Hacker Cinema
Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu
1980 · Film · documentary · 29 min
Directed by David Loeb Weiss
The last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times. This film shows the entire newspaper production process from hot-metal typesetting to creating stereo moulds to high-speed press operation.
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16 comments on Hacker News
Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu documents the last day of hot type at The New York Times before the digital changeover. It's one of my favourite documentaries, everything feels so vivid and alive:
https://www.nytimes.com/video/insider/100000004687429/farewell-etaoin-shrdlu.html
If you enjoy linotype machines, I'll suggest you watch 'Farewell ETAOIN SHRDLU', a documentary on the last night the New York Times ran its hot press system
ChatGPT says
The documentary he's referring to is likely "Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu," released in 1980. It chronicles the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times before they transitioned to newer technology. The title comes from the nonsense phrase "etaoin shrdlu," which appeared frequently in Linotype machine errors due to the way the keys were arranged. The documentary provides a fascinating look at the end of an era in newspaper production.
For the actual movable type, there’s a great documentary called Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu about the final day the NY Times used Linotype:
https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
There’s a neat documentary from the late 1970’s, “Farewell etaoin shrdlu”. It’s about the final day the New York Times was printed using their linotype machines.
https://youtu.be/1MGjFKs9bnU
The half-hour documentary "Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu", about the last days of hot metal typesetting at the New York Times, is fascinating if you're into the history of print media or elaborate analog machines: https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
One newspaper in the United States still uses a Linotype for regular publication, the Saguache Crescent in Saguache, Colorado: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNa9XRoNRUM
As an aside, check out the 30 minute documentary "Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MGjFKs9bnU) about the end of the linotype era. I'm amazed at the engineering that went into linotype printing.
I recommend everyone watch Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu. It's a fascinating documentary filmed on the last day the New York Times using hot metal type, galleys, printer's stones, etc.
https://vimeo.com/127605643
"A film created by Carl Schlesinger and David Loeb Weiss documenting the last day of hot metal typesetting at The New York Times. This film shows the entire newspaper production process from hot-metal typesetting to creating stereo moulds to high-speed press operation. At the end of the film, the new typesetting and photographic production process is shown in contrast to the old ways."
Pretty interesting to see the then-new computer typesetting technology and how primitive it was compared to computers today.
It's not the same, but ‘Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu’ (you can find it easily online) is a documentary about the last day that the New York Times used linotypes and hot metal typesetting before they switched to electronic/optical typesetting.
I think it's a wonderful, heartfelt, and technologically fascinating documentary. I recommend it when you have a half hour to spare.
If you've not seen it, the documentary Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu of the final days of Linotype at the NY Times is great: https://archive.org/details/FarewellEtaoinShrdlu
If you liked this, be sure to check out the 2012 documentary 'Linotype: The Film', featuring Carl Schlesinger and footage from 'Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu'. One of my all-time favorite documentaries!
https://linotypefilm.com/
Useful context about the film, from the New York Times's in-house historian: https://www.nytimes.com/times-insider/2014/11/13/1978-farewell-etaoin-shrdlu/
I didn't know I can get so emotional about printing presses until I watched "Farewell - ETAOIN SHRDLU" documentary. It is about the last NYTimes newspaper run on these magnificent machines.
https://vimeo.com/127605643
I feel like this article should be paired with a watching of "Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu" (1978):
https://vimeo.com/127605643
A quote from the film:
Printer: "I find it very sad. Very sad. I've learned the new stuff. The new processes and all. But I've been a printer now for 26 years. I've been in this place for 20 years. Six years apprenticeship, 20 years journeyman, and these are words that aren't just tossed around. They've always meant something to us printers.
I hate to see it. It's inevitable that we're going to go into computers. All the knowledge I've acquired over these 26 years is all locked up in a little box now called a computer. And I think probably most jobs are going to end up the same way."
Questioner: "Do you think computers are a good idea in general?"
Printer: "Oh, there's no doubt about it. They're going to benefit everybody eventually. How long it will take, I don't know."
Also:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/02/insider/1966-2016-the-last-hot-type-printer-puts-down-his-tools.html
Somewhat related - there's a good documentary about the last edition of the New York Times published using the linotype process called "Farewell Etaoin Shrdlu" [1].
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MGjFKs9bnU
What do you intend to replace it with? PDFs?
If there's to be a universal "digital paper", it would need a lot of planning and agreement. With the amount of churn of stuff in technology these days I don't see anything stable enough to "replace paper" anytime soon.
Thinking about this problem reminds me of the transition from linotype machines at the New York Times, to fully computerised systems in 1978.
The computer systems are shown at the end of the wonderful documentary 'Farewell, Etaoin Shrdlu' https://vimeo.com/127605643#t=24m55s
The amount of thought and preparation put into those systems, and the thought and preparation put into the change from ink-and-metal to pixels-and-bytes seems remarkable. Perhaps the (lack of) co-ordination between hardware and software today is to blame? Many industries have their IT problems handled with software-only solutions, generally with little thought for what the solution will look like 10--or even 5--years down the road.
I would love to hear from people in industries like medical software, and flight software; where thought and preparation is--hopefully--given some budget and priority.