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The Great Typing Controversy on Letterman, January 24 and 28, 1985
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- Опубликовано: 5 май 2016
- Barbara Blackburn, crowned the "World's Fastest Typist," appeared on the January 24 broadcast and participated in a typing contest with Production Assistant Barbara Gaines. Stuff happened, and on the following new show, January 28, top forensic experts demonstrated what went wrong.
The producers were expecting a relatively boring segment of a woman typing fast.
Instead, they got late night television comedy gold.
I doubt it. They planned a competition. And they planned the mistakes. The guest even said she knew the paper was not in the typewriter, but she kept typing. As far as the hand shift? That had to be intentional, as a world record typist would have felt her hand out of position. That would also explain why it didn't look like she was typing that fast. (The assistant appeared to by typing faster.) It was an awkward position for her.
@@sophocles1198she was just a liar.
@@sophocles1198 She just made a crazy claim that she couldn't back up.
there was a second typist on the grassy knoll.
*perfect*
Get out of my head!
@Dakota Guillermo Is this some meme joke that I'm missing, or are you just some asshole who wants to spy on their girlfriend?
It was a magic typeball
@@hetmanjz, I hope his girlfriend finds out.
"This smacks of organized crime" 😂😂 Letterman was always great.
I barely graduated from high school because I stayed up watching this greatness every night.
I only graduated because of VHS recorders
Me too back when it was on at 1230 pm where I live
Same here, don't care for any late night comics now.
Then you will remember the pamphlet- "The Joys of Tedious, Menial Tasks." Digging ditches these days, are we?
It was Jr High for me . i never missed Carson & Letterman
They're using IBM Selectric 875 golfball typewriters, I was a service engineer repairing these machines in the UK (and their predecessors and later models) from when I left school in the early 70's till the mid 90's when word processors/computers became the norm. I thought I had a job for life, just shows how things change!
Hello, you absolute legends.
It's pretty impressive, because she was translating the Balk Rule into Elvish on the fly!
I lost it when Dave noticed there was no paper. Hilarious.
@@vintage-red-carpetmasonic-38 The caps lock on your typewriter is stuck
That was fantastic, you would never see such imaginative material anywhere else, these old letterman shows are pure gold!
I'm responding to you from the future. A lot will change since you wrote this comment 4 years ago.. The reason you won't see this in 2021 is because this would be seen as depicting women as submissive mindless secretaries doing menial labor for rich powerful white men. I know that sounds crazy and you probably think I'm kidding, but just you wait!😫
@@edited7382 They will have guest that do "private" things online for other men, and feel more and more degraded as they drift into "excorting" and later pron, before leaving that, when age makes it an "impossible" task to earn a living for them instead, whitout having any other "skills". I'm not kidding either...
@@CONEHEADDK Wow, "excorting" and "pron". Are those jobs from the Jetsons?
@@tedparkinson6892So what you're saying is, that you don't understand the meaning.? Or are you just a weak fcuk, that needs to deminish others, to feel less crappy about your self.?
@@CONEHEADDK Just a joke dude. Smile. Take care. Chill.
I took typing in high school, and our teacher was the WWII typing pool champion, which made her the best typist out of thousands of good typists. Back then there was no Xerox machine, so copying of documents was done with carbon paper (max 5 copies), and brute force retyping. Obviously accuracy with speed was important during the War. She could do 140 WPM on a manual typewriter which is amazing.
She always played music in class because she said it gives you better speed to have good rhythm. Works for me, I am a quick typist.
I was taught, or I picked up on somehow, tapping my leg/knee as a metronome. Helps with multiplication too. How I learned my multiplication tables as a kid. Slowly pacing myself faster. I do it when typing fast, or like, I'm trying to type fast, you know.
140 on a manual typewriter is INSANE!
Competitive typing was VERY big from 1900-1950, with different brands endorsed by the champion typists. Albert Tangora was the best, around 200 wpm on a manual. Millions of working-class people took typing and shorthand as a ticket into white-collar careers.
Mimeographs had been around since before 1900 and certainly in heavy use by WWII. So I'm not sure how much "brute force copying" had to be done by typing things over from scratch ... ?
@@androidchannel309 you aren't going to bother to make a master to make less than 10 copies of something, given how fast these women were at typing. I wouldn't be surprised if the threshold was closer to 50 copies before they used a DITTO machine or whatever they had. The Xerox copier was the big breakthrough, which came later.
Another example of why Letterman's show was brilliant in the 80's.
It would still be popular today. The current stable of hosts are politically-motivated puppets and smart-asses.
The younger David Letterman would have mocked the older David Letterman..... (David lost his mojo as he aged)
I think what I appreciate most about David Letterman especially back then was the mileage he got out of this spot. On most late night shows she would have been a 5-minute curiosity guest where they would have said: "This lady says she can type real fast."
"How fast can you type?"
"Good for you, up next Charles Groban."
David turned it into a in depth multi-episode extravaganza.
Letterman would have turned the opening of Al Capone's vault into TV gold.
Well stated.
That is a massive claim that he could have saved that TV disaster
ANY show would have had her do a demonstration. The competition with a fast typing assistant was an interesting twist. But the mistakes were obviously planned, with some knowledge of the guest, who was told to play along, or type along ...
@@sophocles1198@sophocles1198 she was just a liar.
@Don Giller thank you for putting together these clips. Appreciate your work and the patience you put on it. Plus taking the time to answer people’s comments, again, very rare for channel owners to do that.
Thanks, Jack!
2:18 "Was laid out just arbitrarily": No it wasn't. Initial typewriters were mechanical...and there were many instances of the character hammers trying to occupy the same space at the same time...resulting in a physical jam...and these had to be physically unjamed. Analysis found a way to locate the hammers so that in normal typing there was a low probability for such occurrences. This relocation of the hammers required redefinition of the keys on the keyboard.
Thanks, I agree. I've read many times that the layout of the keyboard was due to the limitations of the machinery. The letters had to be arranged to deliberately slow down the typist. I've thought about learning DVORAK but it's a pretty big commitment! My brother did, though. He's a programmer. Both of us have had problems with our hands/wrists due to keyboard overuse, and apparently DVORAK helps with that.
Yes, at first they were just arbitrary, hence the problem was discovered and resolved as you said, in 1932 as SHE said
Yes, otherwise E would be on home row
When I took typing class in high school, all the key caps were blank. You learned the whereabouts of a few letters at a time. I remember exercises such as "asdfgf asdfgf." Eventually, you had the whole keyboard memorized. Today I am still a fast typist. Surprisingly, I would find it difficult to name the keys on each row without looking. My fingers, however, know every key and will type away with very few mistakes. Is that "muscle memory"?
Of course, when computers came out, one had to learn quite a few differences. The letters are the same as on typewriters, but many punctuation locations have changed. Also, there are added keys to deal with. I don't think old-fashioned typewriters have any of the following keys: { } [ ] \ | < > ` ~. And we now have a real numerical "1." In the old days we used a lower case "L (l)." With a computer, that wouldn't compute!
Agree. I learned on the old upright antiques and preferred the IBM typing ball before the computer age. Some typewriters were faster than others and I could really fly as a keypunch operator which punched out tiny squares on a card. Learned that as a h.s. grad embarking on my first job. Paid well. Sorry Barbara, you were not the world's fastest typist.
@@vikkinicholson5880 At one time I had a Brother electric typewriter at home with two balls. One was a script font that I used for personal letters. Really loved that machine. After I got a computer and printer, of course, I had no use for it and so it was sold.
@@vikkinicholson5880 Data entry is different from what you would be typing normally for a business.
Exactly....I was taught the same as you and still can type without looking at the keys
Thank you for adding this to RUclips. This is one of my all time favorite segments on Letterman, but I hadn't seen in over 25 years (at one point I had it on an old videotape). "Perfect...working...order" has been a part of my lexicon since this aired in 1985.
part of your lexicon?
No one else seems to have said it, but what a Beautiful ragtime-y rendition of "Barbara Ann," especially on the second go-through (the band seems a little more relaxed).
Also, a nice rendition of Glass Onion when they went to break. ☺️
@@TheClash122That's Drive My Car, not Glass Onion but Beatles nonetheless
@@BonJoviBeatlesLedZep You’re right, they are doing Drive My Car going into the first break. I didn’t notice that. But going into the second break at 9:20, they are doing Glass Onion.
I love when the dramatic music plays the first time with the semi-close up of her portrait and Dave has that embarrassed smile and great look on his face "I can't believe we're doing this..." This is gold.
I once saw a show of his where the guest was Jeff Dunham. Apparently Letterman had to read some blurb about Dunham receiving some ventriloquist award and the look he gave the camera clearly said "Who gives a fuck?" Had me rolling. Dave dogs everybody.
I lost it more after each time they played it! XD
@@calebhunter7440 that final close up just on her glasses... man we had it good back then!
Hey, those computers are missing their monitor screens
Computers made typewriters obsolete. However, a physical typewriter is still useful if you have to type text on to a paper form.
@@jeopardy60611 Get a printer
@@andyu69 But a printer can only type out all the text on the form at once, and it has to be layed out. With a typewriter, you can position the form on each field and then type on it.
@@jeopardy60611 depends on the printer
ruclips.net/video/BAi3W56jwyA/видео.html
@@jeopardy60611 Not can, have to:-)
I remember watching this one when it aired and never forgot it. It went on for two or three episodes. Great to see it again. Too funny.
Just laughed my ass off. I can't believe how absurdly perfect these shows were.
I wouldn't say perfect. Barbara blackburn achieves Guiness world record by typing on a computer, not on a type writer. She might have forgotten how to type properly on a type writer since she works on computers for a long time. However the show never address this issue.
Absurdly perfect? Or perfectly absurd?
DUUUUNNNNNNN dun dun duuun dun dun DUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN!
@@tyrellwreleck4226 She may have been unaccustomed to loading a sheet of paper, but the use of a typewriter instead of a computer keyboard played no role in the displacement of her right hand.
Personally, I'm inclined to attribute both errors to nerves.
@@davidlevy706: Blackburn could've been accustomed to using an ergonomic Dvorak computer keyboard with a gap between the key groups for the left and right hands. Search for images of "ergonomic Dvorak computer keyboards" and you may see examples of them. Her hands may have settled upon the normal position where they would be on her personal keyboard.
I wanted the naval cryptologist to state whether or not Blackburn's work would've otherwise been correct, if she hadn't shifted her right hand over by one key position. Then, we could've gotten her typing rate and error rate (if not for the right hand misplacement).
@@tyrellwreleck4226 that was an IBM Selectric, it was the gold standard of typewriters for years. She assuredly banged out tens of thousands of pages on one of those things, no way she forgot. No way.
They are both named Barbara, so Paul plays Barbara Ann, while they type!
How many wpm is Paul on his keyboard?
wecontrolthevideo - rEaLLy?? 🙄
I just realized 👏🏼
Hello from the UK. This is brilliant!! Randomly appeared on my feed.
I was 16 and a sophomore in high school when this was aired. Those were some good times back then.
That's what these ladies claim... they "DO GOOD TIME... TYPING..."
I was born a month after this aired, but I can appreciate good comedy where I see it.
The 80’s were great, the county wasn’t under attack by left wing nut jobs and illegals at our boarder
I vaguely remember this scandal. I was totally hooked. I had a portable RCA 13” b&w TV, and was desperately looking to upgrade to a color tv. Within the month, I bought a neighbors’ old color tv for $50 . I was born in 1971, and I think the TV was a year or 2 older than me. The color ran, so I bought my very 1st Sony Color TV with stereo 2 years later, when I just turned 15. I bought a color stereo tv just to watch Letterman, triggered by this episode!
Ahh the IBM Selectric. I miss 'em.
They were beautiful.
I started out with our Smith Corona (non-electric) that I still have in storage and then in school progressed to that IBM electric. After school I took a Business Machines and office procedures college course for 6 months while I was waiting for my real course in something else to start.
One girl and I took turns in being the fastest typists in the class. I'm still chuckling about those obsolete machines we had to learn - Dictaphone, Keypunch, Burroughs Bookkeeping contraption...
It was so easy to transition to computer keyboards because your fingers can fly over the keys. You know you are old when you've gone through a lot of technology. Also had reel-to-reel music, 8-Tracks, turntable record player, cassettes... Funny thing is that I kept that old but working equipment and now they are collector's items. Too bad that doesn't go for humans too.
I loved the sound it made when you really got into your typing groove. Something sadly lacking on a computer keyboard.
Dave nursed a minute of nonsense, into a 18 minute bit of comedy gold.
@@vintage-red-carpetmasonic-38 If you watched the video, they did the test a second time, with paper.
@@vintage-red-carpetmasonic-38 He administered (on camera, in audience view) two typing tests; for the second, he put paper in both typewriters.
@@vintage-red-carpetmasonic-38 Is that you, Larry "Bud" Melman, back from the afterlife to heckle?
@@vintage-red-carpetmasonic-38 WHY ARE YOU YELLING.
Without bevoming obnoxious which is the true gold!
My dad was a Selectric service tech ("Office Products Customer Engineer" in IBM-speak) back in the 1960s and 1970s. They are extraordinary machines, completely mechanical - the 'electric' part is a motor that turns a shaft; there's nothing 'electronic' about them. Hearing the first guy talk about tilt and rotate was like stepping into a time machine! Selectrics were built like tanks and could endure plenty of abuse, but if something ever did break it was almost always the rotate tape.
I found a Selectric for sale in a thrift store in AZ last year. I tried to lift it, and see if I wanted to bring it back to WA with me.
Nope. I couldn't lift it. It was actually heavier than my cast-iron Smith-Corona from the '40s that we finally bolted to a platform with a very heavy spring to be able to drop into a cabinet back in the '60s.
I remember how much easier it was to use the Selectric than the S-C.
I was pissed off that I had to learn to use a computer in college. I was a key-punch operator to earn my tuition.
Around then, I decided I'd rather be dead than spend my life typing out the words of other people, mostly men who had nothing important to say, or just printing out shit like personal data.
I went into electronics, learned to solder, design, and get out of the office.
Never looked back.
I was pissed off when I had to learn to use a pc later in life, but look at where we are now. sigh
No escaping it.
That is true, loved that machine!
I was a programmer at Aetna Life and Casualty, the largest commercial user of IBM equipment in the Free World in 1973. For a while we used IBM Selectrics as remote input terminals to an IBM time-sharing system. Eventually they were replaced with faster, smaller, quieter units on our desktop and the Selectrics were relegated to alcoves on each floor and used as low-volume printers. Therefore the duty cycle went from a couple of hours of humans typing in a day to literally eight to ten hours of continuous output...which is not what they were designed for.
The machines kept breaking down from the load and IBM had to have a four person staff just going around fixing the machines. IBM kept telling Aetna that they were not supposed to be used that way, and Aetna just kept saying there was nothing in the Service Level Agreement that said they could not be used that way.
I still have an APL ball from one of those machines.....but I agree they were great for their time.
I don't know what this says about me, but I found all of these stories fascinating.
My top speed was 107 wpm on the Selectric, but I could get into the 80s on an old Royal.
After 3 decades of computer keyboard use, I entered a typing competition a few years ago. On the old Smith Corona, the best I could do was mid-30s.
The Selectric was often too touch sensitive imho.
@@catholicdad 107 is VERY impressive! I used to think I was pretty good typing in the 90s. Now my daughters make fun of my "typing" on a mobile. They use both hands but for some reason I can't get into the habit. I'm still 100 times faster than their dad who takes 5 minutes to text back "OK." 😁
It’s beginning to be redundant, but Thank you for this piece of brilliant piece of television entertainment history.
When I was in middle school my friends all that I was weird because I was so into watching DL. Many years later, my mom had cleaned out an old closet in my childhood room and gave me a shoebox of video tapes she found in there. My first thought was oh my what could i have recorded back in 1985ish? Did she watch them? When I dusted off an old VCR and plugged them in to see, they were all recordings of late night with Dave! I suddenly remembered times I set the timer to record the show in case I fell asleep and missed any!
I have read that lately, those old tapes of tv programs (and the commercials between) are worth quite a bit. I wish I had known that before I threw a bunch out because I am moving. I read the article right after that. Very cool find, just know you have some possible money in your hands.
@@BlackSeranna I've watched a few reselling (Pawn shop type) shows and am amazed at how much collectors pay for some old electronics. I still have a manual Smith Corona typewriter, 8-Track player and cassettes, turntable record player with records, VCR recorders/players with boxes of VHS tapes and s DVD recorder and I don't know what else. They are all in mint condition and working. Glad I didn't throw them out so hope my kids have the sense to sell them for what they are now worth instead of taking to the dump. My kids are from the throw away generation though.
@@islandgal500 you need to talk to your kids. I can tell mine aren’t interested in my stuff so I may need to find a home for most stuff before I die. It’s a shame that my kids can’t tell what has value or not, but it wasn’t for lack of me trying. I have a painting from France. I think I will gift it to my little brother. I don’t want to die and my kids think it is garbage.
@@BlackSeranna I've recorded anything of value, except the electronics and old equipment, in computer files that I will eventually print out for my kids. They have a description, approximate worth, and some family history about each item. I've separated the items that I want to leave to each adult child because I know what they are interested in and will want to keep. The electronics I will note that collectors are still interested in them because that I figure will just be dumped. I have a lot of antiques that I got from my European Grandmother when I was still a teen and they were old then. Interesting stories behind those things! I'm glad I can appreciate them in my home right now.
Why would your friends finds that weird? You must have lived around some duds. I was staying up to watch Mary Hartman Mary Hartman when I was 10.
When the right hand moved one notch over I got chills.
Lmaooooo
I knew there was skullduggery right there
You can clearly see that she's a typewriter cheat just by the look in her eyes.
Holy Cow. I actually remember this happening. I used to watch Letterman faithfully in those days.
Me too!!!!!!!
It was actually worth watching back in those days. Nowadays I can’t handle hardly any television due to the blatant and terrible agenda being crammed down our throats.
@@caseytebo7147 Agreed 100%
I remember my dad having him covered in sponges, jumping into a tank to float or something? And another where the camera rotated around upside down and back as the show went on. Like one rotation over the entire hour.
@Brix Broox I used to watch his morning show too. Or at least tried to whenever I could. He was brilliant in his early years of hosting. But I haven't watched late-night television in about fifteen years.
hilarious! had seen the first half. thanks for the wrap-up!
I am laughing so hard each time they show her picture and play that dark music. LOL
Qwerty was designed for mechanical typewriters. The swing of the letters and the order of the letters was to slow the typing down to prevent hangups
No, the design of the qwerty keyboard is designed to cause alternate use of the typist's hands, which both speeds up typing and prevents hangups. Pressing keys next to each other isn't faster.
This was hilarious but I hope she didn't take it too hard. She was just nervous.
She was quite hurt by it apparently and often spoke of how David Letterman had made a spectacle of her. It's unfortunate because she was clearly nervous and made a simple, and forgiveable, mistake. She was tested again that year and was able to set a world record that stood until Guiness eliminated the category. RIP, Barbara. You were the best.
@@gklinger It's what Letterman does, dog people. She never claimed to be a performer. Her skill lied in typing fast in a calm office setting, and was proven through multiple evaluations.
@@gklinger letterman could be kind of a jerk
Battle of the Barbs! And the band was playing the melody of “Barbara Ann.”
@@gklinger Putting your hand in the wrong position is not a simple mistake for the world's best typist. She also blamed it on the machine.
Yep I remember seeing this episode and still remember the screw up with the paper and her apparent misplacement of her hands on the keyboard. This weirdness was the type of thing the Letterman show was famous for back then before he moved to CBS in the 90's.
I agree. I loved NBC Letterman. I quit watching shortly after he went to CBS, when the show became a poor imitation of itself.
@@Lopfff Yeah, I did too. I think the problem was that when he move to CBS and ran against Leo's Tonight Show, they had to cater to an older audience that didn't care for the old NBC format (ie. odd ball routines, sketches and guests). So his show just became a duller version of The Tonight Show with a couple segments kept over from NBCs Late Night (like the top ten). His CBS show always seemed to me to be gutted of all the off the wall weirdness that was the core of his Late Night show.
Yes, the show tanked for me at CBS. And with the constant applause for weak jokes, it smacks of "sweetening" like with laugh tracks.
@@ke0nc Yes definitely. The old NBC Letterman show was edgy. You got the feeling that it could be cancelled any day. He had odd guests like Brother Theodore & Harvey Pekar, coupled with bizarre off the wall sketches. By contrast, his CBS show was essentially the Tonight Show -- dull jokes, safe sketches and run of the mill guests (Ok, Ill admit, there were a few good off location sketches he did on CBS but they were mainly in the early years).
That whole investigation thing and the closeup on her picture is a comedy genius. This could be my favorite Letterman's bit. Although there's still much to see for me.
His show used to be brilliant. He was one of a kind, and then got tired with "Will it float" and dropping shit off the roof. Damn, I felt sorry for him by then.
I think she was a plant and was told to do it, otherwise she would've noticed when she was typing that her hand would fall off the edge on one side looking for a key.
I have to admit, I laughed at the investigation more than I thought I would. Funny stuff.
Apropos of nothing, notice that there is a set renovation between the Thursday and Monday episode. The "new" set that lasted until ~1989-1990 was first used on 1/28/85.
Further proof this was an inside job
i used to go out of my to watch dave in the 80s as the show was so new and different and indeed strange at times....back then i had a 4 channel black and white 9 inch t.v. that needed manual channel changing....i kept it in a closet and only brought it out to watch dave and the monty phyton guys....no wonder i am so tired,,,,,i have never been this old before (70)
The show was unique and unpredictable when Letterman was on NBC but it become boring and unfunny when he went to CBS.
I remember him getting catapulted against a wall wearing a velcro suit and yes, he stuck there or another time in a cereal filled bathtub and him floating there with milk up to his chin. He was never mean. Always decent, he didn't perform character assassination as some hacks do now.
Neither have I.
I feel Letterman felt the whole thing was just hilarious in it’s irony. You could tell he knew it was all bologna
Old Barbara Blackburn is kicking herself for signing that release for the use of her likeness, lol
When I was a kid I would silently avoid all the creaks in the wood floor outside my parents room to sneak down to our basement to watch this show alone in the dark, laughing. Thanks for these clips!
No
unreal you would do that. now you know why your life is a wreck.
@@rickt1866 He's a CEO now.
@@johnnymittle yeah, CEO of bullsh*t
They could hear the creaks in the floor, but they didn't hear the TV? Or the laughing?
Those Selectrics made a great sound.
My dad fixed typewriters so I grew up helping him since I could hold a screwdriver, and later repaired some myself.
Loved the things!
Reminds me of typing class back in the 80s.
YES they did!
Karl Jobst brought me here ^,^
Me too lol
This is wonderful just wonderful.
Awww, they look like older and younger versions of the same person, and the personalities as well. So sweet.
I find it odd that anyone naming themselves SGT. Thunder Cock would be so endeared by the sweetness of these two women. unless you're into that sort of thing or you are truly a gentleman with just odd naming and couldn't progress past sergeant as it may inhibit further giggling at your name.
@@andrewmarinelly5838 funny comment
Some of the recent people, like myself, are here because of @karljobst 's recent video "The Biggest Scandal In Speed Typing History"
Karl appears to have done more research for his video, than the combined sum of every article ever written about Barbara Blackburn (BB).
BB's story is the expected outcome when you combine
- A company trying to market something (Dvorak keyboard)
- A relative working with that company puts forth BB
- Company sends a letter to Guinness stating how fast BB is at typing
- Guinness saying "okay she's #1 only because no one else has sent us a letter"
And a perfect marketing ploy based off a 'feel good' story is born.
Anything else written about this topic is just the result of lazy, crappy, shoddy work, and is why this lie still lives on...
BB enjoyed whatever fame she got along the way, commercials, etc. not once coming out saying "hey I never did that.....", unfortunately making her a part of her own "downfall"
The music/picture the first time are priceless. This episode is freakin incredible. Thanks for the laughs Mr Letterman!!
It's amazing how much less effort and how much more efficient the typing is on the Dvorak keyboard.
Thank you for posting, I really miss Late Night. The Bozos we have now pale in comparison to Letterman’s comedy!!
Thank you! I was just thinking last night after I watched this, how late night hosts pale in comparison to Letterman, second only to Johnny in my opinion. I would place current guys behind Carson, Letterman,, Dick Cavett Joey Bishop...
Conan got up to plenty of silly/funny stuff, arguably just as funny as Letterman's NBC show, albeit Letterman is the original in this vein. I enjoy Kimmel too. The rest of them are lame AF. I can't even watch Fallon or Colbert.
@@OMGWTFLOLSMHColbert is the absolute worst.
Agree, but at the end of the Late Show, David was becoming a kind of a Bozo himself.
This is the best thing I've seen on TV in years
What's the first?
Sorry wrong one
There will never be another guy like Letterman. Simply the best
I remember watching this live both shows... So glad to see it again.
50 subs for nezuko vids The hell is wrong with you?
Very interesting. Thanks for posting this!
I was an expert marksman in the military, but they had to let me go because I kept forgetting my ammunition.
You're kind of off the point...of this topic.
@@tryithere seems like a good analogy to most people maybe your the weirdo
@@tdowell8615 You're.
@@tdowell8615 You don't seem to catch concepts very well.
@@tryithere You’re the one that thinks a perfectly fine analogy is off topic weirdo. It’s because you’re triggered by someone talking about guns if I had to guess.
The QWERTY keyboard was designed to slow down typing speed so that keys would not jam on non-electric typewriters.
This is false. It can be easily seen by the fact that QWERTY places E and R next to each other despite that letter pair being the fourth most common in English. See "On the Prehistory of QWERTY" by Koichi Yasuoka and Motoko Yasuoka for more.
@@stevenrumbalski687 Then those letters would be in the right side middle row to be struck by the index and middle fingers.
@@kenchristie9214 Once your hand has moved up to the E the R is adjacent. They will occur in as fast a succession as they would on the home row.
@@stevenrumbalski687 You obviously no very little about manual typewriters. Key jams often occurred when typing too fast.
Barbara Blackburn was using a "golf ball" electric typewrite which allows higher typing speeds.
The qwerty keyboard layout was invented by George L Qwerty in 1864. I’m sure that’s just a coincidence...
I wanted to know how she did compared to the other Barbara (taking the adjusted text).
They said Barbara Gaines had about 50 words with a dozen mistakes.
I counted from the adjusted text, looks like Barbara Blackburn had 68 words with at least 4-5 mistakes (low resolution makes it hard to tell).
So she won if you give her the fingers off by one space... she won! More words and almost certainly less mistakes.
Not 3 times faster than the production assistant though.
@@Marc83Aus Not really defending her, but for all we know, she could have been retired for years prior to this episode airing. She may not have realized her time away from daily practice would have had that much impact on her performance. Until someone beats her Guinness Book record, she will retain her title, but I seriously doubt she could do it again.
Fewer mistakes, perhaps. Less? She made a very great mistake in misplacing her hand. What's the difference between mistyping a letter here and there because of misplacing your finger and mistyping half of your letters because of misplacing your hand? The former is ledgible...
68 WPM is very slow for a pro typist. My best was 110. I also very much doubt she could type 200 WPM, not possible
@@xnetpc She retired in 2002, and died in 2008. She set the Guinness Word Record in the same year as her Letterman appearance, so she was obviously at the peak of her ability around this time.
In the beginning the gravity returned the keys, and they frequently jammed.
The keys where carefully arranged to slow the typist down.
These were the days that Letterman shined. I remember them very well. It was cutting edge and hilarious.
Those electric typewriters were the thing in their day. Your fingers only worked half as hard as operating an old fashioned typewriter.
Im sure dave talking in the background plus the music playing really helped their efforts.
Best thing that ever happened to this woman. Her error assured her of internet fame 36 years after this happened. If she typed correctly, she would be a forgotten nobody.
I'm pretty sure she is.
That evil genius played the long game.
She was still considered the World's Fastest Typist in 2005. She died in 2008.
@@johnlux6635 The uploader should add that info to the video description.
I guess she was the Bill Buckner of typists.
It's actually kind of a fascinating little controversy.
They should have invited her back another night after the first or done a pre-filmed segment that wasn't done in front of the studio audience, nor in competition with another typist. Some people seem to be of the opinion that the show was messing with her as part of a bit, others seem to be of the opinion that she just made two unfortunate mistakes in a row due to nerves. Perhaps they did even invite her back but she didn't want to come out of embarrassment from her first appearance- who's to say?
In any case, Barbara is still officially credited as the world's fastest typist by the Guiness Book to this very day, so it doesn't really matter.
@@Joemurph10 She misquotes Letterman badly, and she doesn't address the controversy at all. I find the whole affair quite enigmatic.
It was just a bit for the show. She was likely told to mess up and play along so they could drag it out into a silly controversy.
@@matthewpierce8250 He was a comedian. She was a paid guest. The corporate lords ruled everything. Television and RUclips and everything you see, feel, hear, touch, etc., is an illusion.
Does it matter? Enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate, or watch it go away.
Be happy while you're living, for you're a long time dead.
Yeah, I don't think the whole thing was a bit. Most, if not all talk shows are structured and planned so everything fits in the time slot and it's entertaining. Most of the time the guests are aware of the questions beforehand so they can answer eloquently and have something prepared.
I don't think this was planned and they just went with it for comedic value. But, (hang on, let me put my conspiracy hat on) I can almost guarantee that IBM saw the first episode and wanted to make sure that it was clear that it wasn't the typewriter at fault because those typewriters would've been big businesses in those days.
@Fugp Basis Assuming this wasn't a Kaufman style bit, why did Blackburn move her hand? She obviously did it intentionally. Perhaps she was not expecting to have a competition against Gaines and just thought she'd be typing alone for Dave. Gaines did walk out with her own typewriter.
I submit that Blackburn was upset by having this competition spring upon her, intentionally didn't load the paper, and then moved her hand over in protest.
I'm not making up my mind until I find out what Larry "Bud" Melman has to say about it. He looks good in a uniform, damn good!
Larry "Bud" Melman's "Toast on a stick"
Love DL, also love QI and lowkey my favorite part of this is that apparently Rich Hall was supposed to be on and actually got bumped lol. I guess this would've been during the cup of coffee he had on SNL. Wonder when it was he went over to the UK and started working there.
Isn't it funny how one little thing can change your life forever?
I took typing lessons when I had a Smith-Corona that had been built in the 1940s. Talk about repetitive stress syndrome! Carpal tunnel syndrome! shit
I had stronger fingers than my father, who was a laborer. A computer is so nothing in comparison.
Duing my high-school senior year, they got the electric typewriters, from IBM, with the interchangeable balls. Whew! Big time technology!
I was a whiz for a while, and then, I discovered that I never wanted to work in an office. lol
Now, I don't know how fast I type, but it's certainly not as fast as I can think or read.
And, fuck it. I don't have to prove myself in any marketplace ever again.
Funny, when I saw Rich Hall on QI the first time, I thought, "He looks familiar." lol Good for him. Billie Holiday taught him a lesson.
the quality of this video is FAR better then the offical channel.
OMG I saw this on TV live or on the day it originally aired! RUclips Rocks! commercials and all
I would have seen it on my VCR I was either sleeping or working at this time. And yes I remember both of these broadcasts. :)
I'll never forget this, I fucking howled on that second night. Back when his writers were allowed to write.
I remember watching this live 36 years ago, but I didn’t remember how much of a show David made of it. It’s great
I saw this live too and totally remember it!
You saw the live taping.
@@APT420 I saw it on the original day when it was first broadcast. So live to the TV viewing audience watching NBC that night.
@@APT420 Right. Late Night was recorded at 5 PM Eastern time I believe and broadcast 7 and a half hours later. So, yes, not really live.
Thank you!
Letterman is such a great interviewer. I wish he would do a show "This guest deserves an introduction" and just interview people like Barbara.
I'd rather watch paint dry. Or golf even.
I remember watching this live when I was a teenager.
She was nervous out of her mind, that's all.
If they compensate for the incorrect hand position, would she have won?
@tinwoods
No, he was just making a point, which doesn't mean he missed the other point.
from the board reveal at the end it seams to show 66 words. at 9:47 he says the shows Barbra has about 50 words.
@@6zwbob it was the other Barbara, one which was sitting to the right
thats what i was wondering.
looked about average typing skill
From wiki page on typing, which even references this show (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typing#Alphanumeric_entry):
As of 2005, writer Barbara Blackburn was the fastest English language typist in the world, according to The Guinness Book of World Records. Using the Dvorak keyboard layout, she had maintained 150 wpm for 50 minutes, and 170 wpm for shorter periods, with a peak speed of 212 wpm. Blackburn, who failed her QWERTY typing class in high school, first encountered the Dvorak layout in 1938, quickly learned to achieve very high speeds, and occasionally toured giving speed-typing demonstrations during her secretarial career. She appeared on Late Night with David Letterman on January 24, 1985, but felt that Letterman made a spectacle of her.
From the link provided on that Wiki page: Blackburn claims that in Dave’s opening remark he said, "No doubt Ms. Blackburn is a very nice lady, but she has to be the biggest fraud and con artist in the world.”
Pure fiction. Dave said no such thing.
Guinness book of world records has to be the most bullshit sources to base your claim off of, considering one can easily pay to get records NOWADAYS, much less a few decades ago. Also, that claim in the Guinness Book of World Records literally does not exist. I'm not kidding. There is no record of that 212 claim anywhere, and somehow this myth has persisted, always citing a phantom Guinness record. Barbara is a complete con artist and uses fabricated claims as evidence to build more evidence. Imagine if she had not gone on to be exposed in a head to head on Letterman. She can easily claim that she "proved" herself on Letterman and live television
@@dongillerhe said she could be a world-champion con artist.
08:43
And now we finally know where T-Plain got his stage name
Dave, the master of mishap-generated content.
I remember seeing the second night when it originally aired, but can't recall if I'd seen the first.
I used watch this on school nights and then skip school the next day because I was too tired. Hard to believe this show started almost 40 years ago.
When late night hosts were funny.
"were"
Comedy is oppressive now
@@PedroHernandez-uy3pi Amen, my friend.
dawww do they hurt your feewings now? maybe you should have an earlier bed time.
@Sam Thomas are you ok there samwich my dude, you seem offended, did our opion on comedy make you feel oppressed there wooly sammoth
I was at the first broadcast in the audience. It was pretty easy to get tix in those days. :)
I saw Conan in the same studio... did it look bigger when you watched it on TV? I guess would be the reverse as I imagined that it looked bigger
@@mem1701movies I saw Conan there too. I think of it in reverse--you could see how relatively tight the studio seemed in person, whereas I had imagined it was bigger when watching it on TV (are we saying the same thing? I think so). Same at SNL. I've lived in NYC for 27 years, and the truth is, most spaces are tight here.
It is a nice choice of music, to play on both of their names.
This was the era where some people refused to use PCs.. There were people who argued that typewriters were better...
against dot matrix probably
Those Typing Contests are always Fixed... 😆
RIP Barbara Blackburn! You are very much missed! :-(
Nice.
Did you know her?
@@jackleonardo2167 He's suggesting she got murdered by the show.
the original keyboard was not random. the keys were arrayed across the keyboard to avoid physical interference between the keys. the ones on the outside travel in a large arc to get to the paper. only near the end did it enter the interference zone. while the letters in the middle go in a more direct path with a much larger interference area where they can strike other keys.
The curious case of Barbara Blackburn. Her hands were much slower than production assistant Barbara. But even if she displaced her right hand, the length of text typed would have verified her speed. Gauging accuracy would need a tiny but more work, but not much.
17:35 Any touch typist would find this bogus. As you learn to type, you fingers know exactly where the keys are. If you get off your home base with either hand, your fingers will detect a very slight change in feeling on the keys. Either typist would have detected this immediately. Try it yourself. Shift right one position an you'll immediately find your fingers hitting more than one key at a time. You can't type a dozen characters and not feel this.
You’re correct, however when you are on National TV and terrified, all training goes right out the window! I mean typing without putting paper in the machine….. that’s a hint that she was under tremendous stress!!
That poor woman had no idea of what she was getting in to. 😁
basically turns out she was a fraud without any records and was employed by a rival company to the standard qwerty keyboard
So cool! That skirt is very familiar. And we wore socks that matched our shirts. Take me back 1980s.
This show was when Dave was on at 10 a.m. I know this because I was unemployed at the time. Dave did not have enough celebrities on this time of the day. He had way too many authors and unknown but funny people.
And, The typewriters used on the show we’re IBM Selectric my favorite typewriter to this day I own three of them. Life was a lot simpler back then.
Who really gives a crap that I left this comment? I don’t even give a crap!
But I absolutely love love love David Letterman to this day. Everyone please stay healthy and please be kind to everyone you meet it doesn’t cost anything. Greetings from the East Coast.
No, this occurred on Dave’s Late Night, not his morning show. The morning show aired for 18 weeks in 1980; this is five years later.
@@dongiller Thank you Don. I was to lazy to double check my info before commenting. When Dave said ‘Rich Hall’s name I assumed it was the a.m. show. This taught me a lesson, don’ 🐝 so lazy next time Charlene!!! 😎
Halcyon Days...sigh. This was hilarious. Most important class I ever took, hands down, was grade 9 typing way back in '73. Home row...lol.
And, I'm about 8 years older than you. I remember when electric typewriters replaced the one I had that weighed 40 pounds, and gave me "Indian wrestling" kind of strength.
Good times. lol
Love my soft-touch keyboards with instant correction now.
I'm about two years older. I'm really glad I took typing (in grade 8 or grade 9). Being able to touch type served me well when I started using computers. Having learned on a manual typewriter, it took me years to quit snapping my wrist and pounding on the keys with electric typewriters and later computers.
And of course over thirty years later I remember everything about competition. I even remembered, "the fault lies elsewhere".
I remember this from 1985 as well. It was just so damned hilarious!
@@PittsburghMarky One of the incredible things about this show is how they could take something as mundane as typing contest and somehow make it the funniest thing on television that week.
@@scottlarson1548 I know. That seemed to be the design. I also remember they had the typists type baseball's balk rule. This is memorable because a year or two later Letterman joked publicly before an NBC baseball telecast the sport needed more balks. Then damned if in 1988 MLB didn't decree more balks be called! I was in Three Rivers Stadium the night Jim Gott set a major league record that season by committing three balks in an inning!
When late night was fun and yet interesting that EVERYONE could enjoy.
I actually remember watching this episode (the 28th, not the 26th). I was 12, so definitely snuck downstairs to watch.
RE: Barbara Blackburn -
"Also, she starred in a television commercial for Apple Computers, which offered a
switchable Dvorak-Qwerty keyboard with its Apple IIc model. When she was
in New York to tape the commercial, she appeared on the David Letterman
Show. But Letterman made a comedy routine out of what she thought was
to be a serious demonstration of her typing speed, and Blackburn felt
hurt by the experience"
She died in 2008. RIP, Typer Lady.
She fucked up and couldn’t admit it. They weren’t making a comedy routine out of her typing at all
@@nos4me You may be correct, but since your answer didn't come up in my studies or my searching, I will just disregard what you have to say.
Back when late-night TV was funny. good memories!!
When Dave is reading the messed up text it sounds like he's trying to summon something...
If you play it backwards, the woman typed "I'm holding Dave's puppy 🐶 hostage and he gets it if I don't get 1 million dollars in small bills".
I figured either the ball came loose on the Selectric(happened a lot more than you'd like after a while) or maybe one of the bumps on the keys that let you know where home-row is was possibly in the wrong position. Depending on what keyboard you use, sometimes they're where your index finger sits, and sometimes they're where your middle finger sits, either way, this problem still happens to this day. One of my older laptops had this and it drove me nuts. I eventually sanded the bumps down and added some superglue to the F and J keys so I could feel the difference.
I never knew this! Thanks for sharing I think this is pretty meat
The Selectrics didn’t have bumps on the home keys.
Nope. She WAS just a con artist. Or rather marketing a product without notifying Late Night or NBC. Karl Jobst made an analysis video about her exposing her as just being there to market DVORAK. The rights holder to DVORAK just wrote Guinness and they added her into the book.