Spring has Sprung at the Museum :: May 14 2012
Spring has Sprung, and now with 80 degree weather, all we have is the memories. I grabbed some photos when things were in their full glory and wanted to share them with my readers.
The roses I love because they are complete volunteers and they do better every year. There were three houses on the property where the Museum now stands. The roses were lovingly tended to by someone for years. Now they bloom in our meadow of native grasses.
Another spring treat at the Museum are the cherry blossoms in the courtyard. For a couple weeks, the Museum's courtyard is awash with little pink flowers.
This year, the Labyrinth in front of the Museum got a minor makeover. While my original design was to have tall wavy grasses and have it be a little "treasure hunt" as people walked through, I think I like the Labyrinth's clean look better. So we will probably shear it every two years from now on.
Another treat this year was the beautiful weather that we had for our Major Donor Dinner. Guests were able to meander into the courtyard and enjoy all of the lovely foliage and flowers.
—Jean Schulz
Saying Goodbye to Sweater :: May 1 2012
When I heard about a giant sweater sculpture coming to the Museum as part of our Pop'd from the Panel exhibit, I did not know enough to have any feelings about it. When Sweater arrived and was stored in four giant pieces in the tennis court for a couple of weeks, I still didn't have much of an opinion about it. But when I saw it being "stitched" together on its wood and wire frame, I gradually became curious.
Finally, standing on our balcony, 13-feet tall in all its golden glory it was a joy to behold. Like so many other things in the Museum, it made me smile. It made me ask "why", "what for." The answer is pure pleasure!
Suzanne Morlock with Sweater
In the days it took sculptor, Suzanne Morlock, and her partner Glenn to install the sculpture with help of the Museum staff, they became part of our Museum "family." That is another marvelous aspect of art, the way it draws people together. Suzanne demonstrated for visitors how she knit the material – 4" mylar strips from which sequins have been punched – into a sweater using 3" PVS pipes as "needles."
We the made a video of her demonstrating her technique to install near the sculpture, showing Suzanne in the act of knitting the airy and glittery mylar and describing how she used the same "knitting" technique with other recycled material for other creations.
I have loved having the sculpture here and it was always one of the "must see" things for me to show my guests. I loved showing them the stretched mylar so they can grasp a little of Suzanne's vision of creating something out of "discards." The sculpture was due to leave when Pop'd from the Panel was de installed, so I was delighted that it was able to stay up through the end of April.
A close up of the mylar – the raw material of Sweater
Not only will I miss Sweater, but drivers along West Steele Lane
will miss it when they look up and don’t see it glistening in the sun.
 The last pieces of Sweater leaving the Museum. |
 A sad reminder of our loss. |
There will be a fun welcome home for Sweater which has just returned from the Charles Schulz Museum and is now installed at the Center for the Arts. Please come if you can and have a Persephone cupcake to toast public art in Jackson Hole! Read more here!
—Jean Schulz
Eating in Bologna :: March 2012
I’ve never considered myself a particularly good cook. Oh, I did all the usual recipes and dishes – and tried many fancy things, but the truth is that cooking didn’t fascinate me. Moreover, I’d start something on the stove or in the oven, go outside and completely forget about it. That sort of distraction does take away from culinary success.
But I did have some good moments; ones I didn’t even know about. Recently, one of my daughter’s friends reminded me of the “wonderful” grilled cheese sandwiches I would make. The fact that she remembered me that way 45 years later filled my heart in a way I can’t really describe. It took away all the negative things one piles on oneself.
Like many California high school kids of the ‘50’s, I took “home economics.” We learned all the domestic things that my mother, a working woman, didn’t teach me. (My mother, at the age of 50, became a pilot and got us all to follow in her footsteps. To me that was lots better than having her teach me to cook.)
Anyway, the tuna casserole that I mastered in high school served me well 20 years later because tuna casserole was one of Sparky’s favorite dinners. In a twist new to me, he liked crumbled potato chips on top. (As an aside, tuna casserole was also a favorite of my fathers, but as my parents were divorced when I was 8, so I didn’t know that until much later). Sparky also liked baked Alaska, which I prepared like a pro. We both loved its elegant simplicity.
With this explanation, it may be surprising that I would write about food on my trip to Bologna, but Emilia-Romagna is said to have the best food in Italy: Think of spaghetti Bolognese, Parma ham, balsamic vinegar, parmesan cheese, mortadella and other cured pork products.
The night I arrived in Milano I was taken by my hosts to a small restaurant, Osteria del Pomiroeu (no more than 25 seats) in Seregno, just outside Milano. The food was exquisite; it was beautifully and delicately presented. The chef came out more than once to see how we were doing and to talk to my hosts. I was thinking how wonderful it must be to be the chef in a restaurant intimate enough so that every plate can be a work of art. We have wonderful restaurants in Northern California. They may even have more stars than Pomireou, but I will always remember this special dinner. Pasta with squash is a popular winter combination in Italy; I chose pumpkin filled tortellini with tiny cubes of pumpkin, topped with something crunchy and tasty.
The next day, after visiting Castell’Arquato we had lunch at Da Faccini. Sunday afternoon with the family is a tradition and Ristorante Da Faccini was filled. We were greeted by the owner of the restaurant and served by the son of the family who spoke English. Oscar Massari, my host on this outing, asked the waiter to bring us plates of the specialties of the region, and we ate family style. I loved having a small history lesson of the area and food with each course. One typical dish from this area is a plate of white beans with tiny tortellini. I asked Oscar if they made the tiny tortellini with a press. He said, “no” and pressed his thumb against the table cloth indicating they were made by hand – just a twist of the thumb pressing out the pasta dough.
I was in Bologna, for the Children’s Book Fair. Bologna is a striking medieval city with one of the oldest universities in the world. I was even lucky enough to find a little time to be a tourist in this magnificent city.
Every year our partners from BIC Licensing take us to dinner at Il Cantuccio. This wonderful trattoria serves all manner of seafood. The service is “family style”, which I like because it gives me an opportunity to have many little tastes.
This is a plate of Langoustino, a very small lobster.
We were joined at this dinner by Marco Lupoi whom I had met last year in Angouleme. Marco, who lives in Bologna, is the publishing director of Panini, the company which publishes our books in Italy. Very much a part of the Twitter world, Marco tweeted that we were having dinner and discussing the philosophy of Charlie Brown. I have to say this was a first for me. We ate in several trattoria such as Il Cantuccio, which only had seating for 16 to 24 diners. We found we preferred them.
Here are some other great dishes we had during our stay in this area of Italy
This was a wonderful end to a great meal. The tiny fruits on the left are
Kikinger,a delightful taste I preferred without the chocolate sauce.
Puntarelli con carcofi- an artichoke dish from the area of Rome.
In many restaurants the bread was not as interesting as we are used to in
Sonoma County restaurants, but I couldn't resist taking a picture of what
I thought looked like a sea anemone rendered in pastry.
Puntarelli con acciughe – anchovies
Another lobster presentation.
Our last lunch was at Ristorante Mediterraneo in Seregno. We began with an antipasto plate of calamari, smoked salmon, breaded and baked sardine, breaded scallops in the shell, and clams, followed by this treat of pasta and mussels.
I particularly noticed the waiters (in all the restaurants and trattoria). I was impressed by the way they quietly and efficiently served us. There was no list they recited; though they were generally happy to describe the dishes if we asked. They didn't hover or come back to ask if we were ok. They just seemed to know when to bring another bottle of water, when to refill the wine, when to remove one plate and bring another. It was very comforting, as though one was in one's own home being taken care of by family.
—Jean Schulz
Bologna's Book Fair :: March 21 2012
I'm off for the Bologna Book Fair! Peanuts Worldwide has a booth at the festival, which serves as a meeting point for many European licensees. This gives us an opportunity to speak face to face with our European agents and their licensees. It allows us to showcase things, like our new Street Fair game and the Charlie Brown Christmas digital book to the thousands of people who pass by the booth. We also get to see what is new in the world of books and licensing.
While others went directly to Bologna to set up the Peanuts Worldwide booth, I chose to fly into Milan and spend Sunday doing a little sightseeing on my way to Bologna. I was accompanied on my journey by Oscar, Gabriella and Claudio Massari, our agents in Italy. They graciously drove me from Milan to Bologna, and showed me some of the sites.
There are "castles" to be seen in the landscape virtually everywhere, though Castell ' Arquato, our first stop, is actually a medieval village. Its beginnings were most likely surrounding a Roman military settlement.
The sea originally covered this area, so fossils can be seen in the stones which make up the sandstone facade of the Romanesque church. Called The Collegiate Church, it began as a temple and baptismal parish church in 758. It was badly damaged by a severe earthquake in 1117 and rebuilt and re-consecrated five years later. A bell tower was added in the 14th Century and other changes were made over the years, but a good deal was done in the 19th Century to restore it to its original state.
We strolled through the village, and I realized as we headed to our car that I had missed the House- Museum dedicated to the librettist who collaborated with Puccini on Tosca, La Boheme and Madam Butterfly. Luigi Illica was more than a librettist, but it was the note about these three operas that made me want to visit the Museum. Ah, well, now I have a reason to return.
As we continued our journey to Bologna, we stopped for lunch. "Domenica a pranzo mangiamo en un buon ristorante." I am having fun practicing with my limited vocabulary, though I will try not to subject my readers to too much of it.
Oscar, Gabriella and Claudio Massari, our Agents in Italy in front of the ristorante.
Once we got to Bologna, one of my first stops was to Peanuts booth. The Bologna Children’s Book Fair is one of the most important, and features (mostly) European and US publishers of children’s books. The Peanuts booth serves both as a meeting place for Peanuts Worldwide staff and fun attraction for visitors. They can see what Peanuts has to offer and ask about publishing rights in various countries.
The huggable logo of Peanuts Worldwide proved to be a favorite photo op for passers-by.
The entrance to the Bolonga’s Children’s Book Fair! On the right are three staff members from Peanuts Worldwide, Tara Botwick, Brandon Cole and Kim Towner, who have adopted the booth as their office for the three days of the Book Fair.
We are showing the same video that was made for the unveiling of The Love Foundation in Beijing in April 201, and there is a nice view of the comic strips covering the walls, as well as the book shelves in the background.
Many people visit our booth and stand or sit and read the books, the way we used to sit in the soda fountain and read the comics when I was young. If you love books, walking around is truly like visiting a fair with so many delightful pleasures everywhere. And it is such a wonderful treat to get to see so many visitors and fans of Peanuts visiting and interacting with the booth. I overheard among three young women who were reading the comic strip wallpaper of the booth: "como puoi non amarlo"--- "How can you not love him?". It made me smile, and it makes me feel welcome and at home.
—Jean Schulz
Peanuts gets Environmental Award :: March 15 2012
We are busting our buttons with pride. Peanuts has been given an award by the Japanese government as part of the 2011 International Year of Forestry, through our relationship and activities with "Forest Supporters,” a government agency that promotes green peace and the environment. The award was presented March 2nd and Snoopy was at the ceremony to accept the award.
Mr. Minagawa (left) Director General of Forestry Agency with Mr. Aoki (right), Managing Director, National Land Afforestation Promotion Organization and Snoopy.
I also recently received a beautiful wood toy that has joined the Museum’s collection. The wood for the Snoopy toy came from trees all grown in the Hokkaido region of Japan. Snoopy’s body is Basewood, and his ears, collar and nose are Katsura. The frame for the toy is Ash with Cherry, Basewood and Magnolia slates. As Snoopy descends the ramp, the different woods each make a unique sound. It is such a treat to hear the different noises, and rearrange the wood to make different acoustic patterns.
—Jean Schulz
Willie Mays and A Charlie Brown Christmas :: March 2012
This is a wonderful personal story from Lee Mendelson. It describes an incident that ultimately led to 38 years of animated Peanuts specials. It was the catalyst for bringing Sparky, Lee and Bill Melendez together for the first time:
—Jean Schulz
In 1963, we produced a one hour documentary about Willie Mays. It was called A MAN NAMED MAYS and was broadcast on NBC-TV. It got a great rating (27% of all viewers) even though it went up against the first million dollar TV special, “Elizabeth Taylor in London".
Shortly after we had finished production, I was reading a Charlie Brown comic strip where he was losing another baseball game. The thought came to me: "We've just done a show on the world's greatest baseball player....why not do one on the world's worst baseball player Charlie Brown."
I found out that Charles Schulz lived about an hour from me, and I also found his phone number in the phone book.
So I called him, introduced myself as a film-maker in San Francisco, and said I was interested in doing a documentary about him and Charlie Brown.
He was very cordial but he said that he had been approached by both Hollywood and New York to do something, but he just wanted to focus on doing the comic strip at that time.
I asked him if he happened to have seen the Willie Mays special on NBC-TV, and he said he had. "I really liked the show. Willie is a hero of mine. Why do you ask?"
I told him I had produced the show and wanted to do something similar with him. There was a long pause, and then he said: "Well maybe we should at least meet. If Willie can trust you with his life, maybe I can do the same. But I can't promise anything."
So we met a week later, discussed how I wanted to do the documentary and how it wouldn't interfere in any way with his daily routine.
He agreed to do it and that started a relationship with him and animator Bill Melendez and myself that would last for 38 years, produce 50 network specials, and 4 Feature Films.
So that's how Willie Mays helped bring about "A Charlie Brown Christmas" two years later.
This is a recent picture of Willie and I holding up the comic strip where Charlie Brown can win the class spelling bee if he spells the word "MAZE" correctly. Unfortunately, he spells his hero "MAYS" instead, and he loses the spelling bee.
 This Peanuts strip was originally published on February 9, 1966 |
So that's how the world's greatest and worst baseball players have been linked for nearly fifty years!
—Lee Mendelson
Other Peanuts strips mention Willie mays, but these are my favorites:
 This Peanuts strip was originally published on October 11, 1966 |
 This Peanuts strip was originally published on August 3, 1969 |
—Jean Schulz
Peanuts comic books are back.... :: February 2012
Peanuts comic books are back.... in comic shops and on tablets.
Some fans may be familiar with the series of comic books done from 1952 to 1964, published by Dell and other comic book publishers. Jim Sasseville, followed by Dale Hale and then briefly Anthony Pocrnich all drew the Peanuts art for these comics in consultation with Sparky. In 2005, the Museum hosted two exhibits that explored the comic book art of Schulz, Sasseville and Hale.Now sixty years after those comic books, Peanuts is once again in print, and being published by BOOM studios with a whole new flight of artists. The preview issue was released at the end of last year. Issue #1 was released in January of this year and will be followed by monthly issues.
On Saturday, February 25 the creators of this new comic book series will be at the Museum to participate in a panel, lead a How-to-Draw Peanuts workshop, and sign comic books. Included in the panel and workshops are: Paige Braddock, Shane Houghton, Matt Whitlock, Lex Fajardo, Vicki Scott, and Justin Thompson.
On the digital front, Peanuts Worldwide is releasing, with our partner, iVerse, digital editions of the new comic books, as well as old favorite reprint books of the 50s and 60s, as well as new comprehensive collections of strips. The iVerse Peanuts app is available at the iTunes store.
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The first three covers of the new Peanuts comic books (from left to right they are in number order). |
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As a special treat for collectors, the comic books were also printed with limited edition covers. |
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—Jean Schulz
Drawing from Experiences :: February 2012
Seeing Sparky's original comic strips (approximately 7" tall and 21" long) is always a learning experience because it seems that every ink line reveals a secret. Each has its own expression. A small change can express a jaunty walk, a depressed walk, a gleeful smile, a self-satisfied look. And many strips bring back personal memories.
The recently acquired strip below, from 1983, had its genesis in a trip to the beautiful State Park just below the town of Carmel on the Pacific Ocean. We went there with a couple who were good friends and neighbors. It was to take a class in scenic photography. Greta and I took the class while the men hiked and enjoyed the park. Greta was already a professional animal photographer; I was an amateur.
I don't remember everything we saw there that weekend. We did see couples walking hand-in-hand on the beach, but I am sure we didn't see any weddings in progress. So how Sparky came up with this delightful combination of the bird photographers, the wedding couple and Snoopy's expression of the irony at being in this exquisite landscape and taking photos that could have been anywhere.
A strip like this goes back to one of Sparky's cartooning beliefs and I heard him say it many times, that a cartoonist has to be able to use every experience he has, and he has to be able to sit down and cold-bloodedly come up with something. Otherwise, he would say, you can't put out a comic strip day after day, year after year.
It still amazes me how he did it.
 This Peanuts strip was originally published on July 1, 1983 |
—Jean Schulz
Naval Officers from Around the Globe
Visit the Museum :: January 2012
I was delighted to hear of plans for a group of Naval Officers from around the globe to visit the Museum. I was even more impressed than I expected to be by the visitors.
This all came about through a friendship dating back to the 1980s of Museum staffer, Lisa Zander, and William Ellis. The venue that brought them together? The Redwood Empire Ice Arena. It was December, 1986, and our first professional Christmas Ice Show - a Santa Rosa tradition which continued until 2003. When William and Lisa recently reacquainted, Lisa knew of William's position as United States Navy Commander, with the International Program at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island.
Lisa and Commander Ellis organized the visit of Naval Officers to the Museum. These elite officers were chosen to represent their countries, so this was a special honor for them to travel. They had a chance to see some of the articles and photos in the archives and ended their visit with a short tour of #1 Snoopy Place, the building where Sparky drew the comic strip for 25 years.
It was a great pleasure to meet these Naval Officers from as many as 25 different countries, including Cameroon, Malaysia, and Latvia.
Not all of the officers knew of the Peanuts characters, but I would like to think that in the future, they will remember these great ambassadors of American culture
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| Because the group was so large, they were divided into two
smaller groups as they toured the Museum and Sparky's studio at #1 Snoopy Place | |
 As a token of appreciation, the Officers presented me with a plate. |
 We were also able to get a group shot of all the Naval Officers in the Museum's Great Hall, in front of our Tile Mural Wall. |
—Jean Schulz
Billie Jean King Visits the Museum :: January 14 & 15 2012
I was looking forward to a reunion with Billie Jean King and was so glad to welcome the same person whose memory I held so fondly.
Sparky and Billie Jean became very close friends during their years of working and playing together. He held Billie Jean in very high esteem, naming her one of his heroes, and he frequently quoted stories she had told him over the years – mostly about winning, which Sparky took to heart. I think part of the tie between the two of them was that each recognized in the other the same dedication to being the best at what they had chosen to do.
Billie Jean was always very good to us, managing special passes for our two trips to Wimbledon and being a major support and great fun at Rosie Casals' Women's Senior Tennis Tournament at the Ice Arena in 1983, 1984 and 1985. Senior men played, too, in mixed doubles in 1985. Sparky enjoyed talking tennis and sports with Billie, and she graciously joined him on the court.
One of our guests, who had met Billie Jean in 1974, said she hadn't changed a bit and was just as personable and dedicated as she remembered. I agreed completely, and as I was listening to her talk I was amazed thinking about the qualities that are required to be successful in so many different realms. I was glad so many young women were able to visit the Museum exhibition on Title IX (celebrating 40 years in 2012), Leveling the Playing Field, hear Billie Jean's talk and later shake her hand. One of my friends commented on her expressiveness and energy and said "she reminds us we can do anything."
Billie Jean and I greeted the sponsors at a reception in our Education Room before she spoke to the Members at the Opening Reception. |
 Photo by Adriana Breisch |
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During the moderated conversation for our Museum members, I joined Billie Jean and Museum Director Karen Johnson on stage to talk about Billie Jean and Sparky’s friendship. |
In attendance at the event was Kathryn Olson (on left), Executive Director of the Women’s Sports Foundation, which was founded by Billie Jean; tennis great Rosie Casals (in red), who was also a friend of Sparky’s; and Eva Auchincloss (on right), the founding Executive Director of the Women’s Sports Foundation. |
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On Sunday, Billie Jean spoke to the general public, and again met with museum visitors. Our local newspaper, The Press Democrat, even covered the event. You can read more here. |
—Jean Schulz
Snoopy goes to Cuba :: January 2012
If you have been reading my blog since its infancy, you may remember the trip that sparked its first entry, a trip to Cuba. So it was very exciting when Justin Thompson, who was on that original trip, wanted there to be a representation of Snoopy in the everyday life of Cubans. To accomplish this, he returned to Cuba and painted a mural on a wall in Muraleando. Read more about it here.
—Jean Schulz
A Visitor's Treasure :: January 2012
There is almost never an uninteresting moment at the Museum. Visitors are invariably curious and interesting, and indeed the Museum has become a community in many ways, and people love to tell us their stories and they often bring us their Peanuts "finds" and "treasures."
Recently, William Kubran arrived at the Museum with a series of charcoal rubbings he made from a plaque at California State College at Hayward (now named California State University East Bay). He told the story of how at his commencement ceremony in 1967, Sparky was the convocation guest speaker, which left a memorable impression on him as a new graduate. The plaque commemorates that event with a wonderful quote. Kubran returned to his alma mater in the late 1990s to make these rubbings.
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The plaque reads: |
—Jean Schulz