You’ve wandered into the topsy-turvy world of Tulgey Wood, the blog of writer and historian Jim Fanning. Tulgey Wood celebrates artistry and creativity (and sometimes just plain madness): movies, animation, TV, books, comics—and of course Disney, lots and lots of true-blue, through-and-through Disney, including D23 and Disney twenty-three Magazine, and Sketches Magazine and the Walt Disney Collectors Society. Tulgey Wood is so fun, fascinating and full of frolicsome photos and facts, it’s scary. So wander through the wonder of it all, and enjoy.

Friday, December 14, 2007

From The Peanuts Gallery: 5, 3 and 4


His full name is 555 95472 but you can call him “5” for short. The spiky-haired little boy (shorter and theoretically younger than either Charlie Brown or Linus) was introduced into the Peanuts comic strip by Charles M. Schulz on September 30, 1963. “My dad says we have so many numbers these days we’re all losing our identity,” as 5 himself explained it. “He’s decided that everyone in our family should have a number instead of a name.” 5’s father became “completely hysterical one night,” driven over the brink by the Zip Code, the number that he adapted as the family name. (95472 is the Zip Code of Sebastopol, California, where Charles Schulz lived when he wrote and drew these strips.) 5’s sisters, identical twins named 3 and 4, entered the strip on October 10, and though they pretty much disappeared from the strip almost immediately, 5 became a regular member of Charlie Brown’s baseball team (sometimes with a "5" on his shirt, making him a bit easier to identify), and he was often seen in strips featuring the entire team, ensuring him panel time well into the 1970s. However, it’s A Charlie Brown Christmas that 5, 3 and 4 have to thank for true immortality. These obscure characters are featured in the beloved 1965 TV special in the famous dance scene, in which the Peanuts gang dances with abandon to the famed Vince Guaraldi composition, “Linus and Lucy.” In the frame pictured above, 3 and 4 are in the purple dresses and white boots, while 5 is wearing the orange shirt. The millions who watch the special on its annual TV airings may not know the numerical names of these all-but-forgotten Peanuts cast members but they know their hip dance steps by heart.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

5!

As you are well aware, Jim, 5 is my favorite Peanuts character ...well, after Spike, and Snoopy, and Charlie Brown, and....

OK, 5 is a character who delights me not only because he's a little obscure, but because of the delightful joke of his whole family's names. I don''t recall if it's ever stated that his Mom and Dad are "1" and "2," but it's left for the readers to infer. And "Is that your dad's way of protesting our loss of identity?" "Not protesting - surrendering!" (Not exact quotes, but that was the general idea).

I hereby vow to collect all the memorabilia of 3,4, and 5 ever made.

TOFU said...

Thank's, Jim! I never knew about these characters (although I grew up with Peanuts and remember watching the first Charlie Brown Christmas special back in '65). I always wondered who the dancers were...now the special is even more so! Love your site!

Anonymous said...

One more "5" fact: his last name is "95472" - his family's zip code. According to the Postal Service, this means he (and the whole gang, I guess!) lives in "Sebastopol" or "Freestone" California. A suburb of Santa Rosa.