Happiness … 11 curiosities about Charles Schulz – Lo Spazio Bianco

There are authors and works that one will never stop following and loving. Charles Schulz so is it Peanuts They fall exactly into this category: the more you get to know them, the more one will want to go deeper into them, not for the simple intellectual interest but for the pure, honest pleasure of staying a little longer within their world.
world, world Peanutswhich It had a huge impact on mass culture. Who does not know the names of Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Linus? Who has never owned something, be it a school diary, a T-shirt, a keyring, or any of the thousands of products made from it, with their cute and reassuring images?
There is one fact that cannot be denied: Schulz and his characters are universally lovedby a few billion people. They have entered the lives of eight generations of readers and will surely enter the lives of generations to come.
Much has been and will be written about Schulze: there are few aspects of his life that some scholars have not analyzed or told himself.
And the analysis of all these sources (sometimes contradictory, sometimes subject to different interpretations) was the basis of our analysis. funny stuffthe world’s first attempt to find out Schulz’s life is in comics and according to the formula that made him great: the comic strip.
Great readings that surprised us on more than one occasion and also formed the basis for the article you are reading. Did you know that Schulze’s nickname Sparky comes from the name of a comic book character? Do you know the address Peanuts imposed byUnited Features Syndicate And that Schulz hates him? Did you know that Charlie Brown was Schultz’s classmate when he was a drawing teacher and that many other characters from… Peanuts Did they adopt the names of his friends and acquaintances?
Well, if you are passionate about the subject, of course you know!
Here are 11 things you may not have heard of yet.

Charles Schulz didn’t come up with the name Snoopy

1943 was not an easy year for Schulz. Two events happened almost simultaneously: Sparky was drafted into the army and his mother, Dina, died of cancer. And the memory that accompanied Schulz in the following years concerns a specific moment when the mother, already ill, said, referring to the dogs the family had: “If we get another dog, we should name him SnoopyAfter the death of the woman, Schulz went to war in Europe and thus opened a new chapter in his life. But this name must have remained in his head if, a few years later, he decided to christen what would become the most famous eagle dog in the world. Curiosity: in one of the drafts The first scenario snow white One of the Disney dwarves was named Snoopy. Who knows, if the name was kept, how else would Scholz decide to name Charlie Brown’s dog!

Charles Schulz started his career in comedy as a writer

Schulz was willing to accept any kind of job to get into the comics industry. In fact, his first work in the industry was not related to graphics or humor, but rather lettering. From 1946 to 1947, Schultz was responsible for writing scripts for comics for the Catholic magazine topix. This work allowed him to gain speed and confidence in writing his own comics for years to come. His beautiful plan also proved practical at home: Scholz employed his father Carl’s help in rewriting notes taken as secretary at the Master Barbers’ Society, so that they could then be entered in the official Book of Barbers in beautiful handwriting.

Charles Schulz attracted adults Peanuts

If in the first strips it happened that some adults spoke while remaining off screen, it is not true that in Peanuts Adults are not framed. In fact, on some occasions it can be seen in pictures (eg, President Eisenhower at a Sunday table on May 31, 1998) or represented in a style different from the classic one by Schulz (as in the November 11, 1998 strip, of which Bill Mauldin Joe and Willie drawing). However, there is an occasion when you are on Peanuts The “real” adults stand out: they are the people present at Lucy’s golf tournament on Sundays May 9, 16, 23, and 30, 1954. Only their distant legs or figures can be seen, but they are there. It is definitive proof of that, in a world PeanutsThe adults are here!

Charles Schulz is the author of other cartoons besides Peanuts

Obviously, it was Schulz’s fame that delivered it Peanuts, but after its success, Sparky also made comics with other characters. One of them is tape It’s just a game, published from 1957 to 1959; The tape is intended for sports and is made of Jim Sasville, a fellow teacher in Art Instruction. Another comic is a series of funny cartoons with a religious theme that were published in the magazine youths from 1955 to 1965. Also in the 1950s Schulz produced some audition tapes for a new comic, very similar to Peanuts But with adult characters rather than children. was the address Hagemeyer, But it will never be published.

Charles Schulz has only had two canvases in his entire career

In a world where digital was not an option, most cartoonists worked to tilt the drawing tables. Schulz was one of them. During his career, Scholz has only worked on two different artboards. The first was purchased in 1946 with his first salary as a teacher at Art Instruction Inc. Then, when Schulz purchased the second table in 1971, the first was placed in his home, while the new table became his studio table at 1 Snoopy Place. Once Lynn Johnstontape author for the better Or for worseI noticed an area of ​​the table top particularly worn out. Schulz asked what was the reason. He replied, “Hard work.”

Charles Schulz sent the first beagle to the moon

In the March 14, 1969 strip, after days of preparation and traveling in his doghouse, Snoopy lands on the moon. But this is just a prelude to a larger, more real journey that happened a couple of months later, when NASA launched the Apollo 10 mission. It was a kind of rehearsal for Apollo 11, which on July 20 of that year brought the first men to set foot on our satellite. On similar missions, it was customary for NASA astronauts to choose identifying names for the various components of the vehicle, and in the case of Apollo 10, the capsule (where the astronauts were) was named “Charlie Brown”, while the lunar module was baptized “Snoopy”. And so our favorite little dog reached the moon for the second time in two months.

Charles Schulz loved ice shows

Schulz loved sports and played a wide variety of them (he even took aerobics classes for a while). Ice sports, especially skiing and hockey, were among his favorites. So much so that when the old ice rink in Santa Rosa, where he lived, closed, he and his wife Joyce decided to build another one, which opened in 1969. From 1986, the tradition of Christmas shows began: great musical events starring Peanuts characters. Schulz said they were his gift to society. But in reality, the entire arena was a gift, since running the facility in the late 1980s cost Schulz about $1 million a year.

Charles Schulz was happy to honor the drawings

Before going to his studio, Scholz ate breakfast every morning in the Santa Rosa ice arena cafeteria. There, seated at his table, cafeteria patrons stopped and chatted with him. Once, Jenny, Schulz’s second wife, even before they met, asked a friend of her daughter’s to come to Schulz’s table to get her autograph. Schulz drew her Snoopy on a napkin, which she still keeps today. A year later, the two got married. Jenny used to call Schulz”sweet babu‘, a nickname Sally would later use to call Linus nei Peanuts (translated into Italian as “my golden monkey”).

Charles Schulz was captain

In October 1992 Schulz made a trip to Rome, where he was awarded the Commendatore Badge of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. Well, yes, Charles Schulz was the commander-in-chief! On this occasion Schulz met Federico Fellini and opened the exhibition “The World of Snoopy” also in Rome. Cathy Jesuite, colleague and author of the tape CathySchulz, she recalls, proudly wore the medal at the evening of her Rubin Award, in 1993: “He looked like a king with a Commendatore Medal“.

Charles Schulz and the hole in one fell swoop

Schulz’s relationship with golf began as a child, when he watched instructional films by Bobby Jones, and continued when he was a little older than that, he began working as a caddy at Highland National Golf Course in St. Paul, Minnesota. Schulz began playing around the age of 15 and loved golf so much that in early 1981, just five months after undergoing quadriceps surgery, he returned to the tee. Sparky always showed great regret: he never hit the hole with a single shot. In fact, he did it once: at a tournament in California, in 1995, Sparky hit the ball at the end and sent it straight into the hole. It is unfortunate that, due to the difference in ground level, it was not possible to see the hatch from its position. So Schulz had no way of enjoying his much-needed moment of victory. half satisfied.

Charles Schulz once took a vacation

Vulgate wants Charles Schulz to work on it Peanuts continuously, making one bar a day for fifty years. In fact, things aren’t quite like this: In addition to the fact that Schulz didn’t draw a daily strip, preferring to work in weekly blocks of strips whose order could be changed until the last minute, in 1997 the author of Peanuts Leave if he took it and how. The result was that, in the five weeks between November 27 and December 31 of that year, the newspapers did not publish unpublished gags but reprinted a selection of the strips that originally appeared between 1987 and 1992.
In short, it is not true that Schultz worked continuously for fifty years. But for forty-seven yes.

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