Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[VivienR]

'I just watched an episode one of my favorite series: "The Saint" in Season 2 Episode 7 titled as The Work of Art, a fountain pen was used to sign a statement. Around 45:55, The pen has a screw on cap.'

 

Looks like an aeromatic Duofold to me. Would be right for the period.

 

Thank you! Its suspiciously looks like that!

[peterg]

But to confuse matters the pen in the first shot is different, possibly even a ball point.

[tinta]

I have not read through this loooong thread yet,... but I can chime in about a couple television series from England, with fountain pens being used.

 

Religiously, every Friday night at 9:00, on TVO, I watch another re-run of "Heartbeat". I just saw the new village Doctor use a FP.

We have bought the third season of "Call the Midwife", which has scenes where a fountain pen was used.

 

Now that I think of it, there are also episodes in "Foyle's War"....

Edited September 19, 2015 by tinta

[inkstainedruth]

I have not read through this loooong thread yet,... but I can chime in about a couple television series from England, with fountain pens being used.

 

Religiously, every Friday night at 9:00, on TVO, I watch another re-run of "Heartbeat". I just saw the new village Doctor use a FP.

We have bought the third season of "Call the Midwife", which has scenes where a fountain pen was used.

 

Now that I think of it, there are also episodes in "Foyle's War"....

I was in Ontario over Labor Day Weekend, and watched an episode of Heartbeat. Was not familiar with the show, but I liked it, except for the teenage drug dealers who did not look as if they belonged in the 1960s (more like the 1990s...). Don't recall offhand if pens figured in that episode at all, though.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[tinta]

Ruth, I do recall the episode & will check to see if I have it & if there was any pen play in it (I've been PVR-ing every episode for a while). It is next to impossible to collect most of the shows, as the TV series ran for a long, long time.

Edited September 19, 2015 by tinta

[carlos.q]

During the History Channel's documentary "The Ultimate Guide to the (US) Presidents" there is a recreation of Lyndon B. Johnson's desk in 1964 with a Sheaffer desk set.

 

[ehemem]

Last weekend, there was a still of a new movie coming out called "Carol" in the NYT, and there was an Esterbrook J in the foreground of the picture on the counter between the actors...

[Mishka5050]

I spotted a red Visconti in "Hector and the Search for Happiness"

[amondalju]

I spotted a red Visconti in "Hector and the Search for Happiness"

 

I Think it is Visconti Rembrandt. Funny fact, in the movie it says "It costs more than your car" where the price is 165$ actually.

[Mishka5050]

 

I Think it is Visconti Rembrandt. Funny fact, in the movie it says "It costs more than your car" where the price is 165$ actually.

Lol, exactly! I remember watching it and thinking: these are not so expensive

[I.M.]

Yes, but perhaps the car was a complete pile of junk about to fall apart at the hinges!

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I saw a rerun of an episode of The Avengers in the wee hours of this morning. It was season 4, episode 3, “The Cybernauts.”

 

In it the bad guys have robots that are designed to home in on a radio signal and kill whoever is nearby. And the radio transmitter is hidden in – a fountain pen! The robots destroy the fountain pens after they've gotten done killing the people.

 

Oh, the destroyed fountain pens.

 

They looked like contemporary, mid-'60s fountain pens. I'm pretty sure that they were cc fillers from the looks of one broken one. They appeared to have had metal caps and barrels, the metal was textured, ciselle maybe? I couldn't identify them, but I suspect that they were fairly inexpensive in those days, something the producers could afford to use and destroy on camera.

[zenhikester]

Sorry if this has been mentioned but I just re-watched "A Clockwork Orange" and noticed that when Alex (Main Character) gets transferred to the hospital, he is signed in with a Parker 51. Looks Grey.

[Ink Stained Wretch]

I’ve been watching The Jambusters series on TV. There are loads of fountain pens in this series, naturally. The series is set in England and is about the Women’s Institute in a village during World War II. So far I’ve seen two episodes, and they cover August and September 1939.

Everyone uses either a fountain pen or a pencil to write with. We may see a dip pen at some point in a future episode, but so far I’ve seen only fountain pens and pencils. The pens are usually obscured by the actor's hand and the scenes in which they show up go by too fast for me to see a lot of details, so I can’t identify any of them. And, given that I’m no fountain pen historian, I probably would have a hard time identifying most of them anyway. But it’s nice to see everyone using them. And just about everybody in the series seems to have one.

I am sure that some of us on FPN have more fountain pens than an entire English village really did have in 1939 .

[cobalt]

French language TV series Resistance, set 1942 period. One of the lead resistance fighters is Lili, who writes with a slim, silver? fountain pen throughout. Can't see it well enough to identify.

 

Also, what pens are they using in Downton Abbey...? Carson/butler does use a dip pen to keep track of events in the kitchen.

[I.M.]

Good question Cobalt, I've often wondered about Downton Abbey myself. I couldn't help thinking in Season 6, Episode 1 how it's a good job the Dowager Countess has a butler and a maid to cap her gold overlay pen after she's left it on her desk uncapped for what can only be the umpteenth time.

[tinta]

Just saw an episode of Indian Summers on PBS where a black fountain pen was used. I rewound the PVR a couple times to try to identify this pen. No luck, except that it had a narrow body.

Now even my wife is noticing pens in period dramas.

[Ernst Bitterman]

Just saw an episode of Indian Summers on PBS where a black fountain pen was used. I rewound the PVR a couple times to try to identify this pen. No luck, except that it had a narrow body.

Now even my wife is noticing pens in period dramas.

 

That show is killing me-- there's heaps of fountain pens in it, almost all of them slip-cap and hooded point, in the pattern of the Parker "51" that didn't appear to start the trend for such things until at least five years in the show's future. I don't doubt they're Indian pens, although some may be Heros, but they're not quite period appropriate.

[cobalt]

Sunday night's (18 Oct) Downton Abbey: Nice black FP with silver that what it looks like) nib and bands. We're in 1925. Not much detail as not wanting to spoil things for those in the colonies (gosh, the show does get to you!)

[tinta]

 

That show is killing me-- there's heaps of fountain pens in it,....................

Indian Summers on PBS.

Indeed,... it's driving me crazy too: fountain pens, dip pens, letters, the lot........

 

Just watched the 2006 film Miss Potter, again for the umpteenth time (my Wife adores it), starring the 'original' Renee Zellweger.

Miss Potter was seen writing with a gorgeous, slim, silver overlaid, black ebonite pen.

An early Waterman, or perhaps in Britain it may have been a Mabie Todd & Co. Swan?

 

Though I only buy modern pens, I'm fascinated with this looooong thread.

Edited October 20, 2015 by tinta