All About the Remie Scout

Parnelli Jones Monarch
A custom-painted name variant with
dual
shifts and no carriage return

When I first began collecting Depression-era portables, I immediately fell in love with the Remie Scout. It's cute, well-built, and delightful to use. It has an elegant san-serif typeface called Art Gothic that sets it apart from other Remington portables. But as I searched for more information about the Scout, I quickly discovered that not only was there not a lot of information available, what information there was revealed a product line awash in a mind-boggling number of design variations.

Caps-only Remie
An open-framed, caps-only version

Let's start with the basics. There were about 40,000 total units produced from April, 1932 through November, 1934. About 24,000 of those were double-case typewriters, and about 16,000 were caps-only. (Thanks to Richard Polt for the breakdown.) They were based on Remington's Portable #2, but with some of the unnecessary features stripped off, such as ribbon color selector, right margin set, right-hand carriage release, and backspace. Like the Portable #2, it was available in several bright colors. A handful were sold by Macy's department store under their own name, sometimes identified only by Macy's trademark red star. Prices ranged from $19.95 for the frameless, caps-only model to $34.75 for the full-featured model.

Remie Scout
A Remie Scout with single shift
and carriage return

There are four major variations, as documented on Richard's Remington Portables page:

  1. A double-case model with an enclosed frame.
  2. A double-case model with an open frame
  3. A caps-only model with an open frame
  4. A caps-only model with an enclosed frame (this model is rare and may have been sold only in Canada or Europe)

In addition to the four major versions, a host of minor variances have been found throughout the line. They include:

carriage detail
Detail of a returnless carriage

All this doesn't even include the array of colors in which the Remie Scout was available! Or the eight known different names that the line was sold under!

All the evidence indicates a product line which either was in a constant state of experimentation, or a product line without a standard built but manufactured at the mercy of available parts on hard. An exhaustive survey of as many specimens as I could locate suggests the following timeline for major changes. Red text indicates a specimen that breaks an otherwise solid pattern.

Year / SN / Variation
1932
1933
1934
S10000

April: S10000-S26999 sequence begins

   
S20000
     
S21198
This machine has Roman typeface. Earliest known appearance of left platen knob and no carriage return.    
~S24500

Spools held on by arms instead of nuts

   
S26661
Caps-only machines split out into own SN sequence    
S27000
  S27000-S31999 sequence begins  
S30000
   

White keys begin

Spool holddown arms extended

S32000
   

S32000 sequence begins, runs till Nov

S60000
 

S60000-S69999 sequence begins?

Double-case machines split out into own SN sequence

 
S60550
  This machine has spool nuts and no return lever. Also no S prefix. Canadian Pioneer.  
~S70000
   

S70000 sequence begins? Runs till Nov.

~S74000
   

White keys begin

Spool holddown arms extended

Dual shifts now standard on all models


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