Category: Charles M. Schulz

This photo shows Charles Schulz and his daughter Amy in 1974, when Schulz was the Grand Marshal of the Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, CA. That was a year after Schulz married his second wife, and five years after Amy began ice skating professionally.

I admire and respect Amy Schulz greatly for her vigorous and articulate rebuttal of what she calls completely inaccurate characterizations of her father and his family, made by David Michaelis in his new biography of Charles Schulz. I will, however, buy and read the book, just as I did Rheta Grimsley Johnson’s book about Schulz, over ten years ago (revised from a 1989 edition).

Here are a couple more minutes of Charles Schulz from the never-aired 1963 TV special, “A Boy Named Charlie Brown.” It picks up from where I left off in a post from one year ago. The video is available from the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa, CA. The studio shown in this video clip was destroyed in a 1966 fire.
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Note: the comic strip that Schulz draws is obviously only for show, and not an actual installment. It’s just a series of drawings, as if an introduction for a Sunday strip. Also, at that time Schulz was still locked into the 4-panel format, and would not have used two daily panels for a single drawing.

Good grief! What a month this is turning out to be for Charles Schulz, between the new biography and the American Masters program.

Amy Schulz has appeared on the Early Show and said the family is outraged and feels betrayed by the David Michaelis biography of her father. The link will probably default to the photo, but be sure to click on the tab for video to watch the entire conversation with Amy.

Nat Gertler over at The AAUGH Blog points out there’s a full-featured (i.e., Flash) Web site for the new book, Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography. Be sure to watch the video, with author David Michaelis. I can see why Schulz’s lost love, Donna Wold, said “I saw pictures of his wife [Joyce] in the newspaper; she looked very pretty.”

I’m very interested in learning more about Joyce, whose daughter Meredith was adopted by Schulz. Watch the video I posted here nearly a year ago to see a few moments of Meredith, whose age was given as 14 in 1963. Schulz had his marriage license backdated to 1949 when he married Joyce in 1951.

ADDED NOTE: I’ve downloaded the promo video for the biography and have put it here.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/OCT07/SchulzAndPeanuts.flv 400 300]

Mark Evanier points out this link to The Wall Street Journal, with a review written by Bill Watterson of the new Schulz biography. One of the two most thoughtful and serious cartoonists of all time, commenting on the other most thoughtful and serious cartoonist of all time. If the WSJ link doesn’t work for you, click here instead.

The word “depressed” is in three out of four panels in today’s Peanuts strip reprint. That’s it! Schulz was happy one quarter of the time.

Here is a clip from the upcoming American Masters program about Charles Schulz. As hoped, Schulz’s great lost love, Donna Wold, makes an appearance.
[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/OCT07/SchulzPBS.flv 400 300]
My best buddy, and fellow Schulz fan, D.F. Rogers has these interesting comments to make on the subject of Schulz the man…

That lovable cartoonist, Good Ol’ “Sparky” Schulz…warm and witty. Let’s see what he has to say to Mike Barrier. [Link to interview] The portrait of the man as a REAL person, prickly with strong opinions, but stated in a very normal speaking tone with that distinctive Minnesota accent. I was so fascinated by the prickly things he said, that I just had to cut them out to highlight them, OUT OF CONTEXT. It’s like taking all of the scenes of the mad, drunk, crazy George Bailey [in It’s A Wonderful Life] and putting them together. These are things that he really said, so I wonder what the new Bio says that can be anymore prickly than this — other than sensational things?

No; it’s not the time, it’s the anxiety and the guilt feelings that they give to you. Time is no problem with me. I actually don’t even work very long hours. I start here at 9, and usually I go home at 4 o’clock. That’s not bad. Five days a week; I don’t work at night, or on the weekends. So it’s not a matter of time, it’s just a matter of the energy, I guess, plus the fact that it’s not a job which depends strictly on the amount of hours you put in. It depends on what you can think of. The never-ending burden of having to do something day after day after day, and it never lets up.

No, I’m never swamped by that kind of distraction. The only kind of distractions that bother me are the continual requests for special drawings for my grandfather who’s retiring, or the priest in our church who is retiring and who uses your cartoon, or so-and-so’s birthday’s coming up, or so-and-so is sick in hospital, and auctions—we get auction requests every day. Some are fine, and some are not; if they write “Dear Celebrity,” and it’s a form letter, we throw it away. I cannot understand anybody wanting a favor from somebody and not only not even—most of the time not spelling your name right, but not even using your name at all. But we try to do the best we can with all of these things. Those are the things that bother me the most.
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