on โ24-04-2020 12:56 PM
MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Tom Hanks has sent a letter and a Corona brand typewriter to an Australian boy who wrote to him about being bullied over his name, Corona, Australian television networks reported on Thursday.
Corona De Vries, an eight-year-old from the Gold Coast in Queensland state wrote to the Hollywood star after he and his wife, Rita, had spent more than two weeks in quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 in the Australian beach resort.
The boy had written to Hanks saying: "I heard on the news you and your wife had caught the coronavirus," Channel 7 News reported. "Are you ok?"
He said he loved his name but people at school called him the coronavirus, which made him "sad and angry".
"Your letter made my wife and I feel so wonderful!" Hanks replied in a letter typed on a Corona typewriter which he had taken to the Gold Coast.
"You know, you are the only person I've ever known to have the name Corona -- like the ring around the sun, a crown," the double Oscar winner wrote to the boy.
"I thought this typewriter would suit you," an image of the letter aired by Channel 7 News showed. "Ask a grown up how it works. And use it to write me back."
Hanks handwrote at the end: "P.S. You got a friend in ME!"
He's all heart isn't he, Tom Hanks?
Fancy sending a kid an obsolete piece of machinery. Why didn't he send him a laptop or something?
on โ24-04-2020 01:01 PM
Why wouldn't he send the kid a typewriter?
He's a passionate typewriter collector, and probably thought it was an ideal gift - being a Corona typewriter.
https://typewriters.com/blogs/blog/typewriters-more-than-just-a-hobby-for-tom-hanks
โ24-04-2020 01:03 PM - edited โ24-04-2020 01:05 PM
โ24-04-2020 01:15 PM - edited โ24-04-2020 01:16 PM
Mexico have stopped brewing Corona beer....for the time being.
Re the typewriter - if the kid wants to be mercenary, he could get a fair bit of money for that typewriter...and buy a laptop.
It would fetch a good price, for it's age and the fact that it belonged to Tom.
Whose name is T.Hanks
on โ24-04-2020 01:23 PM
And probably Tom Hanks' way of saying, many things are named Corona.
that's what I think too
on โ24-04-2020 01:26 PM
I would rather have a typewriter as a gift any day of the week
Much more meaniful than mass produced generic technology that needs replacing in a couple of years
And he can pass it on to the kids down the line
Maybe Tom Hanks places more importance of the sentimental value it will gain rather than being 'modern technology'
โ24-04-2020 01:34 PM - edited โ24-04-2020 01:37 PM
Probably a collecters piece
On american pickers they were excited about seeing an old Corona typewriter, but the owner didn't want to sell
โ24-04-2020 01:35 PM - edited โ24-04-2020 01:36 PM
I might add, I still have my Smith-Corona electric typewriter in working order.
In the mid 80's when we got our first computer, hubby wouldn't let daughter use it unless she could touch type.
He didn't think she had a hope.
She dragged out my typewriter and old school book on how to type and she was touch typing within 3 months.
A skill that got her out of typing class in high school.
She got to use the new fangled computer.
on โ24-04-2020 01:51 PM
Lucky, lucky kid.
on โ24-04-2020 01:53 PM
Lucky kid - indeed.
Sadly some know the cost of everything & the value of nothing.