Charles Schulz United Way Campaign – 1965

The Peanuts comic strip by Charles Schulz was very likely the most popular comic strip in America back in its heyday of the 1960s. Even though the strip wasn't even in the Lorain Journal, my siblings and I were well acquainted with Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the gang through the TV specials, as well as the paperbacks featuring reprints of the strip dating back to its earliest days.

Even with their incredible popularity, the Peanuts characters back then weren't merchandised to death like they are now. They didn't turn up everywhere you looked, and it was kind of special when a photo promoting one of the TV specials appeared on the television page of the Journal. (I've posted a few of them, here and here.)

Since I was always on the lookout for any appearance of the Peanuts characters in the print media, I'll tell you about something that has haunted me for almost sixty years. I seemed to recall seeing one of the Peanuts gang – perhaps Charlie Brown – in a small ad in the back of an issue of Life magazine or something similar. The cartoon character was an angel, and I had no idea what he was representing. Did it have something to do with Trick or Treat for UNICEF? Did I imagine this?

Well, imagine my surprise when I recently recognized the angel character at the top of a Journal TV page for October 20, 1965.

Here's a closer look. Note the "Cartoon by Charles Schulz" credit line

So the angel was the mascot for a special United Way campaign that dates back to as early as 1963 and was still running as late as 1969.

The 'good guy' angel got a lot of use beyond printed ads, appearing on buttons, awards and displays.

There's another United Way 'angel' award on eBay that is attributed to Schulz. I'm not convinced that's the case. It might have predated his involvement with the charitable organization.

At any rate, I'm sure the United Way campaigns using the 'Good Guy" angel by Schulz were a big success.

And once again, the internet has helped me solve a mystery from my childhood (like it did with this one and this one).