Baseball is an ongoing theme in Peanuts. This strip is the first that references particular players, in this case Stan Musial, Ted Williams, and Roy Campanella. Bach, Beethoven and Brahms all appear earlier in one manner or another. In case you're wondering, Joe Shlabotnik does not appear until 1963.
June 24, 1954
Strip from The Complete Peanuts 1953-1954
These are the results and standings for June 24, 1954
This was the Billboard #1 song on June 24, 1954. It also topped the charts for the year.
Honestly I've never been a fan of this style of music that was characteristic of the 1940's and 1950's. Rock and Roll was beginning though, by 1954, and these two songs made the top 30 for the year:
#4
#30
Elvis recorded "That's All Right on July 7, 1954 at Sun Studio
Poor Charlie Brown. I've never seen this one! Love the card reference! I'm actually a big fan of 50s/60s "lounge" music, finding it most relaxing.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of Kitty Kallen until today. She even has a trading card. It's in the 1991 Starline Hollywood Walk of Fame set. Schroeder would disagree with you btw.
ReplyDeleteAbout Charlie Brown.
DeleteAs an avid newspaper reader as a kid, I was quite familiar with Peanuts and all the characters. I'd also check out some of the Peanuts compilations from the school library. But the real trip was going to my grandma's. My uncle had a bunch of old Peanuts comic books from the '50s -- I mean, pre-Lucy and Linus Peanuts comic books. It was so weird to see the characters from this time. The larger heads, how prominent Sherman was a character, etc.
ReplyDeleteThat's hat's great about the Fantagraphics Complete Peanuts. Even by the 60's when I started collecting Peanuts Fawcett Crest books they weren't reprinting the early strips. Who knew that when Lucy first arrives Charlie Brown is her babysitter.
DeleteKitty sure was pretty.
ReplyDeleteFuji the poet.
DeleteI try ;)
DeleteI love when you talk Peanuts! :D
ReplyDeleteSomewhere around here I have a coffee table book called "Sandlot Peanuts" which collects a large number of baseball-themed Peanuts strips. I need to dig that out and maybe write a post about it.
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, I hadn't known when Joe Shlabotnik made his Peanuts debut.