Curse You Red Baron

White text on a red circle with an outer white edge and then an outer blue edge

The much-loved Peanuts character, Snoopy, was often depicted as a World War I pilot stationed atop his iconic dog house and attempting to outwit his imaginary arch-nemesis, the Red Baron. The first of Snoopy's skirmishes with the invisible enemy-pilot appeared in Charles Schulz's famous comic strip in October of 1965. Many more "battles" ensued in the years that followed, both throughout the comic strip and the cartoon specials. The Red Baron's initial popularity of the 1960s coincides with large scale advertising of Snoopy on cards, figurines, NASA gear, and buttons.

Snoopy's wiles with the Red Baron also inspired the famous novelty song, "Snoopy vs. the Red Baron," which was recorded in 1966 by The Royal Guardsmen. The tune reached the top of the charts upon its release, but caused trouble for the band as they never asked Schulz's permission to use Snoopy's name. Schulz successfully sued, but later gave the group his permission to utilize the beloved character's name when recording follow-up songs such as "Return of the Red Baron." Schulz admittedly grew weary of depicting war as "comical" and eventually made the decision to place Snoopy in other types of situations throughout the cartoon which dealt more in matters of "love and loneliness."