Museum Draws on 'Peanuts' Legacy

By: Dave Astor Happiness is a warm ... Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center.

"We wanted a homey feel," said Jeannie Schulz, speaking to E&P Online outside the low-key building here that commemorates her late husband and his "Peanuts" comic.

Inside the 27,384-foot museum are such things as a timeline of Schulz's life (1922-2000), his childhood eyeglasses, a German helmet he kept as a World War II souvenir, his many awards, family photos, licensed products, ads using "Peanuts" characters, early promotional material from United Feature Syndicate, pre-comic sketches, and a look at "Peanuts" in different languages (it's called "Radishes" in Denmark and "Small Fry" in Holland).

On the museum's walls, visitors can see two Yoshiteru Otani creations: a 7,000-pound wooden sculpture of Snoopy morphing into his various personas, and a 17-by-22-foot tile mosaic on which 3,588 "Peanuts" comic images outline Charlie Brown trying to kick that football held by Lucy. Upstairs, there's an entire nursery-room wall transported from a Colorado Springs house -- where Schulz lived briefly during the early 1950s -- covered by art the cartoonist painted for his daughter Meredith. Even the museum's bathroom walls feature "Peanuts" strips.

Then there's a re-creation of Schulz's studio, which had been located a few minutes from the museum site when the cartoonist was alive. Included are Schulz's drawing board and desk, as well as dozens of books from his extensive and eclectic library. Among the volumes: books by cartoonists such as Herblock and Bill Mauldin, Ernie Pyle's War, books about religion, books about golf, biographies of such notables as Shakespeare and Abraham Lincoln, and novels such as The Great Gatsby and Anna Karenina.

But exit interviews conducted in December by the museum revealed that displays of original "Peanuts" strips are the building's most popular attraction. "They're the heart and soul of the museum," said Ruth Gardner Begell, the museum's director. "Schulz's work was not only beautiful and funny, but so important culturally and cross-culturally for so long."

There are 7,000-plus "Peanuts" strips in the museum's collection, with displays changing every three or four months. Also, a current exhibit shows other cartoonists' tributes to Schulz.

The museum (http://www.SchulzMuseum.org) opened last August, and is now drawing about 5,000 visitors a month. Adding to that total May 25 were several hundred National Cartoonists Society meeting attendees, who traveled to the museum from San Francisco on the invitation of Jeannie Schulz.

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New Anchor for Opinion Pages

Cronkite Discusses His Upcoming Column

After more than six decades in journalism, Walter Cronkite will start his first syndicated column in early August.

Not that he hadn't been asked to write one before. "I was doing news on TV," the former CBS anchor told E&P Online. "I did not feel it was appropriate to do commentary at the same time."

Cronkite, 86, also feels the need to write an opinion column now because he's unhappy with the Bush administration's foreign and domestic policies. "But I'm not exactly pleased with the Democrats, either," he observed. "I'm liberally inclined but definitely not partisan."

Why not express his views on TV rather than in a column? Cronkite said he likes the flexibility of a weekly feature that can be written during any of seven days, compared to a TV spot that would need to be taped on a certain day. And, said Cronkite, "Nobody invited me to do commentary for television."

But King Features Syndicate invited Cronkite to do commentary for newspapers. Managing Editor Glenn Mott approached Cronkite about a year ago after reading a New York Times piece Cronkite wrote about the increasing corporatization of the media. "They [King] dreamed it [the column] up -- or maybe it was a wild nightmare they were having," Cronkite commented wryly.

King isn't losing sleep, because initial sales of the column are good -- though Mott declined to give an exact figure.

Mott said Cronkite is still "an extremely active and extremely sharp" man who never really retired after stepping down as CBS News anchor in 1981. (He was succeeded by Dan Rather, who, coincidentally, also writes a King column.) During the past 22 years, Cronkite has been a special correspondent for CBS News, co-founded a company that has produced more than 60 documentaries, and has written his autobiography.

Cronkite began his journalism career in the 1930s at newspapers and radio stations before covering World War II for United Press. He joined CBS in 1950.

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Paper Pulls Martha Stewart

'Palm Beach Post' Cites Her Indictment

At least one of Martha Stewart's 200-plus newspaper clients -- The Palm Beach Post of West Palm Beach, Fla. -- has suspended her column since her June 4 indictment on insider-trading charges.

"Our reasoning is simple: When a columnist is indicted for lying, we suspend the column," said Post Associate Editor Jan Tuckwood, as quoted by C.B. Hanif, the paper's ombudsman.

Tuckwood reported that about 10 readers phoned to protest the suspension. The callers argued that Stewart is innocent until proven guilty and that there's "no connection" between her column and "her personal monetary woes."

Stewart is distributed by the New York Times Syndicate.

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Happenings at Hollister

New Supplements, Site, and M.E.

Hollister Kids, which offers NIE supplements and weekly features, is offering 10 new supplements for 2003-4. One of them is Iraq: Conflict & Challenge -- an updated version of the Iraq: How We Came to War supplement of earlier this year.

Also, Hollister is continuing to offer clients the option of buying its weekly "Newspaper Plus" feature in four-week increments. This option started during the war.

In addition, the company has expanded and redesigned its Web site (http://www.hollisterkids.com). The site organizes materials in cross-referenced categories -- similar to the systems in libraries -- to make it easier for NIE managers to find what they need.

And Hollister recently hired Wendy Harris as managing editor. She was formerly with the Philadelphia Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Black Enterprise magazine.

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New TV Column to Be a 'Reality'

McDonough Will Cover Popular Show Genre

"Tune in Tonight" writer Kevin McDonough is doing a second column for United Feature Syndicate called "Reality Update."

The new weekly feature -- which starts July 14 -- offers recaps, comments, and predictions about the many reality shows on TV these days.