That Time I Almost Got Arrested for Touching Kubrick’s Typewriter
Magazine rack concept art - fckinphotoblg issue 006
The Shining Twins Costumes - Kubrick Exhibit at LACMA
March 13th, 2013
Dear Stanley Kubrick,
Please forgive me.
There I was, see- minding my own business atop a red dual-sport moto with NY plates, cruising along Wilshire Boulevard in the spring of 2013, when I spotted it:
Seconds after crossing Fairfax Ave, passing the Egg and I coffee shop and hanging from the post-modern facade of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, hung the banner for the road show that I never knew existed:
THE STANLEY KUBRICK EXHIBITION.
My hands turned the handlebars before my brain caught up.
Now, I don’t know what it says about me that I walked into a shrine to one of the greatest visual tacticians of the 20th century wearing dusty jeans and a helmet under my arm like I was delivering Postmates- but there I was, pretending to be calm, pretending I didn’t want to touch everything.
And then- there it was.
The typewriter.
That typewriter.
No plexiglass. No ropes. Just sitting there.
Like it had been waiting for me.
I didn’t even mean to touch it.
My fingers just… drifted.
Like they were trying to finish a sentence he never wrote.
And that’s when the guard appeared.
Adler Typewriter from The Shining - Kubrick Prop Exhibit
All Work and No Play Prop Page - The Shining Exhibit
Not running. Not yelling.
Just standing two feet away, suddenly very aware of how real this object was.
“Sir, you cannot touch the artifacts.”
The word “artifacts” hit me like a religious slur. I backed away with the shame of a teenager who’d just been caught sniffing their crush’s hoodie.
I didn’t get kicked out.
But I did spend the rest of the exhibit with my hands in my pockets like I was visiting an ex’s parents.
And yet… something about that moment felt right.
Because Kubrick’s whole deal was control.
He lit a single candle for three hours to get the shadow right in Barry Lyndon.
He reshot a hallway scene 127 times.
And here I was- some dusty, unplanned, imperfect visitor- a cinephile fanboy leaving fingerprints where I shouldn’t have.
I think he would’ve hated it- the thought of his props presented out of sequence, in harsh light, absent any preceding frames to give it proper context or emotional contrast. But my mind was completely blown away.
Ballroom Photo from The Shining - Kubrick Exhibit Piece
Clockwork Orange Costume Display - Kubrick LACMA 2013
Clockwork Orange Sculpture Props - Kubrick Exhibit
Kubrick's Mitchell BNC 35mm Camera - LACMA Exhibit 2013
Stanley Kubrick A Cam - Mitchell BNC Focus Detail
Born to Kill Helmet - Full Metal Jacket Exhibit
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