Old newspaper finds: Peanut of the Year, 1956

In 1956, the Minneapolis Star newspaper ran a contest for “Peanut of the Year”, asking parents or kids themselves to submit letters of 150 words or fewer of whey a certain 5 to 10 year old was like a Peanuts character, or deserved to be part of the cast. The winner, eight year old Ruth Ida Figi (who you can see here) had been having an interesting year; on January 4th, she had broken her leg in a ski accident, so I guess she was already in a cast. It’s the awarding of the prize that caught my eye. Charles Schulz selected the winner from four finalists, but it was part of a much larger event… specifically, the “Aquatennial Star Night and Coronation”, which is partly a celebration of the 100th anniversary of Minneapolis but more largely a beauty pagaent. Forty presumably-beautiful women were there, with the “Queen of the Lakes” to be named (as well as several other titles.) Movie star Anne Francis was announced to be there, but I don’t see her mentioned in the later coverage, so perhaps…