• January 19, 1976
• Vol. 5
• No. 2

You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, for Lending Your Name

Good grief! There really is a Charlie Brown. And, like his namesake cartoon character, both have an optimistic approach to life. "We have great love and admiration for all people," says the flesh-and-blood Charlie Brown. But he says they also share a "failure image."

"I go to bed and pull the covers over my head," admits Brown, a 49-year-old bachelor who lives in a Minneapolis suburb. His living room wall is covered with Peanuts memorabilia.

Thirty years ago, when cartoonist Charles Schulz was dreaming up the Peanuts gang, he and Charlie Brown were art instructors in Minneapolis. One day Schulz asked if he could borrow his friend's name for a moon-faced character he had created, and little Charlie Brown was born. After seeing the sketches, big Charlie recalls his disappointment. He told Schulz, "I wish you'd make him more like Steve Canyon."

Over the years Brown, now a program director for the Hennepin County Juvenile Detention Center, has taken a lot of ribbing. Once, when his broken-down car needed towing and he announced that his name was Charlie Brown, the AAA hung up the phone. He has had to take his nameplate off the front lamppost because people kept stealing it, and pranksters sometimes call up and ask to speak to Lucy or Linus. He says it is "especially difficult to be so well known without having done anything." But his friendship with Schulz continues.

Charlie Brown insists that his full name be used. "Peppermint Patty, and people in real life who call me 'Chuck,' irritate me. I don't know why."