Mount Si with trees in foreground

Twin Peaks Prop – Dale Cooper’s Tape Recorders

In “The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper: My Life, My Tapes,” author Scott Frost establishes that Coop has been fascinated by tape recorders since he was a child. As any viewer of the series can attest, this checks out. Throughout Twin Peaks, Dale Cooper uses a total of three different micro cassette recorders. Here is a closer look at his collection.

DALE COOPER’S PANASONIC RN-105

Dale Cooper's Tape Recorder - Panasonic RN-105
Panasonic RN-105

The first and main recorder we see onscreen is the Panasonic RN-105, produced in 1988.

Autobiography of F.B.I. Special Agent Dale Cooper

This is also the model pictured on the cover Cooper’s aforementioned fictional autobiography, photographed by Paula K. Shimatsu-U.

Special Agent Dale Cooper at Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department
The Mauve Zone

The Panasonic tape recorder is featured in many of the show’s memorable publicity shots, such as this one found on The Mauve Zone website. Cooper is standing on the Twin Peaks Sheriff’s Department set at Occidental Studios (formerly City Studios) in Van Nuys, California.

Twin Peaks Prop Identification - Dale Cooper's Tape Recorder
Pilot

Though this won’t be an exhaustive list of the RN-105’s onscreen appearances, a brief highlight reel is due. Here it is during Cooper’s iconic entrance into the town of Twin Peaks in the pilot episode.

Dale Cooper in bed holding up his tape recorder
Episode 1.005

Coop turns the recorder toward the camera in episode 1005 when he is awakened by singing Icelanders.

Dale Cooper's Tape Recorder on a table by a death mask
Episode 2.016

Its vertical blue stripe makes it easy to identify, and in episode 2.016, you can faintly see the blacked out Panasonic logo.

StarPics - Tape Recorder

The RN-105 is such an important accessory to our special agent that it received its own Star Pics trading card.

StarPics - Tape Recorder

The Star Pics card references Cooper’s childhood fascination with recorders as mentioned in the Autobiography, stating that “he was forced to carry a heavy, two-reel tape recorder on his back. He was grateful when the pocket-sized recorder was developed.” However, the RN-105 was a still a bit clunky and couldn’t always fill the show’s production needs.

DALE COOPER’S REALISTIC MICRO-26

Dale Cooper's Tape Recorder - Realistic Micro-26
Realistic Micro-26

Episode 1.006 calls for a close up on the recorder as Waldo the myna bird triggers the voice activation function.

Deputy Hawk, Sheriff Truman and Agent Cooper by Waldo the Myna bird at the Twin Peaks Sheriff's Department
Episode 1.006

The RN-105 does not have this feature.

Cooper Activating Tape Recorder
Episode 1.006

Therefore, Cooper’s regular recorder is swapped out for the sleeker Realistic Micro-26 for the duration of this episode.

Realistic Tape Recorder
Episode 1.006

Note that the Realistic logo is covered with black tape in this shot.

Cooper listens to Waldo on the tape recorder
Episode 1.006

You may remember that Realistic is the RadioShack brand that also produced Donna Hayward’s tape player.

IS IT FUTURE OR IS IT PAST?

Before moving on to the next recorder, we must jump back to episode 1.002. David Lynch was absent from the set during much of Twin Peaks‘ first season as he was busy working on Wild At Heart (yes, you read that correctly – he was away during the first season, not the second).

To accommodate his schedule, this Lynch-directed episode was filmed out of sequence. Episode 1006 was the first script that called for a voice activated recorder, but the Micro-26 debuts in episode 1002 because the prop was already on hand when Lynch returned to the director’s chair to shoot this early episode later in the process.

This particular scene with Dale Cooper was shot on December 14, 1989.

Dale Cooper lying in bed in Room 315 at the Great Northern Hotel
Episode 1.002

We briefly see Cooper’s recorder on his nightstand as he turns off the light. Unlike the tinted Panasonic recorder, the cassette is visible through the window. The reflective stripe to the right of the window goes down about halfway from the top whereas the Panasonic’s blue stripe would go all the way to the bottom.

Dale Cooper speaking on the telephone in his room at the Great Northern Hotel
Episode 1.002

When Cooper wakes up from his dream, there is a clear shot of the recorder from the side, revealing that it is much slimmer than the Panasonic, confirming my suspicion that this is the same Micro-26 seen in episode 1.006.

DALE COOPER’S REALISTIC MICRO-27

Dale Cooper's Tape Recorder - Realistic Micro-27
Realistic Micro-27

The Panasonic recorder returns in the season one finale as Cooper sets it on the table in his hotel room after his undercover mission at One Eyed Jacks.

Cooper's Recorder on the Table in Episode 2001
Episode 2.001
Cooper's Recorder on the Table in Episode 2001
Episode 2.001

However, we find in episode 2.001 that Cooper turned on the voice activation function just before he was shot, so the recorder is again switched out for close ups in this scene. The slightly newer Realistic Micro-27 is used this time.

Twin Peaks Prop Identification - Cooper in Room 315
Episode 2.001

Interestingly, the master shot of Cooper on the floor with the table in sight shows the Panasonic again. We only see the Panasonic RN-105 for the remainder of the series.

Special Agent Dale Cooper speaking into a tape recorder by Wind River
Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me

Finally, there is a great sunlit shot of Cooper dictating a message into the Panasonic on the banks of Wind River in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. This is the last we see of Agent Cooper’s tape recorders, though I would love to have seen him enter an electronics store to check out the new models in the 2017 continuation.

Author

  • Vinnie Guidera wearing a party hat, sunglasses and a Twin Peaks t-shirt.

    Vinnie Guidera is an artist, writer, and David Lynch fanatic from Sacramento, CA. In addition to Twin Peaks Blog, he has written articles for The Blue Rose Magazine, WelcomeToTwinPeaks.com, and 25YearsLaterSite.com. He identifies props and logs his collection on Instagram under the handle @twelverainbowtrout.

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2 thoughts on “Twin Peaks Prop – Dale Cooper’s Tape Recorders

  1. Hi Steven,

    I’m a “lifelong fan” of TP, and FWWM (the life of the shows, not of me) and many other Lynchian projects, (but mostly T.P. because I believe a lot of what makes it particularly transcendent and allows it to resonate with so many fans has a great deal top Mark Frost’s contributions. But I digress.) – Even as a longtime fan, and even though I’m a professional collector who used to be a vintage memorabilia seller and trader and I know most of the ropes, even though I’ve already got several areas of collecting focus and thought I had a handle on it for the rest of my time here, EVEN with all of that, I was genuinely surprised and taken aback by how quickly I went from being a Twin Peaks fan and aficionado to an “obsessed collector who’s desperate to recreate the Red Room in his downstairs music studio”. In the past 90 days that happened and hasn’t let go.

    Part of it, I’ll blame on a genetic dispensation toward obsessive details and collecting, sure. But some of it, if I’m being fair – is that I just recently discovered your blog. I just found many sources for some cool art made by fans and it keeps growing like this every day becoming a looming shadow figure, taunting me out behind the dumpsters…

    I am incredibly excited about what I’ve been finding as I try to scab away at the existing archives of information. Yes, overwhelmed. Yes, a bit lost already, and yes, reluctantly admitting to myself that I’m going to need to see this through as far as I can go with it. Sigh. (“Just when I thought I was OUT, they pull me back IN!”)

    I’m a maker, an artist, a craftsperson, but probably first on my list is that I’m a musician and a music nerd – I have taught guitar for 25 years. I work with many aspects of scoring and sound-designing in my day job (I own and run my own very small advertising agency in Pittsburgh, PA)

    So where do I begin? When I was well-into a kind of level of expertise around the vintage batman and mem, sometimes newbies would come at me with a rabid excitement, because they had just found me and their interest in the ephemera had clicked in all at once and it frankly exhausted me rather than gave me energy. Then at times it had just the opposite effect. Since I don’t know you, I’m trying very hard to walk that line on my own and not cause you to roll your eyes and mutter “Newbies…” under your breath. But there is just SO MUCH STUFF I NEED TO KNOW AS FAST AS POSSIBLE!!

    So, can I ask you stuff? Can I help with anything? Can I get iced teas for the crew? 🙂 Let me know if you’re willing to answer some short-cut questions. I just thought I was alone in this obsession all this time and feel like I’ve found my lost tribe!

    Regardless of your answers – thanks for doing what you’ve already done – it’s amazing.

    Sincerely,
    W. Scot Fleming
    Pittsburgh, PA, USA
    5/8/2024

    1. @Scot Hello-o-o! What a delightful note to read. Thank you for your kind comments. I shared your note with Vinnie as well. We are happy to hear Twin Peaks Blog has been a useful resource. We are far from done as there is so much to cover. I’ve long believe that this site was partially my 30+ year experience with Mark Frost and David Lynch’s show but it’s also a permanent archive about all aspects of the show, feature film and more. I’ve wanted the site for people like yourself who love all the little details. It’s a very collaborate effort and we certainly welcome the discussion. All the research has made me appreciate the talented cast and the exceptional crew even more. Glad to know you (virtually). All my relatives live outside of Pittsburgh, so next time I visit, we should grab pie and coffee (and maybe some Iron City beer – HA!).

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