In Winnipeg, Snoopy fights against the Red Baron again

Covered with bullet holes, the biplane falls uncontrollably to the ground, dragged by thick clouds of smoke and jets of flame. It happened again.

“Curse you, Red Baron!” shouts our intrepid flying ace… a beagle?

At the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada (RAMWC) in Winnipeg, a comic art exhibition celebrates the alter ego of the First World War fighter pilot Peanuts Snoopy, the gang’s beloved puppy. Curated by the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center, “Snoopy and the Red Baron” runs through Jan. 4 and lands in Winnipeg, where the touring show makes its only Canadian stop.

“The Flying Ace films are really about adventure,” says Benjamin L. Clark, curator of the Charles M. Schulz Museum.

“These images are still very romantic in our culture. That’s why it resonates, we can all imagine escaping from our everyday lives and embarking on a great adventure that is fraught with danger.”

Snoopy sat in his doghouse wearing aviator sunglasses and a hat and took to the skies for the first time on October 10, 1965. Peanuts comic strip.

It was the first of many times that the adventurous Beagle was thwarted in his attempts to keep down his nemesis, the Red Baron, an off-panel adversary based on real-life German flying ace Manfred von Richthofen.

The Red Baron The exhibition features high-quality reproductions of war-themed films that are almost 60 years old. These are placed next to information boards that explain Schulz’s creative process and his inspiration for both Peanuts and the historically informed World War I storylines he wrote.

“Everything that Schulz presented as factual in the film had to be true,” says Clark. “He wanted to present factual information.”

Snoopy’s aerial act was perhaps most famously depicted in the 1966 television special It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

“I think that the Red Baron’s image was strengthened by the wonderful animated segments in the TV special, in which Snoopy flew in a biplane through the beautifully painted sky,” says Jean Schulz, who was married to Charles for 27 years and as President is the board of the Schulz Museum.

Not a looker himself, Jean has a pilot’s license and took part in the flight in 1975 Women-only transcontinental air race (or the Powder Puff Derby as it was called). The race was presented in Peanuts simultaneously with the characters Peppermint Patty and Marcie as stand-ins for Jean and her mother.

“(Their) route corresponded to the actual route of the race that year,” says Jean.

The inspiration for the battle stories in the Red Baron films that still endure today PeanutsThe conclusion in 2000 was diverse. “Ideas arise from several things brewing in the mind of a creative person,” says Clark.

“The adventure series that Schulz would have seen in the theater as a child, those melodramas from World War I, his son Monte working on model airplanes… all of it.”

As a combat veteran of World War II, Schulz’s own experiences with the trials of war and feelings of loneliness may have contributed to Snoopy’s solipsistic fantasies.

“His time in the military developed him in important ways,” Clark said. “He would say that he learned everything he needed to know about loneliness during his time in the army.”

The RAMWC is a favorite landing spot for Snoopy, not only because of the unique prestige of the museum’s royal distinction, but also because of the real-life Manitoban connection to the scourge of the skies, the Red Baron.

Richthofen died during a battle on April 21, 1918, near the Somme River in France, when he was shot down inland by an Australian anti-aircraft gunner, most experts agree. But the Red Baron’s last aerial opponent was Carberry, Man., native Wilfred (Wop) May, whom the Baron was pursuing when he was hit.

“May was a very young pilot at the time,” says Robert Nash, Royal Canadian Air Force veteran and RAMWC archivist. “He had just joined the squadron. It was kind of his third deployment with the squadron.”

May became one of 21 Manitoba flying aces in the First World War, a title given to fighter pilots who were credited with shooting down five or more enemy aircraft.

Bringing the story of this local hero back into focus, Nash believes the Snoopy exhibit is not only a joyful tribute to flying in popular culture, but also “fulfills the museum’s desire to promote Manitobans and Canadian aviation history.”

Visitors to the museum should have no trouble spotting the exhibition entrance, where the distinctive red doghouse looks like an anomaly among the decommissioned aircraft of yesteryear. Visitors will orientate themselves by the posters in the spacious room, which are interspersed with framed stripes documenting the adventures of the flying ace.

In one strip, Snoopy’s brother Spike complains that his idea for a poppy-based poem is strikingly similar In Flanders Fieldswas co-opted by another soldier. “I’m going to switch mine to sunflower,” he says.

Elsewhere, model airplane sets of the Sopwith Camel, Snoopy’s plane, show the inspiration Schulz took from his son Monte’s fascination with World War I toys. Nearby, paperback reprint collections of Red Baron strips show the evolution from inspiration to realization.

On the walls surrounding the room are retro TV displays – complete with faux wood paneling – showing clips of TV’s Flying Ace Snoopy Peanuts Special offers. And on the exhibition floor, vintage items such as music boxes, tin lunch boxes and Snoopy novelty LPs by the ’60s pop group Royal Guardsmen are displayed in glass displays.

In addition to consumer goods, the Red Baron exhibit also features memorabilia collected by American combat veterans.

The archival photos on display show fighter pilots of the era with Flying Ace Snoopy plush toys in the cockpit and custom-made Flying Ace Snoopy squadron patches and insignia.

“The image of Snoopy as a flying ace definitely resonated – these young guys bring a sense of home and comfort with them,” says Clark.

“(Charles) once noted a line that went something like, ‘Captain, we can’t have men going up in boxes like that.’ “That stayed with Sparky and was undoubtedly reflected in the Red Baron’s adventures,” says Jean, affectionately calling her late husband by his nickname.

As both Peanuts and the character Snoopy are approaching their 75th birthday next year. Clark reflects on the enduring iconography created by Charles M. Schulz.

“The wealth of Peanuts “And Charles Schulz’s talent still touches us,” says Clark. “Today something like that is really priceless.”