Mike Garwood stands atop the mast that anchors the airship "Snoopy Two" to the ground at the Tuscaloosa
Airport, in Tuscalooosa, Alabama. Garwood, who is from Clearwater, Florida, is part of the crew that travels with
the MetLife blimp to all of its venues. (AP Photo/Tuscaloosa News, Robert Sutton)
These articles are arranged from the most recent down, so you'll always find the newest news about Charlie Brown and his friends toward the top; older articles will be located further down, or on previous pages.
Snoopy and friend stick together
May 29, 2003
By Nomee Landis
The Fayetteville (North Carolina) Observer
Youngsters flock around a famous World War I flying ace, also known
as Snoopy, at the Festival of Flight at the Crown Coliseum.
The sign on the dressing room door read "Snoopy."
In response to a knock on the door, Judy Sladky peeked out. "I'm
not Snoopy," she said, grinning. The beagle, it seemed, was sleeping.
Sladky is about as close a friend as Snoopy has ever had, though,
except for maybe his birdie buddy, Woodstock. For about 25 years, Sladky
has traveled the world with Snoopy, the lovable white dog that
cartoonist Charles Schulz brought to life in 1953.
They have made appearances in every state except Hawaii and in 10
foreign countries. They have visited the White House at least five times
and performed during a Super Bowl halftime. And Snoopy's a shoo-in at
the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York every year.
This week, though, Snoopy - and Sladky - are guests of honor at the
Festival of Flight. Their dressing room, complete with a star by the
door, is near the NASA exhibit in the Crown Coliseum.
A big draw
On Thursday afternoon, Snoopy mingled at the exhibits, passing out
hugs and high-fives to the children who flocked around him. He wore his
slick aviator's cap and goggles and his World War I flying ace scarf.
"It's Snoopy," the children would holler before running up to the
beagle and wrapping their arms around him. They flipped his ears, poked
at his nose and pulled at his fur.
"Do they allow you to talk? Woof, woof." asked one girl.
Snoopy just shook his head.
His escort for the day, Deborah Brewer, said no. He's a dog. He
doesn't talk.
"Snoopy, give me a high-five," another child said. A fluffy paw
shot up.
"What's up, Snoop Doggy Dog," said another. "Have you been flying?"
Snoopy has not been flying this week. He did pose for a picture in
one of the Wright plane replicas, though. He tried wing-walking, too,
Sladky said. The plane hadn't taken off yet, but that made no difference
to Snoopy, she added.
"He thinks he really was," Sladky said. "He has this great fantasy
life."
They talked about letting Snoopy parachute from an airplane, Sladky
said, but she talked him out of it.
Snoopy has had some wonderful adventures over the years, Sladky
said, and she's been there through it all. When Snoopy conducted the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir and performed on Broadway, Sladky was there.
When he skates in ice shows, Sladky is there.
Sladky, who was born the same year as Snoopy and is a good friend
of the Schulz family, was once a world champion ice dancer herself. She
was the American champion and second in the world before ice dancing
became an Olympic event.
Wearer of many hats
Sladky, who lives in Bloomingdale, N.J., is also the voice of Alice
Baby Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street. Touring with Snoopy keeps her busy
most of the time.
"One thing I miss out on is sleep and rest in this crazy doggy
life," she said. "But he's my buddy."
When she is not touring as — ahem, with — Snoopy, Sladky knits or
spends time with her husband. She is also writing a book about her life
with America's favorite beagle. Its working title is "Being Snoopy is a
Full-Time Job."
Strip Club
Cartoonists honor their own, pay special tribute to Peanuts creator
May 27, 2003
By James Sullivan
The San Francisco Chronicle
You couldn't always read about it in the funny papers.
In the early days of comic strips, groundbreaking artist George
Herriman, creator of the Krazy Kat strip, was a puzzle to many newspaper
editors. At a time when strips like Blondie and Li'l Abner dominated the
comics pages of hundreds of papers across the country, the crafty Krazy
Kat managed to make it into about 35.
Reaction to the strip was polarized and often hostile, said Garry
Trudeau last week at San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum, where he
donated an original installment of a Krazy Kat strip "Few things make
people more angry than not getting a joke."
Trudeau, the creator of Doonesbury, knows a thing or two about
elevated humor. Notoriously publicity-shy, the cartoonist was in town
sharing a long weekend with several hundred of his fellow doodlers. And
they got all the jokes.
There were plenty to go around, considering the talent pool, which
included such celebrity artists as Scott Adams (Dilbert), Matt Groening
("The Simpsons"), Bil and Jeff Keane (Family Circus), and Cathy
Guisewite (Cathy).
The official occasion was the Reuben Awards, the long-running
black-tie event of the National Cartoonists Society that was held
Saturday at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. The awards, named for San
Francisco native Rube Goldberg, the group's first president, afforded an
opportunity to make a pilgrimage of sorts to the hometown of the late,
beloved Charles Schulz. On Sunday afternoon the cartoonists piled into
buses and headed north to the Schulz museum in Santa Rosa, where the
Peanuts creator's widow, Jean, hosted a picnic and shared memories of
past gatherings.
As several generations of scribblers mingled under the warm Santa
Rosa sun, she stood in the corner of the lot scanning her swarm of
guests, sipping from a can of Bud Light, a baseball glove tucked under
her arm. She explained that her late husband, whom everyone in the
business called Sparky, started a longstanding Reuben-weekend tradition,
a friendly game of catch.
One time on the grounds of a Pasadena resort, she recalled with a
smile, their game was ruined when the sprinklers came on.
She excused herself a moment to accept a demure goodbye kiss from
Mad magazine's Sergio Aragones, a hulking elf with a gray handlebar
mustache.
On Sunday everyone was on his best, most beatific behavior, like a
few hundred Linuses and Marcies. According to society President Steve
McGarry, one reason the actual awards dinner is members-only is so the
members can release some of their pent-up mischief — tapping into their
inner Snoopys and Pig Pens, as it were.
At a recent Reubens outing in the Bahamas, he said, Bud Grace,
creator of the daily strip Piranha Club, thought it would be a hoot to
deface a picture on the cruise ship the society had chartered. So he
drew a mustache on a painting with a Sharpie.
It turned out to be "a hugely expensive portrait of the king of
Norway or something," said McGarry, still chuckling at the memory. "They
were going to turn the boat around. They were hugely insulted."
The sponsoring organization, founded in the wake of cartoonists'
morale- lifting efforts of World War II, is still a bit of an old boys'
club, said Cathy Guisewite. She brought a once-rare woman's voice to the
funny pages with her comic strip Cathy, now in its 26th year.
"This group, I think, was charmed to have a 'girl' in the room,"
she recalled as she headed into the Schulz museum with her entourage
Sunday. "Girl, " she emphasized, was the operative word at the time.
Over the years, she said, the Reuben Awards have become more a
family than a fraternity. "I didn't come last year, and I was surprised
how much I missed it."
At the Schulz museum, Get Fuzzy's Darby Conley, a fast-rising
newcomer, was signing a long succession of autographs. When a cartoonist
signs an autograph, it's no mere flourish of the pen. Recipients expect
a carefully rendered signature sketch, and Conley was breaking a sweat
as he immortalized the title page of a young girl's book.
As a newbie to the society's gatherings, he said between pen
strokes, meeting the guys who created Beetle Bailey, Batman and Bloom
County, is "more voyeuristic than intimidating. The most shocking thing
is meeting Bil Keane in person. He's like the Don Rickles" of the
cartooning world.
The Reubens are a yearly excuse for cartoonists to set aside the
solitary grind of deadline pressures and let down their hair, whether it
is typically bunched in an unruly ponytail or carefully arranged in a
comb-over. For a few days, at a luxury destination such as Cancun or the
Bahamas or, this year, San Francisco, the talking cats and dogs and
bowling-ball-headed schmoes of the funny pages take a holiday together.
"Milt Caniff (Steve Canyon) used to say that cartoonists are guys
working in attics and basements, guys who are ink-stained, guys who
haven't shaved," said Hy Eisman, a veteran whose credits include
latter-day versions of Popeye and the Katzenjammer Kids. The Reuben
Awards, he joked, are "the one day they have to get dressed and talk to
other people."
Just as Hollywood has its Oscars, TV its Emmys and dim-witted
behavior its Darwin Awards, the group's cartoonists have honored the
best in their business for half a century. This year's winners,
announced at Saturday's dinner, include Conley for newspaper comic strip
and "SpongeBob SquarePants" creator Steve Hillenburg for television
animation. Groening of "The Simpsons" won the big one, the Reuben Award,
as cartoonist of the year.
Whatever their age or increasingly diverse backgrounds, cartoonists
share one trait that gives them instant rapport.
"Childishness," said white-haired Hy Eisman without hesitation. "We
never grow old."
Reuben Awards
Cartoonist of the year (the "Reuben") Matt Groening ("The
Simpsons")
Newspaper comic strip Darby Conley (Get Fuzzy)
Advertising and illustration Jim Hummel
Newspaper panel Dave Coverly (Speed Bump)
Newspaper illustration Steve McGarry
Comic book Stan Sakai (Usagi Yojimbo)
Gag cartoon Glenn McCoy
Greeting card Glenn McCoy
Book illustration B.B. Sams
Magazine illustration C.F. Payne
Editorial cartoon Clay Bennett (Christian Science Monitor)
Feature animation Chris Sanders ("Lilo & Stitch")
Television animation Steve Hillenburg ("SpongeBob Squarepants")
New media Mark Fiore
Good Grief!
May 23, 2003
By David Mannweiler
The Indianapolis Star
In the Pantheon of Pampered Pooches there's Lassie and Bullet and
Huckleberry Hound and Scooby-Doo and Benji and Bingo and Rin-Tin-Tin
and...
...the leader of the pack, the dog of the decades, the hound of
happenings — Snoopy!
Good grief, the Top Dog has to be Snoopy, the canine companion of
Charlie Brown for lo these many dog-years.
Snoopy comes off the comic pages and into 3-D Saturday when "Good
Grief!" opens at The Children's Museum. The whole gang from "Peanuts"
will be there — Charlie Brown, Lucy, Linus and Snoopy, of course.
There'll be the famous Pumpkin Patch where the Great Pumpkin
supposedly resides; Schroeder's short piano, the kite-eating tree and
Lucy's Psychiatry Booth where Charlie Brown's baseball team woes are
detailed on a regular basis.
Borrowed from New York
Created by the Children's Museum of Manhattan, the award-winning
exhibit is designed to provide fun while gently helping children ages
2-12 and their families navigate the sometimes rough road of childhood.
If you think about it, that's what Charles M. Schulz was doing in
his "Peanuts" comic strip, books and movies. Through children's eyes
(and a dog's eyes), he looked at kids' topics like homework, friends,
sports, family, the quest to be popular and sibling rivalry.
The exhibit's "serious" aim is to promote children's
decision-making skills, build language skills, develop empathy for
others and solve problems.
Visitors can play in the Pumpkin Patch, check out Snoopy the World
War I Flying Ace's Sopwith Camel and fly kites without feeding the
kite-eating tree. They can play Schroeder's piano and offer their own
Lucy-like bossy advice on kid's problems that show up at the Psychiatry
Booth.
At Snoopy's Dog House, small windows open to show diorama
activities. Kids also can dress up to become Joe Cool, another of
Snoopy's personas. How well Snoopy flies his Sopwith Camel is determined
by which words — helpful or harmful — children select.
A computer game contains typical school dilemmas acted out by real
school kids, and allows players to become peacemakers. To promote
cooperation, kids can play Schroeder's piano while others play a
clarinet and a violin. Kids also can weave "twigs" together to help
build Woodstock's Nest.
Encouraging discussion
Interactive exhibits encourage adults and parents to discuss
frustrations and embarrassments common to kids. As The Children's Museum
puts it "Charlie Brown and his friends will help children understand
that even when things go wrong, life is truly a wonderful journey."
Adults will encounter a gallery of comic strips that look at
American history and culture. There are panels on the first moon walk,
the women's movement, school integration, the social effects of cell
phones and more.
Fellow cartoonists contributed commemorative panels for Schulz, and
there are biographical photographs of the "Peanuts" creator, who died in
2000.
Where The Children's Museum, 3000 N. Meridian St.
When Saturday to Aug. 17.
Hours 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily.
Tickets General admission $9.50; $4 ages 2-17, $8 age 60 and older.
Info (317) 334-3322
Lucky ones line up for Linus
May 22, 2003
By Mary Lynn Smith
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Barefoot Kim Ballard said she thought she was in heaven.
In reality, she is one of 80 artists and wannabes working night and
day through Monday in a cavernous RiverCentre exhibit hall that has been
converted into one big art studio. They're transforming identical blank
polyurethane Linus statues into whimsical creations that will be
featured in St. Paul's fourth annual public art tribute to the late
hometown cartoonist Charles Schulz.
By June 1, 90 Linus statues will be scattered throughout St. Paul,
attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors who will snap photographs,
chart their findings on souvenir maps and rush to hug Lucy's
blanket-clutching little brother.
For the next few days, one particular 5-foot-6, 300-pound Linus
(400 pounds if you count the concrete base) belongs to Ballard. The
Burnsville artist submitted statue designs when "Peanuts on Parade" made
its debut with Snoopy in 2000 and for each of its sequels, including
Charlie Brown and Lucy. "I never got picked," she said.
But her friend Mark Dragan of Lakeville did get picked, and she
jumped at the chance to be his assistant. One of his three entries —
Linus as a taxi driver — was chosen from more than 400 submitted for the
design competition for the 2003 event, "Linus Blankets St. Paul."
Sponsors who pay $3,600 for each statue and $1,000 for artist
honorariums selected the entries after the Schulz family viewed all the
designs. "The rules are simple. Nothing derogatory, religious,
corporate," said Mary Johnston, artist coordinator for this year's
event.
"You can submit really cute designs but it has to jibe with the
sponsor," Ballard said.
'I'm in heaven'
Dragan, a small-business owner and sculptor who designed the
Vietnam memorial at Minnesota State University Mankato, is a first-timer
in this event.
He came equipped with a suitcase filled with drills, sanders,
grinders, glue — lots of glue — and tinfoil — lots of tinfoil. Neatly
stacked tubes of acrylic paint lined the well-worn briefcase his dad
gave him in high school.
If only he had a pillow to kneel on. Next time, he said.
Eyeing the emerging Linus-as-taxi-driver, Dragan breathed a sigh of
relief that the hat he molded from tinfoil and fiberglass seemed to fit
the character's head.
"Normally I work in clay and cement," he said. "This is a crap
shoot to see if it works."
Ballard, comfortable after kicking off her shoes, didn't seem
worried. "I'm in heaven," she said. "I'm a painter, and this is what I
love to do."
Of hair and hats
Ahhhh . . . the Linus-head dilemma.
"The hair is the worst part of these guys," said Ann Judkins as she
painted the shirt stripes on the Crossword Linus. The artists have to
paint the flesh-colored scalp carefully in between each knobby strand of
hair and then paint each strand brown. "It's neat-looking, but it's hard
on the artist," she said.
Maybe that's why a lot of Linuses are wearing hats, she added.
For Jack and Layne Kleinart of Seattle, it was a matter of throwing
wire lath across Linus' head, transforming his sparse hairdo into a
jet-black, big-hair Elvis 'do, complete with long sideburns. Jack
Kleinart, a dentist by day, showed off a bag of fake jewels in one hand.
In the other he held a bag of old dental mirrors that will provide the
glitter that is Elvis. A nephew, Zack Quinn, donated his brother's
Memphis electric guitar.
Lynette Daniel and Diane Kroska from Dayton Elementary School in
Dayton gave their emerging Einstein Linus a wild-look 'do, thanks to a
lot of rolled-up newspapers, masking and duct tape and two hours of
time.
By Friday afternoon, 23 fourth-and fifth-graders will join them to
paint a tribute to Einstein and his message "Imagination is more
important than knowledge."
Linus — the real one — coming to town
May 20, 2003
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Yes, there is a connection between California cartoonist/artist
Linus Maurer and Linus Van Pelt, the philosophical, blanket-toting comic
strip character who will be featured in St. Paul's "Peanuts" summer
celebration.
"Everybody asks me that," Maurer said in a recent telephone
interview from his Kenwood, Calif., home.
"My nature is to be level-headed, look for the good in things, like
Linus in the strip. It's an honor to have him named after me," said
Maurer, who will take part this week in the "paint-off" event that
begins creation of about 90 individualized Linus statues. "I'm pleased
Sparky did that."
Their connection goes back more than 50 years, when Charles
"Sparky" Schulz and Maurer taught cartooning together at Art Instruction
Schools, a correspondence school based in Minneapolis.
Schulz was working on early versions of the comic strip, which was
about to become syndicated, and one day asked if he could include a
character modeled on him, Maurer recalled.
"I laughed and said, 'Sure.' That's about the extent of how much we
talked about it," Maurer said.
Linus Van Pelt went on to become one of the main characters in
"Peanuts" and the entertainment empire the strip spawned. At its peak,
"Peanuts" ran in more than 2,600 papers worldwide. Shortly after, in
late 1999, Schulz announced that he was retiring because of cancer. He
died Feb. 13, 2000, on the eve of the publication of the last Sunday
"Peanuts" strip he drew.
Because Schulz grew up in St. Paul, the city began planning an
observance of his career following his retirement announcement. After
his death, it turned into a summer-long civic event. The 2000 "Peanuts
on Parade" celebration featured more than 100 Snoopy statues scattered
throughout the city and a fund-raising auction. Subsequent summers
saluted Charlie Brown and Lucy Van Pelt statues, all drawing thousands
of visitors to tour the statues.
This year, organizers expect about 90 statues of Linus, Lucy's
younger brother, and attribute the smaller number to the sluggish
economy, which has cut into sponsorships.
The "Linus Blankets St. Paul" event will conclude in September with
an auction and the long-awaited unveiling of bronze statues as a
permanent tribute to Schulz. The statue groupings will be on display in
Landmark Plaza, a new downtown park adjacent to Landmark Center.
For this year's "Peanuts" event, Maurer will paint a statue, its
design featuring an Americana motif with Linus' blanket in red and white
stripes and his shirt in blue stripes, he said.
After Schulz began syndicating the comic strip, he moved to
California. About five years later, in the mid-1950s, Maurer, a native
of Sleepy Eye, Minn., also moved there, and the two remained friends.
"I'd go up to Santa Rosa frequently and have lunch with him, always
at the ice rink he built there," he said.
Maurer is the creator of "Challenger," an internationally
syndicated crossword/numbers puzzle, and draws editorial cartoons and
comic strips and creates commissioned art.
To this day, Linus remains a relatively rare name, not cracking the
top 1,000 overall names in the United States, although it recently was
listed as the 11th most popular name in Sweden, according to several Web
sites.
If you go
To kick off St. Paul's fourth annual "Peanuts" celebration, the
public is invited to watch artists create their versions of this year's
Charles Schulz character, Linus Van Pelt.
The opening event of "Linus Blankets St. Paul" will be at
Touchstone Energy Place at RiverCentre. The works-in-progress will be
available for viewing from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday and from noon to 5 p.m.
Saturday and Sunday.
Linus Maurer, a friend of Schulz's on whom the cartoonist based the
character, will be on hand to work on one of the statues.
For more information and a schedule of events, go to
www.ilovestpaul.com. To see samples of Linus Maurer's art, go to
www.sonoma-business.com/art/.
A pilot's view behind Snoopy One
May 3, 2003
By Colin Resch
News 14 Carolina
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A blimp floats, flies, hovers and is half the
length of a football field. Beginning Thursday Met Life's Snoopy One
will be patrolling the Charlotte area skyline while it covers the
Wachovia Championship.
"I've been doing this about two and a half years, said Snoopy One
Line Pilot Chad Palmer. I was actually flying in Atlanta, covering a
football game with a banner and the blimp was there, and just started
talking with the guy in the blimp and things went from there. Next thing
I know I've got a job here."
Snoopy One is 128 feet in length and weighs 3,000 pounds without
helium.
There are not too many jobs out there more unique than being a
blimp pilot. In fact there are only seven blimps currently operating in
the U.S. As fun and unique as it is, the job does have its setbacks.
"I don't really have an address, I don't have a home, I don't have
an apartment, the blimp travels 12 months a year and we get four weeks
vacation, he said. Problem is we really don't have anywhere to go when
we get off the road."
In fact, last year, Palmer spent 342 nights in a hotel room. But
the jet-setting, or rather, blimp-setting lifestyle does have its perks.
"Our primary purpose is to cover the PGA tour. Everywhere we go is
a golf tournament primarily. During the fall we do football games and
some baseball games but primarily we just follow the PGA tour, he said.
I love golf, I absolutely love it. So I get paid to go watch golf."
Like most Charlotte area golf fans, Palmer is a little upset that
Tiger Woods will not be playing in next week's Wachovia Championship,
his reason, not what one might think.
"When he's there, you can pretty much concentrate on him, he's
going to be in the running, said Palmer. But with him not there, it's
wide open, so you're going to be all over the place and it just makes a
little more work, makes a lot more fun, but it's just different with him
not there, it's amazing how he affects everybody, from the tour all the
way up to us."
A few interesting facts about Snoopy One it is 128 feet in length
and weighs 3,000 pounds without helium, with it, someone can push the
blimp with one hand.
Good grief! Charlie Brown's my hero
April 22, 2003
By Jim Caple
ESPN.com
I prefer that my sports heroes be either dead or fictional. There
is less chance of reading a story that they were just picked up for
soliciting a prostitute that way.
Oh, there are many athletes whom I admire, baseball player and
civil rights pioneer Jackie Robinson, baseball pitcher and physical
marvel Nolan Ryan, and Norwegian gold medal skater and humanitarian
Johann Olav Koss. As far as I know, they are (or, in Jackie's case,
were) fine men in addition to being fine athletes. But my favorite
athlete wears short pants, stands about four feet tall, has a head like
Mr. Met and has a lifetime record of 1-328.
My sports hero is Charlie Brown.
True, he manages a team so bad its best player is a beagle. True,
he once lost 40-0 to an expansion team. True, he always falls for Lucy's
"I'll hold the ball and you come running up and kick it" routine.
I don't care. Charlie Brown is my hero because he loves sports so
much he takes the mound during a snowstorm because the calendar says
it's time for spring training. He loves sports so much his head once
broke out in a rash like the seams on a baseball. He loves sports so
much he bought out a store's entire inventory of bubblegum cards to get
one of his favorite player, Joe Schlabotnik (he didn't).
And whenever Joe Schlabotnik gets sent to the lowest of the minor
leagues, Charlie Brown doesn't care. He sticks by his hero, rooting for
him no matter his batting average, no matter his league. He even hands
him a ball to sign the night Joe is fired as manager for calling a
squeeze bunt with the bases empty. "Try not to cry on the ball, Joe,"
Charlie Brown says, "it makes the ink run."
Charlie Brown loves sports, and he asks nothing from them other
than the chance to participate. He knows what sports are really about.
Pain, failure and patience, but most of all, eternal hope. Hope that one
day Joe Schlabotnik will hit .300, hope that Charlie Brown will hit a
home run when that little red-haired girl is watching and hope that Lucy
won't yank away the football and he'll be able to kick it straight to
the moon.
I know I can rely on Charlie Brown to represent what is best in
sports.
And I can trust that he won't ever be named in a paternity
suit.
'Peanuts' summer celebration won't offer any big surprises
March 29, 2003
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
A sampling of this summer's statues honoring "Peanuts" creator
Charles Schulz will make their traditional debut at Grand Old Day again
this year, but this time around there will be no traveling statues and
no "celebrity" statues made by public figures.
Otherwise, "Linus Blankets St. Paul" will be very similar to the
previous three summerlong city celebrations of the cartoonist's life and
work, according to Lee Koch, vice president of Capital City Partnership,
which is coordinating the event.
Organizers are planning on 104 statues depicting the philosophical,
blanket-toting character Linus Van Pelt of the "Peanuts" cartoon strip.
The first chance the public will get to see the 5-foot-tall statues
will be May 21-26, when artists will work on their creations in open
sessions at RiverCentre.
The statues are expected to be in their designated locations by the
end of May, although some will appear at special functions, such as the
June 1 Grand Old Day Parade as well as the Taste of Minnesota festival
and the Minnesota State Fair.
After the State Fair, all the statues will be gathered in downtown
for public viewing, and then, in late September, many of them will be
moved to the Mall of America for a Sept. 28 auction. Proceeds from the
yearly auctions pay for scholarships at area art schools and for the
city's permanent tribute to Schulz, who was raised in St. Paul.
The tribute will consist of a collection of bronze "Peanuts" statue
groupings, which will be installed in the new downtown Landmark Plaza
city park adjacent to Rice Park. Tentative plans call for a Sept. 27
unveiling of three bronze "Peanuts" vignettes, Koch said.
A fourth bronze will be installed in the second phase of the park
development on the site usually referred to as Hamm Plaza, between the
Hamm Building and St. Paul Cos. offices.
Previous auctions have raised just about enough money to pay for
the statues and to put on this year's event, Koch said. Funds from this
fall's auction likely will be used to increase the scholarships
substantially.
The previous events have drawn thousands of visitors to view the
statues, which first featured Snoopy, then Charlie Brown and then Lucy
Van Pelt. It is difficult to have precise figures because there was no
admission charge and statues were scattered throughout the city.
Estimates by the St. Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau, however,
put the figure at 1 million annual visitors.
FYI
• Artists who would like to create a statue for this summer's
"Linus Blankets St. Paul" are invited to a 6 p.m. workshop Tuesday in
the Jerome Hill Theater of the U.S. Bank Trust Center, 180 E. Fifth St.
The deadline for submitting designs is April 14. For more information,
contact the event's artist coordinator Mary Johnston at (612) 232-3279.
• For more information about sponsoring one of the 104 Linus
statues to be displayed this summer, contact sponsor coordinator Shelly
Johnson at (612) 868-1237.
• Artists who are chosen to create a statue receive $1,000 if they
are selected by a sponsor. Sponsors pay $3,600 for a statue and an extra
$2,000 if they want to keep it. Otherwise, the statues will be auctioned
in late September.
• Information about "Linus Blankets St. Paul" is available at
www.ilovestpaul.com.
'Peanuts' Lawsuit Is Settled
Return of Strips Leads to Resolution
March 26, 2003
By Dave Astor
Editor & Publisher Online
NEW YORK — The "Peanuts" trust's lawsuit against the International
Museum of Cartoon Art (IMCA) has been dismissed.
This came after IMCA sent the trust 19 "Peanuts" strips — including
15 the trust requested and substitutes for four others IMCA couldn't
find. Dan Post, attorney for the trust, told E&P Online that a
settlement agreement asks that IMCA continue to look for the other four
comics sought by the trust.
Michael Kotler, counsel to IMCA, confirmed that the suit has been
settled.
Jeannie Schulz, widow of "Peanuts" creator Charles M. Schulz, has
said the trust will use returned comics for display at the Charles M.
Schulz Museum and in traveling exhibits. The suit was filed last fall in
Sonoma County, Calif., where the Santa Rosa-based Schulz museum opened
in August 2002.
IMCA closed last year in Boca Raton, Fla., but founder (and "Beetle
Bailey" creator) Mort Walker hopes it will reopen elsewhere — possibly
in New York City.
Visitors to St. Paul adore Charles Schulz characters
March 25, 2003
St. Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau
SAINT PAUL ? Charles Schulz, creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip
that graced the pages of newspaper comics around the world for 50 years
and further popularized on a number of television specials, would be
thrilled that his characters are still generating adoration.
And, no place is this adoration more evident than in Charles
Schulz' hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
For the fourth consecutive year, 5-foot polyurethane figures will
grace the streets, parks, plazas and sidewalks of Saint Paul. This year,
the featured character will be Linus Van Pelt, Lucy's younger brother
and the intellectual of the gang who flabbergasts his friends with his
philosophical revelations and solutions to problems. Linus is a paradox
despite his age, he is able to put life in perspective while sucking his
thumb and dragging around his favorite blanket.
"Our records show that the Peanuts comic strip characters displayed
around Saint Paul during the past three years have been extremely
popular with tour bus groups, individual visitors, and residents of the
state," said Brad Toll, vice president of tourism with the Saint Paul
Convention and Visitors Bureau. "We expect Linus to generate as much, if
not more, fun and excitement."
According to visitor data compiled by the Saint Paul Convention and
Visitors Bureau, more than 2 million visitors have been drawn to Saint
Paul to locate the more than 100 statues of each character that had been
created, designed and painted by local artists, and set up around the
city since the tribute to Schulz began in the summer of 2000. The
activity has generated more than $100 million in economic impact to the
city of Saint Paul.
The first year featured Snoopy, followed by Charlie Brown in 2001
and Lucy in 2002. The data shows that each year, visitors came from all
50 states, all Canadian provinces, and many foreign countries, from
Afghanistan to Zimbabwe and "many points in between."
"We have had visitors come each year from as far away as Texas and
New Jersey," Toll said, "and we know they're coming back this year as
well." One visitor, a photographer, is preparing a photo manuscript of
public art from a variety of cities, including the Charles Schulz
characters in Saint Paul.
"Linus Blankets Saint Paul" will be the theme of this year's
promotion. The statues will be painted at the artist paint-off scheduled
for May 21-26 at RiverCentre, and the statues are expected to reach
their destinations on the streets of Saint Paul during the first few
weeks of June. The entire promotion is a cooperative venture with the
Capital City Partnership, the city of Saint Paul, TivoliToo Design and
Sculpting Studios and the Saint Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Statues will once again be painted by local artists and sponsored
by area businesses, and ultimately auctioned off at the end of September
at Mall of America. Auction proceeds go to the Charles M. Schulz Fund
that was established to create and maintain permanent bronze sculptures
of the Peanuts gang and for scholarships for artists and emerging
cartoonists at the Art Instruction School where Schulz attended and
taught, and at the College of Visual Arts. To date, nearly $2 million
have been raised.
Saint Paul's Permanent Tribute
Landmark Plaza, a new $4.2 million park located between the
historic Landmark Center and Lawson Commons in the heart of downtown
Saint Paul, will open this June as the city's permanent tribute to
Charles Schulz. The park will complement existing Saint Paul icons such
as the Minnesota Children's Museum, Science Museum of Minnesota,
Landmark Center, The Saint Paul Hotel, Ordway Center for the Performing
Arts and Touchstone Energy Place.
Landmark Plaza will be the home of Saint Paul's permanent memorial
to Schulz. Bronze statues of some of his famous characters will be
situated in the park, including Snoopy sprawled on Charlie Brown's lap
resting against a tree, Sally and Linus leaning against one of the park
walls, and Lucy flirting with Schroeder over his piano.
"The Peanuts characters promotions have been very popular for
people of all ages, from all walks of life and from around the world,"
Toll said. "This permanent tribute of Peanuts characters and the
development of this park will have a positive impact on downtown for
years to come."
In addition to the Peanuts characters, the park provides public
space for picnics, games, and festivals and events in an urban setting.
Landmark Plaza will feature native Minnesota trees and perennials, a
lawn area, seating walls, festival plaza and an ephemeral stream, which
is a demonstration project for storm water management.
Where should visitors begin to search for Linus?
As in past years, the Saint Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau
will have its Snoopy Doghouse Information Center set up on the plaza of
the Science Museum of Minnesota,120 West Kellogg Blvd., Saint Paul. The
information center is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Snoopy Doghouse Information Center, staffed by knowledgeable
volunteers, can provide maps to locate all of the Linus statues as well
as promotional material and visitor guides to many attractions,
restaurants and accommodations in Saint Paul. The Saint Paul Fun Pass,
which offers discounts to numerous Saint Paul attractions,
accommodations and restaurants, is also available.
From the plaza, visitors can easily follow the map and locate
numerous statues of Linus in the heart of downtown Saint Paul,
especially in the area of Rice Park, Ecolab Plaza, Wabasha Street and
Seventh Place.
According to Toll, the tourism department can assist in
recommending routes for tour companies as well as supply
commemorative/maps for the passengers. "A major Japanese tour operator
brought three groups to Saint Paul last year and already has several
scheduled for this year," Toll said.
Any visitors to Saint Paul wanting additional information and
locations of the Linus statues, should contact the Saint Paul Convention
and Visitors Bureau, 651-265-4923 or 800-627-6101, or visit the web site
at www.visitsaintpaul.com.
Good grief, this Charlie Brown is going places
March 22, 2003
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Of all the polyurethane "Peanuts" statues showing up in St. Paul
over the past three summers, "Signing Charlie Brown" has proved to have
staying power.
Designed in 2001 by DeafArt Club founder Helene Oppenheimer to
raise awareness about hearing problems, Signing Charlie features a
hearing aide in his right ear and his name in sign language.
"He's constantly on the go, touring nursing homes, schools, you
name it," Oppenheimer said. "In fact, he moves around so much, he has
had wheels put on his stand."
Until the end of the month, Signing Charlie is on display at the
University of Minnesota's Vocational Technical Building at 1954 Buford
Ave. in St. Paul — home of the American Sign Language Department.
Next month, he moves to the library at Central Park in Woodbury.
The family of the late cartoonist Charles Schulz not only granted
permission to allow the hearing aide in Charlie's ear, but it sponsored
the $3,600 sculpture because Schulz granddaughter Stephanie Johnson is
studying to become a sign-language interpreter.
Gang's not there, yet
Museum officials look toward arrival of summer tourist season
March 2, 2003
By Debra D. Bass
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
As the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center nears its
six-month anniversary, it has attracted only a quarter of the attendance
projected for the year.
As of January, five months since the Aug. 15 opening, the museum
has had fewer than 47,000 visitors, despite initial projections that
nearly 200,000 people a year would visit the museum.
It would take an average monthly attendance of 25,500 to meet the
originally projected annual attendance.
Staff at the $8 million center, praised as the new mecca for
"Peanuts" fans, hope the summer vacation season will boost attendance.
"If we don't meet that figure, it means our numbers were off and we
will need to do more publicity," museum director Ruth Gardner Begell
said. "We're certainly not going to go out of business."
More of the visitors are single admissions than originally
expected, rather than returning members, Begell said. "With more people
paying, even with less people coming, there is less disparity in
income."
Admission is $8 for adults and $5 for children.
The nonprofit museum was funded by the Schulz family's Community
Foundation of Sonoma County, so the museum has no building debt to pay
off. Charles Schulz died Feb. 12, 2000, after living in Sonoma County
for more than 40 years.
"We're not depending on the Schulz family to bail us out," Begell
said. "We need to make it on our own.
"We're looking at the first year as a shakedown year," she added.
"We opened at the tail end of the tourist season."
The museum's operating budget for the year is $1.7 million, Begell
said.
Income sources include admission fees, membership fees, program
advertising and museum shop sales. Paid staff ranges from 13 to 17,
supported by a pool of 200 volunteers.
The museum has daily traffic of visitors roaming the exhibits and
outdoor courtyard. Begell said tallies have run from 71 to 1,200 people
a day.
More than 1,500 attended August's grand opening.
So far, monthly admissions have averaged fewer than 8,000 paid and
unpaid, including tours from schools, which pay a fee.
Winter months are the slowest, Begell said, adding she imagines up
to 20,000 people could visit each month during June, July and August.
"But like I said, 'Who knows?' " Begell said.
She suggested a slow economy and a looming war with Iraq may dampen
attendance.
"It's better to start slow and grow bigger than start with more
people than you can accommodate," said Ben Stone, director of the
county's Economic Development Board.
"It takes time to get everyone's attention and interest, but (the
Schulz museum) is off to a good start," said Stone, who also oversees
the Sonoma County Tourism program.
Begell based the original attendance projection on that of similar
museums, such as the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Mass.,
located in a region similar to Santa Rosa — a small city surrounded by a
scenic countryside with large metropolitan areas nearby.
When the Rockwell museum opened 10 years ago, attendance was
275,000. Last year, the museum had a drop in attendance from its average
of 200,000 to about 180,000.
"It has a lot to do with the economy and lack of travel and a lot
of other factors making this a not-as-profitable time," said Dulce
Ricciardelli, manager of visitor services at the Rockwell museum.
She said the museum credits a traveling exhibition from the Schulz
museum, which was under construction at the time, for a boost in its
winter attendance last year.
The Schulz exhibit attracted 2,000 to 3,000 more visitors a month
to the Rockwell museum during the six months it was shown, from November
2001 to May 2002, Ricciardelli said.
The Schulz museum probably won't surpass Napa's Copia food and wine
center, which reached its goal of 220,000 in its first year and
anticipates another 200,000 in 2003, said Kathleen Iudice, Copia public
relations manager.
Schulz museum crowds were expected to rival Copia's and dwarf those
at the Luther Burbank Home and Gardens in Santa Rosa, which usually
attracts about 76,000 visitors annually, but last year had 73,000.
"It's slow all over," said Cathy Stevenson, coordinator at the
Burbank Gardens. "Our busiest time is April, May and June, but we had
expected to have a lot more groups coming here after going to the Schulz
museum and we have had some."
She said the gardens have been attracting more tour groups because
they can package a day of activities, including the Schulz museum.
Begell said the irony is that local would-be visitors are waiting
to visit. Small tour groups from Walnut Creek and Cloverdale were
visiting Wednesday and had the museum almost all to themselves at times.
"Some people still think it's too crowded to visit, when this is
going to be the best time to come," Begell said.
Begell said the museum hasn't launched an international marketing
campaign yet, but has initiated a small radio promotion to tell local
residents about events at the museum and daily movie screenings.
It's the first promotional campaign the museum has embarked on
since it opened six months ago.
For the early months, international news stories and mentions in
travel magazines announcing the opening were enough to buoy attendance.
Begell said the museum's Web site attracts more than 2,000 hits a
day and the museum has more than 3,000 members to date. An informal
survey of 417 visitors to the Schulz museum showed less than a quarter
were from Sonoma County.
Snoopy, Charlie Brown and the rest of the Peanuts characters to
join the FunMail wireless messaging family
Peanuts characters appearing soon on a cell phone screen near you
February 17, 2003
PRNewswire
CANNES, France — FunMail Inc., a leading provider of MMS and SMS
visual messaging services announced at GSM World Congress today that it
will incorporate the beloved Peanuts character family into its line of
visual messaging services. Through an agreement with United Media,
Peanuts will become available to FunMail's network of wireless carriers
and wireless portal customers including Vodafone, Globe, Smart and MSN.
"Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and the whole Peanuts family
has been a part of everyone's lives for over 50 years," said FunMail CEO
Adam Lavine. "The warmth and comfortable familiarity of Peanuts makes
them a wonderful additional to the FunMail service offering."
The FunMail service selects Multimedia Messaging (MMS) or Picture
Messaging content based on a user's SMS. For example, if a person types
in "HAVE A GOOD TRIP" they could get an animation of Snoopy flying
through the air on his doghouse. FunMail's Animation Studios is creating
unique animations optimized for wireless handsets using the content
already created by Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz. Peanuts characters
will be available as color animated MMS messages, as well as black and
white Picture Messages which are compatible with over 500,000,000 phones
worldwide.
