourself by another person or with another person. I think that in terms of our growing friendship is another thing that I really connect with you about as well. And to start our life as a single independent.
29:05 Well, let’s see. I was able to get a lot closer to my mom, you know, because I wanted to and she was available to me. But what I realize what we’re talking about a bit is that I actually was able to coach her some because she didn’t know how to make the decisions. My dad had been making for them. So and and we trust each other. So there’s been really much closer relationship since then out of enjoyment and the subsidy. Well, I
29:45 I think, you know, what was, what was, what was great about, our mom’s being able to meet my mom, being able to meet you to, is when we left. And I don’t mean, she was. So, just over the moon about a stability and and that I had found that I had found this person and that there was this whole like other thing that that she could do at this because neither of us are interested in continuing the collection. And so I was like great. Okay, Mom, I’ll make this happen. And and so I emailed you the, the master database that my dad had meticulously put together every single typewriter his collection in the year and the Providence of it and what condition it was. And we were able to to sit down.
30:45 And go through that together.
30:50 And I think that, and I think we should talk about, just the, what we discovered in that moment about where his collection picks up in relationship to yours and what that means for the shop. And, and for you and when what where, what we’re kind of hoping to, to do with this, cuz I think it’s really exciting. So,
31:12 Yeah, and I was so impressed with your generosity and the details of his catalog because I am struggling to create that catalog of our large collection posthumously.
31:28 So, your typewriters are later. So that when we started to taper off collecting your dad’s actually fits right onto that chapter like the perfect puzzle. He’s connection and extend into later model. So we haven’t come by and then yet but we are planning to and they won’t be for sale. There. It’s a mini Museum. So everyone is surprised when they walk in here, and they’re not for sale because everything you know where capitalist everything is. So the sale but the typewriters is a museum experience.
32:16 But I love it about about that. Besides you have the the next chapter is also I’m so much of your artwork,. I’m the the fact that they are machines with a single purpose, basically to to write and anti. I love first of all, the description of the next chapter just because of its ties to the written word. And I think that there’s real opportunity, you know, I was thinking about just the future. And this question that people keep asking, you know, what does post-pandemic life look like and certainly I would have had a different answer to that six months ago to now, but one of the reasons that I one of the many reasons that I chose to move here at the at the time I did when the opportunity came up.
33:16 I just had this feeling that as we emerge from this, there will be a deeper routing into community and people even if it has happened, even even now, as travel has really not been something. We can do safely and easily that that people are are grounding themselves in their community. And I know for me, that’s what I’ve been trying to do here in St. Louis. And this circles back from me to all of the, the work that you’ve done in various parts of your life and have your career in in using both your art and the typewriters to create communities and to indeed communities. And
34:07 And I think that that I’m really excited about about what that might be. And I think it’s a really great for me. Anyway, it’s a it’s a wonderful way for me to honor my dad’s memory and two to think about what is the Legacy that I can build with this collection that for him with a passion. And and now you and I have this
34:37 Creative Energy and no desire to continue a collection, but all of the, all of the evidence of those Collections. And I am excited for for what that could be and the space that were
34:55 We’re going to be able to find for that.
35:00 Awesome. I feel like it’s a silver lining story and you eloquently described it as collateral Beauty. I got friends sometime towards the beginning of the pandemic, someone on a zoom call described this idea that and every catastrophe. There’s a collateral Beauty. And I and I think my my sense of of this idea of joy and sadness holding hands together.
35:34 This friendship that we have started on in. This journey that we started on is is an example of that collateral Beauty. And you know, I’ve been thinking about the tangibility of a typewriter.
35:54 And what has he said? What is what is collateral is something tangible?
36:02 Well, I think it’s a beautiful experience that we can now share Beyond ourselves and our families and the communities and I am super grateful.
36:18 Thank you, likewise.
36:26 Anything else?
36:29 Typewriter sound just to clarify, how many typewriters are in the collection now for Louise’s collection. And then how many Evangeline do you are you going to be adding to it?
36:45 I have about a hundred and fifty and in the marlar typewriter color.
36:54 So far we’ve identified. I think it was it around 60 that are going to come to your shop from my dad’s collection.
37:05 If you’re willing to transport them all from Illinois to st. Louis, but yeah, yeah, I think that’s where we’re at the growing process. And how many how many fully in the Whitlock collection where they I couldn’t tell if you were saying 1:50 or 1:50, okay.
37:32 I think we did it.
