QUARANTINE BLOG # 120

July 28, 2020

Olivia de Havilland, the actress beloved to millions as the sainted Melanie Wilkes of “Gone With the Wind” died Sunday at her home in Paris. At 104, she the last surviving lead from GWTW.  Playing Melanie, de Havilland remembered the movie as “one of the happiest experiences I’ve ever had in my life.  It was doing something I wanted to do, playing a character I loved and liked.”

She was Errol Flynn’s co-star in a series of dramas, Westerns and period pieces, most memorably as Maid Marian in “The Adventures of Robin Hood.”  After seeing Kevin Costner star as “Robin Hood Prince of Thieves,” one movie goer remembered Errol Flynn as the real Robin Hood, not the newcomer.

De Havilland earned her first Academy Award in 1946 for her performance in “To Each His Own,” a melodrama about out-of-wedlock birth.  A second Oscar came three years later for “The Heiress,” in which she portrayed a plain young homebody (as plain as it was possible to make de Havilland).

👉  Regis Francis Xavier Philbin, known as “the hardest working man in show business,” died at his home Friday.  He was 88.  He got his first network TV exposure in 1967 as Joey Bishop’s sidekick on The Joey Bishop Show.  He was most widely known as the co-host of the New York City-based nationally syndicated talk show “Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee,” starting in 1988, which became “Live! with Regis and Kelly in 2001.”  Philbin debuted and hosted the US version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” “Million Dollar Password,” and the first season of “America’s Got Talent.”  He holds the Guinness World Record for the most hours on U.S. television.

👉  In case you missed it, the Washington football team will call itself the “Washington Football Team,” effective immediately.  This is not a final renaming and rebranding for the team – this is the name it will use until the adoption of a new name, so that FedEx, Nike, Amazon et al will continue to give them millions of dollars.  The team hopes to be entirely rid of the old name on physical and digital spaces by the September 13 regular-season opener against the Philadelphia Eagles.  Somehow the new almost-name doesn’t fit into the old fight song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQln1qbLnes

👉   And now we return to one of the best comic strips of all time, Peanuts, and Charles Schulz’s alter ego, Charlie Brown, the Round Headed Kid.

Warning!  Rabbit hole!  “Alter ego” is a person’s secondary or alternative personality. “Altar ego” is a book by Craig Groeschel, which is about becoming who God says you are.  We return you now to our regularly scheduled comic strip.

Charlie Brown is one of the great American archetypes and a popular and widely recognized cartoon character.  He is the only Peanuts character to have been a part of the strip throughout its 50-year run.  Charlie Brown is easily recognized by his trademark zigzag patterned shirt.  Notice the colors – gold and black, like a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.  Maybe that explains why he frequently suffers, and as a result is usually nervous and lacks self-confidence (like blowing a 4 run lead in the top of the 9th at the home opener).

Charlie Brown’s name was first used on May 30, 1948, in an early Schulz comic strip called Lil’ Folks, in which one boy has buried another in a sandbox and then denies that he has seen the other boy – Charlie Brown – when asked. He made his official debut in the first Peanuts comic strip on October 2, 1950.

This strip from November 1, 1950, may be why Shermy hates Charlie Brown:

The first time we Charlie Brown played baseball was in the March 6, 1951 strip.  He was warming up before telling Shermy that they can start the game.  However, he was the catcher, not yet the pitcher.

The first time Charlie Brown was called “blockhead” was by Violet Gray on August 16, 1951:

The November 16, 1952 strip is the first strip in which Charlie Brown was prevented by Lucy van Pelt from kicking a football.

Charlie Brown first began flying a kite on April 25, 1952 strip – no tree was involved:

In early 1959, Charlie Brown (along with other Peanuts characters) made his first animated appearances after the gang was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company in commercials for its automobiles, as well as for intros to The Tennessee Ernie Ford Show.

While the Tennessee Ernie Ford Show ended in 1961, the deal between Charles Schulz and the Ford Motor Company lasted another three years.  Schulz and animator Bill Meléndez became friends, and in 1963, Coca-cola asked producer Lee Mendelson if he had a Christmas television special.  Mendelson said “yes,” and he next day he called Schulz and said they were making a Christmas special featuring Charlie Brown and the Peanuts characters.

Titled A Charlie Brown Christmas, it was first aired on the CBS network on December 9, 1965.  The special’s primary goal is showing “the true meaning of Christmas.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-cKakTjnQMg Before its broadcast, the people involved in the special’s creation were worried because of the explicit religious message.  It was, however, a huge success, with almost half of the people who were watching television tuned in to the special.

👉   Another closing piece from The Gospel According to Peanuts, by Robert L. Short (and Matthew 7:24-27 CEB).

“Everybody who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise builder who built a house on bedrock.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It didn’t fall because it was firmly set on bedrock.

“But everybody who hears these words of mine and doesn’t put them into practice will be like a fool who built a house on sand.  The rain fell, the floods came, and the wind blew and beat against that house. It fell and was completely destroyed.”

Message, Linus?  Trust the Word, Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

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