Happy Birthday, Sparky! The man who launched a beloved comic strip about kids and a loveable beagle would have been 100 this week! I'm one of tens of millions for whom his genius was an inspiration!
Sweet post that brings back a lot of memories. I was fortunate to meet Chuck Jones at an event in Houston after he published his autobiography and we talked about storytelling for a minute. He said the crux of his Bugs/Daffy cartoons came down to this: “Bugs Bunny is who we want to be; Daffy Duck is who we are.”
Second story: I grew up across the street from a childless couple who “adopted” me and my sister as their own. Fran was a huge Peanuts fan.
Her brother, Roy Burgold, as it turns out, was the head of advertising for McDonald’s from the 1970s through the 1990s. (He created/refined the Ronald McDonald character and was in charge of the creative for the fast food chain.)
In the mid 1970s, Roy became good friends with Schulz thanks to McDonald’s long-running Peanuts campaign. In 1975, a large form hardback was published to commemorate the cartoon’s 25th anniversary, and Roy sent Fran a copy, complete with a Schulz dedication and a personalized Snoopy.
I was 10 at the time, and I can’t begin to tell you how many hours I spent with that book. So when Fran died, I asked Roy if I could have it. Despite some initial hesitation (personalized Schulz drawings apparently are rare), he agreed as long as I had the page taken out of the book and kept behind museum quality glass.
Fifteen years later, it’s still hanging in my basement.
Chills........HUGE addition, Glenn! Thanks! Amazing stories. Great Jones story, too! I met him at his Newport Beach gallery (sometime in the '80s...some new book was out; I don't think it was his autobio). I can't recall asking him anything; we had the time, but I was just unprepared!...Good on ya for braving a question! His reply is classic.
I remember reading somewhere that one of the key components of Bugs' character was that HE never started anything! He'd only retaliate when HE was pestered...then, and only then, "Of course you realize, this means war!" He'd be nothing but a thug (and nowhere near as endearing and loveable) if HE was the one with that 'tude and started stuff!!
An amazing Burgold/Schulz story and connection! And, ANY (as you can imagine) personalized character drawings by comic artists are indeed rare and highly valued! I envy the 10-year-old Glenn who received such a special artifact from which to enjoy the comic! A decade earlier, mid-'60s, when I was 10, I remember somehow being given permission (and using allowance money) to order a box full of Peanuts paperback compilations!
Oh, the day I trundled home from school and found THAT box waiting for me (full disclosure: I did something similar a couple years later with MAD Magazine compilation paperbacks)!!😱Thanks again, Glenn, for a fabulous comment!
Nice post. It was fun to read those old comics. The other day NPR ran a special on the music of Vince Guaraldi, who of course wrote and recorded all the music for the Peanuts TV specials. As Lee Mendelsohn, the producer told it, one day, on the way to the airport, he heard something on the radio that completely hooked him. After several phone calls, he tracked down the artist, a jazz musician named Vince Guaraldi, and asked him to write the music for a TV special he was working on. The special became “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
Wow, cool story! I never knew how Guaraldi was corralled! Bumped into a guy at my local Panera Saturday, whose 5-year-old was looking at a Peanuts cartoon on his tablet. I congratulated the dad on exposing his kid to such classic toonage, and I asked him whose birthday today (Sat) was. He cited an NPR special (or mention, anyway) that mentioned it was Charles Schulz's 100th! Can't get anything by NPR, it would seem! Good grief.😉Thanks for reading, Charles, for the kind words, and for commenting!
It was one of the clearest examples of win-win I have heard of. With any other music, the Peanuts series would likely not be as fondly remembered as they are. And working on that series made Guaraldi a star. Sad that he died so young.
Sweet post that brings back a lot of memories. I was fortunate to meet Chuck Jones at an event in Houston after he published his autobiography and we talked about storytelling for a minute. He said the crux of his Bugs/Daffy cartoons came down to this: “Bugs Bunny is who we want to be; Daffy Duck is who we are.”
Second story: I grew up across the street from a childless couple who “adopted” me and my sister as their own. Fran was a huge Peanuts fan.
Her brother, Roy Burgold, as it turns out, was the head of advertising for McDonald’s from the 1970s through the 1990s. (He created/refined the Ronald McDonald character and was in charge of the creative for the fast food chain.)
In the mid 1970s, Roy became good friends with Schulz thanks to McDonald’s long-running Peanuts campaign. In 1975, a large form hardback was published to commemorate the cartoon’s 25th anniversary, and Roy sent Fran a copy, complete with a Schulz dedication and a personalized Snoopy.
I was 10 at the time, and I can’t begin to tell you how many hours I spent with that book. So when Fran died, I asked Roy if I could have it. Despite some initial hesitation (personalized Schulz drawings apparently are rare), he agreed as long as I had the page taken out of the book and kept behind museum quality glass.
Fifteen years later, it’s still hanging in my basement.
Chills........HUGE addition, Glenn! Thanks! Amazing stories. Great Jones story, too! I met him at his Newport Beach gallery (sometime in the '80s...some new book was out; I don't think it was his autobio). I can't recall asking him anything; we had the time, but I was just unprepared!...Good on ya for braving a question! His reply is classic.
I remember reading somewhere that one of the key components of Bugs' character was that HE never started anything! He'd only retaliate when HE was pestered...then, and only then, "Of course you realize, this means war!" He'd be nothing but a thug (and nowhere near as endearing and loveable) if HE was the one with that 'tude and started stuff!!
An amazing Burgold/Schulz story and connection! And, ANY (as you can imagine) personalized character drawings by comic artists are indeed rare and highly valued! I envy the 10-year-old Glenn who received such a special artifact from which to enjoy the comic! A decade earlier, mid-'60s, when I was 10, I remember somehow being given permission (and using allowance money) to order a box full of Peanuts paperback compilations!
Oh, the day I trundled home from school and found THAT box waiting for me (full disclosure: I did something similar a couple years later with MAD Magazine compilation paperbacks)!!😱Thanks again, Glenn, for a fabulous comment!
Nice post. It was fun to read those old comics. The other day NPR ran a special on the music of Vince Guaraldi, who of course wrote and recorded all the music for the Peanuts TV specials. As Lee Mendelsohn, the producer told it, one day, on the way to the airport, he heard something on the radio that completely hooked him. After several phone calls, he tracked down the artist, a jazz musician named Vince Guaraldi, and asked him to write the music for a TV special he was working on. The special became “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.
Wow, cool story! I never knew how Guaraldi was corralled! Bumped into a guy at my local Panera Saturday, whose 5-year-old was looking at a Peanuts cartoon on his tablet. I congratulated the dad on exposing his kid to such classic toonage, and I asked him whose birthday today (Sat) was. He cited an NPR special (or mention, anyway) that mentioned it was Charles Schulz's 100th! Can't get anything by NPR, it would seem! Good grief.😉Thanks for reading, Charles, for the kind words, and for commenting!
It was one of the clearest examples of win-win I have heard of. With any other music, the Peanuts series would likely not be as fondly remembered as they are. And working on that series made Guaraldi a star. Sad that he died so young.
HUGE Peanuts fan here and I felt the same way when Sparky Shultz passed on. Such a great talent and thanks for this great post. Loved it!
Thanks, Mark....glad you like! It was a blast to collate, needless to say!🥳👍