Charles Schultz


 

             Charles Schult              

 

By Allison H (C)

Peanuts.jpg Peanuts image by debbie01_bucket

 

 

Biography and Career

      Charles Schultz was born on November 26,1922 in Minneapolils, Minnesota, but he grew up in St.Paul. He was an only child of Carl Schultz and Dena. Charles Schultz attended St.Pauls Richard Gordon Elementary School.  Charles Schultz skipped 2 grades because he was the youngest at his Central High School. 

        In February 1943, after his mom died, he was drafted into the United States Army where he went to Camp Campbell in Kentucky.  Two years later, he was shipped to Europe to fight in World War II. 

          After he left the army in 1945, he worked as  art teacher at Art Instruction, Inc.  Before his comics were published, he began dong lettering work for a Catholic magazine called Timeless Topic.  He would go back and forth from dropping off this lettering work and teaching his art classes.

          Schultz drawings were first published by Robert Ripley for Ripley's Believe It or Not!, but his first cartoons was published by the company Li'l Folks.  These cartoons were published from 1947 to 1950.  His first character Charlie Brown was used at Li'l Folks.  In 1948, Schultz sold a cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post.  In 1948 Schultz tried to have Li'l Folks be in the Newspaper Enterprise Association, but they didn't want the deal so Li'l Folks was dropped in January of 1950.

          In the late 1950's,  Schultz went to the United Feature Syndicate with his comic strips from Li'l Folks.The United Feature Synidicate liked his strips and Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2, 1950. There he signed a deal for 5 years and they shared 50/50 profits. When the Syndicate wanted to name the the comic strip "Peanuts",  Shultz hated it! To him "peanuts" meant unimportant. But he agreed.  The comic strip became super popular!  The strip was in 7 different newspapers.  Other than Peanuts,  Schultz also had another comic strip called It's Only A Game, from 1957-1959.  But they dropped that comic strip because Peanuts became very popular.

      Some of the Peanuts characters were based from Charles Schultz  life.......

 

        : Charles Schultz father was a barber and his mother was a housewife, just like Charlie Brown                             

        : Lucy was inspired by Joyce Halverson, his first wife

        : Linus and Shermy were both named after his really good friends, Linus Maurer and Sherman Plepler

        : Perpermint Patty was inspired by his cousin on his mothers side, Patricia Swanson

 

      In October, 1952 the comic strip spreads to 40 different U.S. papers.  He also started teaching again.  He is an art teacher and loves teaching people how to draw art.   He teaches cartoon drawing classes and has his own studio.  By 1958,  "Peanuts" is in 355 U.S newspapers and in 40 foregin dailies.

 

     The Peanuts characters are.........................Charlie_Brown.gif charlie brown image by adidas99999

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Death

         In November of 1999, Schultz suffered from a stroke.  Later he was told that he had colon cancer and he needed chemotherapy.   Because of chemotherapy he couldn't really read well and write also.  So on December 14, 1999 he annouced that he was retiring.  It made Schultz very sad to see his career ending.  He qouted on The Today Show" I never dreamed that this would happen to me. I always had the feeling that I would stay with the strip until I was in my early eighties, or something like that. But all of sudden it's gone. I did not take it away. This has been taken away from me."  Sadly on February 12, 2000, Schultz died at the age of 77.  He had complications with his cancer.  He was buried at Pleasant Hills Cementary in Sebastopol. 

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Awards

        Charles Schultz recieved the National Cartoonist Society Humor Comic Strip Award in 1962 for Peanuts, the Reuben Award,  the Society Elzie Segar Award,  and the Milton Caniff Lifetime Achievement Award.  Charles Schultz also loved hockey! So in 1981, he was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for great contributions to hockey in the US.  Also he got put into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993 and the Figure Skating Hall Of fame in 2007.  On June 28,  1996,  Schulz was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, just like to Walt Disney's.  On June, 7, 2001 the United States Congress awarded Schulz the Congressional Gold Medal.  Since Shultz wasen't alive, his wife Jean accepted the award for Shultz.

 

 

                                       Schulz's Congressional Gold Medal                                   charlie_brown.gif real charlie brown image by jeano49                                

                                                                                                                            

 Chalres Schultz at age                  Li'l Folks was first created          Schulz's Congressional Gold Medal            Main Character of Peanuts.

 72.                                                 in 1947

 

 

 

 

                                                                

    One of the most famous comic strips created by Charles Schultz

 

 

 

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     Watch Charlie Browns Christmas!!!! 

 

 

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Sources

 

 

http://www.illustration-house.com/bios/schulz_bio.html

 

 http://www.snoopy.com/

 

http://www.schulzmuseum.org/timeline.html

 

http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-schulz

 

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/schulz_c.html