Coffee Lane and Moon River
The American Masters documentary Good Ol’ Charles Schulz was a surprise to me in a number of ways. I had expected the early years to be of greatest interest, but I feel the core of the program is actually the 10-minute segment about Coffee Lane. Monte Schulz characterizes his family’s time there as “those dear, dead days.”
Thirty seconds of Coffee Lane are on the video player. I took the picture in the preview frame from later in the segment. That’s a great shot, isn’t it?
Thanks again to Monte for contributing a comment to this blog. The audio player has the music that reminds him so much of Coffee Lane in Sebastopol, CA — Henry Mancini’s ‘Moon River’. For myself, the equivalent would be Peter, Paul & Mary records on Adams Lane in Norwalk, CT.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Back in St. Paul, one of Charles Schulz’s favorite recording artists was Jo Stafford. I have found no reference to her in the Michaelis book, and I think that’s a serious omission. Below is a song sung by Jo, called ‘No Other Love’.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
This record was popular on the radio in September, 1950 — after Sparky had lost Donna, and before he married Joyce. Keep that in mind, play it again, and listen carefully to the lyrics.
3 comments November 8th, 2007