Lujack’s typewriter on the block

Larry'sTypewriterA Luddite to the very end, Chicago radio great Larry Lujack never took an interest in e-mail, text messaging or social media. If Ol’ Uncle Lar had something to write, it would come out of his typewriter and find its recipient by snail mail or fax.

Now the typewriter that launched a thousand “Animal Stories” can be yours.

Larry Lujack and John Rook (2008)

Larry Lujack and John Rook (2008)

The legendary “Superjock,” who died last December of esophageal cancer at 73, left his old Smith-Corona to John Rook, a longtime friend and radio consultant who was program director of WLS AM 890 from 1967 to 1970. Rook is auctioning the typewriter on eBay (at a starting price of $500) to benefit the Hit Parade Hall of Fame, which he founded in 2007.

Records show the SCM Smith-Corona Secretarial 76 was the last Smith-Corona manual standard model made by the company.

“Not one to accept the internet or computers, every letter, script or memo he ever wrote over a forty year period magically appeared from his trusty Smith Corona typewriter,” Rook wrote of Lujack in the eBay description. “Reduced to re-inking the ribbon in those years since the passage of time ended their availability.”

“We are honored . . . that he chose to make his personal Smith-Corona typewriter available to the highest bidder as a fund raising project for the Hit Parade Hall of Fame.”

Rook said he could make arrangements to have Lujack’s widow, Jude Lujack, take a photo with the winner accepting the typewriter.