Category: Cartooning

The Charles Schulziest

Peanuts ReprintThe New York Times says the family of the late Charles Schulz is unhappy with a new biography of the cartoonist. It apparently characterizes Sparky as having been a depressed woman chaser. It also delves into his unhappy first marriage. Looking at the Peanuts strip that was reprinted just this past Sunday (click to enlarge), one can easily see how Schulz may have expressed his marital unhappiness as sibling unhappiness. It will be interesting to see how Schulz is portrayed in The American Masters program about him at the end of the month.

Good Ol’ Charles Schulz

Charles Schulz as a boyPBS may not have made a documentary about Steve Ditko, but there’s one about Charles Schulz coming out next month. It will be on American Masters, Monday, October 29, from 9 – 10:30 PM ET. Here’s a brief write-up about the program.

This is a quintessentially Midwestern story of an unassuming, self-doubting man who, through expressing his unique view of the world, redefined the comic art form with “Peanuts.” His genius lay in depicting the daily collisions of insiders and outsiders, of mundane cruelties and transcendent hopes – seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. The “Peanuts” cast of characters is as familiar as our own siblings; their trials and tribulations speak of our families and evoke our childhood desperations. They are portrayed with whimsy and poignancy – and always with love and tolerance, each representing different facets of Schulz’ personality and his perspectives on 20th-century America.

I’m hoping they interviewed Donna Wold, Schulz’s real-life Little Red-Haired Girl. As everybody knows, Donna married somebody else. He was a fireman named Al. This is Schulz and Donna in April, 1950.

Charles Schulz with Donna Wold, April 1950

Cartoonist Jimmy Johnson’s ex-wife, Rheta Grimsley Johnson, in her book Good Grief: The Story of Charles M. Schulz, wrote about an encounter Schulz later had with Donna. By coincidence, Donna’s maiden name is Johnson. Her husband passed away some years ago. IMPORTANT CORRECTION — Al Wold is alive and well. See the comment by Mr. David Van Taylor the director of the documentary:

By 1956, when Charles Schulz was signing autographs at a downtown Minneapolis bookstore, he was married, a father, and beginning to ascend to that pinnacle of fame few ever reach. Donna, pregnant with her second child, waited in a long line to ask for his autograph. “That lady in front of me was saying, ‘I’m his biggest fan.’ And I thought, ‘Oh, no, you’re not!'”

Sparky signed Donna’s book with a rather generic inscription that bothers her slightly, even today: “For Donna, with sincere best wishes….” Later he gave her a ride to her parked car.

“I saw pictures of his wife in the newspaper; she looked very pretty,” says Donna. She read the news magazine accounts of his California digs and marveled that her unassuming Sparky had a four-hole golf course and an artificial waterfall. Years later, on a trip through California with Al, she stopped at the ice arena on the chance Sparky would be there. He wasn’t. “Al was good about it. He sat in the car in case I got a chance to talk to him.”

Timmy In The Well

“Timmy’s In The Well” is a catchphrase that I suspect came from a comedian’s stand-up routine, but don’t ask me to say who or when. It’s a reference to the old Lassie TV show, when Jon Provost played Timmy, replacing Tom Rettig, who had played Jeff. There was a Simpsons episode where Bart faked being trapped in a well. Perhaps that added fuel to the popularity of the joke.

The skit involves Lassie running up to an adult, presumably Timmy’s caring and responsible, — yet somehow hapless — father, barking frantically. The joke is that the human can understand the barking. “What’s that Lassie? Timmy’s fallen in the well??” I don’t know with absolute certainty that Timmy never fell in a well on the TV show, but that assertion was made by somebody on a TV Land bulletin board.

Timmy In The WellSo where exactly did the notion come from that Timmy fell in the well? Perhaps it came from a 1962 Kenner Give-A-Show slide. I’ve inserted a scan of the slide into the upper corner of this paragraph. Click to enlarge. This being the only proof offered on the Net that Timmy did, in fact, fall in a well, it deserves a thoughtful frame-by-frame analysis.

Timmy In The Well - 1Timmy In The Well - 2Timmy In The Well - 3

Timmy In The Well - 4Timmy In The Well - 5Timmy In The Well - 6Timmy In The Well -7
Click pictures to enlarge

  1. That isn’t a barbed wire fence, and Mr. Jones’ field appears to be for grazing cattle, making it likely the fence is electrified. Perhaps Timmy enjoys the tingling sensation.
  2. A few boards over the well? Enough to make it obvious the well is there, but not enough to protect it. Timmy is indeed a thrill-seeker. He’s walking over the boards intentionally.
  3. This is actually Lassie’s stunt double.
  4. Good thing the well is so shallow that standing on a collie’s back is enough of a boost to escape. One can presume the well had been partially filled in.
  5. If Timmy weighs enough to snap those boards, he’s breaking the stunt dog’s back. Otherwise, she’d be able to jump out by herself.
  6. Timmy knows he’s going to catch Hell, yet he promises to fetch Mr. Jones.
  7. But wait! Timmy doesn’t have to admit to being in the well, because this is the real Lassie with him. Her stunt double is back in the well, paralyzed.

All’s well that ends well for Timmy! But not for Mr. Jones, who finds a dead dog in his well and will later be sued by Timmy’s parents for failing to properly fill or seal the well.