16 PUNCHMAGAZINE.COM Life with a well-known father also figures into Johanna Harlow’s story on Barbara Douglas Riching, who runs Half Moon Bay’s Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society. The one-of-a-kind jazz venue is a treasure trove of music history and bohemian hijinks. (Page 27) Also keeping things all in the family is Palo Alto’s Sundance The Steakhouse, a family-run favorite that’s celebrating its 50th anniversary. (Page 59) A different kind of blues takes center stage in our September design story, where the soothing shade centers the family-friendly interiors of a Mediterranean home in San Mateo. (Page 75) If reds and whites are more your thing, check out our guide to winesoaked adventures in peaceful Paso Robles. (Page 41) Is bespoke footwear the ultimate indulgence? As someone with hard-to-fit feet, I see the Cinderella-like appeal of a shoe perfectly molded to your foot by the master craftsman at euGo in Burlingame. (Page 84) On the other end of the Peninsula, Sam Ceccotti, the executive pastry chef at Craftsman and Wolves, tells us about opening the wildly popular bakery’s new outpost in Mountain View. (Page 66) And if you’ve been pondering picking up pickleball, we’ve pulled together all the resources a Peninsulan will need to get started in the fast-growing sport. (Page 52) You’ll find all this and more in our September issue—let’s make the most of this sunny season while it’s still in full swing! Andrea Gemmet andrea@punchmonthly.com {editor’s note} known holidays. (Remember It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown?) Finding out how a man devoted to documenting Bay Area history formed such a prolific partnership with Charles Schultz, jazz musician Vince Guaraldi and animator Bill Melendez, one that resulted in dozens of Peanuts specials, reminded me of why I love being a journalist. The world is full of things that are easy to overlook but, given the chance to dig a little deeper, there are great stories waiting to be unearthed. When I interviewed Sean and Jason, two of Lee’s four children, they overflowed with stories about Peanuts’ jazzy soundtracks, their father’s legacy and a fairly normal childhood (despite occasionally hearing their own voices on TV). They had more delightful anecdotes than I could fit into my story in this month’s issue of PUNCH. I knew that Charlie Brown specials used real kids to do the voices, but had no idea that there’s one adult who can be heard in all of them: Emmywinning animator Bill, born José Cuauhtémoc Melendez in Sonora, Mexico, who played both Snoopy and Woodstock. “So Woodstock and Snoopy are Mexican-American! My dad loved saying this to people,” recalls Jason. I love the story of Lee sitting across from Paul McCartney at a pre-Oscars dinner where Vince Guaraldi’s A Boy Called Charlie Brown was up against The Beatles’ Let It Be for 1971’s best original score. “My dad was having some friendly conversation with Paul McCartney and—according to my father— he said, ‘We’ll never beat these Peanuts guys,’” recounts Sean. Sir Paul was wrong, of course, but coming away with a great anecdote like that is almost as good as taking home an Academy Award. (Page 100) As a kid who grew up watching Wonder Woman and Bugs Bunny cartoons on Saturday mornings, it didn’t occur to me to ask how a comic strip makes the leap to animation. It’s safe to say that the path Peanuts took from newsprint to TV wasn’t typical. In fact, it was downright unlikely. Lee Mendelson was a documentary filmmaker—not an obvious choice as the person who talked a legendary cartoonist into committing Charlie Brown and company to the small screen. And yet, those animated specials were born at Lee’s film production company in Burlingame. Over the past six decades, Peanuts has provided a classic Christmas soundtrack, introduced the Great Pumpkin and educated kids about lesser-
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