There are other memorable characters in the "Peanuts" comic strip. Lucy mistrusts everyone. She often seems angry. Schroeder plays a small toy piano. Every year he celebrates the birthday of composer Ludwig von Beethoven. Linus always carries a blanket to feel secure. Peppermint Patty is good at sports. She likes Charlie Brown very much and is the only one who calls him "Chuck."
Charles Schulz said he saw himself in some of his characters. He recognized himself in Charlie Brown's continued failures. In Snoopy's humor. In Lucy's moments of anger. And in the insecure feelings of Linus. Some of the situations in "Peanuts" seem to have developed from Mister Schulz's own life experiences.
VOICE ONE:
In nineteen sixty-seven, the "Peanuts" characters starred in a musical play. "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" was first performed in New York City. It later became the most produced musical in America. A new production opened on Broadway in New York in nineteen ninety-nine. The actors in the Broadway version of the musical sing a song called "Happiness."
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Charles Schulz brought happiness to millions of people. He was born in nineteen twenty-two in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was a barber who cut men's hair. When Charles was five, his teacher told him: "Some day, Charles, you are going to be an artist." But he sometimes had trouble with his school work. In high school, he was poor at sports. He was afraid to ask a girl to go out with him. His high school publication rejected some of his drawings he hoped it would publish.
At age seventeen, Charles began studying art. He took a class by mail from a Minnesota art school. This was the only art education he ever had.
VOICE ONE:
Then came World War Two. Mister Schulz served in the United States Army. During this period he very much enjoyed a comic strip about soldiers called "Willie and Joe."
Cartoonist Bill Mauldin drew this strip. Charles Schulz had Snoopy remember Bill Mauldin every year on the American holiday that honors former soldiers.
VOICE TWO:
After the war, Mister Schulz taught at an art school. He fell in love with another employee. She was a young woman with red hair. However, this red-haired woman married someone else. Mister Schulz said he thought she chose another man because her mother believed Charles Schulz would never succeed in life.
This woman's rejection must have been painful for Mister Schulz. Yet in later years he developed the failed romance into an interesting situation for "Peanuts." The red-haired woman became the little red-haired girl Charlie Brown likes so much. True to history, this girl does not care much for Charlie Brown. But he never stops thinking she is wonderful.