Fountain Pens In Movies And Tv

[inkstainedruth]

I had forgotten about that episode of Endeavor but do remember them mentioning other groups that would have been around during the timeframe of the show.  Of course, now I was wondering WHY the Kinks were banned from performing in the US....  Sometimes Google is your friend....

Of course I also just read why their song "Lola" was banned by the BBC....   

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sandy101]

Just saw the Phoenecian Scheme - Wes Anderson's new flick.

 

The "baddies" has what looked like vintage Parker 51 pens on wooden racks in front of them.

 

And there's a big document signing scene where everyone whips out Montblacs of all shapes, sizes and colours - perhaps a sponsorship/product placement deal?

 

A 149 (I think) looms heavily at the beginning.

 

[boilermaker1975]

54 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

I had forgotten about that episode of Endeavor but do remember them mentioning other groups that would have been around during the timeframe of the show.  Of course, now I was wondering WHY the Kinks were banned from performing in the US....  Sometimes Google is your friend....

Of course I also just read why their song "Lola" was banned by the BBC....   

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Being banned kept The Kinks from being as well-known as other bands like the Rolling Stones and Beatles. But they were very influential. Their 1964 song "You Really Got Me" completely changed the sound of R&R. They cut their speaker to introduce distortion. That was the first hit with distorted power chords after which every band used distorted power chords. Google will tell you the inspiration for the song.

 

 

[Ceilidh]

And didn't he use a Conway Stewart pen?  I seem to remember reading that on some old thread on FPN.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

I'm way behind on this thread...

He may have used CS at some point - the company certainly wants us to think so. But I have the book of letters between Winston and Clemmie, edited by their daughter Mary, and at one point he wrote to Clemmie asking for a replacement for his fountain pen - an Onoto.

[welch]

On 8/13/2024 at 1:05 PM, inkstainedruth said:

I've seen all of the first couple of seasons, and just finished watching season 3 recently. Don't remember that scene offhand, but there were a couple of times in season 3 where I was trying to figure out what pen Alphy (the current vicar) was using.  Although honestly, I can't really see Geordie being able to afford an expensive pen like a 51 on his salary (even with his wife working).

Of course I also wonder what the guy who wrote the original "Sidney Chambers" mysteries thinks of how the series has morphed from the stories (in the original stories, Sydney marries the German widow from one of the original stories and gets moved up to some job in the Bishop's (IIRC) office in Cambridge after they have a daughter, while Leonard gets his own parish down in London and can write sermons based on Russian literature to his heart's content.  

Of course I ALSO had to laugh at one of the stories because it was titled "Ummagumma" and a minor character is someone who is/was a member of Pink Floyd (and who was out in a field recording ambient sounds in the story, which involves some student getting gored by a bull in some farmer's field).  Always wondered if the guy was someone the author knew personally, or was some sort of "I'll name a character after you if you donate to X charity" thing.  But when I saw the story title, I was going "Huh?" and then when I read the story I wrote to the publisher and said "LOL!  I see what the author did there!"

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

In real life, a detective might not have been able to afford a Parker 51, but the Grantchester producers might have used a P51 because its fits the time. 

 

In 2022, the redfalcon kindly gave us the price of some Parker pens in the UK in the 1950s. He says a P51 "Lustraloy cap 84/8d (£4.27ish)" Of course, the next question: what did various levels of detectives make in the 1950s?

 

That thread, from our very own FPN: 

 

[Karmachanic]

On 5/26/2025 at 10:59 PM, sandy101 said:

perhaps a sponsorship/product placement deal?

 

 

 

[Estycollector]

Watched Leonie, a movie about Isamu Noguchi's mother last evening with dip pens in full view. 

[InkyProf]

The wall of what appear to be vintage orange-and-cream spined Penguin paperbacks (though maybe it's a photo collage) in the room that "represents the spirit of Montblanc" is an interesting touch. Insel-Verlag would have been better, but not legible to an Anglophone audience. And of course they could have gone turquoise-and-cream, but then instead of a wall of Penguins they would've had a wall of Pelicans... 🤣

[inkstainedruth]

@welch You may be right.  The pens that are being rented from me for the biopic about Milton Hershey are possibly not as early as they needed, but the prop manager chose the two Morrison ringtops with the gold-filled filigree overlays on them because of the "warmer" color than the (actually way more expensive) sterling filigree overlay.  I was kinda guessing on what to bring to show to the movie people because I don't have anything quite as early as what I think they were looking for (most of my vintage pens are 1940s-1950s, with a couple that MAY be from the 1930s)

Admittedly, I also brought a few pens that were probably way later in time frame -- some (as yet not up and running yet) Snorkel desk pens; I figured that as long as they weren't filmed showing the hole in the feed it would be okay, since they were desk pens.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[ParramattaPaul]

4 hours ago, welch said:

Of course, the next question: what did various levels of detectives make in the 1950s?

Since you asked . . . 

HANSARD 1803–2005 → 1950s → 1958 → May 1958 → 22 May 1958 → Written Answers (Commons) → HOME DEPARTMENT

Police (Pay)

HC Deb 22 May 1958 vol 588 cc91-2W92W

§Mr. Rawlinson 

asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what was the pay of inspectors and superintendents of the Metropolitan Police on 1st May, 1938; what was the pay of these ranks on 1st May, 1958; and what pay these ranks would have had to receive on 1st May, 1958, in order to have the equivalent purchasing power of the rates of 1st May, 1938.

§Mr. R. A. Butler 

The salaries payable to inspectors and superintendents of the Metropolitan Police on 1st May, 1938, and the salaries which would now (disregarding the incidence of taxation) have the same purchasing power are:

SALARY AT 1ST MAY, 1938
		Equivalent of 1938 maximum in terms of 1958 values
	£	£
Station inspector	340x10–380	1,064
Inspector	327x13–392	1,097
Sub-divisional Inspector	402x13–454	1,271
Superintendent	650x25–800	2,240

 

The rank of station inspector no longer exists; the duties that attached to that rank in 1938 are, with added responsibilities, now performed by chief inspectors. In 1938 the officer in charge of a sub-division held the rank of sub-divisional inspector; the post, which now carries increased responsibilities, is now held by officers of the rank of superintendent grade 1. Officers of the rank of superintendent were re-graded chief superintendent in 1949. The salaries of the new ranks on 1st May, 1958, were:

• Inspector—£855x£30—£915.
• Chief Inspector—£940x£35—£1,010.
• Superintendent grade 1—£1,340x£35—£1,410.
• Chief Superintendent—£1,610x£55—£1,720

SOURCE: Police (Pay) (Hansard, 22 May 1958)

[ngekomo]

About 5 years ago I posted this question. Just a few days ago, I finally got the answer.

 

 

Spoiler

On 2/18/2020 at 9:54 PM, ngekomo said:

Mayhem (2017)

 

near the end (run time: 01:17:23 up)

click image for large resolution

 

 

What pen is this?

 

 

 

Hard Start

 

 

 

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

After zooming at the screencap I realized that the cap band was engraved with the words "Mark Twain", so after some searching, I finally found this:

 

Mark Twain writing set

 

It's from a custom gift/promotional company called MACMA. The Polish version of the site lists the price at PLN69.98 or about USD19.30 for a set of 3 (FP, RB, and BP)

 

5 years! 😁

[inkstainedruth]

Interestingly enough, while I'm not sure that fountain pens were actually shown in any episodes of Magpie Murders or Moonlight Murders, they figure in the novels (the fictional mystery writer, Alan Conway -- who is murdered in the first book -- supposedly did his first drafts with a fountain pen); and the cover art of the third one in the series, Marble Hall Murders features a fountain pen hanging from the eyedropper cap on a bottle of ink.

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[sandy101]

11 minutes ago, inkstainedruth said:

Interestingly enough, while I'm not sure that fountain pens were actually shown in any episodes of Magpie Murders or Moonlight Murders, they figure in the novels (the fictional mystery writer, Alan Conway -- who is murdered in the first book -- supposedly did his first drafts with a fountain pen);

Antony Horowitz wrote the novels (and maybe the screen plays) and he writes the first draft/treatment of his novels in fountain pen.

He also has vintage ones that he uses for his novels set in the past - with different pens for different character voices.

[inkstainedruth]

Cool.  Did not know that.  I've only read the two in the Magpie Murders series....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Monophoto]

Another pen sighting - actually, this is an ink sighting.

 

Series 2, Episode 1 'Plague on Amsterdam' of the Van Der Valk TV program (on PBS in the US) - one of the clues that the detectives follow is that the suspected villain uses custom-made Oak Gall ink produced by one of the characters in the episode.

[ParramattaPaul]

Found this on a news feed just now:  6 Iconic Pen Models Used by Famous Authors in History | Watch

[bsenn]

Not a fountain pen, but in the new Lynley tv series the title character uses a Parker 25 ballpoint in the first episode. (He also drives a Jensen Interceptor, so that sort of fits the vibe).

[ParramattaPaul]

3 hours ago, bsenn said:

Not a fountain pen, but in the new Lynley tv series the title character uses a Parker 25 ballpoint in the first episode. (He also drives a Jensen Interceptor, so that sort of fits the vibe).

I'm not really a 'car guy' but I remember the Jensen Interceptor more than I remember the Parker 25.

[boilermaker1975]

16 hours ago, bsenn said:

Not a fountain pen, but in the new Lynley tv series the title character uses a Parker 25 ballpoint in the first episode. (He also drives a Jensen Interceptor, so that sort of fits the vibe).

 

I watched that the other evening and was wondering what the car was. Thanks @bsenn

[Prof Drew]

Last night I watched an older Japanese TV show called Oie san (お家さん) that someone had uploaded to YouTube. It's about a Japanese company from the Meiji era named Suzuki Shoten that was run by a woman. Fountain pen fans will see two or three brief scenes in which contracts are signed using a black fountain pen (I didn't see which model or make), but might be interested because part of the story of the company's initial success is how it made a deal to export Camphor from Taiwan (which Imperial Japan just occupied following the First Sino Japanese War. Of course camphor is key to making celluloid at the time, and a major buyer was a German company. You can imagine this as part of your celluloid fountain pen's history (along with other products of the era). 

 

Someone uploaded the movie to YouTube. It does not have English subtitles, but you can get AI-generated translation for part of the movie using Closed Captioning (set to Auto translate to English). 

 

Don't expect too much from the film. It was not by NHK or made for cinemas, but a private TV network. For example, even though it is supposed to be about the woman who pioneered the firm (Suzuki Yone), the star of the film is a guy played by a young Oguri Shun. In any case I thought I would pass this along for people interested in pen history and Japan.