Hello, Goodbye, Coffee Lane
June 3rd, 2008
Of his essay “Regarding Schulz and Peanuts,” in The Comics Journal #290, Monte Schulz comments at this link, “I’ve had my say, as I wanted to say it, and that’s it.” In that spirit, I’d like to offer a closing of my own.
When the biography came out last fall, there was something of a companion piece in the form of David Van Taylor’s documentary for the PBS series American Masters, “Good Ol’ Charles Schulz.” I posted a few moments of it at this link, because I feel the emotional core of the program is in the ten minutes about the Schulz family during their years living at Coffee Lane in Sebastopol, California. Here is the complete segment.
In my previous entry I included the song “Moon River,” and following the lead of the background music in the documentary, I used Henry Mancini’s recording. But in Monte’s essay he mentions the Andy Williams version, so I’ll toss that one in here.
Another song that Monte mentions in the video is “On The Street Where You Live,” from My Fair Lady. I don’t know if Monte is more familiar with the 1957 New York cast album in mono, or the 1959 London cast album in stereo.
First, John Michael King in the New York version…
… and now Leonard Weir in the London production.
And just in case it’s the movie soundtrack that strikes a nostalgic chord, here’s Bill Shirley singing for the late Jeremy Brett, who was later the best Sherlock Holmes there will probably ever be.
Filed under: All Posts, Charles M. Schulz
6 Comments Add your own
1. jeanie beanie | June 4th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Wait a minute! Doug, listen carefully. to John Michael King. Doesn’t he sound like the frog in “One Froggy Evening?”
2. Monte Schulz | June 6th, 2008 at 2:03 am
Thanks for showing that docu clip! Every time I see it, I think I look about seventy years old! I do appreciate those three versions of My Fair Lady. I think Leonard Weir’s appeals to me most. I believe it’s his voice on the soundtrack CD. I just listened to it after hearing your clip, then went back to the clip, and am pretty sure it’s his voice. Here’s something weird: I went to Book Expo America in LA last weekend to meet Gary Groth and my literary agent Philip Spitzer, and ran into Mark Evanier at the Fantagraphics booth. Then, ten minutes later, at the Information booth where I was trying to find Spitzer’s location, I ran into Jerry Beck who moderates over at Cartoon Brew. There must have been thousands of people at the BEA and I meet those two within ten minutes of my arrival. And they only knew me because of my name badge. I had a good time talking with Gary Groth and it looks as if we may be doing some literary business. And all because of the Michaelis biography. Life takes some odd turns now and again, doesn’t it? Meeting all of you made the experience worthwhile. Thanks for this site. My stepmother has sent many friends your way. One day you’ll have to explain to me how you find all those clips. It really is astounding.
3. DOuG pRATt | June 7th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
Hey, you can’t think you look old, Monte — you have your hair! Mine was gone at 28.
Thanks so much for the compliment about us fans, now friends. I think with so much emphasis on “Joyce-as-Lucy” in the book, it really was about you and your siblings. The strip really took off after you reached an age where you were more a young person expressing your own creativity, than a little kid doing funny little kid stuff — Snoopy and the Red Baron being only the most obvious influence you had on your father. Michaelis missed so much by emphasizing the things he did. He just didn’t “get it,” but we’re done with that discussion, right?
So you’ve seen Mr. Mark Evanier, from your appearance on Shokus Internet Radio? In person there’s less of Mark than there was, thanks to his gastric bypass! What I like a lot about Evanier is how even-handed he is with everything he handles. He’s truly a fair and balanced kind of guy.
I don’t know if I mentioned that I corresponded with Gary Groth for a while, way back in high school, close to 40 years ago. I’m sure he would have no recollection of that. Good luck on business opportunities with Mr. Groth. He’s got a great operation going there, with Fantagraphics. When he was a wee lad he got his start with a comics fanzine called Fantastic Fanzine.
I’m involved in a small way with a project for a network TV news division. The producer has me asked me to say nothing about it on the blog. Also, a totally bizarre plot twist has come to light regarding the history of the song “Snoopy and the Red Baron” that I am likewise pledged to not discuss publicly. I’ll fill you in via e-mail.
The video clips are mostly done on my computer with a program called Pinnacle Studio, then made Web-ready with an Open Source tool called FFMPEG, but some I download from YouTube and re-post.
4. Joan Stringer | November 2nd, 2008 at 9:52 pm
Hi Doug! I’m glad that Monte is one of your readers/post-bloggers, and that you have a link to Mark Evanier’s blog. After I finish at your site, I like to pop over to Mark’s site. And Monte, continued success in your endeavors! I was commenting here because you mentioned Jeremy Brett. Our PBS station carried one of the hour-long Sherlock Holmes mysteries from the ’80s tonight. I had watched them on the Biography Channel when they had British mysteries on Sunday afternoons. I like his portrayal of Sherlock Holmes and liked Basil Rathbone, only I wish his movies were of the original era when Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote his stories, and not WW2 stories. I can’t get used to seeing cars in Holmes stories.
5. DOuG pRATt | November 2nd, 2008 at 10:29 pm
Having Monte appear on this blog for the first time — already a year ago — was quite a surprise. I went through quite a change of opinion about the biography of Charles M. while reading it, because the tone of the book was unremittingly downbeat. That reminds me. I need to publish a Peanuts post to get caught up.
Evanier I’ve been aware of since the spring of 1967! That’s a long time. But I didn’t actually meet him until last year. I’ll be seeing him again in New York City in a couple of weeks.
A Saturday night ritual I had in high school before I had my driver’s license was after working my restaurant job I’d watch the Holmes movies with Rathbone/Bruce on a Boston UHF station. Then I got my driver’s license, and soon had a girlfriend, and that was the end of that Saturday routine!
Something else that comes to mind, because you’ve commented on a post from some months back, is that one of my college friends told me he tried to look my blog, but found it too daunting — “There’s too much there!” There are currently over 1300 posts.
6. Joan Stringer | November 3rd, 2008 at 10:01 pm
WOW! That just goes to show that your blog is very interesting when you have alot of posts! Finding keywords of posts is easy and is where the “Search” function comes in handy, plus you have the categories listed so i find it easy to find posts that fit the comment I have. We love your blog, Doug!
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