Schulz’s Peanuts has KC connection
(Image courtesy of the Schulz Museum)
February 2025
Everything Old
Schulz’s Peanuts has KC connection
by Corbin Crable
You’ve read their antics on the comics page of your local newspaper. They’ve celebrated life’s milestones with you in greeting cards. And they’ve made appearances just about everywhere, from your TV to toy stores.
Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang
Charles Schulz’s Peanuts gang celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2025. The imaginative, adventurous Snoopy, with his owner Charlie Brown – ever the lonely underdog and figurative punching bag – and all of their friends have endured as pop culture icons since the Baby Boomer Generation. But did you know that Kansas City plays a crucial role in
their legacy?
Jean Schulz, widow of Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz, maintains a blog for The Charles M. Schulz Museum, whose home is in California. On her blog, Jean offers visitors a peek into the inner workings of her late husband’s storied career, as well as the museum itself. In a 2018 post, she tells the story of the Peanuts gang’s connection to Kansas City – and a little greeting card company called Hallmark.
The Kansas City Star began running Peanuts comic strips in 1959; around that time, a Hallmark employee named Arnold Shapiro, a longtime fan of the strip, approached Hallmark executives with a proposal, believing that the life philosophies espoused by the Peanuts characters were ideal to be portrayed in the company’s greeting cards.
The bigwigs at Hallmark
The bigwigs at Hallmark seemed to agree, and the company teamed with United Media to produce prototypes of these greeting cards, which would be test sold in stores throughout the Kansas City metro area.
The cards were an instant hit. Shapiro traveled to Chicago to meet with Charles Schulz (fondly referred to by his wife as ‘Sparky,’ a lifelong nickname), and Shapiro said the two felt instantly connected. The plan moving forward was that Hallmark copywriters would draft ‘sentiments’ for each card and send them along to Schulz, including suggestions for which characters to include in the card. Schulz would personally draw the art for each card until the 1970s, when Hallmark artists became tasked with the duty. Hallmark’s offerings, of course, would eventually branch out to include toys, party goods, wrapping paper, and more.
Shapiro & Schulz
Shapiro would later recall of his time with Schulz, “Getting to meet Sparky and working with him for 12 years was one of the most memorable times of my life. Sparky had tremendous insight into human nature. The fact that the Peanuts strip continues to touch people’s hearts and lives is proof of that.”
Here in Kansas City, though the final Peanuts comic strip was published in 2000, our love of the Peanuts gang endures. Hallmark is a part of our history, and with it, so are Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and their friends. I remember seeing Peanuts images and merchandise everywhere during visits to Kansas City’s Crown Center as a child (to me and to other Kansas Citians, Crown Center remains synonymous with the Peanuts name). And those of us who are of a certain age still even remember the gift you received when you subscribed to The Kansas City Star – an umbrella decorated with a variety of Peanuts and other comic strips throughout.
In this issue, we invite you to celebrate with us the cultural behemoth that Peanuts has become and, in so doing, to relive the journey the Peanuts gang has taken to becoming a household name.
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