Charlie Brown, Peanuts and Charles M. Schulz

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 65^th Anniversary of,  Peanuts and the 50^th 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 31^{st .}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 2,000^th 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)