A permanent bronze statue of Lucy and Schroeder was one of three large pieces unveiled Sunday afternoon, September 21, 2003, outside of the Landmark Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.
(Photo by Scott Cohen/The St. Paul Pioneer Press/The Associated Press)
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’ Will it ever be time to say goodbye?
October 28, 2004
By Korry Keeker
The Juneau (Alaska) Empire
Ever since I learned to read by poring through the pages of the Chicago Tribune, I’ve been able to depend on newspapers for at least three things
One, there’s a banner on the cover that tells me what I’m reading. Two, there’s a page number and a date in the corner of every page to remind me I’m not holding yesterday’s news. Three, "Peanuts" is somewhere, if not at the top, of the comics page.
Thirteen years ago, at my first journalism job, I found a camera-ready, press-copy of an animated still from A Charlie Brown Christmas. I’ve kept it hanging above my desk for every job I’ve had since then. So you could say that I’m a big fan.
But surprisingly, maybe just to me, the sentiment is not shared by everyone in this newsroom. Sadly, I walk among ghouls, dead to the world and its many foibles embodied by a blockhead and his beagle.
Long story short If you love your comics, and you haven’t seen our reader’s comics survey, you need to start paying attention. The print future of "Peanuts" and "Alley Oop" in Juneau may hang in the balance.
Those of you who are counting know it’s been four years, eight months and two weeks since the final original Sunday "Peanuts" strip appeared, the day after creator Charles Schulz died from colon cancer.
According to an article in Brandweek, and information from United Media, at least 2,460 of the 2,600 newspapers that ran Peanuts in 1999 were still publishing "Classic Peanuts" a year later.
The Idaho Statesman in Boise was one of those 140 papers that decided against re-runs. At the time, then-features editor Vickie Ashwill predicted the paper would receive fewer than 30 complaints. It turns out the Statesman received slightly more than 30, but still fewer than when they changed their television guide and dropped their bridge column to three days a week.
"We canceled Peanuts simply because Charles Schulz had died, and it was a moment where we could choose between running old Peanuts comics or adding a new comic to our limited space that might appeal to different audiences," said Ashwill, now the news editor, by e-mail.
"I am glad that we made the choice to drop it then instead of having to deal with it now," she said. "At some point, Peanuts was to be destined for the archives and books, where it can be appreciated in the historical perspective of Charles Schulz’s life."
When is the right time? Ashwill was blunt. Some others were savage. I wrote Gene Weingarten, a long-time humorist at the Washington Post. His fine column, "Below the Beltway," often covers comics. The Post still runs Peanuts, to his chagrin.
"You won’t like my answer, but it is heartfelt," he told me. "The right time to drop ‘Peanuts’ was the day that Schulz died. I am not a fan of running repeats. And if I were, I’d be running old ‘Calvin and Hobbeses’, and ‘Far Sides,’ not re-running the last 10 years of a strip that hadn’t been really good since the 1970s."
Answers like these are why the cruel winds know my tears, as I sit and stare, reaching, grasping, for anything, nothing.
I assumed, too, that "Peanuts" was well-known around the world. Not so. I wrote to my colleague Alexenia Dimitrova, an excellent investigative journalist at the 24 Hours Daily in Sofia, Bulgaria. We had communicated a few times before.
"No, ‘Peanuts’ is not well known in Bulgaria," she responded. "People here are not very keen on comics. ... I will ask my daughter who is 11 years old - probably she knows better than me this kind of industry."
This September in Ashland, Ore., there was some heartening news. "The Daily Tidings" asked its readers if it could drop "Peanuts." The response was deafening. The editors backed off. They locked the door.
"We wanted to drop it because it’s the most costly comic on our page and it is, in fact, a continual re-run," managing editor Andrew Scot Bolsinger told me. "That said, it represents a certain slice of Americana for some readers, especially older readers who already feel alienated from the newspaper’s many changes. In the long run, we felt it worth the expense, knowing that sooner or later, it’s time will come."
Did you know that Charlie Brown is falling out of favor all over Southeast Alaska? Lucy Van Pelt ... I mean ... the Sitka Sentinel, pulled away the football. But it still runs "Sally Forth." The Wrangell Sentinel eschews Snoopy for five comics including "Henry," who looks like 40 percent of the dudes I went to junior high with.
What if the Empire followed suit? The decision would leave, gasp, Ketchikan, with it’s lovable "Daily News," as one of the few sane communities for miles. The men and women of fair Revillagigedo also have a 24-hour diner and a pulled-beef smokehouse, two more things Juneau should have.
Please, Juneau. Be like Ketchikan. Have a heart.
Museum salutes gentle humor of Peanuts creator
October 24, 2004
By Mike Pramik
The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch
SANTA ROSA - In a Peanuts comic strip from the mid-’60s, Snoopy wanders across the French countryside after being shot down by the Red Baron.
The World War I flying ace enters a farmhouse and, seated at a candlelit table, says wistfully to a mademoiselle
"Soup? Ah, Yes. A little potato soup, and I will be on my way."
A traveler feels that same contentment upon discovering the Charles M. Schulz Museum & Research Center in the Sonoma wine region.
Devoted to the creator of the ever-popular Peanuts strip, the museum is warm and satisfying without being garish or self-serving. The collection offers an intriguing look into the artistry of one of the world’s greatest cartoonists.
The museum is subtle, like Linus’ philosophical musings. It has some color and splash, like Snoopy. It’s a little bit loud, like Lucy. But overall, it’s as unassuming as Charlie Brown, Schulz’s alter ego.
The museum celebrates Schulz’s ability as much as his popularity. You’ll find the requisite gift shop, funny statues of the Peanuts gang outside, even Charlie Brown’s dreaded kite-eating tree (a real sycamore in an outdoor plaza with a kite stuck in its branches).
The collection rises above a trove of memorabilia. The artist’s work and technique are celebrated, and the art of cartooning is preserved and taught.
"The core of this museum was intended to be the comic strip," said Jean Schulz, who was married to the cartoonist for 26 years before his death in 2000.
Charles Schulz, the Minnesota native who moved to this northern California city in the 1960s, drew Peanuts uninterrupted for 50 years. The two-story museum illustrates the history of the strip while providing clues to where Schulz (known as "Sparky" at home) found his inspiration.
The main attraction is a rotating collection of original Peanuts strips. The museum has 8,000 of them, which Schulz drew several times larger than they appeared in print. About 80 are on display at a time, grouped around themes such as art and literature.
Mrs. Schulz, who preserves her husband’s legacy at the museum, said amassing the strips was difficult.
"They weren’t saved at all until the ’70s," she said. "The only strips that were saved were ones people pulled out of the garbage. It’s a shame, but who knew?"
Accompanying the original artwork are rotating exhibits, including the recent "Mad About Peanuts," a look at Mad magazine’s Peanuts parodies.
It will be replaced in November by "Found in Translation," an exhibit of ink paintings by Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani. The artwork, drawn on handmade paper, incorporates Peanuts characters. For instance, one drawing depicts Lucy floating on top of a vertical brush stroke while blowing a bubble.
Otani has two works permanently displayed in the museum. One is a wooden bas-relief hanging that illustrates Snoopy’s changing personas. The other is a stunning wall-size montage composed of 10 years’ worth of Peanuts strips in black-and-white ceramic. From afar, they appear to depict Charlie Brown running to kick a football that Lucy is holding. The piece is reminiscent of the photograph collage depicting Albert Einstein at COSI Columbus.
Along with those pieces, the first floor has a 100-seat theater where Peanuts cartoons, interviews with Schulz and other selections are shown.
Upstairs, the museum offers insights into Schulz’s work and space for cartooning fun.
A research center contains his business and personal papers, the original strips and drawings, a collection of Peanuts books in several languages, photographs and other data.
Workshops on cartooning are frequently conducted in a nearby room. On a recent summer day, Herb and Jamaal cartoonist Stephen Bentley taught children his techniques.
Around the corner, a room depicts a timeline of Schulz’s career, with some memorabilia marking the highlights. One is a bedroom wall that Schulz painted for his daughter Meredith in the 1950s. A picture of Snoopy is on the wall, as well as examples of a few other Peanuts characters.
The most eccentric piece in the museum also is upstairs a doghouse wrapped in tarpaulin, polyethylene and ropes. It was done by the Bulgarian artist Christo, who once surrounded 11 islands in Florida’s Biscayne Bay with hot-pink fabric.
The museum also has a reproduction of Schulz’s studio, where he drew the comic strip from 1972 until his death.
That’s why the museum is in Santa Rosa, Mrs. Schulz said, although other locations made offers.
"Pairing it up with a winery would have been pointless," she said. "It would have taken the heart out of it.
"If we were in downtown San Francisco we might get more visitors, but it was important to be where the area reflected Sparky."
The museum is indeed tucked away, off of a commercial boulevard. It’s across the street from the Redwood Empire Ice Arena, which Schulz built in 1969. (Open skating for adults costs less than $10, and it is cheaper for children, skates included). The place resembles a Swiss chalet. Inside are small trees and murals of Switzerland.
Schulz often began his workdays with breakfast at the Warm Puppy Cafe in the ice rink before heading to his studio.
Museum visitors can examine the desk and tools Schulz used and scan the titles in his library.
There are several books about golf, and novels such as Ethan Frome and War and Peace, which he mentioned in the strips from time to time.
Mrs. Schulz says her husband often used the books as inspiration. Other times, though, he found it by just doodling while dining at the ice rink.
"Sometimes he would just play with an idea, like how funny it would look if something happened," she said. "He loved Charlie Brown flying off the mound with all his clothes flying.
"He drew so quickly that you just never knew how much he was putting into it or taking out of it. Whenever he drew a smile, he was thinking smile. When he drew hair, he was feeling Linus’ hair."
It’s all about canines Sunday during Snoopy’s Dog Fest
October 8, 2004
By April Wilkerson
The Shawnee [Oklahoma] News-Star
Dog owners often like nothing better than an outing with their
furry pals and a chance to socialize with others doing the same.
On Sunday afternoon, an inaugural Shawnee event will combine the
best of everything for dog lovers, plus serve as a fund-raiser.
The first Snoopy’s Dog Fest will be held 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at
the Shawnee Airport walk/jog trail, originating at the Japanese Peace
Garden near Independence and Airport Road. The event is an awareness
tool and fund-raiser for Canine Companions for Independence (CCI), an
organization that provides highly trained service dogs to people with
disabilities.
The local organizer of the event is Shawnee resident Dawn Ramsey,
who is aided by her service dog, Nero.
"I want people to come out and enjoy themselves and see what
service dogs can do," Ramsey said. "They’re not just pets anymore. It’s
an opportunity to see working dogs and puppies in training."
Snoopy’s Dog Fest will feature a variety of activities for both
two-legged and four-legged creatures. The trail will be marked at one,
two and three miles, and the public is invited to make a donation of any
size to CCI and make the walk. Each walker will receive a goodie bag
filled with information about CCI, dog toys, treats and more.
There also will be contests for Best Dog Costume, Best Dog/Owner
Look-a-like, and Dog/Owner Costume Combo. Plaques will be awarded to
winners in each category. Rowdy RedHawk, the mascot of the Oklahoma
RedHawks, plans an appearance a little after 1 p.m., and there will be a
socialization park and adoptable animals from Best Friends Pet Clinic.
Local businesses have donated prizes to be given away, including
movie passes, restaurant gift certificates, savings bond, and the grand
prize, a DVD/CD player.
The Shawnee Jaycees will cook hot dogs for a picnic following the
walk. Ramsey will talk about CCI, and she and Nero will give a
demonstration on the capabilities of service dogs. Nero, a lab-golden
retriever mix, is a hearing service dog who alerts Ramsey to sounds she
may not hear. But he’s also cross-trained to help Ramsey with things she
cannot do because she is in a wheelchair. Nero can pick up items, hit
elevator buttons and many other tasks.
Ramsey said she hopes Snoopy’s Dog Fest lets people see firsthand
how important service dogs are to people with disabilities, whether
they’re inside their own home or in a public place like a restaurant or
shopping mall.
But she also hopes to introduce people to the joy, and challenge,
of raising puppies to be CCI dogs. Families raise puppies, often labs,
golden retrievers or mixes of the two, from 6-8 weeks old to 11-14
months.
"It’s an investment of your time and money, and a change of
lifestyle because you have the puppy with you constantly," she said.
"But it’s a heartwarming experience for the entire family, especially
when the dog moves on to the training it will need to be put into
service."
Puppy raisers are responsible for the socialization of the dog,
teaching it basic commands, house etiquette, and some skills required by
CCI, such as shaking hands. That will later be transformed into turning
a light switch off and on, Ramsey said.
"They are putting the building blocks in place so the dog can
continue climbing the ladder," she said. "It can be compared to children
in school. They start in kindergarten learning simple things that
eventually turn into trigonometry and astronomy."
Several sponsors are making Snoopy’s Dog Fest possible, including
Dogwood Veterinary Clinic, Shawnee Trophy Co., City of Shawnee, FireLake
Discount Foods and Heartland Champions.
‘Snoopy’ saves the day from burglary
October 8, 2004
By Steve Nash
The Brownwood [Texas] Bulletin
A dog named Snoopy apparently helped interrupt a burglary Tuesday
morning in the 1400 block of Avenue B, according to a police report.
A man told police he was in his front yard when he saw his
mother-in-law’s dog, Snoopy, walking toward him. He thought the dog had
gotten loose and walked him back to his mother-in-law’s house a few
houses away. The mother-in-law was not home.
As the man opened the front door to put the dog back inside, he
heard the back door open. He ran to the kitchen and saw what appeared to
be a flash of blond hair on a person running out the back door. The man
yelled for his wife to call 9-1-1, then saw a bicycle, which he believed
to have belonged to the intruder, lying near the back door.
Throughout the home, several cabinet doors were open and their
contents were disturbed, and items had been taken out of a bedroom chest
and placed on the floor. A jewelry box and a file box were empty.
Police took the bicycle as evidence, but no arrests had been made
as of Wednesday.
FunMail Announces Peanuts Comics for the First Time on Mobile
Phones
Mobile Subscribers Can Now Hang Out with the Charlie Brown and the
Peanuts Gang Wherever They and Their Phone Go!
October 7, 2004
PRNewswire
PLEASANTON -- FunMail and United Media just completed a licensing
deal for FunMail to produce and distribute Peanuts, one of the most
successful and beloved comic strips of all time, for long-time and new
fans who are on the go. Charles Schulz’s wonderful characters including
Snoopy, are now appearing daily in brilliant color on mobile handset
services through the latest offering from FunMail’s Mobile Comics
Network (MCN) Peanuts Mobile Comics.
Charles Schulz’s Peanuts are syndicated to over 2400 newspapers
worldwide. FunMail’s Peanuts Comics are a "best of" anthology that you
lets you download a new one each day to make you smile and chuckle along
with rest of Charlie Brown’s gang. Mobile consumers can access this fun
entertainment for a monthly subscription fee that gives them unlimited
viewing.
FunMail’s Peanuts Comics lets mobile subscribers easily and quickly
download an application to a handset that lets them view the daily comic
by scrolling each successive frame horizontally on the handset screen.
Peanuts Comics are perfectly sized and formatted for each screen size
and resolution for most of today’s popular mobile devices. Interested
parties should visit www.funmail.com for more information.
"Color mobile phones have elevated the entertainment potential for
this rapidly growing medium, especially for the critically important
16-35-year-old demographic," said FunMail CEO Adam Lavine. "Now instead
of tracking down the ever elusive passed-around newspaper in their
household, mobile consumers can instead spend a fun moment with their
favorite Peanuts characters every single day wherever and whenever they
choose."
FunMail’s Mobile Comics Network (MCN) has licensed some of the best
comic properties in circulation and distributes them on major U.S.
carriers including Verizon Wireless, Sprint PCS, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile
and Cingular Wireless. Interested content publishers and carriers should
contact bizdev@funmail.com for more information or call 925 250 2442.
Please visit www.funmail.com for more information.
"It’s Your Town, Charlie Brown!"
Santa Rosa’s Launches New Tribute to Charles M. Schulz
October 2, 2004
City of Santa Rosa press release
What would drive Lucy crazier -- watching Charlie Brown catch a
football or seeing fifty-five statues of Charlie Brown all over Santa
Rosa? Fifty-five Charlie Browns, no doubt, each uniquely painted, by
some of Sonoma County’s finest artists.
The City of Santa Rosa, in collaboration with TivoliToo Design &
Sculpting Studios and the family of Charles Schulz, presents "It’s Your
Town, Charlie Brown," Santa Rosa’s tribute to Charles M. Schulz.
Santa Rosa was a major part in the life of Charles Schulz. After
coming to the area in 1958, he spent 42 out of his 50 years writing his
Peanuts comic strips in Santa Rosa.
The City of Santa Rosa is proud to recognize Schulz’s work and
community contributions with "It’s Your Town, Charlie Brown," Santa
Rosa’s tribute to Charles M. Schulz.
In the summer of 2005, fifty-five Charlie Brown statues will be
placed around the city for the public to view and celebrate the
fifty-five year anniversary of the Charles M. Schulz’s beloved Peanuts
comic strip. Each statue will be uniquely painted by local artists who
are sponsored by supporting businesses in the community. People of all
ages can participate and enjoy this event, from watching the painting of
the statues to looking around town for the colorful Charlie Browns.
An auction will be held on October 2, 2005, in which these statues
will be available for purchase. The funds raised from this event will go
towards local artist scholarships and it is anticipated that enough
money will be raised to place permanent pieces at the Charles M. Schulz
Airport in Santa Rosa.
Visit www.PeanutsOnParade.com/SantaRosa for more information.
Peanuts earn a place through sheer persistence
September 21, 2004
By Laura Billings
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s statue in Rice Park has a Mona Lisa smile
that can surprise you depending on when you walk by him. Pass him on an
overcast winter day and his face has a "so we beat on" sort of
resignation to it. See him on a sunny spring day near the hot dog vendor
and his face is full of wry hopefulness.
When I ran into him yesterday, he seemed bemused but welcoming as
he looked toward his two new neighbors -- a bronze sculpture of
Peppermint Patty kicking a football, and another of that bespectacled
Marcie, reading a book on the bench, while Woodstock reads over her
shoulder.
These two bronze sculptures, which join three others installed in
Landmark Plaza last year, were paid for by the proceeds of all of those
plastic Peanuts sculptures St. Paul has had on parade here since the
passing of the late, great cartoonist Charles Schulz.
Some critics -- myself included -- have wondered why we dedicated
so much civic effort to the memory of a man who, like Fitzgerald before
him, couldn’t get out of St. Paul fast enough. (After leaving in 1952,
he visited exactly twice.) But over the course of five summers, and some
500 statues, even the most snarling critics have to admit that the
Peanuts gang has started to looked very much at home here.
Regular readers of this column know that I’ve been on the wrong
side of Snoopy since he was first unleashed in 2000. After I bared my
teeth by questioning the essential cuteness of the statues, many readers
-- most of them grandmothers -- wrote to say I was a nasty breed indeed.
Though I did my time in the doghouse, volunteering at the information
booth outside the Science Museum, I still couldn’t understand what all
those visitors with their Polaroid cameras saw in him.
Readers continued to complain of my intense anti-Peanuts bias when
Charlie Brown came to town, and again when the Lucy statues hit a low
point in crass commercialism. (Remember the whimsy and wonder of "Let’s
Hang Dry Wall Lucy" and "Leasing Agent Lucy"? Probably not. There was
none.)
Some wondered why I was softer on Linus when he and his security
blanket spread across St. Paul last summer. (Why pick on a kid who
already sucks his thumb?) And some readers demanded to know why I said
nothing at all about the doghouses on display this summer. The answer
was that they’ve become so ubiquitous, I’d hardly noticed them. And when
I did stumble into one, I had to admit they were kind of cute. (Personal
favorite the "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" doghouse, held up by
books written by Eudora Sheltie, St. Bernard Shaw and Zane Greyhound.)
After all, the Peanuts on Parade have proven there’s a large and
appreciative audience for public art, and in a state that prides itself
on crop art, Bunyans and butter heads, the more whimsical, the better.
Hopefully, St. Paul’s promoters will hit on something just as fetching
as Snoopy statues in the years to come.
At the dedication ceremony on Sunday for the new Rice Park
sculptures, there was some talk about whether Peppermint Patty and
Marcie, both baby boomers, have the gravitas to stand in a park with
such historical significance. Of course they do. Whether you like the
Peanuts or not, the last five years of parading have cemented them into
St. Paul’s story.
As for the critics who say cartoon characters don’t belong in
bronze, stop by the new installations and see for yourself if you can
read the expression of Marcie, as she reads her book on the bench.
Like her more literary neighbor Scotty, she’s more Mona Lisa-esque
than you might imagine.
Fair sculptor reworks creations
September 21, 2004
By Katie Menzer
The Dallas Morning News
The life of a butter sculptor is rarely set in stone.
New York artist Sharon BuMann discovered that harsh reality
Saturday night when she realized the sculpture she had been carving the
last week for the State Fair of Texas violated copyright laws.
She’s now working day and night to transform her butter version of
Snoopy into a cat and Charlie Brown into a ghost before the fair opens
Friday.
"There’ll be a few all-nighters," said Ms. BuMann, who has been
carving in butter for a decade.
She had designed the sculpture as a Howdy Doody character carving a
giant pumpkin. After donning her winter jacket, ski cap and gloves early
last week to begin sculpting in the fair’s refrigerated display case,
she decided a depiction of Charles Schulz’s It’s the Great Pumpkin,
Charlie Brown would make a better butter sculpture.
It wasn’t until about 10 o’clock Saturday night that she realized
her contract with the State Fair specified she could not use copyrighted
characters.
And she knows which side her bread is buttered on.
"I didn’t want the State Fair to get in trouble, of course," she
said.
So, the giant pumpkin stays, but a child in an artist’s costume
will be the carver. Alongside the pumpkin will be ghosts, mice, a cat, a
skunk and a crow. "To change canoes in midstream is very frustrating,"
Ms. BuMann said.
"But now it’s an original design. I really like it."
The sculpture will be displayed in the Creative Arts building.
Snoopy no longer in the doghouse
Statue from final tribute goes for $22,000 at auction
September 20, 2004
By Martin J. Moylan
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Good Grief! Twenty-two thousand dollars for a doghouse?
But it has Snoopy on it. And it’s by Tom Everhart. He’s the sole
artist licensed to depict the characters that his late friend Charles
Schulz made famous, explains Linda Shefner-Holden of Miami, Fla.
Shefner-Holden’s was the highest bid during Sunday’s auction of 25
statues of a daydreaming Snoopy with his friend Woodstock perched on his
bulbous belly.
The auction, capping off the fifth and final summerlong statue
tribute to St. Paul native son and "Peanuts" creator, Schulz, drew 82
bidders to Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul. Another 50 bid live via
the Internet.
The doghouses fetched $235,450. The lowest bid was $5,500; the
average, $9,418.
This was the fourth Everhart "Peanuts" statue Shefner-Holden has
snagged. She has Lucy, Linus and the first one of Snoopy. The three
figures cost her about $40,000. She missed getting Charlie Brown in
2001.
"Sotheby’s brought in a customer who outbid me by $31,000," she
recalls. "I was very upset. I’m working on finding that guy to get it
back."
The take from this year’s auction reversed a three-year slide. In
2000, 61 statues fetched $1,041,500; 63 brought in $459,000 in 2001; 56,
$232,000 in 2002; and 40, $153,000 in 2003.
"There was excitement and energy for this last auction," said
auctioneer Kurt Johnson, who tossed boxes of "Peanuts" cookies to folks
responding to his pitches to take bids higher. "Some might say it’s
because of the characters — Snoopy, Woodstock — and the doghouse."
Auction proceeds benefit the Charles M. Schulz Fund. It was
established to create and maintain permanent bronze sculptures of the
"Peanuts" crew and fund scholarships for artists and emerging
cartoonists.
Schulz drew "Peanuts" for 50 years, retiring in 1999. He passed
away in February of 2000. At the peak of its popularity, "Peanuts" could
claim 355 million readers.
The auction was not the only big "Peanuts" event in St. Paul on
Sunday.
Some 5,000 folks attended a Rice Park party that marked the final
statue promotion with games, food, music and entertainment.
Schulz family members were on hand before the auction for the
unveiling of a fourth bronze statue of "Peanuts" characters. This one,
featuring Marcie, Peppermint Patty and Woodstock, is in Rice Park.
Last year, three bronze "Peanuts" vignettes were unveiled in nearby
Landmark Plaza.
Sponsors of this year’s edition of "Peanuts" statues will retain 79
of them. Typically, a greater percentage of sponsors let their statues
go to auction.
"But this is a great design, and it’s two characters Snoopy and
Woodstock," said Sue Gonsior, communications director of the Capital
City Partnership, one of the organizations behind the city’s "Peanuts"
celebrations. "So, more people are keeping them."
Sponsors paid $3,600 for a basic statue and $1,000 more for
customization by an artist. They paid $1,500 more to keep a statue.
TivoliToo Design & Sculpting Studios of St. Paul created and
designed the statues for the tributes. It also designed and constructed
the permanent bronze sculptures. Area artists decorated each of the
statues to create a one-of-a-kind piece of art.
"Peanuts" fan Melissa Porter of Hudson, Wis., bid $10,000 to take
home her first statue, "Doghouse of Blues."
"We have a dog and real doghouse," she said. "This will compliment
it — and diversify our collection of western art and sculpture.
She’s not sure where the doghouse will go. It might go outside to
jazz up her garden, she said.
Kay Anderson, a lifelong "Peanuts" fan, came from Albuquerque, N.M.
to take in the final hurrah of St. Paul’s "Peanuts" celebration. She was
not among the bidders, though.
"It’s a great celebration," said Anderson, sporting a denim jacket
decorated with a snoozing Snoopy atop his doghouse. "Charles Schulz was
such a genius. We all wanted the comic to live on forever. And this is a
great way to do it."
The Saint Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau, which staffs the
Doghouse Information Booth on the Science Museum of Minnesota’s plaza,
estimates that more than 3.3 million visitors from all 50 states and 60
countries have journeyed to St. Paul to see the "Peanuts" statues in the
past five years.
Where are the current and future homes of the some 500 "Peanuts"
statues?
Well, there’s no definitive map of their abodes.
"We tried to keep a list of where they are," says Gonsior. "But
it’s hard to keep track of all of them."
There are enough in the Twin Cities that the Travel Channel came to
St. Paul to capture them as part of a show on lawn art. They interviewed
some people who have them on display in their gardens, by pools."
The show featuring the "Peanuts" statues is expected to air in
February.
St. Paul says so long to Peanuts
September 18, 2004
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
After five years of summer fun with "Peanuts" characters,
organizers have determined reluctantly that it’s time to move on as they
begin planning for something new to draw visitors to downtown St. Paul
next year.
"We wish it could go on forever, but we’ve accomplished our goals,
and it is better to end on a high note than let this dwindle away," said
Craig Schulz, son of "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, whose life and
work have been the focal point of the summer tributes that drew more
than 3.3 million visitors.
The events featured hundreds of 5-foot statues of characters from
the world-famous "Peanuts" gang first Snoopy, then Charlie Brown, Lucy,
Linus and, finally, Snoopy and his erratically flying bird pal
Woodstock.
It all draws to a close Sunday with a wrap-up party in Rice Park
and the auction of 25 of this year’s 104 "Doghouse Days of Summer"
statues.
The five-year homage to Schulz grew from a civic sadness and the
desire to honor the cartoonist after his death from colon cancer in
early 2000. His St. Paul childhood experiences showed up in — and shaped
— much of his "Peanuts" work, from Charlie Brown’s sandlot baseball
games to the unrequited love of Charlie’s beloved "little red-haired
girl." It was something the city took pride in.
A proposed city tribute to Schulz prompted lots of discussion among
civic leaders. When the idea for "Peanuts" statues scattered around the
city bubbled to the surface, it quickly caught on.
Copied from Chicago’s popular "Cows on Parade" event in 1999, St.
Paul’s celebration was among the earliest in a fad that has swept
through many cities, where statues since have featured the likes of
horses, furniture, forks, pineapples and pigs.
The difference between most of those events and St. Paul’s was the
event’s long five-year run, and city boosters know why.
"It was the characters from ‘Peanuts’ that made the difference,"
said Brad Toll, vice president of tourism for the St. Paul Convention
and Tourist Bureau. "Everyone can relate to them, which was the success
of the strip. Who can relate to an ear of corn?"
Because the summer events were free, outdoors and scattered around
the city, there was no way to determine official "attendance" figures to
measure success or tabulate economic impact.
But it is reasonable to assume that money flowed into the city
because of them, with people buying extra film, a bottle of water, a bag
of popcorn or a meal for their visits or getting a hotel room for a
longer stay.
Tourism officials point to all sorts of positive signs, based on
interviews with visitors, a bump in attendance at other family-oriented
city attractions and the number of people who stopped at the bureau’s
information Doghouse to register their hometowns.
Toll said that over the five years, an estimated 3,362,000 people
visited St. Paul (equivalent to more than the entire population of Iowa)
to see the statues, snap pictures and enjoy them.
George Weckman, who has sold hot dogs and pop from a stand in
downtown for 25 years, called the Snoopy statues of 2000 "the dogs that
save St. Paul" because they brought so many people downtown.
"This year the traffic and business is less," he said recently from
behind his stand in Rice Park. But commercialism aside, Weckman said the
tributes have been wonderful.
Lee Koch, vice president of the Capital City Partnership, which has
overseen the Schulz tributes, said the decision was not easy to forgo
another year that could have featured a colorful, huggable statue of
Peppermint Patty, Franklin or Pig Pen — or any of the 52 characters that
showed up at least once during the 50 years Schulz drew the comic strip.
"It is a success, but we’ve done the four main characters," she
said.
There are signs that five years is enough. The number of sponsored
statues has been slowly dropping, the amount paid at auction for the
statues has slumped and media attention to the statues has waned.
Koch said the tributes met their original goals of providing art
scholarships for students and financing permanent tributes to Schulz —
bronze vignettes of "Peanuts" characters that are on display in Landmark
Plaza (the fourth and final vignette featuring Peppermint Patty and
Marcie will be unveiled Sunday).
Even last year, when it was announced that this would be the final
summer of the Schulz tribute, there were no angry cries of "Keep on,
keep on," said Sue Gonsior, communications director at Capital City
Partnership.
Gonsior said the group did receive hundreds of e-mails and calls,
almost all of them saying "thank you" for holding the events at all.
"There was one that said thanks for stopping. ‘Stop making St. Paul
into Disney World,’ " she said, but that sentiment was a rarity.
For the diehard "Peanuts" fan, all is not lost. Next summer in
Santa Rosa, the northern California city of 150,000 where Schulz made
his home after leaving St. Paul, there will be "It’s Your Town, Charlie
Brown."
It will feature 55 Charlie Brown statues in honor of the 55th
anniversary of the first "Peanuts" comic strip, printed on Oct. 2, 1950.
The statues will be made by TivoliToo, the St. Paul firm that has made
all of those used in St. Paul.
"We’re going to copy what you did," said Santa Rosa City Council
Member Janet Condron, "except our design is different. Our Charlie Brown
has one hand up, waving."
Weckman is hopeful St. Paul will come up with a new summer
attraction.
"You see families walking around, kids playing on these things,
people talking to each other. They’ve been a blessing," he said.
"They’ve got this excitement built up, people expecting something
downtown. They have to do something so they don’t lose it."
Koch said they are working on it, trying to follow up with a
promotion true to the St. Paul image the Schulz tributes helped create.
Something as safe, family friendly, fun and free.
Book signing today
Jeannie Schulz and Amy Schulz Johnson, Charles Schulz’s wife and
daughter, will sign copies of "Vol. 1, The Complete Peanuts," from 11
a.m. to noon today in the West Market area (near the Camp Snoopy dog
dish), Mall of America, Bloomington. This book is the first of 25
volumes of Schulz’s comic strips. Pre-orders will be taken for Volume 2,
scheduled to be published in October. The women will also attend
Sunday’s auction of Snoopy statues in St. Paul.
Sunday party in the park
A "Party in the Park" will wrap up the fifth and final statue
promotion with games, food, music and entertainment. The event runs from
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Landmark Plaza and Rice Park in downtown St.
Paul. A bronze sculpture of the "Peanuts" characters will be unveiled
between 1 to 130 p.m., followed by a live auction of 25 statues from
the "Doghouse Days of Summer" promotion. For information about bidding
on one of the statues, go to www.doghousedaysofsummer.com.
Five years, 502 statues
As St. Paul’s five-year tribute to "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz
wraps up this weekend, organizers can look back at events that drew
unprecedented family visits to downtown each summer weekend.
Here’s a quick-hit look at the summer celebration, the tourist
traffic it brought and the funds it raised, based on St. Paul Convention
and Visitors Bureau interviews of those who stopped at its information
booth and visits to other city attractions
2000 "Peanuts on Parade," 101 Snoopy statues; auction of 61
statues raised $1,041,500 ($17,100 average with a range of $ 35,000 to
$6,000); estimated 450,000 visitors;
2001 "Charlie Brown Around Town," 102 Charlie Brown statues;
auction of 63 raised $459,000 ($7,300 average, range $30,000 to $3,000);
700,000 visitors;
2002 "Looking for Lucy," 103 Lucy statues; auction of 56 raised
$232,000 ($4,100 average, range $19,000 to $2,000); 800,000 visitors;
2003 "Linus Blankets St. Paul," 92 Linus statues; auction of 40
raised $153,000 ($3,800 average, range $8,000 to $1,900); 712,000
visitors;
2004 "Doghouse Days of Summer," 104 Snoopy and Woodstock statues;
25 to be auctioned Sunday; 700,000 visitors.
Snoopy destroyed; Lucy can be repaired
Vandals damage ‘Peanuts’ statues
September 15, 2004
By Karl J. Karlson
The St. Paul Pioneer Press
Vandals attacked two of St. Paul’s "Peanuts" statues in front of A.
Johnson and Sons Florist, 1738 Grand Ave., over the weekend, destroying
one and damaging the other.
"Snoopy’s Garden Party," a statue from the first-year "Peanuts on
Parade" tribute to cartoonist Charles Schulz in 2000, was broken into
pieces and may not be fixable, according to Gerald Johnson, a store
spokesman.
The nose of the other statue, "Lucy’s Pet Sitting Service" from the
2002 tribute to Schulz, was broken off, he said.
"The Snoopy has an attraction. People came by all the time to look
at it," Johnson said.
The attack took place about 230 a.m. Sunday and apparently was
carried out by three young men, he said. A neighbor of the store heard
the commotion and yelled at the youths, who fled before doing further
damage to the Lucy statue.
Both were designed by artist Sheryl Johnson Cain, Gerald Johnson’s
daughter.
He said no decision has been made on whether to replace the Snoopy
if it cannot be repaired. St. Paul’s five years of summer tributes to
Schulz have involved about 500 statues on public display throughout the
city.
Over those years, vandalism has been a minor problem, said Sue
Gonsior, communications director for Capital City Partnership, which
oversees the events.
"This (attack) on the one at Johnson’s is a rarity. People have
respected the statues," Gonsior said.
Rare Charles Schultz Work To Be Published In November
August 25, 2004
By Michael A. Diaz
www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com
Charles M. Schulz is the most famous and most influential
cartoonist ever, and his Peanuts comic strips have been reprinted in
hundreds of books. Yet few people know that during the late 1950s,
during a period of great creativity, Schulz was also doing another
newspaper comics series. "It’s Only a Game" took a look at people and
their pastimes, showing us how we win, how we lose, and how we play the
game. This long forgotten work is now being put into a book for the very
first time, as About Comics publishes the complete collection "It’s Only
a Game."
This treasure trove of lost Schulz material is being dug up at a
time when interest in Schulz is running high. Such projects as "The
Complete Peanuts," "Li’l Beginnings" (reprinting Schulz’s pre-Peanuts
series "Li’l Folks"), and "Peanuts The Art of Charles M. Schulz" are
focusing popular and critical attention on Schulz’s work.
People who know Peanuts know that sports was a favorite topic, with
Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the crew regularly involved in baseball,
football, and hockey. "It’s Only a Game" was a single-panel gag feature
that covered all that and more. "Schulz focused the comics mainly on
participation sports and games, so there are strips about bowling,
bridge, and fishing, as well as the big team sports," explains Nat
Gertler, noted Schulz bibliographer and publisher of About Comics. "In
fact, it’s rather amazing how broad a range of topics is covered. Over
the course of 255 cartoons the series covers everything from Monopoly to
rodeo."
Fans are in for an extra treat, because "It’s Only a Game" features
mainly adults. Since "Peanuts", "Li’l Folks", and Schulz’s illustration
work focused on kids, this is a rare chance to see his talents applied
to older characters.
Schulz created the series himself and initially did all the work on
it. After the series had run for a while, cartoonist Jim Sasseville did
the finished artwork based on Schulz’s sketches. Sasseville provides the
book’s commentary, as well as access to some special materials. "Working
with Jim was great," explains Gertler. "Not only do we get a lot of
insight into how the strip was put together and what it was like working
with Schulz, he also gave us access to some of Schulz’s roughs for
cartoons that were never used."
Schulz’s widow Jean expressed her enthusiasm for this project. "It
is wonderful to see the entire run collected and to read Jim’s
reminiscences. Sparky [Charles M. Schulz] spoke highly of Jim’s drawing
ability and in this book I can see what he meant." Sasseville is no less
effusive about Schulz’s work on the strip, referring to him as "the best
cartoonist ever," a view of Schulz that is common in the cartooning
world.
Contributing an editorial hand to the book is Derrick Bang, the
editor of "Charles M. Schulz 50 Years of Happiness." Derrick also
provided the acclaimed commentary for "Li’l Beginnings."
"It’s Only a Game" (ISBN 0-9716338-9-4) is a 240-page 5.5"x6.5"
black and white paperback with a color cover. Priced at $14.95, it will
be distributed to the comic book stores (by Diamond Comics, FM
International, and Cold Cut) and to the bookstores (by Diamond Book
Distributors) in November. It can be found on page 197 of the current
Previews catalog.
Major League Baseball’s 10 great home-run moments
August 8, 2004
The Seattle Times
1. No home-run compilation would be complete without some mystical
feat by Babe Ruth. We’ll skip the obvious — his "did he or didn’t he"
called shot off the Cubs’ Charlie Root at Wrigley Field in the 1932
World Series — and focus on his final homer, No. 714. At age 40, playing
for the Boston Braves, he summoned his magic one final time on May 25,
1935, cranking three homers in a game against the Pirates. The last one
sailed completely out of Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field, the first time that
feat had been accomplished. Six days later, Ruth retired.
2. Fifteen players have hit four home runs in a single major-league
game, most recently Toronto’s Carlos Delgado in 2003. But only one
player in professional baseball ever has homered for the cycle. That
feat was accomplished by Tyrone Horne, a member of the Cardinals’ Class
AA Arkansas Travelers, who on July 27, 1998, hit the ultimate
progression of four homers in a game against the San Antonio Missions.
He had a two-run homer in the first inning, a grand slam in the second,
a solo homer in the fifth and a three-run shot in the sixth. With
nothing left to accomplish, Horne struck out in his final at-bat.
3. According to legend, Josh Gibson, the brilliant Negro League
catcher, is the only person to ever hit the ball completely out of
Yankee Stadium, in any of its incarnations. Mickey Mantle came close on
May 30, 1956, with a shot off Washington’s Pedro Ramos that hit about 18
inches from the top of the right-field façade, and with another blast
off Kansas City’s Bill Fischer in 1963. And Mantle himself swore he saw
Frank Howard hit one out of Yankee Stadium on a drive that was barely
foul. But several accounts, none verified, have a Gibson blast exiting
the building in 1930, a blast that Sports Illustrated pinpointed to
September of that year, off a pitcher named Connie Rector, in a game
between Gibson’s Homestead Grays and the Lincoln Giants.
4. Jimmy Piersall, whose nervous breakdown inspired the hyperbolic
movie, "Fear Strikes Out," starring the chronically unathletic Anthony
Perkins as Piersall ("If nothing else, it probably helped him get cast
in ‘Psycho,’ " Piersall would say later), etched his way into the
home-run annals in 1963, while playing for the woeful New York Mets.
Stuck at 99 career homers, Piersall told teammate Duke Snider, who had
just hit his 400th homer, "I’ll bet I get more publicity for my 100th
homer than you got for your 400th." And indeed he did, commemorating the
achievement — a pop fly over the 258-foot right-field wall at the Polo
Grounds — by running around the bases backward. One of his teammates
asked why he didn’t run counterclockwise, to which Piersall is said to
have snapped, "What do you think, I’m a nut?" Mets manager Casey
Stengel, disgusted by the theatrics, released Piersall two days later.
5. Detroit’s Hank Greenberg, the great slugger who in 1938 made one
of the most spirited challenges to Babe Ruth’s then-record 60 home runs
before finishing with 58, hit one of the most emotional home runs in
baseball history in 1945. In May 1941, Greenberg — the American League
MVP of 1940 — had been drafted into the Army, the first of many baseball
stars to join the service. He was discharged on Dec. 5, 1941, but
re-enlisted in the Army Air Corps after the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor two days later. Greenberg didn’t return to the Tigers until July
1, 1945, when in his first game in more than four years he smashed a
home run in front of a roaring Tiger Stadium crowd of 47,721. Greenberg
would later that year hit a grand slam in the ninth inning of the final
game of the season to help the Tigers beat the St. Louis Browns, 6-3,
and clinch the American League pennant.
6. Another great comeback story The White Sox’s Bo Jackson, after
missing the entire 1992 season to recover from hip-replacement surgery,
hit a stirring, pinch-hit home run in his first at-bat of the 1993
season at Comiskey Park. Jackson was moved to tears by the prolonged
standing ovation, and when the ball was retrieved for him, he said, "I’m
going to have it bronzed and put on my mother’s tombstone." Jackson had
promised his mother, who died the previous April, that he would play
baseball again.
7. A special spot in home-run lore is reserved for the
inside-the-park version, and perhaps the most memorable in baseball
history was executed by none other than Ted Williams, who once
characterized this particular round-tripper as the most difficult of his
521 because "I had to run." The homer in question, on Sept. 13, 1946 —
Friday the 13th — was memorable for two reasons It came against the
infamous "Boudreau shift" devised by Indians manager Lou Boudreau, and
it provided the only run in a 1-0 Red Sox victory over Cleveland that
clinched the American League pennant. Williams was famously frustrated
by the Indians’ shift, in which the defense swung radically over to the
right side, leaving the left fielder, stationed behind what would be the
normal shortstop position, to solely man the left side. Williams hated
to give in and go the opposite way, but this time he sliced the ball
down the left-field line, raced around the bases and slid across the
plate just ahead of the throw. "It was one of the greatest sights I ever
saw," Red Sox pitcher Boo Ferriss later told the Boston Herald.
8. Back in 1998, two divergent careers merged in St. Paul, Minn.,
where J.D. Drew was biding his time with the St. Paul Saints during a
contract dispute with the Philadelphia Phillies, who had drafted him No.
1 but ran into the immovable object known as Scott Boras. Meanwhile, a
woman pitcher named Ila Borders was toiling for the Duluth-Superior
Dukes, trying to bring gender equality to baseball. The two teams from
the independent Northern League met June 30, and, sure enough, Drew
found himself batting against Borders in the eighth inning. The count
worked to 3-2 before Drew spared himself the indignity of being fanned
by Borders, crushing a changeup "halfway to Stillwater," according to
the St. Paul Pioneer-Press. A disconsolate Borders told the newspaper
afterward, "It just was stupid pitching. I should have given him a pitch
he couldn’t hit hard. Instead, I have this attitude that I’m not afraid
of anybody, and look what happens."
9. The most misleading home run in major-league history was hit by
a Hall of Famer — Hoyt Wilhelm, the knuckleballing pitcher. In his first
major-league at-bat, for the New York Giants on April 23, 1952, against
the Boston Braves at the Polo Grounds in New York, Wilhelm went yard. It
was not a portent of things to come. Wilhelm would pitch for 21 more
seasons, in 1,069 more games, the most of any major-league pitcher in
history until Dennis Eckersley surpassed him in 1998. He never homered
again.
10. On March 30, 1993, a hard-luck player produced a home run even
more unlikely than Wilhelm’s, or Duane Kuiper’s lone career blast in
3,379 at-bats. Charlie Brown, after four decades of well-chronicled
cartoon futility, connected for a game-winning homer in the ninth
inning. His sister, Sally, asked incredulously, "You?" Poor Chuck never
did get to kick that football, however.
‘Snoopy! The Musical’
July 26, 2004
By Sarah Hemming
The Financial Times
Both the Bible and Shakespeare have been turned into musicals, so
why not Peanuts? After all, the very fact that Snoopy, Woodstock,
Charlie Brown and the gang hail from a cartoon strip means that they
have the clearly defined characters that make them well-suited to a
jaunty musical. Their problems too are instantly recognisable, making
them ideal for a catchy song.
