by On my solo adventuring in Denver, I visited the Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum where, to my delight, their current exhibition was “Snoopy and the Red Baron.”
Snoopy, of course, is the popular pooch from Charles Schulz’s classic Peanuts comics. One of the long-running bits in the series was Snoopy’s hidden life as a World War I flying ace engaged in ongoing mortal combat with the legendary German pilot known as the Red Baron.
The exhibit collected original comics, drawings, merchandise, and multimedia regarding Snoopy’s dogfights and travels through rural France and Germany during his imaginative soirees.
Charles Schulz, originally from St. Paul, Minn., was drafted during World War I and served in the 20th Armored Division. His Peanuts comic debuted in 1950, and continued for an amazing 49 years until the artist retired in 1999.
Snoopy first appeared in a leather aviator’s helmet, scarf, and goggles in the 1960s, inspired by Schulz’s son, Monte’s hobby of assembling model airplanes.
Snoopy’s red doghouse was transformed into a red British Sopwith Camel biplane, inevitably shot down by his archenemy and leaving the canine aviator to escape from behind enemy lines. Snoopy also frequented officer’s clubs and local cafes, quenching his thirst with a frosty root beer.
As a childhood fan of Peanuts, this exhibit was a real trip down memory lane, and I spent a good amount of time reading all of the comic strips on display and taking in the memorabilia from the 1960s and ’70s.
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