The Royal Skylark is one of those typewriters that can get two vastly different reviews by two different people. For instance, I like its keyboard feel, which Consumer Reports describes as "slightly too slow for some typists." It was also described as having a heavy touch. It is not the most photogenic typewriter, due to its glossy white finish.
According to Jay Respler, of Advanced Business Machines, in New Jersey, my Royal Skylark typewriter was manufactured in September, 1965. It retailed for $67.50 in 1966. The Skylark was a mid-range typewriter, designed to fill the gap between the low-priced Royalite ($49.95) and the full-size Royal typewriters ($89.50-$119). While the casing of the Skylark is Cycolac plastic, it is, by no means a cheaply-made typewriter. It has many features of the larger Royal Portables, such as a key-set tabulator, and a two-color ribbon. It has some features that the full-size Royal portables lacked, such as a de-jam key (combined with the margin-release key, and a retractable paper support. Other names for this design include: Royal Royalite (1964-1968), Royal Fiesta II, Royal Lark, Royal Quiet Deluxe (the 1950s typewriters are called the "Quiet De Luxe") Royal Eldorado, and many others. All were made in Holland, in Royal's Leiden plant. All of these typewriters use the standard twin spool ribbon, which is available at OfficeMax stores, and from Amazon.com. Mechanically, they are all identical to the Royal Royalite, but with added features.
By 1965, when my Royal Skylark was manufactured, typewriter sales were no longer reserved for office machine dealers (Lowman & Hanford, and E.W. Hall were the largest dealers)--it was possible to buy a typewriter at any department store (in Seattle, it was either The Bon Marche, or Frederick & Nelson), most jewelers (Weisfield's, Ben Tipp, Zale's, Raphael's Diamonds), any discount store (White Front, Valu-Mart, Gov-Mart/Baza'r), any drugstore (Bartell Drugs, and Pay 'n Save), many bookstores (the University Book Store, and the Washington Bookstore--only the University Bookstore survived), as well as many stationers (Clark Stationery, and J.K. Gill's, who had purchased Lowman & Hanford in 1956), as well as branch offices of the manufacturers (Royal Typewriter, Olivetti-Underwood, Remington-Rand, and Smith-Corona.) As a result, it is harder to guess where a 1960s typewriter was sold than it is to guess where a 1930s typewriter was sold. To make matters worse, most typewriter dealers stopped applying decals to the typewriters they sold around World War Two. Also, mid-range typewriters were not advertised as much as the top-of-the-line models. All of the dealers who sold the high-end Royal typewriters also sold low-end, and mid-range models.