Former astronaut Eugene Cernan signs a space-suited Snoopy doll for a
fan after a news conference before the National Aviation Hall of Fame
Pioneers of Flight Homecoming dinner in Dayton, Ohio, on July 19, 2003. (AP Photo/Tom Uhlman)
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.
'Peanuts' statues strike right key
September 22, 2003
By Rick Shefchik
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
If Charles Schulz ever wondered whether he would be remembered in
his hometown, his answer was delivered in bronze Sunday in downtown St.
Paul.
As long as bronze statues last, so will his memory.
Hundreds of the late cartoonist's fans ignored the cool weather and
the Vikings game Sunday afternoon to attend a "Party in the Park" at
Landmark Plaza and Rice Park, where three permanent bronze vignettes of
his "Peanuts" characters were unveiled.
Schulz's family members were present to host the unveilings of the
vignettes, each of which had been covered in boxes for several weeks,
awaiting Sunday's party.
The unveiling was followed by the annual Peanuts statue auction,
held this year across the street at Landmark Center. Forty statues of
Linus Van Pelt, from the 92 that comprised this summer's "Linus Blankets
the Town" celebration, were auctioned to raise money for artists and
cartoonists scholarships, and to create and maintain the three bronze
vignettes.
The auction — attended by bidders, spectators and Linus Maurer, the
namesake of the character — raised $153,000. The most expensive statue —
Picnic 'N' Linus — sold for $8,000 to a former St. Paul resident now
living in California who participated in the auction online via eBay.
The average statue price was $3,837.
Bob Schmidt of St. Paul bought "Linus the Printer" for $1,900,
completing his family's personal collection of the four Peanuts
character statues to date. Schmidt recently moved to a new house across
Lake Phalen from his old house, and joked that he needed the room for
more Peanuts statues.
"You can't put these on an end table," Schmidt said. "But I'm just
a regular guy. We have a big room downstairs for them."
One of his statues — Lucy — is currently out in his yard. Another —
Charlie Brown — is on display at St. Paul Johnson High School.
His Snoopy statue is in the big room downstairs, soon to be joined
by Linus.
While the auction was taking place inside, streams of parents and
children drifted from one bronze vignette to the next, taking photos of
their kids with the Peanuts characters.
The three vignettes depict Charlie Brown under a tree with Snoopy
in his lap; Lucy staring adoringly at Schroeder as she leans on his
piano; and Sally and Linus leaning on a wall. If the number of kids
photographed Sunday between Sally and Linus is any indication, that
vignette at the corner of St. Peter, Market Street and 6th Street will
be one of the most photographed spots in the state.
Chris Triebold and her husband Todd photographed their baby
daughter Emilia in the lap of the statue of Charlie and Snoopy, located
near the sidewalk along St. Peter Street.
"Every day at lunch I would lean up against that box and read Harry
Potter, waiting for the unveiling," said Triebold, education director
for the Stepping Stone Theater, located in the Landmark Center.
"It's an amazing gift to the downtown area," she said of the bronze
vignettes.
"It's amazing how many people [the statues] have brought downtown."
Jodi Landry — who is a member Minnesota's DeafArt Club, which
circulates one of the Charlie Brown statues to various educational
centers — said the bronzes welcome people to St. Paul.
"It actually puts a smile on my face," Landry said.
That's what Schulz's daughter Jill Transki hoped for in her remarks
at the unveiling. She said she once asked her father how he was so
successful speaking to groups.
"He said, 'Well, first you make them laugh, then you make them cry,
then you leave them laughing'," Transki said.
"I hope these statues do just what Dad said Make you laugh, make
you cry, and bring a smile to your face."
Jean Schulz, the cartoonist's widow, said her husband, whom friends
and family knew as Sparky, "was honored by this proposal and thrilled
that his characters would be here for years to come."
Later she said that a complete collection of Schulz's earliest
panels — which ran in the Pioneer Press in the late '40s under the name
"Lil' Folks" — will be published this fall.
She also said the family museum in Santa Rosa, Calif., may devote
some space to depict the Landmark Plaza bronzes.
"This represents what he wanted — people to be happy," Schulz said.
And next year? Schulz's son Craig said that the chances were good
there would be a fifth character honored next summer in St. Paul. He
acknowledged that Woodstock is a favorite choice, but wouldn't reveal
any more than that.
"It's top-secret," he joked. "I always said we wouldn't stop until
we did Pig Pen."
'Peanuts' exhibit an emotional experience for kids
September 19, 2003
By Sara Fiedelholtz
The Chicago Sun Times
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, and the rest of the "Peanuts" gang has
come to Chicago to help children explore and understand their emotions.
The national touring exhibit, "Good Grief! You're Not Alone,
Charlie Brown ... Everyone Feels That Way!", which opens Saturday at the
Chicago Children's Museum, leads children and families on a fun journey
through childhood trials and tribulations. The exhibit will be here
through Nov. 30.
Creator Charles M. Schulz was known for capturing life's mishaps
through humor with the legendary comic strip. The travails of Charlie
Brown, the "little round-headed kid" and his pals debuted on Oct. 2,
1950.
Eventually, "Peanuts" ran in more than 2,600 newspapers, reaching
millions of readers in 75 countries.
The "Good Grief!" exhibit was originally created by the Children's
Museum of Manhattan and was one of the last major projects Schulz was
involved in before his death in February 2000.
"Through the 'Peanuts' characters, Schulz tackles the universal
issues of growing up, being a part of a group and feeling isolated,"
says Jennifer Farrington, associate vice president of education at the
Chicago Children's Museum.
The exhibit offers the chance to give or take advice at Lucy's
Psychiatry Booth, play Schroeder's piano and navigate Snoopy's World War
I Flying Ace plane, or spend time with Linus in the pumpkin patch.
Children also will be able to dress up like their favorite "Peanuts"
character and create their own ending to a "Peanuts" comic strip.
"It is through interaction with these characters that children are
able to understand, recognize and express these emotions," says
Farringon. "Children continue to have frustrations and concerns that are
part of growing up, but with the exhibit children can practice ways to
resolve their frustrations."
Linus is leaving
'Party in the Park' is last chance to check out the St. Paul statues
September 19, 2003
By Melissa D. Boyd
The Minneapolis Star Tribune
Sunday is your last chance to get a glimpse of the 91 Linus statues
before they leave downtown St. Paul for their permanent homes.
The fourth year of the Charles M. Schulz tribute culminates with a
"Party in the Park" at Landmark Plaza. Visitors can paint their own
"Peanuts" bobblehead and enjoy children's activities and other
entertainment. The highlight of this year's event will be the unveiling
of bronze "Peanuts" sculpture vignettes -- a permanent homage to Schulz,
creator of the iconic cartoon strip that ran for 50 years.
"This celebration is bigger and more meaningful because this is
what we've been working for," said Sue Gonsior, director of
communications for Capitol City Partnership, a coordinator of the
tribute.
Gonsior said money raised from previous auctions of the Snoopy,
Charlie Brown and Lucy statues was used to pay for the tribute in
addition to programs for artists and emerging cartoonists. Last year's
"Looking for Lucy" statues sold for as much as $19,000.
Randy Johnson, a friend of the Schulz family and owner of Tivoli
Too, the company that makes the statues and created the vignettes, said
she proposed the idea of the tribute to Schulz shortly before his death.
"The family is very involved in the design process. There are
guidelines such as nothing sexual, religious, no company logos and
more," said Johnson. "The statues have to be reflective of his
personality so that whether you're 8 or 80, you'll enjoy it."
"Peanuts on Parade" in 2000 starred America's most popular canine,
Snoopy. Charlie Brown and Lucy followed. This year's Linus portrays a
character named after Schulz's friend, Linus Maurer of Sleepy Eye, Minn.
A statue still under design will be placed in that town later.
The process of bringing a "Peanuts" character to the streets takes
almost a year, Gonsior said. Each January, Capitol City Partnership and
United Media have decided which character would be featured and sent out
a call for artists and their designs. United Media sorted through the
design suggestions, and sponsors chose designs. This year they received
more than 500 designs from artists. It takes three to four months to
make the Peanuts characters for artists to decorate. After the annual
paint-a-thon, where artists' designs become a reality, the statues are
placed around St. Paul in June.
Gonsior said that according to sign-in sheets at the "dog house"
information booth in front of the Science Museum of Minnesota, the
tribute has increased the number of visitors to St. Paul. People from
more than 60 countries have visited the booth for maps to guide them to
the statues.
"This has brought people into St. Paul and tied businesses with the
community and with local artists," said Johnson.
Gonsior said she does not know if there will be another "Peanuts"
character next year, "That's for the Schulz family and United Media to
decide." she said. "A lot of people would like to see Woodstock or a
combination of characters."
St. Paul Charlie Brown
St. Paul's permanent tribute to Charles Schulz -- sculptural
groupings of the 'Peanuts' gang -- will be unveiled in a downtown park
next Sunday
September 14, 2003
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
HOWARD LAKE, Minnesota -- A 550-pound bronze sculpture -- Charlie
Brown with Snoopy napping on his lap -- sits on four upside-down plastic
buckets near the driveway leading to three large tin sheds that are the
shops and offices for Casting Creations Inc.
Kristal Stueven, who has worked for the Howard Lake specialty
foundry for 11 years, is rubbing potash on the nearly completed
sculpture to give it a traditional bronze color.
She and foundry owner Wes Jones are inspecting Charlie and Snoopy
for small flaws, such as pinholes, that will need to be fixed.
The statue has been checked many times in the long, 15- to 20-step
"lost-wax casting" process, but Jones wants things to be perfect.
That's the standard he expects for the many metal castings that end
up on public display, such as the life-size bronze of the 1950s
Minneapolis Lakers star George Mikan that stands in the lobby of Target
Center in Minneapolis.
Perfection is the goal, too, for Randi Johnson, owner of TivoliToo
studio in St. Paul that designed the bronze statues and the others used
in the city's four summer tributes to the late "Peanuts" creator Charles
Schulz.
"I'm really excited about the bronzes. People will really love
them," Johnson says.
The bronze statues, which will be unveiled next Sunday in a new
downtown St. Paul park, are very special, she says, and need to be great
as the city's permanent tribute to Schulz, who grew up in St. Paul.
The statues will be covered with crates in their new home, in
Landmark Plaza, next to Rice Park and Landmark Center, until they are
unveiled.
Jones and his crew are casting three vignettes of "Peanuts"
characters. In addition to Charlie and his dog, there will be Sally with
her love, Linus, and a piano-playing Schroeder with an admiring Lucy.
"These are a little difficult," Jones says of the statues after
sandblasting Charlie Brown's head. "There's no texture on them. They
have to be smooth."
If the bronzes had a texture, small imperfections would not show,
and Jones would not need to weld, grind and polish as many pinholes and
other spots as he is doing.
"You easily can get 200 pinholes in a cast this size," he said,
checking over Sally once again.
Jones, 48, has been casting metal since 1982, when he gave up his
career as an auto mechanic.
The cars were changing so fast, he says, that he faced having to go
return to Dunwoody Institute for more training just six years after
graduating.
Instead, he went to work for a foundry. Then, in 1989, with his
wife, Lori, as a partner, Jones started his own business in his hometown
of Howard Lake, about 50 miles west of St. Paul on U.S. 12 in Wright
County.
"It could be anywhere, except that here I know the people who work
for me and their families, and they know me," Jones says. "I know who
will do a good job."
His firm does only custom work, he notes. The staff casts pieces of
art or such objects as doors that others have designed. They frequently
make life-size statues of firefighters and police officers for memorial
statues. But those works don't attract the attention that the Schulz
characters have, Jones says.
"I had one down in St. Paul a week ago to see how it would fit in
the park, and people oohed and aahed and took pictures of our every
move," he said recently.
The 4-foot tall bronzes will be set up in scenarios that will draw
people to them, he says.
Like the hundreds that have been on display for the past four
years, the statues will entice people to touch them and hug them.
"The statues have a brown hue, but we expect some parts to get
shiny from that, like Charlie Brown's head or Snoopy's nose," Jones
says.
'Linus' farewell event
• This summer's 91 Linus statues have been gathered in downtown to
give the public one last chance to see them all before next Sunday's
concluding party and auction at Landmark Plaza in downtown St. Paul.
• About 40 statues will be auctioned next Sunday during the "Party in
the Park" wrap-up event for "Linus Blankets St. Paul." The celebration,
the city's summerlong tribute to "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, is
sponsored by the Capital City Partnership.
• The free party runs from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. next Sunday, with the
auction beginning at 2 p.m. Grammy-winning jazz saxophonist Dave Koz
will perform at 1230 p.m.
• At 1 p.m., officials will unveil the city's permanent memorial to
Schulz in Landmark Plaza -- three bronze groupings of "Peanuts"
characters, which were funded by earlier statue auctions.
• For more information and event details, go to www.ilovestpaul.com or
call the Linus hot line at 651-291-5608.
Snoopy Comes Home
August 30, 2003
Action 2 News, WBAY-TV
A story Action 2 News brought you Thursday has a happy ending. We
reported how a giant fiberglass statue of Snoopy was stolen from the
back yard of a Green Bay home earlier this week.
A man says he found Snoopy in Allouez, and gave it to a friend with
kids in Fond du Lac. But when he saw the story that it was stolen from
someone's yard he knew he had to get it back to them.
There is still no word how the 250-pound, five-foot tall beagle got
out of the Easton family's yard.
The rainbow-hued Snoopy statue came from a tribute in Minneapolis
to "Peanuts" comic strip creator Charles Schulz. It was valued at $10-
to $15,000.
Missing Snoopy is home again
August 30, 2003
The Green Bay (Wisconsin) Press-Gazette
A missing Snoopy statue was discovered and returned to its rightful
owners on Friday.
Green Bay Police Lt. Bill Galvin said an Allouez man found the
5-foot, 250- to 300-pound, rainbow-painted Snoopy lifted from the Green
Bay back yard of Rose Faeges-Easton and Kevin Easton on Wednesday.
The resident found the colorful dog on his property Friday, but
thinking it was garbage, took it to a friend in Fond du Lac, Galvin
said.
Somewhere during the Snoopy transfer, the Allouez man was tipped
off about a Green Bay Press-Gazette article detailing the dognapping.
The statue was then returned to its owners.
Charlie Brown and his crew, all fired up to lose
August 29, 2003
By Anita Gates
The New York Times
Kermit the Frog can still be a scintillating talk-show guest more
than a decade after Jim Henson's death, then surely Charlie Brown and
his circle of friends can carry on now that their creator, Charles M.
Schulz, is gone.
"Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown," a half-hour special tonight on
ABC, is the fourth "Peanuts" film made since Schulz died in February
2000 at age 77. It's no classic, but it puts forth the same sweet, sad,
empathy-provoking charm as its predecessors.
Since had its premiere in 1965, the "Peanuts" characters have
starred in 40 or so movies, most of them made for television. Beyond
Christmas, they've dealt with Thanksgiving, New Year's, Easter,
Valentine's Day, Halloween, Arbor Day, the Super Bowl and various topics
not related to national holidays. "Lucy Must Be Traded Charlie Brown" (a
title that could use a comma but hasn't been granted one) focuses
entirely on baseball, an endeavor at which Charlie Brown failed
repeatedly over the 50 years that "Peanuts" ran as a newspaper comic
strip.
Charlie Brown (the voice is Wesley Singerman) is facing another
baseball season, dressed in his traditional mustard-gold shirt and
standing on a pitcher's mound that's bigger than he is. As usual, Lucy
Van Pelt (Serena Berman) repeatedly visits him there to tell him what a
miserable team manager he is. The team does have a losing record,
usually playing against the one managed by Peppermint Patty (Daniel
Hansen), a girl who was born to be a physical education teacher and
always calls Charlie Brown "Chuck."
In this story, Lucy is the real problem. The others agree that she
is the worst player in the history of the game (well, she did confuse
her pizza with her mitt once) and that the only answer is to trade her
to another team. Bill Melendez, a co-director, and Lee Mendelson, the
executive producer, say they work exclusively from the comic strip now
that Schulz is gone, but somehow I missed this aspect of Lucy's
character. Isn't she usually just obnoxious, not incompetent? When she's
told to keep her eye on the ball, she says, "That's hard to do when you
keep moving it around."
And Charlie Brown certainly has a toothy smile this time around.
Not that he has any reason to look genuinely happy. As he announces,
horrified "I've traded away my own dog. I've become a real manager."
Yes, at one point he trades Snoopy the only player Patty will accept,
even though she still refers to him as the kid with the big nose for
"five good players," but that isn't the end of the story.
The other children are in familiar form. Linus still has his blue
blanket, Schroeder still has his piano and Sally still has baby-sister
attitude. Snoopy, the world's most lovable beagle and World War I flying
ace, has a few moments, but this special doesn't have a musical number
or give him any other opportunity for silent slapstick. Maybe you
remember his battle with the lawn chair in
"Peanuts" has always been a low-key entertainment; when Charlie
Brown says "Good grief," he says it quietly. A big part of the strip's
appeal is its acceptance of continual disappointment and constant
failure. But the specials often come equipped with moral lessons about
the potential beauty of a tiny, scraggly Christmas tree when it's loved
or the true meaning of Thanksgiving. If "Lucy Must Be Traded" has a
moral, it's "Better the devil you know," which isn't exactly uplifting
but, come to think of it, does match the "Peanuts" gestalt nicely.
And why would anyone want to get rid of a player as well informed
as Lucy? When she asks Charlie Brown to get shoes with cleats for his
team because she keeps sliding off the mound, she adds a little jab "I
bet Babe Ruth had cleats on her shoes."
Family saddened over stolen Snoopy
August 29, 2003
By Andy Behrendt
The Green Bay (Wisconsin) Press-Gazette
A statue of America s favorite cartoon beagle has disappeared from
a Green Bay back yard.
It's enough for Rose Faeges-Easton to say good grief. Her family s
5-foot, one-of-a-kind, rainbow-painted Snoopy has been missing since
Wednesday.
Faeges-Easton, her husband Kevin Easton and their three children
moved to southwestern Green Bay from the Minneapolis area two years ago.
Along with them came the Snoopy statue one of 101 populating the
city of St. Paul in a summer 2000 art project celebrating the late
Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, a Twin Cities native.
Regardless of the monetary value, it has great sentimental value to
us, Faeges-Easton said.
And this hugely heavy & 250- or 300-pound rainbow-painted Snoopy I
mean, who would want that besides us, I have no idea, but it s floating
around town somewhere, and we just really want it back.
She doesn t know if the statue meant more than peanuts to whomever
stole it, presumably Tuesday night, but Faeges-Easton said the dog
burglary couldn t have been easy. The perpetrators had to lift the heavy
statue, which was bolted to a wooden palette, over the fence that
surrounds the family s yard on Muirwood Lane.
It was really disappointing. Moving from the big city, you think
nothing like this is going to happen in Green Bay, she said.
Faeges-Easton explained that her family is full of Peanuts lovers.
Her 13-year-old son led a drive at his old elementary school to send
Schulz a get-well card shortly before his death, and the family just
visited the Charles M. Schulz Museum in California last week.
Kevin Easton, whose former company sponsored the Snoopy statue in
2000, got to keep it when the St. Paul project wrapped. Many other
Snoopys, decorated by Twin Cities artists, were auctioned for between
$6,000 and $35,000.
Green Bay police Lt. Bill Galvin said Thursday that he hadn t seen
the police report filed on the Snoopy-napping and didn t know to what
extent police would investigate.
He said anyone who has information on the statue should call Green
Bay police at (920) 448-3200 or Crime Stoppers at (920) 432-7867 to
remain anonymous.
In the meantime, Snoopy s family members are working to get the
word out, adding they won t ask questions if the colorful dog
miraculously returns home.
This thing is hard to hide, so we re trying to get as many eyes out
there (as we can), Faeges-Easton said. It s so absurd. If it didn t mean
a lot to us you know, with sentiment it would be goofy.
Looking for Snoopy
August 29, 2003
By Mick Trevey
Action 2 News, WBAY-TV
Measuring more than five feet tall to his ears, and weighing more
than 250 pounds, it is easily the biggest beagle to ever disappear in
Green Bay. Police are helping in the search for a giant pooch named
Snoopy.
Whether it's his ties to comic strip fame or his fiberglass
physique, Snoopy is in demand. Now his family is moaning "Good Grief!"
after thieves took him away Monday or Tuesday night.
His family wants him to come home.
"I don't know who would even do that, but I'm hoping that we can
find it," Ben Easton said.
The rainbow-hued sculpture came from Minneapolis, where decorated
Snoopys were placed all over the city in memory of Peanuts creator
Charles Schulz.
The price tag on this one-of-a-kind art is $10- to $15,000.
But all that's left at Snoopy's Green Bay home is a giant square
pawprint. The Snoopy statue weighs more than 250 pounds, and to get him
out of the yard required lifting it over a fence, or carrying it across
the yard and through a gate.
"They had to try really hard to get this thing out, so everybody is
really surprised it was taken," said Rose Feagas-Easton.
Without Lucy's big mouth to help, a local Peanuts gang got on their
bicycles to get the word out, distributing flyers.
"We're trying to just let people know, and see if they can find
anything or have any information," Ben said.
Anyone with information on Snoopy's whereabouts can call Green Bay
police or remain anonymous by calling CrimeStoppers at (920) 432-STOP
(432-7867).
"We won't ask any questions. We just want it brought back to us,"
Feagas-Easton said.
For a good man, Bill Melendez, Charlie's still a draw
August 28, 2003
By Verne Gay
Newsday
Today must be a fine, bright day out in Sherman Oaks, California,
and Bill Melendez must be in a fine mood, too. He is sitting at the same
desk he has sat at for years, looking out at a view of the San Fernando
Valley, with rows of eucalyptus and the Santa Monica Mountains beyond.
And, he is still working with the same characters -- arguably the
world's most beloved -- with whom he's spent half a glorious lifetime.
At 87, he's outlived their creator, Charles Schulz (who died in February
2000), co-created one of the finest half hours of television ever ("A
Charlie Brown Christmas") and remains -- with longtime production
partner Lee Mendelson -- steward of the longest-running series in prime
time. You'd be in a fine mood, too.
And tomorrow night, the legacy of Schulz continues -- a legacy
which, in large measure, belongs to Melendez as well. Lucy Must be
Traded Charlie Brown (WABC/7, 9 p.m.) is another gentle variation on the
same good-hearted philosophy that has shaped the 48 other "Charlie
Brown" specials, stretching all the way back to 1965. Directed by
Melendez and Larry Leichliter, the inarguable truth of Lucy It's more
important to be loyal to your dog than to win baseball games.
And while Lucy may be a brand-new half-hour, Charlie Brown is still
very much Charlie Brown. In a roiling ocean of animation dominated by
SpongeBobs and Rugrats, Melendez's Charlie Brown series remains rooted
in TV's deep past. In style, the programs are flat, single-dimensional,
and the pace seems better-suited to post-40-year- olds than to
pre-10-year-olds. They (still) have a jazz soundtrack, written by Vince
Guaraldi and David Benoit. And like all good things, they are rare --
this is only the second in a series for ABC (the previous one, a
Valentine's Day special, aired in 2002). The long-running association
with CBS, which began in 1965 with Christmas, yielded just about one
special per year, too.
What's most remarkable about Lucy is Melendez himself. He is not
only a legendary figure in animation, but also a living link to Schulz.
Born in Sonora, Mexico, Melendez spent the 1940s and '50s working
in animation for Disney and Warner Bros., but began the most important
association of his career when he was at J. Walter Thompson, the ad
agency. While there he met Schulz, who had given Ford the right to use
some Peanuts characters in its commercials. Mendelson later approached
Schulz about an animated special but (as Melendez recalls) was told he'd
have to work with "the crazy Mexican" at Thompson.
Mendelson became the producer, Melendez the animator, and the first
special was sold to CBS. Both the network and creators hated it, as TV
legend has it, but Christmas would emerge a classic, and a perennial
ratings draw.
Melendez, who still speaks of his old friend "Sparky" (Schulz) as
though he were down the hall or in the next room, explains that over the
years, "I would often say, let's do this or that, and he'd say, 'No, no,
no, once you say it to me, I'll never use it. If I'm going to write
these things, don't give me a gag.'" Working without Schulz by his side,
Melendez has had to mine some of the old comic strips for material --
about 1,800 out of a total of about 18,000 dealt with baseball.
"The story is pretty much as fresh as you can get it, [but] we
culled every joke we could from the strip [even though] the situations
are very different from the strip. ... I refuse to take Sparky's place
and I won't let anyone else do it, either. That's the one thing I owe
him."
Mendelson, who says work began on Lucy three years ago, explains
that the momentous move from CBS to ABC more than a year ago was not
rancorous. "No one got mad at anybody else, and in our business, that's
strange, [but] it was a business decision.... ABC made just an
unbelievable offer, and not just for the old shows, but for new ones."
Under the terms of the five-year deal, ABC will air the three
evergreen classics (Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving) and new
specials -- the next an hourlong program called "I Want a Dog for
Christmas, Charlie Brown." Which, incidentally, Melendez is at work on
right at this moment.
"I'm very happy at my desk," he says. "It's just great. You know,
if I weren't coming here every day to my desk, I'd be dead. Some people
want to retire, but I say, 'You want to retire from what to what? What
are you going to do then?' I'm never going to retire. If they wanted me
to work 24 hours a day, I would."
Gene Therapy The grief has been good for this Charlie Brown
August 15, 2003
By Gene Collier
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
I phoned Mozart again yesterday. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He's in
the book. With his first name misspelled "Wolfgand." Honest to God.
There was no answer, as usual. I guess he's always in the shower
when I call.
Then I went out to interview Charlie Brown.
Stay with me.
As far as I know, the contemporary Mozart is just a phone number,
but Charlie Brown is real. So real it's ridiculous.
"I've learned to kind of just roll with it," he said. "The name
kind of fits me. It's crossed my mind hundreds of times to just use
Charles Brown, but I think it would take away from who I am."
Charlie Brown is a lawyer with Dickie, McCamey & Chilcote Downtown.
You just knew he would make something of himself. Poetic justice.
Somewhere, Lucy Van Pelt is probably a crack whore, but that's another
column. Charlie Brown also is the brother of Pirates broadcaster Greg
Brown, and of five other siblings.
Once, I asked his sister, the lovely Kate, if her brother Charlie
had, you know, suffered for it. Lugging the name of the world's most
famously hapless cartoon character through a lifetime has to come with
some discomfort, no?
"Suffered from it?" she laughed. "He's probably profited from it;
it's sickening. Most people, you'd think, with that name, they'd be in
an institution. But not him. I don't think he's ever intended to use it
to his advantage, but it's worked for him."
Kate knows a guy named Charles Schultz. She once said to him, "Hey,
I should introduce you to my brother, Charlie Brown."
He thought she was a wiseass.
We bring all this up because Sunday is Charlie Brown Bobblehead Day
at the Pirates game, which I first noted in a March column detailing the
annual onslaught of endless Pirates promotions, with Charlie Brown
Bobblehead Day falling somewhere between, I think, Superficial Head
Wound Night and Just Watch the Damn Game Night.
Anyway, kids will get a free bobblehead depicting the Peanuts
character who has dogged Charlie Brown all his 42 years, and the lawyer
thinks he should at least get to throw out the first pitch. No one else
seems to think so. Is that perfect? Maybe they're afraid someone will
line it back through the box and his shoes and socks will fly off.
I'm sorry. This is too easy.
Charlie Brown was born in Bethesda, Md., in 1955, which, by his
research, was three years after Schultz invented the
borderline-grotesque round-headed kid and four years before the Coasters
hit the pop charts with "Charlie Brown (He's a clown)"
"From 1955 until 1959, life was great," he said.
His parents were essentially off the hook, because even though the
cartoon character predated their Charlie by three years, the popularity
of the comic strip hadn't yet exploded. They're not sadists, but they
did move the whole family to Mechanicsburg for Charlie's eighth-grade
year, and he has had a hard time forgetting that first day of school at
Good Shepherd.
"I didn't sleep for a week before that first day. The nun makes the
whole class stand up and introduce themselves. I was trying to get to
the back of the room but some son of a bitch is pushing me forward.
Finally it's my turn and I mumble my name. The nun says, 'What?" I say
it again. The whole class laughs. The nun laughs."
Uh-huh. That was 1963; it was the first time a nun actually laughed
in school since V-E Day.
But Charlie got through it, just as he got through the reliable
trouble he got into with and without the help of his name.
"When we moved to Mechanicsburg we had a big open field behind the
house, and sometimes my friend and I would shoot shotguns out there," he
said. "Once we shot a bird and it fell out of a tree, so we go over and
look at it and it's a real pretty bird with some orange feathers. I call
up to the house to Greg to get the encyclopedia, volume B, and he comes
runnin' down there. We're lookin' at the pictures when up walks a game
warden. He says, 'Whad'ya got there, boys?' "
Good grief.
"Turns out it's a Baltimore oriole. He tells us that shooting this
bird brings a substantial fine, because it's protected. He asks my
friend his name. 'Mike Buckius,' Mike says. Then the guys turns to me.
What's your name? 'Charlie Brown.'
" 'What did you say, son,' he says."
" 'Charlie Brown.'"
"Then he says, 'I'm going to give you one more chance, son.'
"So I turn to Greg. 'Tell him,' I say.
"Greg, give me this one."
And he shrugs, palms up.
"Thanks a lot."
Charlie Brown survived the Game Commission and went on to become a
pretty accomplished athlete, playing basketball at Franklin and
Marshall.
"We went up to play Dickinson; we hated them," he said. "The place
was packed. I was terrible. A couple of airballs. Maybe two points. Last
possession, Dickinson has it, I'm guarding this guy and they clear out
for him. He turns and shoots, nothing but net. Dickinson wins. I go down
to the locker room, and I don't know who did it, or how they did it, but
there's a sign on my locker. 'You're a good man, Charlie Brown.' "
It could have been worse. He could have been a place-kicker.
"I used to read the comic strip, and watch all of the TV specials,"
he said. "You know, I can sympathize with the guy. That Christmas tree?
Could have been me. I know I could go out and buy one, bring it home and
everyone else would say, 'What the hell is this?'"
I told Charlie back in March I might interview him around Charlie
Brown Bobblehead Day. He was pumped. I mean Great Pumpkin pumped.
"Well," he said, "I hope I didn't let you down."
Oh, don't be a blockhe ... never mind.
Wrap-up Linus events includes 'party in the park'
August 13, 2003
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Today marks the completion of our Linus collector card series, but
the "Linus Blankets St. Paul" celebration itself continues through Sept.
21.
That's when about 40 statues will be auctioned at Landmark Plaza,
Fifth and Market streets, in downtown St. Paul.
The next big Linus event is the Minnesota State Fair, which will
feature 18 statues during its 12-day run from Aug. 21 to Sept. 1. The
Fair will celebrate Wednesday, Aug. 27, as "Linus Blankets St. Paul
Day."
After the Fair, all of the statues will be moved to downtown St.
Paul for a "party in the park," with special family events on the day of
the auction.
Three bronze sculptures of "Peanuts" characters will be unveiled at
the party and will have a permanent home in Landmark Plaza as a tribute
to cartoonist Charles Schulz, who grew up in St. Paul.
For more information on Linus events and auction details, call
(651) 291-5608 or visit www.ilovestpaul.com.
Happiness is Broken teeth, broken bones
July 18, 2003
By Chris Coursey
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat
On a sizzling July afternoon, you can see your breath inside the
Redwood Empire Ice Arena.
It comes out in great white puffs, particularly if you're Raul
Diez, you're 78 years old, you're wearing 20 pounds of hockey gear and
you're chasing a Japanese forward across the blue line toward your own
goal.
The puck slides through the crease. A whistle blows. Steel blades
scrape across the frozen surface.
Puff, puff, puff, say the players, ephemeral white clouds following
them as they glide across the ice with their hands on their knees.
"It's always tough when you lose," says Diez, a former shop teacher
who took up hockey in his 40s. "I can hear Sparky somewhere up there
right now He's saying, 'Good grief! What happened?'"
"Sparky," of course, is Charles Schulz, who began this Senior World
Hockey Tournament 29 years ago. The cartoonist is gone now, but his
spirit hovers over the rink that he built and the team that he played on
until his death in 2000 at age 77.
The Santa Rosa Diamond Icers have lost, 6-1, to the Mandai
Memorials. Diez doesn't make excuses as he unlaces his skates, but he
and his fellow Icers have a good one. Almost every one of the Santa Rosa
skaters is in his mid-70s or older, while a half-dozen of the Memorials
are well short of that mark. The "youngsters" spend most of the game
camped out in front of Icers goalie Dick Wolff, pounding the puck at his
net.
The Memorials, who come from Japan to compete in the annual Senior
World Hockey Tournament, get a "special dispensation" because they can't
fill a full squad of 75-year-olds, says Icer Hugh Lockhart, who is 80.
"It doesn't matter," Lockhart says. "We're all out there having
fun."
His wide smile backs up his statement, but also reveals hockey's
brutal side. You can't keep a full set of teeth in this sport, unless
you keep them in your medicine cabinet.
That's what makes these super-senior players so remarkable. After
60 or 70 years of slamming into the ice and the boards and one another,
they still have hips and knees enough to get out there and play another
game.
"He's been through the broken leg and the broken ribs and the
broken teeth," says Sally Graham, whose husband, Jim Graham, 74, is an
Icer. "But he's happy!"
Fifty-five teams of happy skaters are here this week, competing in
seven divisions that begin with players older than 40. Most are from
California, but there's a large contingent from Canada, several teams
from Michigan, New York and seven other states, and a team each from
Austria and Japan.
Former NHL and college players pepper the ranks, but it is the old
guys who are the real stars.
"C'mon, Grandpa!" shouts 9-year-old Jeremy Figueira as Graham
battles for the puck. "Let's go, Number 14 -- you can do better than
that!"
Graham skates over at the end of the second period and reports to
his family "I'm wearing down."
So are his teammates. A game that is a very competitive 2-1 after
two periods falls apart in the third, when the Memorials score four
goals.
But there's no quit in these aged jocks. Diez is still hopping over
the boards like a teenager when it's time for his shift. Wolff is
flopping all over the ice to block a barrage of shots. Skippy Baxter, at
83 the oldest man on the ice, takes a puck to the face but keeps on
skating.
"I'm not a hockey player, I just wear the costume," says Baxter,
the rink pro who is a member of the Figure Skating Hall of Fame.
But he's too modest. These guys may be a few steps slower than they
once were; it may take them awhile to get up when they get knocked down.
But if their skills aren't as sharp, their skates are. The puck is still
hard, the sticks are still hard and the ice certainly is still hard.
They're players. Check them out for free today or tomorrow at the
arena. Bring a sweater.
Comic biz isn't 'Peanuts' for Scripps
Newspaper strips bring steady revenue
August 2, 2003
By David B. Wilkerson
CBS.MarketWatch.com
SAN FRANCISCO — Ask any newspaper editor what gets the angriest
response from readers, and you're very likely to hear "Changes to the
comics page" and "Comics that have offended someone."
It's a tribute to the lasting appeal of newspaper comic strips,
even in a digital era.
"Traditionally comic strips really become a part of people's
families," says Jenny Dietzen, curator of the Cartoon Art Museum in San
Francisco. "I mean, they wake up every morning, and they see the same
characters, and they count on the fact that the strip is going to be
there every day. It's like a friend. And I think people respond to
that."
It's an appeal that translates into a steady revenue stream for
companies like United Media, a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based E.W.
Scripps Company.
"Comics make an emotional connection with a consumer, whereas a
text article makes an intellectual connection with them," said Doug
Stern, chief executive of New York-based United Media. "So they have a
very special value."
And United Media has significant value to Scripps, "especially as
they continue to develop more of their own intellectual property that's
capable of being licensed and syndicated," says Tom Russo, a partner at
Gardner, Russo and Gardner. The firm owns more than 1 million shares of
Scripps.
Newspapers typically pay a weekly fee to run United Media features,
which also include "Dilbert," "The Born Loser," "Marmaduke," "Herman,"
"For Better or For Worse" and dozens of other comics, as well as columns
by such writers as Jack Anderson, Tina Brown, Cokie and Steve Roberts,
Morton Kondracke and Joan Ryan.
The company also runs a Web site, www.comics.com/Comics.com, that
has extensive archives of its strips and those of rival Creators
Syndicate, under an agreement between the two entities.
Comics.com lets readers buy merchandise customized with their
favorite strips or characters. And newspapers, which increasingly want
to buy strips that will appeal to a specific demographic group, can get
a demographic breakdown of all the comics in the United Media stable.
'Peanuts'
Of United Media's $89.5 million in 2002 revenue, about two-thirds
comes from "Peanuts," arguably the greatest strip in the history of the
newspaper comic page.
Images of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the other Charles Schulz
characters have been featured in animated specials and countless books
and have been tied into seemingly every consumer product of the last
half century. Syndicated by the company's United Features Syndicate
since 1950, "Peanuts" has lost virtually no momentum since Schulz died
in February 2000. Schulz and his family decided the strip would not
continue after his passing, so reprints now appear under the "Peanuts
Classics" title.
Stern says the business is consistent because of the characters'
timeless appeal, and because United Media makes sure to spread its
licensing opportunities among a diverse group of products and services —
clothes, watches, keychains, mouse pads, insurance companies, school
supplies and more.
"For instance, apparel is doing very well now, and we expect it to
do well certainly into the next quarter," Stern said. "... We work to be
related to a number of different categories, so when they go through the
cyclicality, if something is on the downtrend, there's something on the
uptrend compensating for that."
Though United Media's revenue from distributing comics and features
fell to $21.5 million in 2001 from $23.6 million in 2000, Stern says
very few papers pushed for a lower fee to run reprints of "Peanuts"
after Schulz passed away.
"There have been some slight adjustments, but overall the business
has remained strikingly strong, both in terms of newspapers and in terms
of licensing, which is growing," he said. "We're still in at least 90
percent of the papers we were in before.
"I think that with Schulz' work, which obviously spans 50 years,
that the range of issues and emotions that he covered was so vast — and
of course they never change — so that unlike most bodies of work, it
stays relevant. We believe it will stay relevant for many years into the
future, and the data supports that now."
United Media has been able to grow "Peanuts"" licensing dollars by
launching successful product tie-ins in mainland China, Stern said. The
brand continues to sell extremely well in entrenched markets like the
United States and Japan.
