The News Journal from Wilmington, Delaware • Page 29

The News Journal, Wilmington, Del. Tuesday, Jan. 23, 1990 Section 0 FAMILY EDUCATION TELEVISION MOVIES 0 I Jk I 'iy tK I "I I "'i'fflSiaJ 1 lv ROLAND WRIGHT 1 A Seoopy For 'Peanuts' at 40, the Louvre displays high -fashion clothes on lovable puppies By PENELOPE BASS COPE Staff reporter Most Americans know that happiness, in the words of "Peanuts" creator Charles Schulz, is a warm puppy. Yet the Louvre Museum in Paris is carrying the warm puppy idea one step further. Its Musee des Arts Decoratifs is presenting "Snoopy in Fashion," an exhibition of 300 plush Snoopy dolls dressed in coats, sweaters, slacks and dresses by top designers, including Giorgio Armani, Marimekko, Karen Boyd, Romeo Gigli, Jean Muir, Jean-Charles de Castelbajac and Karl Lagerfeld.

The show, which opens today, marks the 40th anniversary of "Peanuts," the daily comic strip. Indeed, Snoopy wearing Christian Lacroix plaids and flounces, Bob Mackie sequins and decolletage and Hermes scarves, belts and bags has a goofy charm. That, however, isn't all you'll see. The retrospective also includes a Cartier Snoopy pendant, a $4,000 18-karat gold Snoopy bank, Snoopy's NASA mementos from his journey aboard Apollo 10 and 100 mounted "Peanuts" panels by Schulz. Snoopy and "Peanuts" have become icons of American popular culture.

The strip, drawn, inked and lettered entirely by Schulz, appears in 2,293 newspapers (including The News Journal) in 67 countries and 25 languages. The Guinness Book of World Records named "Peanuts" the world's most popular comic strip when it reached the level of 2,000 subscribers in 1984. At the opening ceremonies in Paris the French Ministry of Culture will make Schulz a Chevalier des Arts et Lettres for his high artistic achievement. Such Americans as Andrew Wy-eth, Orson Welles and Lillian Gish have received the honor in the past. This exhibition isn't the first time fancy designers have dressed America's pop symbols.

Barbie has been the subject of fashion books and exhibitions. And Snoopy himself had another, smaller show three years ago, accompanied by a book that became a hit in Japan. Success breeds imitators. Another Snoopy fashion book and a 1991 calendar are scheduled for publication during the current exhibition. The Paris extravaganza kicks off a Snoopy birthday tour, which takes the show to Tokyo's Mitsukoshi department store in May and the Los Angeles County Museum of National History in October.

The exhibit is expected to travel to New York; London; Milan, Italy; and Madrid, Spain, in 1991. "Snoopy in Fashion" is sponsored by Determined Productions, the San Francisco-based company that has held Snoopy licenses for more than 30 years, and United Media, which syndicates the strip. 1 Designer Jean-Charles de Castelbajac has 1 111 1 dressed Snoopy and Belle In this sporty rain gear lor the "Snoopy In Fashion" exhibit. Charles Schulz gets the last laugh Joys of the empty nest: When all 3 children are away Let others lament their "empty nests." After more than two decades of the growing-up years, my spouse and I enjoy our aloneness (or should I say togetherness?) when all the children are away. For a full school year (the 1988-89 season), that's the way it was with all three children in college.

When the oldest graduated, however, our nest became less empty. But at age 22, No. 1 daughter views each weekend as an appropriate time to flee the house once more. So it was during the past weekend when she embarked on a ski trip to New York state, and we had only the dog to make demands upon us for three days. Don't underestimate that dog, though, since it sounds the first hunger bark soon after 6 a.m.

daily. With No. 1 daughter gone and the rain discouraging outdoor activity, this was a weekend for parental nesting. No. 2 daughter had driven off at dawn Friday to begin the spring term at college, her final semester before she too may head back to the nest.

She must have been pleased that her post-Christmas trip to Haiti had ended before violence once more struck that unfortunate island republic during the weekend. Meanwhile, our sophomore son has been back at his university for more than two weeks, long enough to realize a longtime dream: No classes before 11 a.m., which although he didn't mention it leaves more opportunity for late-night partying. Things also are looking up on another front: He has no class with more than 400 students, which represents a sharp improvement over the freshman year when as many as 750 were crowded into his lecture halls. If you suspect that this kind of mob scene turns students into mere Social Security numbers, you are correct. Nevertheless, No.

1 son likes the bigness of his university, where, at any given moment of any evening, some team is playing some sport or, more to the point, there's a party in progress somewhere. Don't be misled, though. Our son says 1990 is going to be a winner, academically speaking, and I believe him. He's due. When he phoned me the other day and asked for my bank-account numbers as references, I realized that we as a family had entered yet another phase in the coming-of-age experience: the off-campus apartment.

We never reached that point with the girls, since No. 1 daughter's college was surrounded by nothing but farmlands and No. 2 daughter opted for an apartment on the campus. In our son's case, he is one of five young men who have signed up together for a ninth-floor unit in a building two blocks from his university. "There's a great view of the campus, Dad," he said, thus establishing that while he may be anxious to leave school each afternoon, he wants the assurance it is still there.

The rental price might best be described as astronomical, but as our last-born pointed out, the rent will be split five ways. Unfortunately even one-fifth of the price still seems astronomical. A calmer kitchen Anyway, last Friday, Saturday and Sunday they were all gone from the homestead all three of the children and I don't mind telling you I found it relaxing after the rigors of the holiday season and the between-semesters break. My wife and I rented three films for the VCR and, when the dinner hour came, we concentrated on the frozen variety. Cooking was therefore infinitely easier than the previous weekend, when my spouse invited three other couples for Saturday dinner and our dining-room furniture was taxed to the utmost.

Everything went well until a dish that we thought was fireproof shattered on the stove top, erasing mushrooms from the menu. The chicken-with-mushrooms tasted fine without them, however, and by midweek we had cleaned up the last fragment of glass. The nest may be empty at times, but it is rarely boring. Roland Wright, a News Journal editor, writes here each Tuesday. in "At one time there was no Snoopy.

I started it, and now it's part of our culture." CHARLES SCHULZ Mild-mannered and quietly religious, he doesn't drink, smoke, curse or stay up late. He wears golf sweaters and looks, according to a friend, like a pharmacist. Everyone calls him "Sparky," a nick outfits by Wearing Karen Boyd's exotic Belle are ready to hit the town. (' kOj) name his comics-loving family borrowed from the horse in the old "Barney Google" strip. Schulz said he doesn't think much about all the money he's supposed to make.

"The only success I wanted was to draw a successful comic strip. I'm talking about quality. I think I achieved that early. "The strip was very original. It went in a whole new direction, and it introduced things into the culture.

It also succeeded because I'm totally dedicated to what I do. I've never slacked off." He measures success differently from folks like Donald Trump and Al Neu-harth. "This whole industry is spinning around over his head, but it doesn't affect what he likes to do," says Cathy Guisewite, creator of the "Cathy" strip. "There's a total, genuine innocence about him. He loves to draw pictures." The drawing has become more difficult in recent years.

Schulz's hands have trembled since heart surgery in 1981. He now must steady his drawing hand by propping it against the table. He fears the problem might someday put an end to his work. "I think about it all the time," he says, "but how am I going to stop?" Schulz never has employed an assistant. He still does everything himself, including the lettering.

See SCHULZ back page Known for designs Hermes uses both reflects life "Unfortunately, in today's society these are things that young people need to be aware of," Sneath said. The new 10th edition of the Boy Scouts Handbook, as the book is officially known, is due to be in stores late this month or early next month. The book has sold in the millions since the first handbook came out in 1910; the last complete revision was in 1981. Many of the changes in the new book reflect revisions already made in Scout practice. For example, child abuse and drug abuse, along with problems such as hunger, illiteracy and unemployment, By IRA SIMMONS Gannett News Service As he receives global adulation for 40 years of his "Peanuts" comic strip, what emotion does Charles Schulz feel? "Revenge," Schulz says.

"What I sense most of all is a feeling of revenge." He laughs. "Very few people thought I would amount to anything. The one-man show at the Louvre is revenge for all the art galleries that regard comic strips as inferior, for all the American institutions that have snubbed me." Birthday festivities for "Peanuts" begin this month with a gala in Paris and a halftime spectacular at the Super Bowl on Sunday. A retrospective television special titled "You Don't Look 40, Charlie Brown" airs Feb. 2 on CBS.

The comic strip has made Schulz, 67, a rich man. Forbes magazine put his 1988 income at $32 million. Another source breaks it down to $87,671.23 a day slightly behind Bill Cosby and Michael Jackson. Schulz isn't sure how much he makes but thinks those estimates are too high. His own guess runs closer to $1 million a month.

By all accounts, throwing money around is not a ruling passion for him. Schulz and his second wife, Jeannie, live comfortably, but not extravagantly, near Santa Rosa, Calif. Schulz's first marriage ended in divorce in 1972. Snoopy and Belle are off to school In these designer Marimekko. New Scout By ROD RICHARDSON Associated Press DALLAS The new Boy Scout handbook still tells Scouts to "be prepared" and how to use a compass, build camp-fires and tie knots.

But it also aims to help boys cope with life in the '90s. The handbook, the first in nine years, features a 23-page insert on the dangers of child abuse and drugs, a new environmentally gentle approach to camping, new rules to keep younger Scouts interested, new merit badges such as cinematography and color photos in place of street fashions, Snoopy and utilizing leather and brightly colored scarves, on Snoopy and Belle. in the '90s handbook the old illustrations. The changes are part of a decade-long drive to modernize the 80-year-old organization and boost its membership, which sagged from 4.8 million in 1972 to 3.1 million in 1979 but since has rebounded to 4.3 million. "We feel like, as the nation's largest youth-development organization, that young people should be given a knowledge and a sense of personal power that will help them in their own protection, whether it be from child abuse or drug abuse," said Lee Sneath, national spokesman for the Boy Scouts of America.

have been covered in Scout brochures and programs for several years. Adults involved in Scouting are glad to see the organization address child abuse. Like other youth organizations, the Scouts themselves occasionally have been infiltrated by child abusers posing as helpful volunteers. "I think it's better for Scouting that there's more emphasis on it," said Scout- master B.R. Heiermann, who leads Troop 1 445 in the Dallas suburb of Arlington.

"It appalls me when I read news ac- See SCOUTS back page i.