631: Brown Cantor

Explanation
In the original strip, the first and third panels are changed. However, Charlie Brown's description of the rich man is that "every time the clock ticked, he made a hundred dollars!", referencing how fast he was making money. Lucy misunderstands and asks where they can get a clock like that.

The dialogue edits are a reference to Cuckoo, a song by Rob Cantor. The song is notable for the amount of mystery surrounding it; it was never officially released, and nobody's exactly sure where it came from, but it's a full-fledged song that tells a story.

Here, the "man who was real rich" is implied to be Mr. Fluglemeyer, the villainous character of the song. He runs a clock-making company and, despite his warranty scams and poor quality of the clocks, everyone buys them anyways, so he plans to globally expand his business to revel in the riches. Here, it appears that Charlie Brown was unaware of the clocks apparently being dangerous -- he just knew they sounded and looked good. Much of the edited dialogue is taken from the song itself.

The author writes
Original Peanuts strip: 1955-08-23.

Transcript
Title: "PEANUTS" Charlie Brown: I've been reading about a man who was real rich... Charlie Brown: He made fancy clocks with a tune his shoppers' hearts desired! Lucy: Wow! Lucy: They're wonderful, but if you stand too close, you'll die!