All About the Remie Scout

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.

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.

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 design: some have a left platen knob & no carriage return, while most have a carriage return & no left platen knob.
• Keyboard lettering: most have uppercase lettering, but some have lowercase lettering.
• Number of shift keys: some have only a single shift key on the left, but some have shift keys on both the left and right. It seems that models marketed under the Monarch Pioneer name were equipped with double shift keys standard, and Remie Scouts with single shift keys. In specimens of Monarch Pioneers with only a single shift key and Remie Scouts with dual shift keys the keyboard lettering is lowercase. There appears to be a correlation between lowercase keyboard lettering and a deviance from the standard number of shift keys for that model. Why this is, or what other differences lowercase letters may signify, is a mystery. Double shifts became standard for both models around serial # 74000 in 1934.
• The upper right shift character may be either "*" or "3/4". Correspondingly, the lower right shift character may be "?" "3/4" and the comma shift "," or "?"
  

Detail of a returnless carriage

• The spools may be held on by a nut or by a pair of arms that press against the ribbon. The arms themselves may extend over the top of the spool. The change from nuts to arms took place around late 1932. Extended arms began in very late 1933, around serial # 30000 / 74000.
• Keyboard color: black keys vs white keys. White keys appear to have been introduced around serial # 74000 in 1934.
• The left margin may be adjustable or fixed. So far, adjustable margins have been found only on versions without a carriage return.

Lowercase version of the keys
• Typeface: at least one specimen is known that has Roman 12A serif typeface rather than the Art Gothic san-serif typeface unique to the Remie line

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.

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