About July
26, 2015, we were riding in the Santa Rosa, California area. One sign said,
“Santa Rosa Avenue-Corby Avenue, next exit. It was such a beautiful ride and we saw many
stunning coastal views. There were both green and golden mountains placed
behind the glistering greenish-blue Pacific Ocean. The Redwood trees changed to maybe pine trees
and also some palm trees. While, riding, my husband, Jim is playing his
IPod through the Harley speakers and we listened to songs such as, ”California
Dreamin’” by the Mamas and the Papas, “That’s the Way of the World”, Earth Wind & Fire and “Summer” by War. The
views were so pretty that my husband kept stopping to take pictures. He said,
“One more picture, I knew it would be hard, but I did not know it would be this
d—n hard.” He cannot resist a great picture. While stopped, we heard birds singing and I saw
signs for the Charles M. Schulz Museum.
Charles M. Schulz is the creator of the Peanuts Comic Strip.
In October,
2015, The Peanuts Movie commercials were all over the television. It is
scheduled to show in theaters on November 6, 2015. It is the 65th
Anniversary of, Peanuts and the 50th anniversary of A Charlie Brown
Christmas which is an animated movie. On Thursday, October 29, 2015, close to
Halloween ”It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” aired on ABC Channel 6 at
8:00PM. It was first previewed in 1966. Research states that there were about a
total of 45 Peanuts animated television specials.
Mr. Schulz
was born on November 26, 1922 in St. Paul, Minnesota as Charles Monroe Schulz.
When he was two days old, his uncle named him “Sparky” after a horse Spark Plug
from the Barney Google comic strip. I became interested in Charles M. Schulz
and also in Peanuts & Charlie Brown.
I thought that Schulz was born in Santa Rosa but learned that he was not. He
died in Santa Rosa, California on February 12, 2000 at the age of 77. I looked up the history of Peanuts and leaned
a few interesting tidbits.
Peanuts started
as a comic strip on October 2, 1950 and the initial Peanuts characters included
Charlie Brown, Snoopy(dog) October 4,
1950, Shermy and Patty (Not Peppermint
Patty), Other members of the Peanuts Gang added later were Violet Gray,
February 7, 1951 Lucy Van Pelt , March 3,
1952, Linus Van Pelt, September 19, 1953, Schroeder, May 30, 1951, Pig-Pin,
July 13, 1954, Sally Brown, August 23, 1959, Frieda was introduced to the strip
on March 6, 1961. On November 19, 1961, the Little Red-Haired Girl, an unseen character was introduced. In 1977, She became visible onscreen in a TV special and we learned that her name is Heather Wold. Patricia Reichardt AKA Peppermint Patty who is a multidimensional sports loving girl from a
single parent home was added in 1966. After the assassination of Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr. in 1968, Franklin (African American Child) was added the same
year on July 31st .Woodstock (bird), was added in 1970. Marcie, the
intellect joined the gang on July 20, 1971, Rerun Van Pelt, the youngest of the
Van Pelt children was born on May 23, 1972.
Eudora, the last major female character was added on June 13, 1978. She
moved to Charlie Brown’s neighbor from another state.
This daily
comic strip became a Sunday strip and ran from its launch date of October 2,
1950 to February 13, 2000. It was in more than 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries
and translated into 21 languages. The origin name was Lil Folks, but when
Schulz tried to have it syndicated, the name was too close to the names of two
other comics at that time. Lil Abner was one and Little Folks was the other.
Schulz settled on a name he was not too happy about which was “Peanuts” after
the peanut gallery from the Howdy Doody Time television show.
On December
9, 1965, a religious theme was introduced to the television special, “A Charlie
Brown Christmas. This was the first time Peanuts was animated. In this special,
Charlie Brown is trying to figure out the true meaning of Christmas. The message is anti-commercialism and tells
of showing good will to all.
Five years
ago, my husband, Jim turned 60 years old. I did a PowerPoint presentation
showing various stages of his life through pictures. I also did a music CD. Two
of the songs on it are from “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. They are both Jazz
instrumentals by the Vince Guaraldi Trio. The titles are Linus & Lucy and
Christmastime Is Here. Jim is a big Peanuts’ fan. This movie is the second
longest-running Christmas special of all time, second to Rudolph the Red Nosed
Reindeer.
In 1984, Peanuts
made the Guinness World Records after being syndicated to it 2,000th
newspaper. It’s a great time to put Peanuts on the big screen. Charlie Brown
and the Peanuts Gang is an important piece of Americana. (Most of the information
is from on-line sources such as- Wikipedia)
