Fax You

​Who still has one, who continues to use it, and how do we stop them?
 
There are still companies with Fax machines. With the advent of email over 30 YEARS before, I am not sure if they even have a reason for existing. May as well own a teletype or one of those fancy, new-fangled computers. You know the type, rows upon rows of blinking lights on bulky machines that fill up an entire room. Just like you would see in any Irwin Allen television show. Oh, and don’t forget the punch hole cards. A stack the size of a small building is all that’s required to spell out “Happy Birthday” using two reams of paper for the dot matrix printer.
 
But I digress. Fax machines are the topic and I have a few thoughts. With applications such as DocuSign why are they even needed? Hell, these days you can apply for a home lone on your smart phone. I know because for the hell of it, I have applied for over seventeen in just the last year. 
 
What am I getting at? Frankly, I don’t know. Accept to say that in the last published edition of the Hollywood Creative Directory, dated 2011, there were over fifty production companies that still utilized the services of the archaic fax machine. Why stop there? Why not keep a torture rack hidden in their secret dungeon?  I’ll wager some, including Don Simpson, did just that. But I doubt the fax machine’s presence is still some part of any modern business model. Maybe it’s some movie business Feng Shui. Or it may be just another way to discourage us new screenwriters from contacting them.  The lack of an email address and the addition of a fax as the only contact number may be part of a deeper “Does not accept unsolicited material” conspiracy.
 
Insidious bastards. Now excuse me while I get my tinfoil hat. In the meantime, this should make you happy.