The Seuss, the Whole Seuss and Nothing But the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel 0375822488, 9780375822483

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The

5000 INGER OF DR.

AND NOTHING BUT THE

1

1

J^^^_^^

M 1

Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel

by Charles D. Cohen


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tale.

10

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Moral: D o n't go around hatching other folks' eggs.

FORENSICS— STALKING THE ELEPHANT

Horton finds

elephant had been captured by a big-game hunter and bound with rope, looking very

much

like the lovable

elephant unloaded from the boat in Horton

Ted's

a form:

ad-man day

job proved to be a

revealing testing

Hatches the Egg, which was subsequently published on October

Ted had found the sympathetic look ered

only

12, 1940.

for his elephant at last

how to rearrange the pieces he had been mulling over window that had opened was one of opportunity.

ground. These ads

and discov-

for

NBC

Radio

from 1939 (top

for 13 vears.

The

bottom

left,

right)

virtually herald the

1940 publication of

Horton Hatches the

Egg (bottom top right).

11

left,

CHAPTER

My Book

The

true story of

Geisel's

Me

About

how Horton developed

way Ted

about the

3

mind worked

reveals a piece of information that

is

more important than

comfort with confabulation or his predilection for practical jokes. that

an elephant never forgets holds any

ceding story

is

Ted himself. Ted's brain held on

—almost an

mind

—

ties

Ted's

work

most other writers and

to his

to ideas

of

put things out of

biography more closely than

is

the case for

artists.

married Catharina Loth in the

town

and images with a

inability to

Ted's story can be traced back to at least 1650,

in the

the adage

truth, the real elephant in the pre-

peculiar tenacity. This unusual trait his

If

his

when Joseph

Geissel

German territory of Baden, along the Enz

MuThausen. These appear 1

to

River,

have been Ted's paternal great-

great-great-great-great-great-grandparents. Three generations later in MuT-

hausen, Gebhard Geisel dropped an "s" from his line,

Theodor Geisel

a career change.

name. Further down the

(Ted's grandfather) married Christine Schmaelzle

brought the Geisel family In 1876, the

last

name from Germanv

to

America.

immigrant Theodor Geisel, formerly a

He and

jeweler,

made

apprentice brewer Christian Kalmbach purchased a

brewing plant along Boston Road

in Springfield,

Massachusetts, half a

mile east of Winchester Park and beyond the eastern end of the horse-car

The plant had been

and

built

seven years

earlier

line.

by Oscar Rocke and had a

1,000-barrel-per-year capacity.

The Kalmbach

& Geisel Springfield Brewery Companv

did junior partner Geisel's family- Theodor had clan:

come from

grew

quickly, as

a relatively large

His parents, Conrad Geisel and Elisabeth Frey, had 11 children, although

12

— MY BOOK ABOUT ME

them died

three of Elise

—

Theodor

in infancy.

lost a

daughter of his

than two months after her birth in 1873. But two other daughters

less

(seven-year-old Bertha Josephine and her younger Ted's aunts) were alive in 1879,

was Theodor Robert

arrival

lowed

own— Christine

when

their first brother

Geisel (Ted's father).

rapidly: brick ice vaults for the

brewery

Emma

sister,

was

born. The

Two more

in 1880,

and

Louise

Building blocks:

new

additions fol-

a son,

Adolph A.

Ted seamlessly

wove family into his

history

work.

A

1931 Judge cartoon

harks back to the

Geisel (Ted's uncle), in 1881. acres,

By

1884, the brewery's grounds covered ten

on which grandfather Theodor,

his brother Robert

M.

Geisel,

and

their

icehouses of the

Kalmbach

& Geisel

Springfield

families

were

living.

The brewery's capacity had burgeoned

to 40,000 barrels

Brewery Company.

per year.

These seemingly esoteric events that occurred before Ted was even born are

much

more than

just a personal family history of

who

whom.

begat

Kalmbach

&

waterwavs

new

family

was

growth

of

and stored

in the winter

brick icehouses

they

ice that

Geisel harvested from nearby

of Ted's Judge after

For example, the

would show up

magazine cartoons

were

in those

built.

2

The

fact

one

in

51 years his

that

so intimatelv involved with the in

western Massachu-

setts is reflected in the

constant allusions to

brewing

drinking in Ted's early work professionally published

— from his

poem

3

to the

first

wild

menagerie of beasts that began as creatures seen bv drunkards in the throes of the In

1888,

(Ted's aunt)

Kalmbach

was born, and

&

Geisel plant

and replaced with

a

building. In 1890, son

new

Geisel

Cornelia

Christine

D.T.'s.

the five-story

was

torn

down

i£^!_ Cripes!

And

she promised to marry

me

three-story brick

George Alexander was born, but he died

after just six

months. In 1895,

Company,

become

Kalmbach

&

Geisel incorporated as the Highland Brewing

the largest brewery in

Xew

England, located on what would

the site of the Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance headquarters.

Grandfather Theodor was the president and treasurer of the company, which

13

after the very first

thaw!"

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

KALMBACH a GEISEL

^ '

Tools of the

brewing trade:

Kalmbach

&

Two

Geisel

beer bottles and

employed 1898,

Adolph and Robert and,

his brothers

Theodor Robert Geisel

March

In

1899,

—Ted's

with

the

in

Mf—mJSm.@u0&?.

father.

new

century

one from Highland

Brewing Company (top left,

from

left

J?/>rimt/t/ 'Ii71kn5e

approaching, the major breweries in Springfield the Highland

Brewing Company, the Springfield

to right); a

1908 Springfield Breweries'

Hampden

and an 1870s ad (top

Hampden Brewing Company — joined

Springfield Breweries

Company. Grandfather Theodor became

the Highland branch,

and Ted's

&

In 1901,

right).

father

became

the assistant treasurer for the

Kalmbach and Geisel organized

was appointed same

secretary

and

year. Like her

treasurer.

J.

called the

the manager,

and Ted's

He married in infancy.

Seuss, died in the winter of the year that she

eEB TY-BREW/Nc.ro SPRING^affair.

Postcard ad for the Liberty

Brewing Company the brewery

co-owned by the Geisels at the turn of the twentieth

A sample

of the Liberty

Brewing Company's beer bottle

new brewery

husband, Nettie had a

had had a brother named George who died George

a

Company. Ted's grandfather was

"Nettie" Seuss the

century.

manager of

whole company.

father

(left),

form the

Geisel

Liberty Brewing

Family

the

to

Pale Ale

bottle (top middle);

Kalmbach

Brewing Company, and the

(right).

14

Henrietta A.

sister

Bertha and

Nettie's father,

was married. The

fol-

— MY BOOK ABOUT ME

lowing

Theodor and Henrietta named

year,

their

child Margaretha Christine Geisel (Ted's sister

first

Marnie) after Nettie's mother, Margaretha Greim.

Two years

later,

the future Dr. Seuss

began

on Wednesday, March

2,

1904,

—Theodor "Ted" Seuss Geisel

his life at 22

Howard

Street in

A

1910 image of the

Massachusetts State

downtown

Armory on Howard Street near Ted's

Springfield, next door to buildings that give the

vague sense

of the castles

birthplace (top

left).

Bartholomew Cubbins 74 Fairfield Street:

would have

inhabited. Ted

years

later,

a sister, Henrietta,

two

but she died within 18 months. Bv the

Where Ted

lived

(middle right) from age four until he

time Ted was four years old, the Geisels had

moved

left for

Dartmouth.

to 74 Fairfield Street

near close to the

famous crossing

locally as "the X,"

where he

Forest

Park,

of streets

known

lived until he

left

for college.

When also

the

Liberty

merged with

Company, Ted's

the Springfield Breweries

was named manager

of

and he then moved on

to

father

the Libertv branch,

Brewing Company

become

manager

Hampden

of

the

branch. In Janu-

ary 1920, he

became

presi-

dent of the entire company. Unfortunately, Prohibition began almost immediately after-

Fore-and-aft drafts: In 1896, Extra Tivoli

ward when, on January became

effective,

16,

1920, the 18th

Amendment

manufacture,

prohibiting the

sale,

or

would

later

an earlv age

happen

it

won

the

competition in

transportation of intoxicating liquors. Bartholomew Cub-

bins

Beer was renamed

when

experience something that Ted learned at

— that those in power can cause bad things

to people,

seemingly

at

random, even

to

Baden-Baden,

Germany (middle left).

to

people

But with

Prohibition

approaching, even the recipe for the

who

are

working responsibly and trying

thing. Despite attempts to

to

do the

right

market low-alcohol "non-intoxi-

Gold Medal winner was altered to lower the alcohol content

cating" beer as Prohibition neared,

JHIi^H Springfield Breweries

Company

it

was

"last call" for the

and Ted's familial associa-

below the

level

considered "intoxicating"

tion with the

brewing industry.

15

(bottom

left).

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

What did

the world's foremost children's author read

Hilaire Belloc,

who became

when he was

wrote several

a Christian historian of note,

books that Ted read, including The Bad Quid's Book of Beasts Beasts for Worse Children (1897),

These

stories

were

B.T.B.

(Lord

Ian

illustrated Basil

and Cautionary

a child?

(1896),

More

Tales for Children (1907).

by

Temple

Blackwood), and both the prose

and the

illustrations

their

left

marks on Seuss's work.

The served

fact that Ted's father

super-

Springfield's

as

intendent

parks,

of

and

that

those parks included the zoo at Forest Park, near his

home, has

led to the supposition that the

zoo

may have been

the genesis

for the Seussian menagerie. But

Ted's father didn't take that job until

Ted was 26 years old and

living in first real

New

York

exposure

to

City. Ted's

animals and

imaginary beasts was through

Blackwood's

illustrations.

4

There was nothing in particular about Blackwood's style that stayed with Ted

—

just the content of the

cerning Blackwood's images

(to

images. Ted's "persistence of

memory"

con-

use the phrase popularized by Salvador Dali,

born the same year as Ted) can be readily seen in the example of the chamois

from More Beasts for Worse Children. The image peak appears

in Seuss's

work repeatedly

the one time he referred to a chamois

by

for

that

of this goatlike

more than 55

name

(in

animal atop a

years. Curiously,

Ted's case,

it

was

the

Nelp, or Welsh Chamois), he did not use the familiar image. Belloc's text exerted Toddler Ted:

Photo of Ted in the backyard of

74 Fairfield Street, ca. 1908.

illustrations

Belloc

is

—

it

was

an influence quite opposite

the style,

more than

to that of

Blackwood's

the content, that remained with Ted.

reported to have said that children's books must have "terseness,

simplicity, improbability

and

finality as to

16

theme, strongly emphasized lilt—

MY BOOK ABOUT ME

something indelible

would

Dr. Seuss

for the

memory," an apt description

of the

rhymes

that

produce.

later

Cautionary Tales for Children, Designed for the Admonition of Children

Between

was

the

Ages of Eight and Fourteen Years

(1907),

published

when Ted

peopled by characters with names

like

Godolphin,

Algernon, Hildebrand, and Charles Augustus Fortescue, a

list

on which

three years old,

name

like

As

is

Bartholomew Cubbins would have been

that

title

right at

a

home.

suggests, Belloc's stories were intended to teach children

obedience. Marco, Ted's Mulberry Street denizen with the overactive imagination,

had

his counterpart in Cautionary Tales' Matilda:

Matilda told such Dreadful Lies, It

made one Gasp and

Stretch one's Eyes;

Her Aunt, who, from her

Earliest Youth,

Had

for Truth,

kept a

Attempted

The

effort

Strict

Regard

to Believe Matilda:

very nearly killed

her.

But Belloc's world was very different from Seuss's

Saw

It

on Mulberry

stories of the sort

Street. In Belloc's

And

fire

department

Think

Tliat

books, a "good" child does not

spun by Marco, and no one finds Matilda's

After Matilda calls the

to

lies

tell

charming.

to report a nonexistent fire, the

people will no longer believe anvthing she savs. Consequently

I

towns-

when she cries

out for help during a real emergency:

Every time She shouted "Fire!"

They only answered

"Little Liar!"

And

her Aunt returned,

therefore

when

Matilda, and the House, were Burned.

The rhymes no doubt appealed behind the rhvmes appears

to

the one intended. Ted's books

While Matilda's

lies

to

young Ted, but

have imparted a

championed the

receive scorn from adults

the disciplinarian

far different effect

creativity of a child's

than

mind.

and cause her own death,

Marco's fabrications reveal a lack of understanding in adults and cause only his

own amusement.

17

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

MORE BEASTS

The Chamois

Getting Ted's goats:

The chamois left)

(top

young Ted

encountered as

an avid reader of Hilaire Belloc's

More Beasts for Worse Children compositionally

informed Ted's

work

for years to

come. The goat

made many appearances in his various

magazine contributions to Life (top right)..

College

Humor

(bottom

right),

fudge (bottom

middle and

bottom

left),

and

the Jack-O-Lantern,

Dartmouth's literary-arts

magazine (middle left

and middle).

18

MY BOOK ABOUT ME

William Tell shot an arrow through an apple while

standing on his son's head.

The goat cavalcade marches on:

Whether illustrating

books

for adults (top

left),

magazine cartoons (top right

middle

and

right),

children's

books

(bottom right and

bottom middle), or political cartoons

(bottom

left

middle

left),

and Ted

continued to

showcase the goat

on the mountain peak.

19

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

In

another story from Cautionary

nurse's side while at the zoo

and

is

Tales,

Jim transgresses by leaving his

promptly pounced upon by a

lion that

gobbles him up.

Now just imagine how

it

feels

When first your toes and then your And then by gradual degrees,

heels,

Your shins and ankles, calves and knees,

Are slowly eaten,

No wonder Jim

bit

by

bit.

detested

it!

The Lion having reached

.

his

.

.

Head,

The Miserable Boy was dead!

When Nurse

informed his Parents, they

Were more Concerned than

I

can say:

His Mother, as She dried her eyes, Said, "Well among the victims of the ruthless march of science now extinct Xelp. or Wtlsk Chamois. For centuries

Xotable the herds of ts

Xelp were

employed

raised for then slender horn,

to jab into calces to see

when

He would

—

it

gives

me no

surprise,

not do as he was told!"

which cook>

Then

they were done.

who was

His Father,

came August, 142J. and the Invention of the Broom 1 B\ furnishing our cooi^s broom-straws instead, we now savr thousands of dollars yearly but the Xelp is gone, and our forests are the poorer for his passing.

self-controlled,

.

.

.

Bade

.

all

the children

round attend

To James' miserable end.

Dr. Seuss's lions don't

no danger

chew

children

to the likes of little Lola

Lopp

— they

lick lollipops

in Dr. Seuss's

5

—and present

ABC. Ted absorbed

neither the fear of independence nor the fear of lions. His character Gerald

McGrew, from

If I

Ran

the Zoo,

is

not scared of "lions and tigers and that

The single chamois: This illustration (above) from Life marked the only

appearance of the goatlike antelope in Ted's work,

intriguingly not situated high in the hills.

Benign lions from Dr. Seuss's

(bottom If 1

Ran

(bottom

mm,

ABC

left)

the

'4

and

Zoo

right).

\

\^..S^^

20

MY BOOK ABOUT ME

kind of

stuff."

For him, in

those animals "are not quite good enough."

fact,

Instead, he fantasizes:

So

I'd

open each

cage. I'd unlock every pen,

Let the animals go,

and

start

A/owr-footed

not

much

The one

lion's

mv

in

zoo will have

Five legs on the

Then people This

left

and

and

will stare

Zoo Keeper,

New

up names

had

more on

they'll say,

"What

a sight!

I

words

ever have seen!" 6

just for the

fun of

Parvenoo."

to a

to

it

or to

Tales'

make "Lord

her as "His father's Elder

7

Charles Augustus Fortescue

grows up, he marries Bunvan,

the right.

rhvme. For example, in Cautionary

in order to finish a

And when

.

Keeper Gerald's quite keen.

a tendencv to misspell

who/ Was married

.

of a beast.

Lundv," he wrote about Lundy's aunt, referring Sister,

.

ten feet, at least!

five

That's the gol-darndest lion

Belloc

over again.

First

Only Child/Of

"Fifi,

Lord Aberfylde." Belloc's

books

obviouslv

mark on

their

who

Ted,

raised the tech-

nique

The

left

to

an

art form.

rhvme and

images

stayed

the

with

him, and even though

he rebelled against the morals of the stories con-

^^^ ¥ —

cept that a children's

/

story should have an

themselves,

the

By

three-year-old Ted at

instructive

role

was

one that Ted adopted

the sea:

Approximately

play on the beach

with his father and sister,

Marnie

(right), ca. 1907,

too.

He

Belloc

also took

the

idea

from of

a

in a

and

more tranquil

pose with his father several years later

book structured on the

21

(left).

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

A manual of manners:

alphabet. Belloc's

A

Moral Alphabet:

In

Popular during Ted's youth, these books

were veritable guides

Words of from One

to

Seven Syllables

model

(1899) can easily be seen as a

to too-good-to-be-true

ABC

book

Ted

for

behavior. Perhaps the

an early

Goops' lesson about

publish and for the successfully real-

treating a piano with

ized Dr. Seuss's

respect struck a

who

chord with Ted,

that

ABC and

failed to

The Cat

in the

Hat Beginner Book Dictionary, both

turned the tables in

The 5000 Fingers of Dr.

T

(top). In the film,

the piano

published in the 1960s.

Among

the children's books of

becomes an

instrument of torment

the time that taught lessons similar to

Goops books

for 500 unfortunate

Belloc's,

children.

More Goops and How Not

the

Manual of Manners (1903) Ted and a feline friend: Ted,

lion cub, possibly at

Zoo

(bottom). Like

McGrew

Gerald If I

Ran

Geisel

felines.

in

the Zoo,

was fond

Be Them:

A

for Impolite Infants

interested Ted. Gelett Burgess's

book contains

a story called

"Piano Torture," the intention of which was to instruct children that pianos are

with

the Forest Park

— also

to

— including

of

not toys on which to bang and

make

a ruckus; they are fine instruments to

More Goops,

cared for and respected. Fifty years after the publication of

cinematic world

by an older Ted

saw

be the

a very different version of piano torture, as envisioned

Geisel. In The

5000 Fingers of

Dr. T,

it

is

the piano that

tortures the children with the tedious scale-playing regimen, not the children

torturing the piano with their playfulness.

Not

all

the children's literature of the time

puritanical in tone. Ted

was

also

exposed

to

was so

some very

creative children's books, like those of Peter Newell. TJ-ie

Hole Book was published

old.

An

when Ted was

four years

actual hole runs through the entire book,

and

each page tracks the passage of the bullet that makes the hole. Newell also wrote books like Topsys (1893), in

& Turvys

which the image on each page shows

scene or interpretation

The Slant Book

(1910),

when

held upside down, and

which follows

carriage through pages cut

on

a second

a

runaway baby

a diagonal.

Newell's books appear to have influenced Ted thematically. Unlike the children cs,

Newell's Bobbv in

n his barreling buggy.

22

Tlie

who

stray in Belloc's

Slant Book has a great

Newell also challenged the

— MY BOOK ABOUT ME

what

limitations of accepted formats, such as

was supposed

On Beyond

to look like. In

book

the traditional hardcover

Zebra! (1955), Ted

would

later chal-

lenge the restrictions of the very alphabet with which books are written. Lastly,

and

it

seems unlikely that Ted missed Alice Raiker's The

when he was three years old,

Published

the Brontos (1907).

Tootle Bird

TJie Tootle

Bird

contains beasts like the Whiffle-Grub, the Snook, and the Rigglerok, along

with others that bear a resemblance

and

look.

During

Seussian creatures in both

to future

college, a 20-year-old

Ted penned

a short piece called

name "Our

Own Natural History: The Woozle Bird." Woozles are genetically hampered they are born with broken

wings, "and therefore cannot turn to the right

left

while flying":

The bird dying

and

always in

flies

The natives wait

out.

the ground, at

fall to

for that reason

for the bird to

its tail.

down behind and

oxygen

the earth,

scarce

is

has to

.

.

.

upward

fly

finally suffocates

and used

to

the right foot,

make

in circles.

where

strata of air

and

The main commercial value

in a secretion in

then unduly

is

where the natives gather them up

quantities.

bird

and

become dizzy

The bird

At length the bird reaches the upper the

is fast

which time they approach

cautiously and put salt on

weighted

and

circles,

which

is

falls to

in large

of the bird lies

boiled out of the

glue for postage stamps. This glue

gives the stamps their delightful flavor.

The males

are

generallv black with white stripes, and the females white

with black

stripes,

invisible

due

painting.

8

The phonic

and when

to their

resemblance

similarities

to a

if

it

were not

the Jack-O-Lantern (the literary-arts

pictured are

its

was

work— the

for the Panifh. Half a year

magazine

which Ted attended) had contained the very beasts in Ted's

modernistic

between the Woozle Bird and the Tootle-

Bird might pass for coincidence, earlier,

resting in flocks are nearly

first

of

Dartmouth College,

appearance of unusual

debut of the Seussian menagerie.

the Panifh, a six-foot-three bird

whose

cleats

those

and truncated beak

onlv noticeable visual departures from the Tootle-Bird.

23

Among

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BOT THE SeUSS

Tlic

Tootle

Hopper-grass

Bird also contains a

—another precursor,

this

grasshopper-like animal called a

time for the Hippocrass, of

did a series of sketches in 1927. The story of the Hippocrass

work apparently intended an imaginary beast come From Tootle Woozle

.

.

.

real

to

by

way

of

as an anti-Prohibition piece.

—

to life

world. Although the story

a

early 1900s

may

was never

see.

very-

for Ted.

His

essay on Woozles, 1924,

and the

illustration of

his first

one of

uncommon

creatures, the Panifh,

1923

(left),

The Hippocrass was

fullv realized, the character of the

Hippocrass crops up throughout Ted's early magazine work, as

well have set an

example

an unfinished

product of delirium tremens inhabiting the

Panifk This TootleBird (right) from the

is

whom Ted

point to the

shape of Seussian things to come.

24

we will

soon

CHAPTER I

At Central High xxnewspaper, the pseudonyms later as a

Can Write!

School, Ted began submitting Central Recorder,

shortly thereafter. His

"boys'

news

work

to

and developed the habit

work

the student of

assuming

for the Recorder as a "live wire"

editor" ranged from

mundane

and

reports about the debate

club to creative fare that gives us an early view of his skills as a poet and illustrator.

One of his first published pieces was "O Latin," man poem "O Captain! My Captain!" It appeared in

a

parody of the Whit-

the February

7,

1919,

Central High School, Springfield,

Massachusetts: Ted's first

submissions,

both written and illustrated,

were

printed in the

school newspaper.

25

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

issue of the Recorder

and proves

with words and rhythm. The his high school years,

that 14-year-old

poem was credited

Ted had both wit and a to

"Theodore Geisel." During

he published variously under

O Latin

many permutations

1

O Latin! my Latin! that study hour is done My brain has weathered every verb, the translation now is won, The time

near, the bell

is

hear, the pupils all revolting,

I

While follow eyes the unforeseen, But

O heart!

test

grim and scarring.

have read,

I

desk the teacher

at the

"comp"

heart! heart!

The wrong lesson

And

a

sits,

My lord, what she has said!

O Latin! my Latin! O when will ring that bell? Rise up! rise up! for

you

are next

—ye gods, but

this is

—

For you bad marks and scarlet "D's", for you a failing waiting, For you she

O

calls,

The time It

the teacher dear, her dark green eyes are gleaming.

dear

trot!

is

would be

trot!

almost sped. fine

on the desk

if

The teacher would

I

surely cannot answer,

fall

my

dead.

lips are tight

and

still,

My teacher looks so wild and bold, she gives me now a chill, My classmates snicker, now they grin, a murmur starts to run. ful class! never pass! my lessons are not done. Walk out, O class, when rings the bell! I'll

But

I

with mournful tread

Go to And con> I

t

her request t

dead.

26

skill

of his

CAN WRITE!

name and

other invented ones, including Theo

5.

Geisel,

Geisel, T. S. Geisel, T.S.G., T. G., Pete the Pessimist,

Ted Geisel,

T. Geisel,

Ole the Optimist, and

Lesieg.

O Captain! My Captain! O Captain! my

Captain! our fearful trip

The ship has weathered every The port

is

near, the bells

we

sought

is

won,

grim and daring;

for

you

Captain

lies,

and dead.

O Captain! my Captain!

—

keel, the vessel

mv

the deck

Fallen cold

up

rack, the prize

O heart! heart! heart! O the bleeding drops of red,

Where on

Rise

done,

hear, the people all exulting,

I

While follow eyes the steady But

is

2

up and hear

rise

the flag

is

flung

—

for

you the bugle

For you bouquets and ribbon' d wreaths For vou they

call,

the

swaying mass,

Here Captain! dear

the bells; trills,

— for vou the shores a-crowding.

their eager faces turning;

father!

The arm beneath your head! It is

some dream

that

on the deck,

You've fallen cold and dead.

My

Captain does not answer, his

My

father does not feel

The ship

From

is

my

lips are pale

fearful trip the victor ship

O shores, But

I

and ring

its

comes

my

in

O bells!

Fallen cold

Captain

lies,

and dead.

27

will.

voyage closed and done,

with mournful tread,

Walk the deck

still.

arm, he has no pulse nor

anchor'd safe and sound,

Exult

and

with object won;

T. 5.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

Ted turned his sense of humor and a penchant the material as possible. dry,

Ted managed

for

Although news reports were,

to as

of necessity/

much

of

somewhat

perk up even an announcement for the banjo club:

to

BANJO CLUB! The famous reorganized.

Central Banjo club

plays, or thinks he plays, a banjo, should give

immediately

is

now

being

predicted that this year will be a great

It is

success under the leadership of W. Sturtevant.

As

puns

to T. Geisel,

Room

13.

He who his name

3

Pete the Pessimist, Ted turned out one-line jokes, called grinds, often

directed toward the classical part of his education:

It'll

School days:

be just our luck

when

be in Latin Class

to

they turn

back the clocks. 4

Whether he was covering club

announcements or

These davs, such a joke seems routine, but Davlight Savings Time had

opining about the

drudgery of Latin class,

Ted marked

been instituted

penned

in the

United States onlv two years

DST had been

this joke,

earlier.

At the time Ted

repealed on the federal level but Massachu-

his days at

had decided

Springfield's

setts

Central High

neck of the woods.

School,

all

to

keep

it

on

a state level, so

it

was

a relevant topic in Ted's

the

while sharpening his

wordsmith

"It's

a fake!" growled Pete the Pessimist, after

chops.

trving for

i®

m ®® @ @ @

two hours

to translate his Cicero

the aid of a "Ouija Board."

CALENDAR-

19171 CENTRAL H1GHSCH00L

History

tells

would turn

SPRINGFIELD' MASSACHUSETTS

by

5

us that a few words from Caesar

his

army

into a frenzied warlike

mass. I'm not surprised in the

least.

Many

is

the Latin class that has been driven crazv bv

same words. 6

the

"Daydisplaxes

d^andnew moans

hasten onward but to fade."i >

M®® ® ® @ ®1®

At

little

after the first

more than 15 years

old,

about nine months

citywide general strike in United States history

place in Seattle, Ted proposed the tongue-in-cheek

notion of

ionizing the students of the school to strike:

28

I

CAN WRITE!

A Pupil's Union

7

We, the undersigned downtrodden pupils of Central, hereby establish a Pupil's Union.

Student body as a whole in until 1.

we

this

We intend

to gain the

organization and strike

gain the following objects:

A two day week,

a three

hour day, and extra pay

for

homework. 2.

Easy chairs in Rooms 1-36 inclusive.

3.

Entertainment, as dancing and movies, in

all

study

rooms.

He

took a slightly more highbrow approach to the time-honored

tradition of

making fun

of classmates:

A

Play

— In One Gulp

8

—2 a.m. Place—Otis Rice's bed room

Ted's early forays

Time

into cartooning did

not

show

quite the

same degree of promise as his

A gentle

noise like a sick alarm clock

is

writing. This 1920

heard.

contribution to the

Tis Otis snoring. Noise continues for five minutes.

Suddenlv

a large crash breaks through the clear night air

Racket continues. (Stage hands beat on stirs, first).

yawns, and

heard turning in

its

lock.

climbs into bed, and I

A key

bore

little

resemblance

tin boilers.)

slides onto floor (feet

Disappears into gloom.

thought

Central Recorder

O. R.

illustrations.

is

Glass X

O. R. returns,

murmurs

to his

future fanciful

dreamily, "I

J

V3 2_

had locked up those loud striped

socks last night."

CURTAIN.

Ted's early illustrations were not as promising.

His

first illustration,

appeared

in

"'Frawncis' Blinn graduates,"

the January 21,

1920,

issue

of

the

ates 29

THE SeilSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

Room

to grow:

Ted

continued to hone his cartooning skills in

Recorder,

accompanying

to This!"

The Blinn

was already

these Recorder

a piece, written

in Ted's cartoon

in his fifth year of

contributions.

I

HON

a student in a class

high school.

Cartoons in the Recorder were not always given attribution,

THE

is

Come ahead of Ted's who called "To

by another student,

and

it

appears that some uncredited

illus-

KJ

WEfV^O

trations that

were more

have been attributed

likely

to

Ted

done by other student

in the past

as N. K. Fuller. Ted's illustration of Blinn best,

and the other

illustrations

such

artists is

crude

at

published before his

graduation showed onlv rudimentary improvement. Ted's final high school illustration depicts a rainy weeklong field trip to Washington, D.C., that

included a meeting with recently elected Republican president Warren G. Harding (elected

November

Museum, and some

1920), a visit to the National

2,

late-

night shenanigans back at the hotel. The figure in the

upper right

Varnum Hotel window 9

the guest

The

corner, playing a ukulele in

on the

dismay of

at 3:30 a.m. to the

floor beneath,

is

New

likely a self-portrait

of Ted.

By

contrast,

Ted did develop better of his

command

writing style during his

high school years. The Recorder provides us with one of Ted's earliest

attempts at the short

story.

Continuing his use of pseudo-

nyms, Ted attributed LESIEG. Lesieg

is

it

to T. S.

"Geisel" spelled

backward, and Ted would use "Theo. LeSieg" as a

plume

nom

de

in his professional career

whenever he wrote the book

later

for

which someone

the illustrations.

text of a

else did

"A Pupil's

Night-

~SGlI Illustration of a simple device, the invention ol designed to enable members of the football squad

mare" was the Workin,

]

ti

the name:

'actising.

30

first

piece to carry

CAN WRITE!

A Pupil's Nightmare A gentle

shaking awoke

Alfonse, the butler.

back

down

I

me from my

1

dreams.

It

was

yawned, stretched and then

lav

again.

When Tlwo met

"What's the time, Al?"

I

murmured, with

my

eyes closed.

Warren: His final

Recorder cartoon, a

"Eleven-thirty,

study of his

Washington, D.C., sir." class trip, depicted a

"Have you completed I

mv homework for

today?"

meeting with President Harding.

asked from the blankets.

Note the familiar

"Yes,

Your lessons are done

sir.

for the next

ukulele player in the upper right-

three davs."

hand

Have

"Fine!

James drive

me down

to school at

one

o'clock."

and

turned over

I

slept again.

At twelve

I

arose

and dressed, partook of a light repast of

steak

and mushrooms,

my

put on left

coat and

the house.

My

Rolls-Royce being painted, to drive

of the

I

descended

down

little

Luckilv

in

one

Packards.

was not seen

I

in this disgraceful

machine.

About two minutes

later,

I

rode up before the institution.

My coat

and hat were carried

my

dressing

to

room by

31

corner.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

whom

the porter, to

me and

glared at "Piker!"

turned

I

I

gave the usual

He

tip, five dollars.

muttered something which sounded

away ashamed

of

my

like

limited finances,

two hundred per month.

As

my surprise, saw no one me that it was the birthday of

entered the room, to

I

but the teacher. She informed

I

one of the pupils, and so school would not meet that day. Being vexed

Upon

office.

at

not being properly informed,

arriving,

saw

I

that

I

had come

I

went

at

an

opportune time. The school board was meeting.

and demanded the discharge immediately given, as

I

of that teacher,

down

rode slowly, about 80 per,

a

I

was

tuh

git

I

my

ears.

which was

the building

and

club. Suddenly,

up tuh-day?

It's

I

myself rudelv

felt

A shudder ran down

heard the sound. "John,

Near graduation

was

left

I

my

to

grasped and was violently shaken. as

entered,

seated comfortably in a cushioned easy chair,

well-known sound broke on

my back,

I

threatened to leave school myself.

There being nothing else to do,

while

to the

ain't

you ever

goin'

quarter tuh eight!"

a year later, Ted's creativity

willing to take credit under his real

name

had blossomed, and he

(as T. S. Geisel)

when asked

write the traditional "Prophecy on the Prophets" for the Central

High School

yearbook:

From

the time of

Olympus, when the half-witted

soothsayers received their divinations from the gods, unto the present day,

when

with messages from

the psychic parlor pests are favored

ouija,

coming events have been

foretold in

numerous ways. Not even

of Aeneas,

however, could have been so strange or unique

manner

as the

in

the

underworld

visit

which the prophecy on prophets was

delivered to the class.

Some weeks ago

it

came about

undergo a serious operation removal of a freckle from

that

I

was

at the hospital,

my nose.

32

forced to

namelv the

Eight surgeons

to

I

CAN WRITE!

consulted, and then decided that the most powerful anaesthetic obtainable should be used. Consequently,

was administered

I

drug.

.

.

several buckets of lazterp, a Russian

After the very

.

first

my

which was forced down began

hose, queer sights

It

may seem odd

that

swallow of throat

this concoction,

by means of a garden

to flash before

my eyes.

." .

.

Ted was facetiouslv attributing the products

of his

with drugs, and that he would soon

creativity to hallucinogenic experiences

substitute alcohol as the hypothetical agent of his imagination. But he

now

was

17 years old, and these were much-discussed subjects at the time. While

the unathletically inclined Ted

ment

was serving

as soccer coach, the 18th

Amend-

United States Constitution was passed, beginning Prohibition,

to the

which must have made

for

some

interesting dinner conversation in the

brewer's son's home. It

His

was

German

started his

and an

a historic period

had become

heritage

two months

a sensitive subject

of his

German sentiment caused Congress changed

one upon Ted's development. Ted

after

freshman year of high school, when the United States declared war

on Germany. Before the summer

member

influential

sophomore

upsurge of

year, the

anti-

to repeal the charter of the two-million-

National German-American Alliance. The Iowa city of Berlin its

name

to Lincoln.

American orchestras refused

to play

works by

German composers. Less than two weeks after Ted started his junior year, school for seven

weeks due

liest

in history,

them

—

six

to

an outbreak of influenza

infecting 28 percent of

times the

number

that

would

that

proved

Americans and

die in

World War

to

mittee,

19th

and as

Amendment had

manager

I.

only recently given

In the yearbook, he

He became an

women

was voted both

assistant editor for the Recorder

of the yearbook.

— taking

He

girls

Prom Com-

of Friday Night Dances, at a time

when

the

the right to vote.

By the time he graduated, Ted's quick mind had High School.

be the dead-

cream, and serving on the Social Committee, the

assistant

closed

killing 675,000 of

Meanwhile, Ted was testing the water between the sexes to Jensen's for ice

was

left

a

mark on Central

"class artist"

and

"class wit."

and the grind-and-joke editor

served on a committee that discussed whether yearbook

contributions should go to the

war

effort.

33

Although

his aversion to public

THE SeUSS. THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

speaking was noted in

He

later years,

he was not as limited during high school:

served as secretary of the house for the debating club, acted in both The

Mikado and Twelfth Night, gave mandolin and banjo performances assemblies,

and performed

in the

at class

dance orchestra. (He did, according

to a

report in his yearbook, look "very solemn

and scared" during one mandolin

performance when he was 14 years

Outside school, he volunteered

shovel at the

snow

to clear city streets

old.)

to

during one storm, and he worked as an usher

Court Square Theatre. His

minstrel

last

and

show

largest high school contribution

that he wrote.

called Chicopee Surprised.

Set in a

hotel,

Ted also performed

came

in the

the one-act

form of

a

comedy was

—as part of an

in the piece

instrumental quintet and for two solo songs ("Sweet Marimba" and

"Dummy

Practise").

When boy,

the Recorder published

its

description of the perfect high school

Ted was one of the chosen few:

The Ideal Boy at Central Must Have 12 Arthur Lanciaux's eyes,

Don

Benson's grin,

Ralph Walsh's build,

Dayton

Phillips's oratorical

Ted Geisel's

powers,

wit,

Morris Brown's voice,

Max

Savitzky's art of bluffing,

Dave Daly's

ability in athletics,

Treen Hare's "shimmy."

The witty boy: Ted's official

senior photograph, as

it

appears on

page 12 of the Pnalka.

34

CHAPTER "I

Am

a Fellow

o' th'

5

Strangest Mind ."

f

O

n September

World

th'

.

.

Dartmouth College's newspaper welcomed the

22, 1921,

class of 1925.

Annually

and

.

.

.

.

.

.

hundreds

embark upon and

for a mattress,

.

of .

.

freshmen seek out Hanover

details of registration, the quest

hundred other items of apparently

a

Welcome

life

a

vexatious character. retrospect

.

.

.

Problems that

loom menacingly

this

will look trifling in

morning

.

.

.

but

among

these hundreds are heroes of the athletic field and wizards of the book.

.

.

.

We are certain

afforded Ted

blank

which

slate

to

upon

scrawl to

his heart's delight.

He provided this illustration

for

that theirs will be a

to

Hanover: College

Dartmouth's

literary-arts

substantial contribution to the College. 2

magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern.

Among would prove

those hundreds

was

a 17-year-old

their hopeful speculations to

who would become one any college's

history.

of the

room

who

be understated, and

most recognizable alumni

For SI 60, Ted

Hall, a 158-square-foot

freshman

that he

moved had

in

into 418 Topliff

all to

himself, over-

looking East Wheelock Street toward the Dartmouth College

Green. Directly across the hall from him liyed upperclassman L.

Bronner,

Buffalo)

Jr.

Freshman roommates Cornelius Kurtz (from

and Herbert Franklin Abrams lived diagonally across

from Ted.

The dormitory

floor plan serves to

demonstrate once

again the strange tenacity of Ted's memory. Six years after

35

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

meeting the students across the

hall

from him, Ted did

a cartoon called

"A Novel

in

Idea,"

which

snake poses as a rattlesnake

owner

its

a seat

passenger's

on

name

pet

a

to get

The

a subway.

in the cartoon:

Cornelius Kurtz. The setting: Buffalo.

The snake's name: Herbert. Appropriately,

A

Novel Idea

months

The graphic illustration above was sent in by Cornelius Kurtz of Buffalo to demonstrate his fool-proof method of securing a "I simply send seat in a crowded subway.

of Sir

He's only

a

it

Night,

all!

fellow

copperhead."

of the literary staff of

literary-arts

the

collegiate memories:

Jack-O-Laniern,

Although

the

first

issue

of

the

year

graduation, Ted

continued to cull his college

memories. This 1928 Judge cartoon (top left) refers to

Ted's freshman year

dormmates, Cornelius Kurtz

and Herbert Franklin Abrams.

Fresh(man) out of

The

first

jack-O-Lantent issue of the 1921-22

school year

showcased these four pieces (middle left,

middle

right,

bottom

left,

bottom

right)

was

Dartmouth's

after

the gate:

Jr.,

to

which Ted began submitting work immediately.

Persistence of

Even

magazine,

role

in

Ted had pronounced,

"\

is

Ted's closest neighbor, L. Bronner,

member

the

Andrew Aguecheek

o'

world."

a

playing

his

high school's production of Twelfth

Herbert in ahead of me," writes Cornelius, "and when I finally gain admittance myself there is room to burn. And the joke of that Herbert really isn't a rattler at

earlier,

nine

just

and by

freshman Ted.

36

was

3

th'

strangest

mind

am a i'

th'

AM

month

published within a cartoons.

They

FELLOW

A

would

STRANGEST MIND

of his arrival

become

later

Also in the

first

WORLD

TH

on campus,

it

contained four of Ted's

poking fun,

a

fondness for

—from the very beginning—images of the animal

inextricably linked to his Dr. Seuss alter ego: the cat.

two months

Ted was elected

class treasurer

as art editors of the only

freshman pub-

of college,

and was one of two freshmen chosen lication

I

exhibit a youth's enjoyment of

sophomoric wordplay, and that

TH

—the 170-page Green Book, with pictures of the 537 freshman members

of the class of 1925. After he'd acquired these

submissions to the Jack-O-Lantem tailed tions in the first issue,

Jack-O-Lantem, a

sets of responsibilities, his

Despite having had four

illustra-

Ted had only four more published during the

However, he went on

the school year.

off.

two

member

of

its

become

to

and

art staff

rest of

a prolific contributor to the

and eventually

literary staff,

its

editor-in-chief.

He may the

also

Dartmouth

have managed a

clubs' third

brief musical foray in his first

month. At

annual specialty acts/ vaudeville Saturday night,

according to the college newspaper, the Dartmouth, "an unannounced act

was

.

.

.

slipped

in.

This

number was

man." There were no banjo players

whose performance mandolinist

it

syncopation by a fresh-

listed for the

Mandolin Club, during

the piece took place.

Thomas Kennedy Gedge

string-playing freshman that the

a clever banjo

members

If

the unidentified person

or guitarist E.

of the

M.

Mandolin Club,

was

either

Torbert, the only

it

would seem odd

performance was unannounced. That leaves open the possibility that

was high school banjo player Ted

Geisel

who popped

in for this

impromptu

Covering new

ground with some

appearance.

old terrain: Another

freshman-year illustration

Ted worked to develop his Initially,

on the popular expression "For the love

have stemmed from

a play of that

in Springfield

November

15, 1917, the

name

when Ted was

hosted the o'

that

13 years old.

On

his high school years,

New York production of Jerome

Mike, which, while

been running

had been per-

Court Square Theatre, where Ted

would become an usher during

Love

during his years

little

Kern's musical

remembered now, had

for nearly a year in the city. Ted's father's

brewery advertised

in the

program

for that

37

show.

at

Dartmouth.

An early cartoon o' Mike" may also

he appears to have drawn on some of his memories.

of his that played

formed

illustrating skills

may

very well stem from Ted's recollection of a play

he saw in

Springfield in 1917.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

For another cartoon, "Jazz," Ted appears to have been unconsciously

echoing an illustration he'd seen while working for the Recorder, his high school paper:

JAZZ!

A

crash!

Breaking

A all

pauic laws

Of

A

wail, a

Of

a saxophone, grunt a groan

A Of Is

a

moan

mute trombom

JAZZ!

Minor chords Condemned by lords Of music. Twangs soft and slow Of a big banjo,

A

violin's shriek In a run unique Is

He

Mostly, Ted turned to puns. Reverberation: Ted's 1922

homage

drew

JAZZ!

a cartoon of perplexed students

looking at pages of complicated equa-

to jazz (top right)

may have been

tions in "Aftermath!!" In another,

inspired by an

go tease a hunter,

illustration

if

he wants

his high school

spoofed the

which the second duck responds, "I'm game." Ted

title

of a popular instrumental song, intended to

sound

like a cat

running on a piano, by depicting "Kitten on the Kevs" as a rigid-backed

(top

ety

left).

woman

at a piano.

that involved the

He

also provided the all-male college with a

soci-

few puns

popular (but somewhat risque) subject of women.

Gams, games, ami gin: Ted's Jack-O-Lantern contributions

included the less cerebral

but perennially

popular subjects of

women (bottom

and

left

right),

gambling (opposite page,

top

left),

and

drinking &6-,;*i

(opposite page,

top right).

to

he

encountered in

newspaper

to

one bored duck asks another

O, clerk, there's something the matter with the kevhole in the door to

That so?

I'll

look into that tonight.

38

my

room.

"

I

AM

FELLOW

A

Ted soon turned

TH

STRANGEST MIND f TH" WORLD

popular college pastimes of

his attention to the other

gambling and drinking, employing "Fish" as the

first of

many pseudonyms.

0&& iyA '

'

VlSr

^^M lJw ^^

X

1

~t' f*~~~f)

^4J

Uck^ —:— *»_

"Bonm;; Away The Hours"

But his education was not spent purely on the pursuit of wine, women,

and wagers. Ted had done

battle

with the classics

knowledge grew, he continued the "The Passing of Arthur" from that,

high school, and as his

Dartmouth. In Tennyson's

tradition at

Idylls of the King,

in

the knight Sir Bedivere sees

with Arthur's death, an era of heroism and great deeds

is

ending.

Arthur's dying words assure Bedivere that even the destruction of the Table has a purpose in God's plan:

Round Classical still

to

The old order changeth,

And God

fulfils

whose work

was ever-present during his student

many ways,

himself in

days, like

Lest one

Ted

remark on the

poets

Yielding place to new;

riffs:

found occasion

good custom should corrupt the world.

4 .

.

.

Tennyson

(below) and Keats (next page, top).

In Ted's

"The Old Order Changeth, Giving

Place To

The New," the change

—

switch in the order

grand

patron.

just a

A

"toast side"

was

is

not nearly as

made by

a diner

Ted's frugal order at

Scotty's, the local late-night hangout.

It

consisted

of a couple of pieces of toast with a side pile of

peanut

butter.

The

objects of Keats' s

awe

in

"On Seeing

the

Elgin Marbles for the First Time" were magnifi"The Old Order Changelh, Giving Place To The New

cent

works

of art

—

parts of the western pediment

39

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BOT THE SeUSS

of the Parthenon in

Expanding stylistic

During

horizons:

his tenure

depicted a quarrel between the

on the

Ted

When

experimented with different styles

mediums,

Athena

gods

Jack-O-Lantern art staff,

Athens that

Keats

and

cartoon,

Ted's

Elgin

the

sees

Marbles for the

and

like

Poseidon.

time

first

they're

in

aggies,

watercolors (middle),

allies, chalkies,

working

class character

dearies, immies,

milkies.

studies (bottom left

and

right),

airier

As

and

compositions

a

staff of the

member

of the art

Jack-O-Lantern, Ted

with

began

experiment with

smoother

also

lines

new themes and

to

artistic styles.

(opposite

He

page, top

and

yentured away from simple

pen-and-ink sketches with

an

middle).

attempt

early

watercolor,

at

which reproduced poorly

in the

black-and-white magazine.

He

continued

new ground,

to

explore

leaving Dartmouth

themes and delving into some-

what more serious studies people line

(misquoting

Bo-Bobians abound: of the

peculiar creatures

populating Ted's children's

books

extends back to these four 1923

Jack-O-Lantern

works (opposite page, bottom).

40

Kipling's

from "The Betrothed": "A

woman

is

but

good

a

smoke").

The lineage

of

only a

woman,

cigar

is

a

AM

"I

Ted then

FELLOW

A

TH' STRANGEST MIND

more complex

these

left

0'

—

simpler line drawings for a while

['

WORLD

TH"

illustrations

." .

.

and

tried

airier pieces that reflected

vaudevillian humor.

most

In the

significant of these branching ventures, the Jack-

O-Lantern provides the

would

later

first

glimpses into the strange beasts that

become such an

integral part of Ted's children's

books. The Bo-Bobians are the founding

menagerie.

Heumkia like

Among

the animals

members

on the island

of

of the Seuss

Bo-Bo are the

— the moron of the animal kingdom—which

is

a

cow-

"Did you have "No.

animal with a checkerboard coat that drools Prohibition-

1

went

appropriate "near beer." Also populating the island are the Panifh (a six-foot-three bird in cleats), the

Dingleblader halitosis Hill

(a

and hoof-and-mouth

Galloper

(a

bow

animal in a

seal-like

disease),

with

tie

and the Side

goatlike animal that circumnavigates

mountains solely from east prey for hunters pursuing

it

to west,

making

from west

easy

it

to east).

Other

web-

island-dwelling oddities include the Blvgk

(a

footed animal with an umbrella for a

and the

Pseukeh Snake

(a

messenger snake bound

skate with a bell on

its tail,

decoy and

its

added faux

authenticity,

Howe,

tail)

ability to

known for its

impersonate a

to a roller

use as a duck pretzel).

For

Ted credits the picture of the Dingleblader

to

Lyman

the largest producer of travelogue films in the country at the time.

..

"**?U \

\

J--1

H»v„.it lirt"

41

a local anaesthetic?"

to a hospital in

Boston."

THE SeilSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

A

catbird

isn't

kin to a cat, nor a dog-

dog

fish to a

And you

needn't

Polo Shirts!

polo

play

you need

All

is

wear want to

to

to

and be comfortable.

look, feel,

way our white oxfords and

That's the

broadcloth shirts are made.

See our showing of suits,

shirts, socks, shoes,

—everything

overcoats

you wear

at:

The

Post

next

Monday and Tuesday.

Office

One

Building

seems

particular item

have

to

caught Ted's eye and precipitated the Rogers Peet Company creation of his

more

junior

of these

vear,

odd animals.

an

In

advertisement

appeared in the college newspaper that pictured a dogfish and a catbird. These images

may have

set

off

memories

of

ILLVSTKATED

fly

fl

T

S

the Igniting the spark:

A

Rogers Peet ad in

the Dartmouth featuring

and the

childhood of The

left)

may

Ted's 1924 cartoon

featuring an

unusual animal tableau (top right). particular note

the early

appearance of an animal balancing act,

which would

later resurface in

The Cat

in the

Comes Back (middle

Bad

The

for Child's

Book of Beasts. In the

have influenced

is

Basil T.

Blackwood

first

Child's

Book of Beasts

Of

done by

memory

Bad

(bottom

illustrations

odd

animal hybrids (top left)

THE BAD CHILD'S BOOK OF BEASTS

right).

Hat

issue of

Jacko (as the Jack-O-Lantern

campus)

to

appear

the Rogers Peet

captioned

"A

after the

Company

was known on Dartmouth ran advertisement

catbird isn't kin to a cat, nor

a dogfish to a dog," Ted extended his bur-

geoning menagerie with similar syntheses of animals, starting with a variation

on the

dogfish. Ted also displayed a very early

version of stacked animals with hats that

would Cat

recur

in the

42

more than 30 vears

Hat Comes Back.

later in Vie

:

'I

AM

FELLOW

A

0'

STRANGEST MIND

TH"

l'

TH*

WORLD

Since written materials were not identified by author in publications such as the Jack-O-Lantern,

it

can be

these issues really sprang from the

authorship of the pieces

authorship

is

is

mentioned

determine which jokes and

difficult to

mind and hand

in other publications writing

As

and knowledge a

member

the Zimkowitzes

of

ball

the literary

member of both

"Whoobub"

named Seuss

is

staff,

Seuss,

the

in a

—folks

and Hasslerig Seuss

like

West

Ted's running

Ted had running gags about

joke about the

At

their yearly

Leb. relations

Flossglouscester

Seuss,

Zimkowitz and Zilch families in

1928 issue of Judge. In the

—although none are

Zimkowitzes Win Lebanon, X. H.

stylistic

latter the Jack-O-Lantern

Harvard and Oahpse High School

Zimkowitz 14

played their

made based on

and the Zilches (sometimes the Zilsches or the Zylsches).

every single

teams

about the Jack-O-

of Ted's history.

Ted reworked a Zimkowitz baseball gag story,

Sometimes the

of Ted.

revealed in later issues, and occasionally the

Lantern. Other times the determination can onlv be flourishes

articles in

foot-

is

an early

indication of his

Capt.

fondness for florid

related.

names.

— Zimkowitz 10

in

Annual Family Game

fami ly get-together here to-day the East Lebanon Zimkowitzes outspectacular contest.

in a

The game was featured by

the snappy play-

Zeke Zimkowitz (East) who, by the way, has been mentioned three consecutive seasons for famous All-Zimkowitz team.

ing of

The

ihe

score

Zimkowitz (West)

Zimkowitz (East) R.

Zimkowitz 3b Zimkowitz

rf

Zimkowitz

cf

2

c

3

Zimkowitz

ss

2

Zimkowitz

If

Zimkowitz lb Zimkowitz p Zimkowitz*

7

15 13

6

4

2

2

H.

E.

Zimkowitz 3b

8

2

R.

E.

19

Zimkowitz

Zimkowitz 2b

H.

1

Zimkowitz

rf

2

Zimkowitz

cf

3 4

Zimkowitz c Zimkowitz ss

5

Zimkowitz 2b

6

Zimkowitz

7

Zimkowitz lb

8

Zimkowitz p

10

6

9

9

2

1

9

If

4

2

74

'Batted for Zimkowitz In the ninth

Home

— Zimkowitz,

—

—

Zimkowitz to Zimkowitz to Zim2 base hits- Zimkowitz, double play Zimkowitz (by ZimZimkowitz off Zimkowitz 54, hit by pitched ball Zimkowitz Umpire —Kelly. Zimkowitz and Zimkowitz, Zimkowitz and kowitz), batteries After the game the families contended in their customary 40-man rope pull. Line-up will be sent run

kowitz, bases on balls

—

—

off

on request.

43

—

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

While the juxtaposition of "Advertising: As

Done by

It Is

the Greeks"

and Ted's fencing cartoon on the same Jacko page doesn't necessarily mean that

he was responsible for

we know Lantern

freshman

that in his

approached by any

this satiric

was published

in his

A short

time before

sophomore

Sigma Phi Epsilon, and he would Pi Delta Epsilon, so the timing

of the

Ted was disappointed not

year,

fraternities.

look at the "Greek" fraternity system,

year,

to

have been

this issue of the Jack-O-

Ted had become a member of

also join the honorary journalism fraternitv

would have been

perfect for Ted's observations

pledge-week phenomenon. Ted was taking a psychology of advertising

course at the time, so the parallel between the two subjects would have been easilv

drawn

an amusing depiction of the process of "chinning,"

in

in

which

each fraternity's top one or two suave personalities try to persuade desirable students to join their fraternity

names

(it

was known

as "sinking" them). Certainlv

Tappa Whosis and Hezikiah K. Whiffledinger are

like

clearly of the

type that would later be termed "Seussian." The phrase "for the love of Mike" also

makes

key clue

a return appearance. Ultimately, the

parody as one of Ted's pieces

the presence of another Zilsch.

is

Advertising: As It

"Mr. Zilsch?

I

am

Is

Done

glad to meet you

have seen you around the Oh, you have been

I?

by the Greeks'

I

am sure. Do you

You don't? Mavbe you would

smoke? gum.

I

to identifying this

gym a

like a stick of

lot lately,

haven't

in the hospital for three

months. You said you just came over from the Tappa

Whosis house. What

back and see

are

bunch

of plumbers!

What? They gave you

hungry. in

a

if

ours

is still

there.

an awful bunch of yeggs

much? Oh

ice

As

yes, they are a fine

gang

of

cream? Jim, go out

was

saying, they

liked

them very

I

You

You must be

boys only they

among themselves and you know their Sophomore delegation doesn't amount to much around college this year Why? Well you see all but one of them flunked quarrel

They

out

We you

said that about us? Well,

it's

just like them.

don't believe in mud-slinging in this house. like

our gang here?

That

44

man with

How

do

the pimples

AM

A

FELLOW

STRANGEST MIND

TH

over there? Oh, he's a Freshman.

know how he

got

You

in.

picture on the wall

mean Hey,

it

to say

up here?

That's

guy

a

is

of Whiffledinger. Ha,

of Whiffledinger,

is

is lost,

we'll

New York. is

It's

man

him?

of

ha

Speaking

it

plays.

"So you've taken up fencing? "Oh, make a slab at it."

Bill,

I

savs the record

Bill

to get another. This furniture

worth

Oh,

in the furniture business?

That

vou

that never heard

yes,

the record?

have

he

have you seen our new

O

Victrola?

where

Yes,

you never heard

here

Bill,

.

don't

I

Who was he? Do

himself.

WORLD

see that

Hezikiah K. Whiffledinger signed

TH'

l'

I

Well

see.

it's

You sav vour

worth quite

moment."

Aside. ("Bill! For the love of

clubby. Excuse

What? You say

dizzy wheat out of here

back again?

Good

Lord,

freshman with that pair neglected vou, Zilsch.

I

in the

had

better

there,

I

going

all

to

Mike

a

get that

the other one

land this

house?") "Sorry to have

just told Bill to

home. He's worked hard

What? You

how am

janitor.

me just

all terribly

father

a lot

over there in the sweat shirt? That's the

These janitors are

is

came from

day

are going to the Trita

send that janitor

— the furnace leaks Boxum house now? You

hang onto your watch. Fine bunch

of

boys over

but thev don't rate a thing around the campus

—awful

knockers, too. So long, gladuvmetcha, 'm sure."

Ted bet to

that he could write

about anything, considering the writing style

be more important than the subject matter.

fictional

tic-tac-toe

wrote a book report about the it

did a comic piece on a

championship, complete with charts

"chuckers" between George A. Sanskrit and H.

reproduced

He

B&M

to

analyze the

Hermann Haddock. He even

Jabs and jibes:

This cartoon of

train schedule for a writing class

and

Ted's appeared

above an

in Jncko.

unattributed satirical piece

The Boston and Maine Timetable

...

For as long as

we

that

had

all

earmarks of

can remember, the anonvmous author of

45

this

work has

Ted's style.

the

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeilSS

added one more installment

yearly

and M. Railroad. And

the B.

A 2435-X,

adds

another

still

to his great serial story,

this year's offering, bit of

Form

plush to the throne of

its

prolific perpetrator.

The main it

object of this novel

mercv the

attacks without

iconoclastic, in that

Page

folly of blind faith.

page the author militates against the popular

after

that "seeing

incidents told

is

.

.

And he quotes countless where people who believed what they were

is

.

fallacy

believing."

have been

left

waiting in the end.

good point

a

It is

and well made. But even the faults.

.

.

"Boston right

.

B.

is

not without

Take for instance Chapter 17 which

to Haverhill,

—he

and M. Timetable

Mass." In

tells his little

is

entitled

chapter

itself this

is all

when

story admirably. But

its

the

reader reaches the end and starts in on Chapter 18 he will

immediately,

if

not trainsick, realize that something

pulled over his eyes. Chapter 18 the

same

as Chapter 17, only

merely changed the

title

it is

is

word

word

for

run backwards.

around backwards

being

is

exactly

He

has

to read

"Haverhill, Mass., to Boston," turned the storv back side

and expects us

swallow

to

it.

.

.

.

It

reallv

too

is

to,

bad when

a

capable author cheapens his product merely for the sake of quantity

7

,

and

tries to get

by on

his reputation.

The only other bad feature Chapter This

is

of the

14, "Springfield, Greenfield,

book

is

found

and White

in

River."

well written, to be sure, but horribly slow in

moving, especially from Brattleboro on.

6 .

.

.

Although Ted was not much of an athlete himself, sporting events were

on the minds

of students in

October of his junior year. The Dartmouth football

team was undefeated, having outscored (beating Norwich, McGill,

Dartmouth's

to see

victory, the

first

three opponents 130-0

and Vermont 40-0, 52-0, and 38-0,

Joining the excitement, Ted drove to

"Whit" Campbell

its

Cambridge with

respectively).

his friend

Whitney

Dartmouth play Harvard. Upon returning from

two

editors-in-chief scheduled a football

46

game

of

AM

I

their

own,

According eve,

A

FELLOW

STRANGEST MIND

TH

magazine

pitting Ted's

to the victorious

TH

WORLD

.

.

.

against Whit's

staff

newspaper

staff.

newspaper's account, "the event was Hallowe'en

the birthday of Jacko. So, befitting the occasion, president Geisel,

playing a stellar

game

made

at left tackle,

play of the game.

He dove

for the Dartmouth,

and found

a brilliant wrestle for the final

for the fleet legs of Cliff Randall, quarterback

had those

that he

of Sleepy Jones, his

own

art

7

director."

On the slightly more intellectual side, tile

I

ground

French literature proved to be

humor:

for Ted's

All for the Love (A piece in the manner French)

THE CHARACTERS Gaston, soldier ordinary in the

army French

Yvette, a girl of joy, his mistress

Raoul, a

Scene

young man amorous

of Yvette

— Room dinner the home RaouL Time— Eight hours of the evening. of

of

to

my dearie? —Wish you something example. Yvette— But yes, my angel, of the meat, and, for Raoul — We have of soup, of the Raoul

to eat,

for

fish,

the dessert, of peaches ripe Yvette

— Me,

Raoul—Ah

I

do not

my

well,

and

of the white eat.

desire except of the fruit.

god, what

that

is it

you have then,

my

well loved? Yvette

— Alas, my

little

cauliflower,

I

have bad

to

the teeth.

Raoul— Let

us go, now;

I

will

be for you mister

the medicine.

Yvette—Thanks

well,

my

friend. (They each other kiss.

Enter Gaston by the door of the

Cast on— Hold now, what

now

for

is

rear.)

that

example?

47

which passes

itself

here

fer-

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

Raoul and Yvette (together)

Gaston

—Hey? Nothing of

committed a grand Raoul

—Nothing of

all?

—That goes well,

them has

Name

six.

well,

I

see that me.

fault irreparable. Let us

go

I

have

to drink.

you swear.

I

Gaston (with the solemnity) of

Ah

all.

of a

—John has three pencils, Marie name

of a pipe, let us

go

to the

Saloon of the Peace on the corner of the street of the Peace

and the Place

we

of the Opera. There

the beer and, well possibly, a

world makes the exit

shall take a glass of

little tart

of the

ham.

(All the

manner friendly.)

in a

CURTAIN

Signed, J.

Mo Here

B.

H. K. N. Racine P. St. V.

A. Z.

In his "Helpful Hints for

Corneille

Dumas

Textbook Writers," 9 the fun with French

continues, along with one of the earlier hibition that

soil.*

amusing takes on drinking during Pro-

would mark Ted's cartoons

for years to

come, as Ted conjugates

a hangover:

French liquids are easy to handle. Thence transition

is

simple to the verbs, thus:

Nous

Je vin II

Vous benedictine

vin blanc

vermouth

Elle

chartreuse

Us sont absinthe

After a few cracks about dentistry involving

Ted gets around

good poetry

rhyme and

is

to his

theory of poetry, explaining, "Poetry

supposed

to

rhyme. But

are therefore ...

provide some rhymes for ates are perfect exan

gumdrops and molar bears,

no good

difficult

.

.

.

you'll find a lot of

to poetry

— that

words

is,

really

that won't

and poets." His solution

words, and the words that Ted Geisel

of those that Dr. Seuss

48

would

later utilize:

is

to

cre-

AM

"I

Gargle

FELLOW

A

— Bargle

Silver— Pilver

0'

swat

(to

(a

STRANGEST MIND f TH' WORLD

flies

on an old male

small trunk to keep bats

— Nectacle (one who holds hands

Spectacle

Pantry

— Fantry

.

lion)

in)

in a niche)

young woman who plays

(a

." .

with collar buttons)

(to pelt

Market— Darket

TH'

a cello in a

bathtub)

In addition to the fun play,

he might have been having with

Ted had a somewhat subversive goal His view of his regime

editor-in-chief.

in

mind by

at Jacko

.

.

.

news

just received

... of a

of this

the time he

was displayed

learned that the magazine had been banned at a particular

Jacko

all

was

clearly

girls'

word-

elected

when he

school:

Connecticut

Finishing School for girls that had anathematized his

magazine, and forbade

dormitories.

.

.

its

distribution in the

His monthly anthology of foul anecdotes

.

is

locked up in the head-mistress' bureau drawer, and kept

from the addressee

until the

end

of the semester; at

which

time the matron passes the entire accumulation over to the girl,

advising her not to read them on the train ride home.

Jacko his

whollv

is

paper only

in

for the

student[s], for the

extreme

man

He

accord with this svstem.

of

wing

left

writes

of college

moral perversity.

And

assuredlv

not for the pure-minded daughters of Connecticut Aristocracy.

The

aristocracy

10 .

.

.

would be

working professionallv as

theme

that

would

the butt of

a cartoonist,

of Ted's jokes

same connotations

which Ted explained about writing

for the

that

extreme

Of course, "moral it

down before

expects to

sit

on

a ladv.

It is,

his lap."

however, advisable

wing, "Jacko's

man should not

to violate this rule

if

the lady

11

when Ted's attitude did show through in ways that who know him only as Dr. Seuss:

But there were times are surprising to those

does now. In the

left

Additions to 'Etiquette'" proved risque for suggesting that "a sit

once he began

and bucking authority would be a

carry through to his children's books.

perversitv" didn't always carry the issue in

many

49

the seuss, the whole seuss, and nothing but the seuss

"The Old Chivalric Faith time ago Jacko was greatly worried,

Some

fear the College

sworn enemy

was becoming

of Culture, Jacko

for

—worried for

too gentlemanly.

from

viewed with displeasure the spread

Manners and Respect

—

Women.

grimy

his

Good

almost seemed that the

loud-mouthed swashbuckling braggart was gone

and

that individuality

But today Jacko

made

has not as yet the It

morning

was balm

undesirables of us

watch those

girls to tears.

more pleasant than

are?

Some

And

able to in the

sit

Jacko

is

school spirit

of the

view

that

how It is

at the

insignificant

what

is

and helpless they

nothing short of genius to be

certainlv happy, for

is

not yet dead.

come back on

this

all

over the

car.)

he knows that the prep

And he

sincerely hopes he will

the train with the

same jolly

12

may come across as sarcasm aimed

it

"A Woman's was

recently

New

his editorship,

at the crass

and however odd

dovetails with the slightly misogynistic

a

A Woman;

But

comments

made

it

to

view

it

seems

in

reflected in his car-

A Cigar's a Good Smoke."

very different time period, after

The Cocoanuts (which in

Prep

American House. (You know those

Ted put forward during

This

had

from

men on the train, the support for that behavior is too consistent with the

retrospect,

toon

train

husky college men make

Juniors after the Christmas vacation.

Although

recess.)

to his ears last night. For

hoarse whispers that can be heard

to

on the return

this

back and whisper remarks that one has learned

wash-room

be able

(He writes

of the cleverest bits of insult

to see five

so subtly, too.

all.

five Juniors tease those

came

sillv girls realize

by decorum.

from the Thanksgiving

to his heart last night,

Jacko has ever heard

some

stifled

forever,

happy, for he knows that culture

is

after returning

Springfield, to

School

was being

a

office

of Courtesy,

It

As

Broadway and would be

would open on December

8,

all.

The Marx Brothers

getting laughs there in

1925, at the Lyric Theatre

York City and run for 375 performances) with ungentlemanly

50

AM

I

0'

FELLOW

A

TH' STRANGEST MIND

where Groucho,

interactions like this one,

."

WORLD

TH"

i'

.

.

Hammer, cuddles up

as Mr.

to

Mrs. Potter:

Hammer: Did anyone ever Prince of Wales?

you

mean

don't

I

tell

you look

that

the present Prince of

one of the old Wales. And, believe me, when

mean Wales

—

know

I

a

whale when

meant was, uh, you're going stuck with the hotel

anyhow

like the

to

I

say Wales,

I

see one.

be here

Wales-

.

.

.

What

I

I

winter and I'm

all

—why don't you grab me

until

you can make other arrangements? Mrs. Potter: before

mv

My

Hammer,

dear Mr.

daughter.

Hammer: You did once! Oh, but you see how I'm pining Mrs. Potter:

What

Hammer: Oh, am. One

never get married

shall

I

in the

for

love you,

world

move and

I

love you. Can't

you? is

the matter with you?

I'm not myself tonight.

I,

false

I

I'm Yours.

don't

I

know who

love you.

I

I

I

love you

anyhow. Mrs. Potter:

Hammer:

don't think you'd love

might, but

I

Mrs. Potter: this

I

I'd

keep

me

if

mv mouth

were poor.

I

shut.

not stay here anv longer and be insulted

I'll

way!

Hammer: Oh, don't go away and leave me here stav here

and

Mrs. Potter:

Hammer:

I

I'll

I

was

classes

down men,

.

.

saw

I'll

.

I'll

meet you tonight under the moon.

—

the

moon. You wear

a

13

time period, at that age, in an all-male school, the view of

like

and the

women

more gentlemanlv

Groucho Marx, Ted was always readv stuffy pretenders.

into Latinate roots: "'in' 'ia'

to

now you and know you.

can see you

unlikelv to be anv

Also

know what

Well, sav that You'll be trulv mine, or trulv vours,

necktie so

In that

You

go away.

don't

or yours trulv.

Oh,

alone.

—a case ending.

to

poke fun

at the elite

Ted defined "intelligentsia" by breaking

—a

Literally:

negation,

'You can't

51

'telli'

tell

—

to

tell,

'gents'

it

—gentle-

these guys anything.'" For

THE SeUSS. THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

"cognoscenti," however, he returned to the increasingly popular Prohibition

drinking jokes: "Derived from Cognac, a town in France. First applied to the natives of Cognac. Thence 'One

who knows

his hootch.'"

On

14

page

his editorial

in the first

Jack-O-Lantern issue of 1925, Ted took

space to comment, "Jacko takes delight in

announcing

that Mr.

Anderson

Anderson Anti-Saloon League

of the

is

once

again within the clutches of the law." 15

But

Ted's

attitude

would soon meet

u

^c

o i5

1

£rr )Pt

h

The caption on this cartoon is

Ted-ese for "This

is

the noisiest party I've ever

been

at."

Later in college,

such a party would lead Ted to a brush

with scandal.

When

he dashed off this sketch during an auction years

some 60

later,

he

apparently was forgetting his original "noisy potty."

52

drinking

a rather serious

unexpected challenge. \)

toward

and

CHAPTER 6

Theodor Grows a Welt

In

the spring, there

on campus

ions

to the

was an upsurge

amount

were expressed about how they related

Dartmouth's business

staff,

into Ted's time

seemingly

in

marked

like Curtis Abel,

Dartmouth

in late

and Whit Campbell, an associate

on the magazine, the following

editor.

A couple

editorial appeared,

was not

sole author, he

may have

contributed.

1

the froth of the post-war wave. Restraint cast aside,

our generation rides the crest of freedom. But propriety and necessity [are] about to break the wave.

generation will feel the

where youth best

The

downward sweep

fringe of our

into the trough,

listens.

This generation of ours had been painted a ginthrill

seeking group.

As

a matter of fact, the

pennywise novelists have not produced accurate

They have portrayed

the minority

who

pictures.

seek extremes. They

have painted us as carousing with Bacchus and toying with Venus. But

among

March,

an established member of the

This Generation of Ours

drinking,

whole.

contrast to the attitude Ted displayed as head of the ]ack-

O-Lantern. While Ted

We are

was paid

to their generation as a

to the editorial staff of the

where he worked with friends

weeks

of attention that

behavior and attitudes of Dartmouth students, and opin-

Ted had been elected

of

in the

we do none

of these as a generation.

The weak

us have thus fallen victims to the freedom brought

53

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTH1NC BUT THE SeUSS

by the war. But our generation has not taken

liberty for

license as a unit.

This generation of ours, instead, has taken freedom to

mean freedom from abused freedom

and dance and

the duty of application.

we

until

We

have

We

are victims of laziness.

cultivate languor, but

we do

talk

not work.

This generation of ours has perverted freedom as a

means

of escaping obligation.

cast adrift

our

We

ignore our duties and

loyalties.

This generation of ours has lost appreciation.

denied ourselves the sweet of gratitude.

We have

We have

dulled the

polish of sentiment, by not acknowledging our debt to the

home. This generation of ours has lost respect. ourselves,

we

Bound up

respect nothing that transcends us.

W e do not r

This generation of ours has lost humility.

recognize our

in

own

We

insignificance.

take the present as

ours, instead of preparing for our heritage of the future.

assume the superman demeanor,

to veil

We

callow minds

beneath.

This generation of ours

benign tolerance,

we shame

is

intolerant. Pretending

the tolerant spirit

bv our

pettiness.

We are

This generation of ours has lost reverence.

and

blind to the beauties of simplicity virtues exalted

by our

for their sincerity.

elders.

confused individualism with

is

lost

water of

it

our elders

cannot

is

stereo tvped.

We have

eccentricity. In trying to

be

the worthv

based on valid conclusions

life.

This generation of ours

have

bitterly arraign

we have wandered from

individualism which

scorn the

test of reason.

This generation of ours

concerning

We

We profane beauty, because

always stand the cold

different,

We

faith.

is

ambition and energy. life.

54

complacently smug.

We are fish outside

We

the

THEODOR GROWS

This generation of ours

with courage, but try

life

not play square, because

to escape.

we

We do

We

not face

under the

flutter

the questions of

We do

life.

are afraid to stake ourselves

life.

This generation of ours

world

WELT

cowardly.

We dodge

illusion of forgetting.

against

is

A

acclaim us.

to

show us our hoping

We do

is

ignorant.

We expect the

not dare to study

true unimportance.

We

reality, lest

it

relinquish the joy of

We are

for the vanity of expectation.

going to be

surprised.

A few

days

on April

later,

"The Unworthy Attitude" appeared

entitled

when

among

Abel were

that

and

at the

a visit

room

his friend Curtis

Ted shared with Robert

that

Randall House, causing complaints from the proprietor

from the

police.

Although there were certain "understand-

ings" that were in place during Prohibition, this incident particularly poorly because the next

Max

time on the

this

whose Saturdav-night

of ten students

partying became too raucous in the

Sharp

—

weekend came, Ted and

group

a

editorial

Dartmouth, again

in the

discussing the problems with Dartmouth students front page. But

themed

13, 1925, a similarly

Rudin,

in the article

was received

morning was Easter Sunday.

"Beer and America" in American Heritage,

contend? that before Prohibition, there was a movement away from strong alcohol

and

spirits

toward the less-intoxicating

had the paradoxical

bition

would have Song'

.

.

.

a

now

keg of beer and

sit

results of Ted's gin

happened. Ted's

father,

Am I!'"

game were

who had

your taking

in college,

if

a drink,

I

quotes Samuel

before Prohibition

around singing 'The Dartmouth Stein

manage no

lyric

2

a bit

more

dire. Initially, the

letters to their parents,

students

explaining what

not yet found a full-time job since Prohibi-

had closed the family breweries, wrote back

object to

He

got drunk quickly on bathtub gin, and could

involved were required to write

tion

who

that "college students

more complicated than 'How Drv The

that, in effect, Prohi-

effect of reversing that trend.

Morison as recalling

Eliot

and

beer,

do

object to

the rules of the college

to tell Ted,

your taking one

do not permit

it.

.

.

.

in

"While

I

do not

Hanover, while

Abide by the decision

Theodor Geiseb Sober student or

of the authorities

.

.

.

and

.

.

.

serve your

55

full

sentence conscientiously.

partv animal?

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

While

.

.

you

.

make an attempt

are soon to graduate,

good

eradicate this blot from your

few weeks

to

the incident, but five days after

it

record."

The Dartmouth did not report

the next

3

occurred, in announcing the release of the current issue of Jacko, the paper also

announced

that elections

tive staff for the final

two

would be held

issues of the magazine.

a creative piece of Ted's that

unlike the other works

it

the following

would appear

week

new

for a

execu-

The newspaper did promote

new

in the

issue of Jacko, but

previewed, Ted's was the only one whose author was

name no

not named. By the time those elections were held, Ted's

appeared as an associate editor for the Dartmouth

and ten days

either,

longer

after his

mishap, Ted was replaced as editor-in-chief of the Jack-O-Lantern.

Attempts were made possible.

When

day

the

to

show

good

the changes at Jacko in as

for the elections

came, the April

a light as

28, 1925, issue of the

Dartmouth described the premature election and the change of leadership as a switch to the plan that the Dartmouth

had already adopted, "which brings

new

the election earlier in the year to give the

chance to prove their

officers a

worth." The rationale appeared a bit thin, as no reason

was given

and circulation managers

election of the business, advertising,

about a month from now." Presumably they weren't

at the

why "the

for

will

be held

party in Ted's

room.

member

Literary staff

replace Ted.

The day

C. H. Frankenberg, class of 1926,

after the elections,

will take charge immediately. year, the issue,

ing

House

which

staff."

ment

4

Parties issue,

will be

was reported

which

is

at press

The newspaper went on

of

to specifv that

The pretense seems

Ted or the other outgoing

The day

that the

new

new board

that "the

staff

executive staff

this

now, and the Commencement

new board under

guard would be overseeing the new executive

was made

elected to

There will be two more issues of the Jacko

put out by the

issue will be credited."

it

was

the direction of the retir-

"work to

staff,

for the

Commence-

have been that the old

even though no mention

members.

was

elected, the

Dartmouth also

reported that "what worries the President of Dartmouth College

is

not the

immorality nor the irreligion of his students, but their 'unwillingness to subject

themselves to or accept discipline in any form,' and their 'failure to

think.'" 5

The paper

Company and

also

a 1903

quoted Victor M. Cutter, president of the United Fruit

Dartmouth graduate, as having said

percentage of campus leaders have

shown up

56

as successes.

that "not a great

Many

of

them

are

—

THEODOR CROWS

unknown explains

.

.

.

of carelessness It

Lack of seriousness and application

after graduation.

it.

After the

among

isn't clear

many

on the newspaper

his editorship positions

newspaper. The administration appears

was with

it

received.

to

However,

many

whereas Ted

on both the magazine and the

It

has been reported that his ban-

rise to Ted's

use of pseudonvms, under

continue to publish despite the sharp punishments he'd

this

claim

is

a

misstatement of the

Ted had used several pseudonyms used

until graduation,

have been much more severe with

to

the other participants.

ishment from the magazine gave

which he was able

there has been an attitude

Ted's drinking partner Curtis Abel continued in his

position as business editor

Ted than

war

sensations of the

to studies

college men." 6

why

was removed from

WELT

A

others, including

in

facts.

high school. Earlier in college, he'd

Oo-La-La McCarty, Joe Liberalism, James

P.

Mikado, Florence Nightingale, A. A. Hennessey, Calvin Chumley, and Al

Dumas on

prose pieces, as well as Fish and Felix on illustrations. In the issue

of the Jack-0 -Lantern that

came out more than

three

weeks

before the drink-

ing incident, Ted wrote one article as Jean Jean and signed one illustration as L.

Burbank (contrary

after

to the accounts that cite this cartoon as

being published

he was removed from the magazine). There was no compelling reason

purpose was

for secrecy at that time; Ted's

to

make

his

work more enjoyable

Pseudonymous homage: This 1925 cartoon of a flight

by employing clever references and allusions

that

imbued

his cartoons with

famous

Burbank" was a reference

for his

Luther Burbank

to

—a

cow

in

attributed

to a horticulturist

known

an extra layer of complexity. "L.

is

for

crossbreeding

horticulturist

experiments with crossbreeding and hybridization, which

experiments

an example of Ted's

penchant for clever

produced plumcots, spineless

cacti,

presumablv learned about him course he took at Dartmouth. written that the

and hundreds of other new

in the

He had

botany

previously

odd animals on Bo-Bo were "an

assemblage of hvbrids that would paint Luther

Burbank green with envy."" Bovine hybridizations like the flying

cow

(an idea that Ted

would

continue to develop in his later work) and BoBo's

Heumkia may

or

may

not have been the

products of gin visions, but the drinking

dent at the Randall House occurred too

inci-

late to

factored into this cartoon.

57

be

plants.

Ted

noms de plume.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

Six days after the drinking incident, the next issue of Jncko

indicating that the issue

occurred.

The timing

is

had already been

at the printer

such that the party

bration for having completed the issue.

As

may

was

when

released,

the trouble

actually have been a cele-

swift as his

punishment was, Ted

wasn't even replaced as editor-in-chief until several days after that issue was

work

already for sale in bookstores. Consequently, although his issue appeared exclusively

drawn

was

that the drinking fiasco

responsible.

pseudonyms; he had alreadv almost

Additional aliases:

directly.

This cartoon of

issue

milk cow is

a

The

came

closest

he came

in a cartoon

new

under pseudonyms, the conclusion cannot be

in the issue prior to the drinking incident,

of

in the

to

should be pointed out that

Ted had not simply used a couple

entirely

using his real

done by Wendell

It

stopped identifying himself

name

as identification in that

where "Ted Jones"

C. Jones,

signified

(left)

credited to L.

Pasteur; the jailed

that the caption

and the idea

own. Most

the

likely,

for the illustration

move away from

were not

strictlv Jones's

crediting his pieces in Jncko

was aimed

fellows (right) are

at

credited to an

individual

who

avoiding the appearance of impropriety and favoritism; since he was the

editor-in-chief,

Ted had been trying

to

remove

his

name from almost

all

of his

promoted self-help

works, and he continued the process in

programs for prisoners;

and

As with

the flying

cow

that

this

(opposite page,

his next left)

drawing of a cow

ization of cow's milk.

was supposedly drawn by D. G. Rossetti,

who

would have figured

Mott Osborne, the

A

to L. Pasteur, the

comic about two

man known

issue of Jacko.

he credited to

the beleaguered

fisherman

new

man

Burbank, Ted attributed

L.

responsible for the pasteur-

jailed prisoners

for his self-help

was signed Thos.

programs

Osborne had been warden of Sing Sing prison from 1914

for prisoners.

to 1916.

He had

a

prominently in

Mutual Welfare League that functioned under the idea that inmates would be

Ted's fine-art

trustworthy

if

they were given

trust.

studies.

"Sure

is

a tight

jail,

this."

"There's no getting out of

58

it.'

THEQDDR GROWS

A

WELT

Unfortunately, Superintendent of Prisons John B. Riley claimed that Osborne's ideas

amounted

to

"coddling prisoners," thereby destroying prison discipline

and encouraging crime. Osborne received a grand jury indictment

Decem-

in

ber 1915 and resigned in 1916. Ted's use of Osborne's name, given Osborne's anti-authoritarian viewpoint

and

his resignation, turns out to be

ing coincidence under the circumstances. But

carries

it

an

interest-

no more hidden mean-

ing than, for example, the fact that the

new

editor-in-chief was, like Ted, a banjo player.

The other pseudonyms adopted

in that

issue of Jacko appear to have

come from

Ted's art studies. "Anton Lang"

was proba-

bly a reference to the

German

sculptor and

potter (1875-1938). "D. G. Rossetti" refers to

Dante Gabriel

Rossetti,

one of the three

founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

—

artists

rebelling

against

the

"perfection" of Raphael's paintings, opting for

more

realistic

scenes and people based on

real

models with non-idealized proportions.

Ted,

who had

referred to the Brotherhood in

Assuming

the previous issue of Jacko as well, chose to

assign the reality-seeking Rossetti's

name

This that

to

a

40-foot

that instantly sprouted into pineapple trees.

appeared

far the

most significant pseudonym

in this issue

was

Seuss. This

was

that

the

first

time that Ted had ever used his middle

name

—

his

mother's maiden

—

name

to identify

In this April 25, 1925, issue,

any of his works.

"Financial Note: Goat Milk

is

Higher than Ever"

(part of the goat-on-the-mountaintop series illus-

trated earlier)

"Kiss

was

credited to

Me" was simply

not only the

first

T

Seuss, while

signed Seuss. These were

cartoons credited to Seuss but

59

Kiss

Me

Whaddava

think this

first

time

Ted used the in his

credit line (bottom).

smoked herring by spreading seeds underwater Bv

Seuss:

the

name Seuss

an image of Baron Munchausen escaping

from

is

is

—a

taxi?

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

they were also the It is

was already

after his

it

cartoons of Ted's college career.

pseudonyms

quite clear that this flurry of

came out before

reports,

last credited

and

the drinking incident,

at press

that

it

burgeoned

during the time of the notorious

was not through

the use of

pseudonyms

removal from the magazine. In

that the

new

of the year,

rule, specifying that

came

into the

hands of

was completely

uncredited.

one of It is

his

likely

for the final issue

anonymity

as a loop-

office.

there

was

a note that read,

receivers." Prominently placed

"With

this issue

Being the Swan-Song of

I

a College

write at any time

Should make

me

out a dope,

My readers fond will blame the rime And judge me Though I may write

A devil

hope.

right,

I

that

have been

I

of a fellow,

My person still is free from sin, Outside my verse, — bellow. I

My verse may fluently affirm That I'm a thorough bounder, But than

No

my will none is more firm, moral ever sounder.

What I have Is false

sung, betimes, and writ

and

I

abhor

it.

60

Jack'O goes

above that note, the follow-

appeared:

what

to other

Ted was published

An Invocation

If

one that

penultimate issue of Ted's senior year was released nine days

new elections,

poem

Contrary

Rather, every

as a result of Ted's use of uncredited

after the

ing

that

works would be credited

hole after he'd been removed from

When the

affair.

in the

he did not use a single pseudo-

fact,

nym once he left his position with the Jack-O-Lantern. pieces that appeared in the next issue

started in the issue that

Wit

THEODOR GROWS

my

But you've enjoyed

And

And

if

WELT

vicious wit,

money

paid good

A

for

it.

sung of virtues mild

I'd

And wasted

breath on truth,

You probably would not have smiled,

And

have starved, forsooth. 8

I'd

made money from the

(At the time, students sale of these publications.)

In addition to this valedictory ditty,

had several other uncredited pieces

Ted also

in this issue.

It

heartening to see that even his embarrassing

is

could not dim Ted's love of a good

difficulties

pun. Still

not completely chastened, Ted included

(without credit)

Ravensoak,

around an

earl,

a

about drunken Lord

story

who comes home

his neck.

She claims

to

with a

woman

be the daughter of

but Ravensoak's butler, Cholmondeley,

cleverly catches her concealing the accent of the

lower classes

woman

Soho and determines

in

that she

is

a

of easy virtue trying to trap herself a

nobleman by getting pregnant. Ted's

final

words 1 st Chimney-sweep: "Shall go down 2nd Chimney-sweep: "Soot yourself." 1

to

appear

in the

Jack-O-Lantem during

his time in

first?"

college are those of Cholmondeley's sexual warn-

ing to the

woman:

The new

"It is

rules

more blessed

were

to forbid

— the

effective

than to conceive."

final issue of the

year does not appear

to contain

anv of Ted's work. As interesting as the famed drinking incident

may

occurred just two months before Ted graduated;

be,

matic it

it

it

might have been,

occurred, he

was on

Reviewing

his

it

didn't affect

way

to

him

England

for very long.

however

trau-

Four months

after

so,

for postgraduate studies.

his time in college as a whole,

it

is

surprising to see that,

Unascribed scribe:

Even

even

in his senior vear, Ted's

artwork had not developed to a point where a

future livelihood as an illustrator

and

cartoonist

seemed

likely.

On

the other

after his

removal from fackO-Lanterti,

Ted

contributed without

hand, his writing

skills

had developed considerably. And there were

61

hints of

credit.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

something

seemed

else that

salesmanship that would

be utilized

to

come

to

Ted instinctually

—an

aptitude for

see success in the advertising business

first

in getting children to read.

It

didn't

come from

and then

the course in the

psychology of advertising that he took during his sophomore year. As he had

demonstrated

review of the

in his

B.

and M. Timetable, Ted understood

that a

good presentation could make almost anything appealing. Here he applied this

approach

in joking fashion to

educating lazy Dartmouth students:

The average undergraduate mind broadcasted nothing but

static.

.

.

.

That the average undergraduate was

mentallv null-and-void

undergraduate think he

him

to

force learning

purpose.

.

.

.

will

is

certain. ...

suddenly

being amused, and unbeknownst

on him

at the

joyfully.

And

And he then ... it

all,

dawn upon him

"education

that

isn't

so cut

an intellectual Bromo

stops buzzing.

9

Even then Ted had the notion of getting people to read,, despite

themselves,

There was,

madness

by after

amusing all,

method

of "the strangest

them. to the

mind

in

the world."

Ted designed

this

cow for a membership list flying

of

the Pleiad(e), an

honorary society

at

Dartmouth College.

62

will read

if

he has been slyly he

is

any

and dried

buy books and read them.

will then is

same time would be our

then, at the last page,

educated. "Well, well," he will say, fellow at

To make the

The knowledge-detesting student

our pages through it

we were

Seltzer.

.

.

Drink

sort of a at that." .

This it

before

CHAPTER

"From There Here

Two weeks lican

He

was

Firing Line,"

filled in for

before he took oyer:

"And now,

of a substitute while

"A

we

first

foray into professional journalism.

in the last sentence of the

dear readers,

we leaye you

is

guns was

it

the

the

to the tender

He day

mercy

1

fired as the President

went up

to the right

"Any man who has had

over two years should be expected to come to

without being commended. This pampering of presidents

being carried too

really

column

through two weeks of yacation."

frolic

at his disposal for

the right side of

"On

column, Ted quoted a piece of news from the Union that

salute of 21

steam yacht

for

Union and the Springfield Sunday Repub-

side of the vessel." Ted's response to this tidbit was, a

work

a staple in the Springfield Union, tossing out bits of politics,

was introduced unceremoniously

reported,

to

columnist "R.P.M./' whose column,

puns, and poesy. So began Ted's

In his first

There"

to

job at the Springfield

newspapers.

Here and

to

Ted was back home and reporting

after graduation,

summer

a

7

far."

2

This willful misreading of headlines and stories provided

some

of Ted's

When someone chewing gum be

best comic pieces during his brief stint with the newspaper.

wrote

Youngstown Telegram asking,

the

to

removed from advice.

A new

"On

a carpet?" Ted's response

package

will only set

can

was "Don't

you back

a nickel."

take chances,

On

and the

Ted knew that Prohibition was

"A correspondent

our

commentary on

a

the heels of his recent run-in with drinking

of subjects.

law,

is

3

the Firing Line" required that he provide pithy

wide variety

he noted:

"How

still

a hot topic. Accordingly,

to the Detroit Free Press states that 'a

should not be regarded as drunk as long as he can

63

hit the

person

ground with

his

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

hat.'

This

of course,

test,

is

invalidated

if

his

head happens

to

be in the hat." 4

Ted experimented with some verse early on, and experiencing a degree of success, he continued with bits of playful verse sporadically thereafter.

He

cited a dittv in the Lowell Courier-Citizen that read:

"In the

name

of our Republic,

Together with our love,

We extend

felicitations

To Alvin

Fuller,

Gov."

Ted added, under the pun-title "Extending

you

"We'll go

just

one

Felicitations":

better,

(The Springfield Union says.)

And wish

a

happy birthday*

To Calvin Coolidge, Pres." (*Five

days

but the

In another

late, to

be sure,

spirit is there

anvway.) 5

column, Ted quoted several examples of tombstone humor:

Upon my

stone this legend write:

"He never

said, 'Well, nighty-night.'"

[Akron Beacon-Journal]

And on my

stone, let this

"He never wore

his

be chipped:

moustache clipped."

[Houston Post-Dispatch]

And

say,

when weeping

"He hardly ever

at

my bier:

said, 'Old dear.'"

[Youngstown Telegram]

May

this console

"He never

my mourni'g widdy:

called his child a 'kiddie.'"

[Cleveland Plain Dealer]

o4

"from there to here and here to there"

Then he responded with

But

when

the following couplet of his

I'm gone no one can laugh:

"That fool wrote his

own

epitaph." 6

There were more serious subjects criticize the

own:

cover as well. Ted continued to

to

hypocrisy of moralistic pretense, as he had done in the Jack-O-

Lantern:

Maxwell Bodenheim was

.

.

.

charged with having

published an indecent novel, Replenishing

Jessica.

Every

once and so often these novelists will forget themselves

and substitute

letters for the

dashes

in

"d

—

n." 7

Ted also quoted the Baltimore Sun headline "Santa Barbara Quake 24

Hours

of Hades, Says

Woman," commenting,

say that the San Francisco quake

was

Hell."

"It

could have been worse. They

8

On the day that the Scopes Trial began, pitting Clarence Darrow and theory of evolution versus William Jennings Bryan and creationism, Ted direct

commentary and, more amusingly, some observations

of his

the

made

own on the

reaction that people have toward advances in science:

"For the purpose of eliminating street noises, an inventor has perfected a tiny plastic

danger of injury also of

to the

ball that will

drum." Ah,

fit

any ear without

that's the thing!

We,

an inventive nature, have devised a most delightful

set of blinders that will

slightest

damage

fit

over any eyes without the

to the lashes,

and now besides not

hearing the street cars, you won't even have to look at the nasty things. Just don these two contrivances and a pair of roller skates

and have

you'll appreciate

A Bostonian

what

had offered

a friend drag

science can

do

you around, and

for the

human

to contribute $10,000 to a

fund

race.

9

to build

"Bryan

University, a school of fundamentalism." Reaching back to an idea he'd

had during Dartmouth's undefeated season

65

of 1924,

Ted quipped, "The

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

this university will ...

curriculum of

team

will call

its

signals in

Roman

be rigidly

numerals."

classical.

Even the

football

10

After the regular columnist returned

from

his vacation,

a sensuous

at

Ted observed that "mysticism,

and

ecstatic

mysticism of

gious fervor transcending

keynote of

hand

tried his

Of Stark Young's plav

theater reviews. Tlie Saint,

Ted

itself,

this four act play.

the stage directions

.

.

.

reli-

the

is

Without

and the author's

fore-

word, the note of mysticism cannot hope to

be conveyed to the audience, and the

merelv

stands

storv

mediocre melodrama."

melodrama

as 11

With those words, Ted's short time with the paper ended.

As summer drew graduate work in English

a

to at

Ted

close,

for

left

Oxford's Lincoln College.

England

He

to

pursue

did not have

much

success there, preferring travels and exploration to actual studies. Four

months

after arriving,

Ted spent Christmas vacation traveling

Joseph Sagmaster, Donald at school.

it

Blair Rice

with

—friends he'd made

These sorts of events had more meaning for Ted than his quest

become an English friends;

and Philip

Bartlett,

in France

was

The

professor.

to Sagmaster, Bartlett,

and Other Stories would

later

companions would remain

travel

and

to

close

their families that Yertle the Turtle

be dedicated.

Joseph Sagmaster further endeared himself to Ted by bringing him together with Helen Marion Palmer, an American briefly to

pened

to

Ted

in a class that they shared.

him during his time

was by

far the best thing that

knowing each other

as controversial an Easter as the it

hap-

When Easter vacation came, Ted travwith Helen and her mother. On their first for only a

few months, Helen and Ted

broke the news of their engagement to her surprised mother. For the Springfield

spoken

in Europe.

eled to France again, but this time

night in Paris, after

It

woman who had

It

one he'd had the previous year

was perhaps

at college,

but

involved fewer policemen.

Union, Ted recycled his joke

from

this 1924

Ted's parents and his

sister,

Mamie, joined him

with plans for travel and concerns about his fiancee,

Jack-O-Lantern cartoon.

Although Ted's time there had

fizzled to

66

in

England that summer,

whom thev'd

an end, Helen remained

never met.

to finish her

—

'from there to here and here to there"

The Geisels traveled

studies at Oxford.

ancestors in

Germany and

together, visiting the

towns of

Bavaria, including tiny Miilhausen,

hard had misplaced one of the

s's in

"Geissel." After his family

their

where Geb-

left,

Ted spent Classical

the rest of the

summer and

the early

fall

living the artistic

excited 22-year-old claimed to have run into Ernest

life

in Paris.

The

Hemingway writing notes

inspiration:

Ted's exposure to classical culture

in a cafe a

month

before The Sun Also Rises

was published and

to

have

encountered Theodore Dreiser a year after An American Tragedy was released.

during his travels

abroad

is

evident

in this 1926

Later that

fall,

he traveled

change of plans

tentative

to

to

study

meet Helen

in Vienna,

German drama

at the

where he made

a

University of Vienna.

piece entitled

"Gobelin" a

However, he soon discarded

that idea

just as briefly into the possibility of

and returned

studying

at the

to Paris,

where he looked

Sorbonne. Finally, he met

name

synonymous with tapestry making since the sixteenth

up with Helen and her mother Helen opted

tion.

in Florence at the

to return to

the States to start looking for

work, and Ted stayed on Italy for

another month,

Rome and

ing

in

visit-

studying the

artwork of European masters,

which

led to a

few imitations

and several more parodies.

Many

of the pieces

Ted

appears to have worked on

during

this

period have clas-

themes.

sical

while

it

may

"Gobelin,"

In

look as

if

the

young woman and animals are

running from

a

super-

natural being like a goblin, the reference

is

actually to the fact

that "Gobelin"

is

a particular

type of stitch used in tapestries that

the

Ted no doubt saw

in

European museums, par-

ticularly

during his time

Italy at the

end

in

of his Euro-

pean adventure.

67

beginning of Christmas vaca-

century.

THE SeUSS. THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

.

--

2>..Seiss

The Chan man— "Gentlemen, must

tie a

warning

bell

it's our on every single

last

Fill

and only hope!

Gun

We "

in the

country

1

97

— suicide.

—

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

name

popularity and

his

employers

recognition

is

that

was not

determines

how

Tiegs. In 1928, Judge

had

the

magazine and page through

growing popularity

new

sell.

Collier,

artists like

and Don Herold

of the Flit advertisements,

opportunity was opened up

first illustration

underscored the

it, it

often

for

its

covers. But with the

Ted had developed enough to

him. The March 23, 1929,

of his to be published in full color.

fact that

had Cheryl

Ruth Eastman, Jefferson

issue of Judge contains the first cover illustration of Ted's career.

day

his

The more popular the coyer

Leslie Thrasher. Sports Illustrated

had booked popular

Machamer, Guy Hoff, Nate

of his

on

The Saturday Evening Post had Norman Rockwell and

C. Levendecker. Liberty

prestige that a

up

well a particular issue will

the better the sales.

very

lost

the only part of a magazine that a reader can see at a

distance, without haying to pick

J.

fact

at Judge.

Since the cover

is,

—a

It

It

was

was an event

he was joining the upper echelon of the

"Dr. Seuss" could

now

sell

magazines. 18

also the that

illustrators

—

CHAPTER

10

"Time, a Maniac Scattering Dust"

Ted's

advertisements

—along with his cartoons,

as well as the articles that

were beginning

and

illustrations,

to

articles,

be written about him

continued to appear in a growing number of magazines. During the 1930s,

you could a

find Seuss material in at least 60 different periodicals

and more than

thousand newspapers. This increased popularity brought Ted more

ing opportunities.

He

created several privately commissioned paintings

murals early in 1930, including a four-wall installation ness Edwards,

Sr.,

in

interest-

Kentucky and "The Rape

Dartmouth Club on 37th

Street in

New York.

home of HarkWoman" for the

in the

of the Sabine

For the

and

latter,

Ted parodied Gio-

vanni da Bologna's 1583 sculpture. Rather than the famous "serpentine"

arrangement of figures that

spirals

up

to the

Ted's canvas has a serpent looking at a

man

woman

held dramatically

carrying a

woman

in a

aloft,

much

less

graceful position.

women is a mythological event supposed to have taken place just after the founding of Rome in the eighth century BC, when the The rape

of the Sabine

Sabine tribe was invited to the city to celebrate the Consualia, a religious ritual

coupled with

athletic

contests

expanded by granting citizenship left

the city with a dearth of

lus, the

Romans

2

val. Ted's

of

are said to

in

to criminals,

women. At

off the

canvas depicts a place more likely

Eden than

of

Roman

which helped

a signal

have carried

Rome had

honor of Neptune.

to

from the Sabine

it

in

its

Roman king, Romu-

women from

remind viewers

temples. Although the Sabine

wars but

the festi-

of the

woman

Garden

doesn't look

pleased and one set of animals looks on aghast, most of the other characters

appear

to

be enjoying the scene.

99

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

100

s

'TIME, A MANIAC SCATTERING DOST"

Ted made mention that year of "a few in plastering

Rape

on some

of the Sabine

of his earliest.

4

of the local walls/'

Woman"

Although

as Ted's

oil

so

murals that

it is

first oil

was termed

it

3

the

Dartmouth Club

was done

painting, but

stored in an alumnus' s basement in

one

certainly

it is

a "mural," the existing painting

changed

It

locations, at

New Jersey, where

is

which time

remained

it

a

has been specu-

The painting hung

as a study for a mural.

until the club

have succeeded

impossible to identify "The

single large (roughly five-and-a-half-feet square) canvas. lated that the painting

I

it

in

was

for over 30

years. (Ted's

Dartmouth classmate Alexander Laing compared the canvas's

consignment

to storage to the

1934 removal of Diego Rivera's mural

"Man

at

New York City's Rockefeller Center. In Laing' eyes, whether it was the abduction of a nude woman or Vladimir Ilyich Lenin from a wall

the Crossroads"

in

uniting workers of different nationalities and ethnicities, an artwork that

found disfavor could simply be removed without regard ations.

willed

5

)

In 1964, Ted's painting to

it

was presented

to Ernest

Dartmouth College before he died

was cleaned and repaired

for artistic consider-

Martin Hopkins,

later that year.

for Ted's fiftieth reunion in 1975

stored in the basement of the college's

Hood Museum

6

who

The painting

and has been

since that time, with

hopes of a future restoration of the canvas. In contrast to the single canvas of "Sabine

Lexington, Kentucky, ering the

all

home

of Harkness Edwards,

four walls of a room. The

ular function (situated next to the taproom).

was

in fact

its

was

a

major work cov-

being a playroom

—the

was

a

room

At Christmas each

erected in the Seuss room, which

report about

Sr.,

Ted's mural in the

room has been described elsewhere

taproom and the children's playroom, but

train set

Woman,"

may

of

no

as both partic-

year, a large

account for the erroneous

children's

playroom was actually

upstairs.

The as

it

was

Next

to

it

taproom was known by the Edwards family as the "ship room," duplicate of Harkness's boat, including portholes for windows.

real

a

was

a

room

of approximately 40 feet

by 20

feet, in

which the

Dr.

"The Rape of the Sabine Woman":

Seuss installation was constructed. At the end of the rectangular room farthest

Ted put his

from the entrance, along one of the shorter walls, there was a large mirror that

mythological

Ted adorned with two

floor-to-ceiling flamingo-like birds facing each other,

up by an enormous

tale.

spin on the

This mural

(opposite page),

holding a sash between them above the mirror. The taken

own

left

side of the wall

flying insect that looked like a Flit

nightmare proportions.

was

bug grown

to

which hung one of Ted's paintings.

101

in the

Dartmouth Club,

is

first oil

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

On down

the long wall to the right, a bird flew above a large flower. Farther

the wall, an odd-looking beast splashed an arc of water behind

he kicked up his multiple-jointed back

him

as

To the right of him was another

legs.

mirror that Ted had framed with two large rabbit-like animals; a duck walked across the lintel above the mirror. At the

end

of that wall, directly across

from

—a hybrid leaning more

the room's entrance, hovered a slender flying creature

toward bird than

insect.

Opposite the wall with the flamingos, encircled the room's only

balancing Ted worked on all

four walls for

this privately

its

front feet

on

window. To the a stand.

mural.

a Hippocrass-like animal ate leaves

from

a plant

toward a hoop that

window was an elephant to the left of the entrance,

growing down from above

the doorway.

Ogden Edwards was born

Among the

right of the

On the final wall,

in 1934

commissioned featured animals

fish leapt

brother, Harkness,

seeing the murals.

Jr.,

and

and grew up

his sister, Mary.

He

in the

house with

has only a vague

his

memory

He recalls that one side of the house was prone to

of

extensive

were flamingo-like birds, a Flit-ish bug,

and

a multijointed

beast kicking his heels.

flooding,

and

that the

mural was water-damaged early on. The house was

rented for a few years in the early 1950s to FDR's daughter and sold to a

up

family by the

name

of

Marx

in the mid-1950s,

102

and Sotheby's auctioned the

—

'time,

a

maniac scattering dust"

contents in the late 1980s. The property Shortly after

mural (bv

Ogden Edwards became

his estimate,

house was completed

around

December and

it

exact

is

it

old

now

the

enough

Kentucky Horse Park.

to

is

no

may have been

specific information

mural was

in

in

New

York prior

to

about such a piece has been found

the reference to a second

New York

mural. Or this

the painting that Ted did for the Pilots' Club speakeasy

with friends Abner Dean and

The summer

of the

a misstatement, as a later publication using almost the

same wording omits

work may have been

that the

the

7

mention of a second mural that Ted did

1931, but

remember seeing

was already gone. Construction

in 1930, so the best estimate

place for perhaps a decade.

There

1940),

is

Hugh

of 1930 brought

Troy.

more change

Another view of the

for Ted.

He and Helen

vaca-

room shows more Seussian animals

tioned in Mexico City and,

upon

their return, lived at the Roosevelt Hotel

Madison Avenue while they were changing apartments. He began

on

a corre-

rabbits, a duck,

and

fish leaping

through hoops.

spondence with Dartmouth's assistant

librarian,

who know

Harold Goddard Rugg,

had apparently heard about an exhibition of Ted's work and wanted

to

Note the Hippocrass-like

animal reflected if

it

could be brought to Dartmouth. Ted explained that there had been no

103

the mirror.

in

THE SeUSS. THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

such exhibition but that he'd be interested in doing one that Ted's

work

done

of oils

seems

It

predominantly monochromatic magazines was no

for the

longer satisfying, as he wrote to

number

Dartmouth.

at

and water

Rugg

colors that

in black-and-white."

I

saying, "At present

am

I

working on a

think vastly superior to anything

I

have

8

illustrate

some

of the unwitting wit-

ticisms in a compilation called Boners by Those

Who

Pulled Them, which

Most

significantly,

he was asked to

Wisdom

claimed to be "a Collection of Schoolboy

.

.

.

Compiled from

rooms and Examination Papers by Alexander Abingdon, and

Illustrated

Dr. Seuss." In fact, the credited author

have been

a

responsible

fictitious

most

propisms remained uncredited.

The Boners books

like

series

by

appears to

one, while the person

gathering

for

Class-

of

mala-

the

9

borrowed

from

liberally

compendiums

Colin Mcllwaine's

of

schoolboy "howlers." More Schoolboy Howlers,

was

for example,

a 20-page booklet published

without illustrations years later in

in

New York,

London

Three

in 1928.

a better marketing strat-

egy for Boners padded and stretched the

text to a

book-length 102 pages and enlivened

it

with

Ted's illustrations. Unlike Mcllwaine's booklet,

which The Dauphin was

is

now

barely remembered, Boners

was

in

a rare fish that used to its

inhabit the Arctic Circle in the middle ages.

fourth printing just one

released. In 1931, Boners selling nonfiction

book,

More

book

Boners,

of the year. 10

was published

It

proved

to

month

was

after

it

was

the fourth-best-

be so popular that a second

in April, just

two months

after the first

Boners had appeared. Its

debt to Mcllwaine's booklet

is

immediately evident

in just a

few

examples of misguided missives from More Schoolboy Howlers that were appropriated for the Boners books: Ted's illustrations (this

page and

opposite page) of

Adolescence

is

the stage

between puberty and

adultery.

the successful

Boners books

whetted his appetite for

publishing.

Acrimony, sometimes called holy, book

marriage.

104

is

another

name

for

'TIME, A MANIAC SCATTERING DUST"

The Dauphin was

used

a rare fish that

to

inhabit the Arctic Circle in the middle ages.

Even when Boners was reprinted

Go About

I***

§C^

Polonius was a mythical sausage.

1997 as Herrings

in

"Alexander Abingdon" contin-

the Sea in Shawls,

be acknowledged for putting together the text that

ued

to

Ted

illustrated,

and the

initial

XJt^

compiler, Colin Mcllwaine,

remained completely disassociated from the work.

11

%J O^W^_y M^r

With the success of the Boners books, Ted saw quicklv he was paid for his

that the flat fee

illustrations

could not

'

-&

match the royalty income an author could earn from

sales of

Polonius was a mythical sausage.

such popular books. So in 1931, he began working on a book of his

own. The road

smooth.

He completed

January 1932.

It

was

to

publication

was by no means

23 to 26 watercolors for an animal alphabet book bv

vour average

not, needless to say,

scheduled for publication in the

summer

or

fall

ABC

book.

was

of 1932; however, in April of

and Ted's agent turned the

that year, his publisher canceled the project

It

paint-

ings over to another agency to try to find another publisher.

As

a

consequence, the exhibit for Dartmouth that Ted had been dis-

cussing with Harold Rugg, which was to consist of these paintings, also had to

be canceled;

Simon and

Press,

gooey

were being sent around

at the time, the paintings

Schuster, Bobbs-Merrill,

sorts of fellows,"

12

as Ted put

it.

to

Viking

and "ten or twelve other shoddy,

By the following year, he'd given up on

publishing the pictures in a book, and he offered 23 paintings to Dartmouth for

an exhibition

to

be held

at the

Baker Library during the 1933 annual

Winter Carnival. Ted gave his permission to piecemeal

if

necessary,

and offered

college. In June, the exhibit

Book Center,

a

to give

sell

them

if

possible, but

an agent's normal share

moved from Dartmouth

New York organization of publishers

The animal alphabet

as a lot

to the

and

exhibit started arbitrarily with

to the

Hotel Duane's

booksellers.

C for Cholmondelet,

described as a "green-striped British Monster," and from there skipped

around without regard that the

to

alphabetical order. Although

two bear anv resemblance,

Cholmondelet

for Judge,

at

and he described

105

it

is

not certain

about the same time Ted drew a it

as "the

most useless

of

American

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

animals," noted for

its

"Look

When

one was placed on a

Idaho,

it

of Reproach."

street corner in

decreased the divorce rate by over

14 percent.

The alphabet then jumped

as

the

of

an Elizabethan

came

the Escardax, a

"Spirit

Drink." Following

"puppy-headed

snail" that

got and half dachshund. explained,

smiles

our old

which was iden-

friend the Hippocrass, tified

to

for

was

An

half escar-

Itcutch,

it

was

an Expressionless The Cholmondelet

Evebug, while a Schimmelfritz jumps out

when

/~)F all American animali, the Cholmondelet ^~^ hat always been contidered the mott utelett. Recently, however, the government decided

clouds get together. There was also a

Lorv-Eared

Wombat and

a

to utilize hit

Long-Necked

Whizzleworp. The Blinket was described as a "cerise creature

whose

ears

mott outttanding characterittic

Look of Reproach.

.

.

At

grow 12

deer eat ed over 14 per cent.

inches even" time he takes a drink." The

Ted's planned

publication of an

animal alphabet

book never panned

out.

The

images remain

unaccounted

for,

but derivations of these creatures

populated Ted's

work

at the time.

A Cholmondelet (top)

and

Whereas the sex life of the average animal is his own the amours of the Brazilian Blinket are an open

secret,

a Blinket

boo^.

Every time a Blinket has an affaire de coeur, his ears three inches longer, so a bad Blw\et fools no one, Alove, a careful mother is shielding her young daughter from the shocking spectacle of a shameless old rotie.

(bottom) appeared in Judge

and

grow

Life,

respectively.

106

.

a tett cote, they inttalled a Cholmondelet at the mail-box on the corner of Thurk Street, Guimp, Idaho. In one year divorcet on Thurk Street, Guimp, Idaho, hit

TIME, A MANIAC SCATTERING DUST

best insight into

what

the Blinket might have looked like

comes from Ted's

1930 depiction of a Brazilian Blinket, whose ears grew three inches longer

every time he had an extramarital

mother

Blinket, shielding her daughter's eyes

the actions of the

mother bear

What became Somewhere

tion.

In that cartoon, the embarrassed

affair.

"The Rape

in

ABC book

Bean Town

themselves, as Ted recounted before the Dartmouth all

is

open

man who

show

sex,

mimics

Woman."

of the Sabine

of the illustrations for this

there are relatives of a

from the taboo of

that "a

to specula-

are kicking

month ago

I

but closed a deal, selling them to someone in Boston as decorations for a

Taproom. But these pictures seem hoodoed this

customer petered out

at the last

were dispersed and no longer did

make

the offer to

sell

moment."

.

13

.

and

.

like the publishers,

likelv that these pieces

It is

exist as a cohesive entity, especially since

them individually

mouth Winter Carnival were It

[sic]

if

enough people

Ted

at the Dart-

interested.

has been reported that 17 publishers expressed an interest in the book,

but not for publication until after the Depression was over. Unfortunately,

such unrecognized pieces of Ted's legacy continue strewn by that maniac Time. ever produced, restoration. lost.

The

likely

all

If

a full

that remains

is

"Rape

to

of the Sabine

the single canvas.

The Harkness Edwards mural appears

early alphabet

book seems no longer

having been scattered

memory

of another

retrieval,

and

like the

mural done

restoration of

works

in

It is

to

Woman" mural was safe,

but in need of

have been completely

to exist as a coherent

work,

pages of da Vinci's notebooks.

New

must continue

and preserved.

107

Any

York has vanished. The research,

like these

that such treasures are found, saved,

be buried under the dust

in

order to ensure

CHAPTER

Standard

In

11

Was Automatic

the decade that preceded Ted's

first

children's book, he developed

name

recognition as "Dr. Seuss" simultaneously through his cartooning and

through the incredible popularity of his advertisements success of that campaign ufacturer, Standard Oil.

was

Ted and the

beneficial to both

A relationship

for Flit

insecticide's

Without Standard

Oil, "Dr.

might never have become associated with children's books.

made

as

much money

Did

biz:

Ted's unofficial

entree into the

been able

to travel as extensively as they did. Since

experiment in other

begin 14

age of

at the

when

printed

Black Flag

Rhymes

&

Riddles to Please

integral to the creation of

Surely the metered text

and odd plants

and animals

man-

to Tliink

fields.

That

I

Saw

Seuss"

Ted had not the

not have

both time and travel were on Mulberry

It

Street, that

portion of Ted's career might not have developed without his association with

Standard

Oil.

The idea

and Tease (opposite page, top left)?

And

If

He and Helen would

which

world of insecticide

The

would not have had

as he did in advertising, he

leisure in

to

sprav.

developed that would link them for 25

years, involving a variety of products.

The bug

bug

that

was done

for the Flit

campaign may have had

its

for Black Flag, another insecticide, for

genesis in advertising

which a

pamphlets was produced. One of these pamphlets, Rhymes 1

Please

and

Tease,

which came out when Ted was

14,

series of small

&

Riddles

to

began with a poem and

(opposite page,

bottom

left

and

appealed

right)

illustration

about "The Wise Old Man." Given Ted's unusual memory,

the similarity to one of his later Flit ads

is

not surprising. Presuming that a

to the inquisitive

teenager,

and they

may

have, years

later,

informed

his art

and

the Flit

text for

campaign

14-year-old

was more

likely to look at pictures

and captions than

advertising text of the rest of the pamphlet, the next thing

have seen was a picture of an odd beast called a Uggle

trees,

which would have

fit

to

read the

young Ted would

Wambus standing beneath the

very comfortably with the flora and fauna

(opposite page, top right).

with which Ted would

later

populate the island of Bo-Bo during college. The

108

!

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

memorable images from the

last of the

pamphlet '

Tnmri5t PLEASE TO

""7

«MHTPiw AND TEASE

who

TKE W.ilOtOKAi;

McGrath

remembered from

may

Blackwood and

his brain until the opportunity for the Flit

campaign The

The flies met deaths most sudden And the old man said, Oh my Whoever made this powder

man than

B. T.

well have inhabited the recesses of

U.

At last he bought some Black Flag And a little powder gun. Then blew the powder in the air And watched to see the fun.

wiser

reminiscent of those Ted

is

flies.

They'd worry him and flurry him, And skate on his bald head, I'ntil this very wise old man Just wished that he was dead.

Was a

"feeds on onions, beans and glue." 2

This series of offbeat illustrations bv John

There was a man in our town And he was wondrous wise. Rut sad to say this clever man

Was much annoyed by

Wigglv Puckaroo,"

of "old

is

May

arose.

campaign got

Flit

1928.

In

celebration

its

start in

of the

first

I.

anniversary of Charles Lindbergh's historic

New

from

flight

York

to

Paris,

America was abuzz with the Lindbergh craze. Accordingly,

month

that

Mickey Mouse premiered

parody Plane Crazy. With Prohibition election pitted Herbert pot, a car in

who

felt

Hoover and

it

that

Lindbergh/ aviation

in the

still

was during

in effect, the presidential

his slogan of "a chicken in even-

every garage" against the anti-Prohibition Al Smith,

that the public

was

entitled to a different sort of buzz. U: l bush

Ted's attention

was focused on

the buzz of flying insects,

his first Flit cartoon

same month. The

summer

the

BETSS

and

premiered that

Flit

campaign

for

of 1928 consisted of

onlv a half dozen advertisements,

which ran every other week from

May

through August,

when

the

nuisance posed by biting insects

was

the

summer

went on

—during

time ThisistheVambus. strange anduueer Just see him grin from car to ear. He lives in a cave by the Ugcile trees •And with BLACK FLAG kills all his fleas.

was

that television sets,

the

manu-

Daven Corpora-

factured by the tion,

This

greatest.

sale

for

the

first

same week

the

Julv that Liglits of

New

in

York, the

He first

completely

talking

feature-

length film, premiered. There

109

was

is old Vig^ly Puckaroo. fteds on onions.beans and olue. hates all buos that fly or crawl

This

He And with BLACK FLAG

hehillsemall.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

no lack

of exciting events

and innovations

to capture the public's fancy.

by the time the summer had ended, despite

a Flit

But

campaign encompassing

only six cartoons, the advertising magazine Printers' Ink ran an article that

proclaimed, "The most

momentous theme

hibition, presidential election, aviation, or

of the

summer

world peace.

of 1928

away

three

weeks throughout the

year,

about 12

3

campaign

Flit

new ads even' summer ended that

the following vear, starting in January 1929, with

new

Flit

Bv the time the

entire vear.

ads had run, and Standard Oil drew on

to print the first solo "Dr. Seuss" item in history: a

Cartoons:

Pro-

was mosquitoes."

It

Encouraged by the ads' success, Standard Oil began the right

was not

As They Have Appeared

the Country.

New

in

pamphlet

its

18 ads

entitled Flit

Magazines and Newspapers Throughout

advertisements continued to appear everv three weeks

throughout 1930 and remained so popu-

two more

lar that

Flit

booklets reprinting

Ted's ads were produced. 4 That summer, color

both in

was introduced

ads that ran in periodicals and

in the

new

March

Other than the

poster cards. 16, 1929,

cover for Judge, these

pieces were the public's

exposure

to Ted's

advertisements came

were seen

first in Life

appeared the next dav years, thev

"Quick, Henry, the

Flit!"

odicals,

appear

on the same dav

the Nezc Yorker

week

in Judge.

in

and when thev

manv

and then

Over the

other peri-

did, thev

would

Saturday Evening Post and

two davs

as in Judge,

later in Collier's. Initially, the

appeared

in the

full-color

first

work.

When new out, thev

campaign,

into the

later in Time,

and

a

ones in Liberty were on the same schedule

as those in Collier's, but they later followed the schedule of the Nezc Yorker

and the Saturday Evening

Ted's efforts were not the onlv advertisements for

Buzzworthy: Full-color ads

Post.

were

period.

Flit

had ads

in certain publications that

Flit

during

were done bv other

artists

this

and

unveiled in 1930,

adding

a

new

dimension popular

to Ted's

designers. that

One popular misconception

adorned the

Flit

pump

that

Ted designed the tov soldiers

manv

of the advertisements, but the

is

spravers and

Flit

campaign.

soldiers predated Ted's involvement with the

110

company.

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

Ted's contribution to the

campaign grew more substantial

Flit

in 1931. In

the large-format brochure Another Big Flit Year!, Standard Oil reprinted

some

from the previous year and revealed that the 1930 advertising

of the best ads

campaign had involved 32

of Ted's cartoons,

which had appeared around the

country in 14 magazines and 3,650 newspapers, as well as theater programs in

New

York

5

City.

The ads continued

to

appear every three weeks through the

winter and spring of 1931, but once the

summer

arrived, a

new one was pub-

lished every week.

Another new

dow

facet of the

program was the addition

of

an elaborate win-

display in 1931 in which two men, suspended on strings so that they

move when blown by

could

parachuted

a fan,

huge mosquito.

propeller and, of course, a

downward along with a

Full-color

falling

subway cards were

pro-

duced. Most intriguingly, Ted began work on short animated movies for the

summer campaign promoting

which now stand among the biggest

Flit,

of

Seuss mysteries.

Standard Oil (possibly with help from Esso producer Penola, financed the production of Put on the Spout and 'Neath the Bababa

were released by Warner

Bros,

on June

1,

1931. 6 Both

were

Tree,

Inc.)

which

split-reel, three-to-

five-minute, privately sponsored sound films. At least four copies of each film

copies

still

New York at

if

any

Spout was a 388-foot-long, five-minute commercial

(or

(one original and three duplicates) existed in

the time, but

remain, exhaustive research has failed to find them.

Put on

the

"industrial") cartoon, for

which the music was recorded on the

than on a separate disk. Containing only one line of dialogue, a print

advertisement that had run two months

described

it

7

earlier.

8

it

film rather

was based on

A reviewer at the time

as follows:

Fantastic cartoon in undersea locale, with the entire fish

family beating that a

it

when

for cover

dangerous insect

is

the warning

is

sounded

approaching. The intruder gives

the whale a merry chase, until the cue, 'Quick, Jonah, the Flit,' is

given by a

human

sprinkled and squelched.

'Neath the Bababa Tree

was

voice,

whereupon

the insect

is

9 .

.

.

the shorter of the

synchronized sound track was recorded on the

111

two

films, at

350

film, not a disk,

feet.

but

it

The did

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BIT THE SeUSS

not have dialogue. 10

Little else is

Industrial short films

known about

became

the content of this film.

a significant issue in the

world of cinema

during the period from 1930 to 1932. While Hollywood produced most of the feature films, the commercial ones

There was a quick upsurge

in the

were generally produced on the East Coast.

amount

of

money

that

companies were

will-

ing to put into sponsoring short films, and the field grew rapidly as a result.

The huge growth

in this part of the industry

met with

resistance

from the

national

Motion Picture Theater Owners group, which was concerned

theaters

were being turned

into advertising

would drive patrons away. Local

venues and that

this

that

its

development

advertisers feared competition from national

brands, and newspapers were concerned about losing their ad revenues to the Put on the Spout:

One

of

two

theaters.

Flit

Two

of the leading studios in the production of industrial films in

promotional

York were Audio Cinema and Warner Bros.

films released in 1931

was

based on

this

sored short films for Aetna Insurance

Audio Cinema created spon-

Company and New York Telephone

Co.,

ad

featuring a whale, a

pesky

a

Flit-pumping

Jonah.

11

New

insect,

and

while Warner Bros,

and

Listerine.

As

made films for Chesterfield

cigarettes,

A&P grocerv stores,

the industry grew, the Film Daily reported, "Audio

Studios promise to become one of the busiest in

12

New

Cinema

York with the growing

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

tendency toward industrial films of which

Warner

Bros,

announced plans

and the Film Daily ran

to

this studio

has

made

make one sponsored

a specialty." 12

short per week, 13

a headline predicting (with regard to

commercial

sponsors), "Subsidizing of Nearly All Standard Shorts Likely Within Five Years." 14

The Motion Picture Theater Owners branches southern

New

and Delaware "urged

Jersey,

of eastern Pennsylvania,

that extreme caution be 15

prevent the screen from being turned into a billboard" virtually

all

of the rest of the national

group

used

to

and, along with

of theater owners, expressed con-

cern over product placements within movies and implied that subliminal

messages were a concern as well.

By March

Warner

1931,

on schedule.

capacity to try to stay

soon began expanding, but

It

keep up with the demand. The division announced plans ations for six a skeleton

weeks beginning

in

was operating

industrial division

Bros.'

to shut

it

crew remaining during that period.

16

could not

down

May while it erected a new studio,

at

oper-

with only

But while the business grew,

so did the debate. In April, the Film Daily ran a front-page editorial that

explained:

The controversev

[sic]

through the

medium

The

and value

relation

idea threatens to

proportions.

.

the whirlwind

.

over paid advertising on the screen

sponsored pictures

of

of this

is

getting hot.

so-called commercial

assume both major and national

The hub

.

new

is

of the controversy

gathering

is

around which

whether or not the revenue

derived bv the industry from national advertisers will offset the possible

harm

of alienating the

millions of picture fans by forcing

them

good

to take

will of

something

thev do not want. Those favoring the idea maintain that the

entertainment quality of sponsored pictures will

.

.

.

always

be as high as the conventional picture-house product of the hour. This, from personal contact

doubt.

We

have

lately

and observation, we

seen patrons leave their seats in

chagrin over an advertising film of decidedly mediocre quality.

The opponents

of screen advertising,

and

just

now

thev seem to be in the definite majority, point to the fact

113

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

that in a periodical or

you wish, and

newspaper you can pass the ads

in radio

you can quickly turn

program. Not so with the screen.

from

.

.

another

we would

Personally,

industry as a whole take a decided stand in

like to see the

and keep the screens

the matter

.

to

of

America forever

innovation that seems fraught with TNT.

this

Three of the major theater

circuits

refused to plav industrial films. In May,

produce commercial

if

later,

17 .

.

.

RKO

Loew, and

MGM announced

and four days

films,

(Fox,

free

that

Pictures)

would not

it

Paramount discontinued

production and distribution of ad films. Bv the end of the month,

months

after predicting that all short films

its

just three

would soon be sponsored,

the Film

Daily featured a front-page headline auguring "The Death of Sponsored Shorts." 18 It

was

On May Warner

atmosphere that Ted began

in this

26, the

Film Daily reported, "Five shorts

be accepted although of the five later,

few of the

.

being

made by

the

on June

was

now

Warner

1,

still

was making

work

which

made upon

two

new one was

Flit films.

being

were made

for

Warner

Audio Cinema

Studios.

Although the did

built)

had committed during

it

would not have been uncommon.

a picture at

request. Three

are for Standard Oil." 19 Less than a

Bros, released the

indications are that the Flit films It

in

closed while the

industrial films to

Studios.

contracts for productions of this type will

industrial subjects will be

.

.

No new

sponsored shorts

studio (which

ema

now

industrial films.

Bros, industrial films division will be the last sponsored pictures

produced by the companv.

week

work on

his

Bros,

by Audio CinUniversal

Audio Cinema was

ducing Paul Terry's Terry-Toons for Educational Pictures

a

this time, all

April,

In

make

to release

also pro-

through

20th Century-Fox. 20

The man credited with scoring the music

for

both

Flit

films

is

Philip A.

who was the musical director at Audio Cinema Studios in 1931 and the man responsible for the music in Tem/-Toons. Roy Mack and Harold Levey 21

Scheib,

held that position for Warner Bros.' Vitaphone shorts division, 22 H and they '

were not associated with the Background Little,

artist

Bob

was involved with

Flit films.

Little

has said that his brother, animator Frank

the production of 'Neath the Bababa Tree,

and

at the

time these movies were made, Frank was working for Audio Cinema. 24 Also

114

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

working there was

Lillian

years later to be the

first

has confirmed that her

Friedman (whom Max Fleischer promoted two

woman animator in Hollywood

working

job in the industry,

first

theatrical films).

She

Audio Cinema,

at

brought her into contact with Ted Geisel:

We

were

a small animation unit in a

produced documentary-type

company

that mostly

Studio space there was

films.

shared by Terry-Toon animation company. Now,

we made

cartoon commercial advertising Listerine.

Now

how

characters

germ

before the times this was, with

designed by Dr. Seuss.

I

remember he used

to

a

imagine

come and be

so frustrated because even though he designed these

marvelous characters, he couldn't animate. He used

to try,

but he couldn't. Anyway, this picture, intended for theater

showing, also has no takers. Exhibitors are afraid of offending paying audiences with ads. 25

Although no other information linking Ted

to

animated Listerine films

has surfaced, Warner Bros, was producing them at that time. In March, for

example,

just three

months before

Day

released Graduation

toon in which a

little girl

enter the mouth. She to kill the

were released, Warner

the Flit films

Bros,

Bugland, a nine-minute animated Listerine car-

in

dreams about

wakes up

of the

all

petrified,

germs

that

fill

the air

and her mother brings her

and

Listerine

germs. That Ted might have worked on the Listerine shorts furthers

the mystery surrounding this period in his

life.

But regardless of Ted's possi-

ble role in the Listerine films, Ms. Friedman's account does place

Cinema Studios during

the time

when

the

Flit

films

Ted

at

Audio

were produced, rather

than at the Warner Bros, studio.

Ted Geisel's exact role tion.

The Library

of

in these Flit films

Congress

lists

him

Little as the

and Ted

27

of

Put on

the Spout.

the subject of

some

specula-

26 as the animator for both films, while

another source credits Frank for

is

animator for 'Neath the Bababa Tree

Another source claims that Ted was the writer

both films, 28 while vet another one incorrectly explains that the films were

based on Dr. Seuss's children's stories (the until six years after these films

first

of

which wasn't published

were made). 29 Directorship

Bababa Tree has also been credited to Ted.

115

30

In short, there

is

for 'Neath the

much

confusion

THE SeilSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

and no one seems

to

have seen the films

for themselves,

nor can any copies be

found.

Although he does not appear

have been associated with animated

to

films before or after these Flit shorts, Irving A. Jacoby

is

generally credited for

writing the 'Neath the Bababa Tree story and for adapting Put on the Spout.

The most

likely scenario

Jonah and the whale

for

'Neath the Bababa Tree. tures

il

is

Put on Ted, in

Flits of

and

every shape

size included

Boys' Life

and

why he was

a

by Ms. Fried-

credited as an animator, although he

also

been mentioned as having collaborated with Ted on animated films Oil.

it

was not one

of his strengths. Producer John Bransby has for

32

Ted's involvement began after the crest of the industrial film wave, and

display

by the time the two

(opposite page, top),

for the films (as suggested

pointed out,

page), a popular

window

likelihood, designed the look of the crea-

man

Standard

(this

all

extremely unlikely to have done any of the actual animation. As Ms. Fried-

ad from

this print

Spout and created an original story for

the

and provided the storyboards

man), which would explain is

adapted the Seuss print advertisement of

that he

subway

Flit

films

were cleared by the censors

York that summer, ad films had

card (opposite page,

fallen into

was no longer reviewing them. From

bottom).

it

New

such disfavor that the Film Daily

summer

the

be shown in

to

end

until the

of the vear,

appears that despite reviews of several hun-

dred short sound films, Put on the Spout was the onlv industrial film reviewed. Even under those

FLIT

conditions,

KILLS

it

was declared

—until the end,

throughout

QUICKER

of the audience

hep

the short

on

it."

is,

be "fantastic"

which point "those

who didn't know it before are put

to the fact that they've

tising inflicted

at

to

had

a piece of adver-

upon them. No matter how good

this closing revelation

puts a curse

33

Despite the poor timing of the films, Ted's relationship

somed with

Flit

short

with Standard Oil blos-

the success of the rest of the

Flit

advertising campaign. The advertisements not •

Thr qu.mrl

i.

pronftubrrkui for ih» .|o.rk, V.limj:

I...I

fett, llii-

Fl,|

rnnnl

po«rr D ( Flu

»"*'"* '' rwlfiil .lerp. »tih

bedrvMN, Keep lour

„ (mMT. Do-.,

m

four own home. Fn;u>

n» oio«|uii«o

kiirlirn fr^r „l

btimn-

rr»»linr rorkrua.1,.,. T,,kc M.I .lone in

DON'T GET

g.--.

.ltifl

t

|,r

in

tt.r. .in-l

car

only were successful in getting buyers interested

roiir

in the

product but also developed a following for

lo

themselves. In 1933, the colorful

Flit

window dis-

BIT. .GET FLIT .

play for stores depicted a matador menaced from

116

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

either side, with a choice to

taur

make between mino-

and mosquito. There were

also Flit billboards

released in selected areas. These locales

chosen carefully because the

was

a bit controversial.

first

had

to

be

of the billboards

Congress had passed the

repeal of Prohibition in February, but

when mos-

quito season had arrived by the end of June, onlv

nine states had ratified the repeal. M Ted leapt on the issue

and Standard Oil

hailed, "Dr. Seuss

the popular revival of beer"

35

had taken

and created

a bill-

board poster with a German man, earning eight steins

of

beer,

threatened

Cullen-Harrison Act had

by mosquitoes. The

made

it

legal to sell light

beer and wines in states that had ratified the repeal, so there were only nine states in

which Ted's new

billboards could be displaved. For the second

bill-

board that summer, the matador from that year's

window

displav

was used, which allowed

for a

wider distribution.

For most products, a successful campaign might consist of a half dozen advertisements that bring the product to the attention of consumers in any

given season

or,

perhaps, a given vear. Ted did

Flit

Mav 31, 1928, to August from Flit for four years when the work that he was consecutive years, from

ads for portions of nine

22, 1936.

He

asked to do for other Stan-

dard Oil products became too consuming. But in 1940 and 1941, finished a five-year

campaign

for

Essomarine

117

oil

took a break

and

lubricants,

when he had Ted returned

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOIHING BUT THE SeUSS

to

produce more

Flit

advertisements, including posters for general use and for

March 1940

events like the

Flit

Hunt

Flv

in

Miami. Almost two decades

his first Flit advertisement, as late as 1947, the appeal of Ted's ads

was

strong that he orful

subwav

after

remained so

new ads and colthrough 1949 and made yet

able to return to Standard Oil to produce

cards.

Ads

also ran in periodicals

another return in 1953, 25 years after they

first

began!

Seeing his phenomenal success in advertising early on, Standard Oil

asked Ted

to turn his attention to

some

Julv 1936.)

public

Up

would

lubrication. (Ted

to this point in his career,

would have seen onlv two

its

other products. In 1932, Ted

promoting Standard

started with his "Greet the Boys" poster,

and Koto upper motor

of

if it

gas, Atlas tires,

also advertise Atlas fan belts in

were not

for

Standard

full-color pieces of Ted's

Oil, the

artwork (on the

cover of Judge in March 1929 and January 1931). Standard Oil had printed Ted's artwork for

was

Penola,

poster cards, and store displays, which

yet another advantage for Ted provided by his association with

Standard

He

Flit in full-color ads,

Oil.

then began a campaign for Esso, a group of lubricants produced bv

Inc.,

and distributed by various

local affiliates of

Standard

Oil.

36

In late

1932 and early 1933, a quintet of Seuss's Moto-Monsters appeared in newspapers, pamphlets,

subway

cards,

and even

encouraging the use of Essolube motor Standard expansion:

monsters. The Moto-Monsters are

Ted's advertising

acumen extended

to

other Standard Oil

the Flit booklets

came out

many

oil to

a

keep one's car safe from these

Seuss collectors'

previously, as well as

artwork and even a coaster

set,

promotional jigsaw puzzle,

first love.

Certainly

many magazines with

Ted's

but the Essolube advertisements are the most

products, as in this

and imaginative pieces from

and they provide some of

1932 poster for Koto

colorful

upper motor

the earliest Seuss collectibles. In particular, the Foiled by Essolube puzzle

lubrication

this period,

and

Standard gasoline.

stands out for

many enthusiasts

as the first significant three-dimensional piece

118

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

of Seussiana, since

many

"paper ephemera."

cals as

were made available

Knowing to

of

that

compare the

artist's earlier

them overlook

It is

also

first

image

of his

of the

of his earlier

one of the

to the public as a

images clung

all

work

in periodi-

earliest full-color pieces that

premium.

to Ted's

mind

like barnacles,

it is

interesting

Moto-Monsters, the Zero-doccus, with another

Snow

Bogy. Recall that in July 1927, the Saturday

March of the Moto-Monsters:

Another of Ted's popular Standard Oil ad campaigns

featured the

Essolube MotoMonsters. They

appeared

in print

ads (bottom right)

and even promotional puzzles (top and

bottom

TLJ;

nn 3'7^E T23JiEra3

FOILED BY ESSOLUBE >

A

A\

JIG-SAW- MELODRAMA

-

150 piece Moto Monster Puzz

1

I

119

left).

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

Evening Post published Ted's cartoon. His next success

October More Moto-

22, 1927,

(top),

Ted was working diligently

and

Icy inspiration:

Ted may have

been influenced this 1927 ad's

villain (opposite

page, top right),

but the Zero-doccus (opposite page, top

left)

was

undeniably Seuss.

what kind

that

to get

was reading day

the major periodicals of the

right).

see

by

we know

published. Surely he

pamphlets (bottom left

this period,

poster cards

(middle), and

of cartoons they

to

were

publishing and get an idea of what

might

The October

sell.

22,

1927,

issue of the Saturday Evening Post

an

contained

advertisement

Caterpillar tractors that anthropo-

morphized the

glitches

that bedevil machines, as

mascot (opposite page, bottom

Ted would

do

many

the Karbo-nockus!

Foil

in

ads during his

career.

The

offered

a

tractor

ad

left).

Spwt removal:

reward

capturing

the

for

Cssolube MOTOR

Snow

This copy of the Ex-tane ad display (opposite page,

bottom

Essolube

for

Hats off Gus, the

"Happy Motoring"

the Motoraspus!

Foil

second cartoon.

tion in Judge of his

During

came on

with the publica-

Monsters turned

up in four-color newspaper ads

first

Bogv and gave him two aliases, exactly as

5

STAR

Forms

Ted

OIL

less

carbon

right) is a

would do

rare find.

for the pests

LLII f„„«,.MOTO

DON'T FEED

MUNCHUS

Th* pirate a court like to* ajuarn on the left, but u even more ornery He » not iatis6ed jual to tear

-»«

OHIO GOBELUS

m.

Thai bird ha* no teeth He bvet aotety an a liquid diet of mfcr** oaU. He pert ea art the top of the

ANIMALS

i

mji red hot

arid aajfl

AM .»h.

KARBO-NOCKUS

BANG BANG

ZERO

When

the motor benta up. and the aal to "boil away or than oat. he aucka bat

ZERO-DOCCUS a

a cold

H,

blooded

i

,

'

Bat aaentMts

done

There a only one amy to kill off tha vaaoua beaat, and that a — feed ban ESSOLUBE He can't take it, and quickly dies of «

h. Old

>

h

I

THE

111 LSI

LUBE joaey tncaJ far the

When ESSOLUBE .. aaed old KARBO NOCKUS a aad aD o-ver and your engine atay* clean.

OILiaGOBELUS

aaather

tefl

a. that the

ZX»0-DOCCT»

ESSOLUBE ftowa frecry am brtter coW The ZERO-DOCCUS an! bagw haio— b

btO bun

- uae ESSOLUBE.

Ep^^ ^*JP«

aP-lX

DAN G E

DaOtUtl - fHJ BYl *TaJ abOTOa

OS.

ASTS LONGER

120

BKHUU

1

1

- TMi HVI ITU aaOTCM

FORMS

LESS

i

O*.

CARBON

FLOWS

h-e.ly In

WINTER

STANDARD WAS AUTOMATIC

Crosman

in a

The

eral years later.

STANDARD'

€sso

allegations

STATION

TDPICB

Bogy was

gist of the

against

the

DEAD OR ALIVE

Snow

with his wintrv

that,

REWARD

contest sev-

rifle

(Preferably Dead)

INDICTED In 36 State* for

made

pall,

he

start

motors. Consequently, the

it

impossible to

Block ng Traffic —Willfully and

with malice aforethought

Bogy was accused

of everything

J

—

Interference with

U.

rfae

from blocking

murder

traffic to

:

img

(by plotting to prevent medical

attendance in cases of desperate

THE

ZERO-DOCCUS

illness)

and arson (by criminallv

hampering pillar

tractors could

rid

Cater-

firefighters).

communities'

streets

and

highways of the Snow Bogv.

Once remained

work

image

the

seen,

in Ted's

mind

Snow Bogv

the

until its incarnation in his

who was accused

as the Zero-doccus,

activities:

of

Ted's style

and

die.

is still

also used to

Bogv. The Zero-doccus

promote Tri-Rad

was

antifreeze.

Bv 1934, Standard Oil was so pleased with Ted's work that

it

had him advertise

its

spot remover, Ex-tane. his

a

work

for

character

Esso,

named

Ted

later

Gus,

who

appeared on a pin-back button as part of Esso's

"Happv Motoring" campaign.

Although

the

exact date has been hard to "pin"

ton

down,

the but-

mav have been

tributed in 1938.

121

dis-

present

atten-

of

in cases

desperate

4— Arson

BOGY

—

itl ui.\

Big Blizzard

—

•

>

..-

ft*.

remarkable exhibit that every skipper will want

to see.

now

but we'll

you

its

in

details are veiled in deepest secrecy

on

unusual i

u

n hi fr..m

"Bui


uuh hi-lp il

...iil.lii

Ifcal i

»ll«l

r

.l„.| • •..!

..!

pmjtm

of black subjects

ii

..

the relatively

nnghbor*.

Ilia

Ii.

ranges from

N< .'ni

rml. a m»r. him >• m,,. h

It

il.

l.

I

in i-iitiin

aim..*.

t

.I..I

.

thn.al

innocuous blackface cartoons

middle,

(top

left,

and

right),

based

on media images like this

one of

Eddie Cantor

in

Whoopee! (middle left), to

his

uninformed observations of black culture Sorr)

gOl •

eh«e»l •*-

.

I

u h

I

an Old C

•

I

a

.

.

.

• n J

.1

minimum

"Well,

tn|i f bo

seven

mo

but you can

-i-tir

ot

the

gel

« holesale bapti/m

rates unless

(middle

you

twelve chiUun."

pawson, duck these in

t

im

five kid-

now, and give

mo

credit for

offensive (bottom

near tuturo.'

left

TAne •,

and

Hone

MlM-MhOE NMCR fo* TOur

WOODPILE

Disgusted Wife: "You hold a job.

vou

all

Flit

and

Worthiest

hold a job a week, mosquitoes like

w

ill

Say, nigger,

?

when

brush their teeth with

Cross-section of the World's

it!"

Advl

213

right), to

the indefensibly

Moat Prosperous Department

Store.

right).

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

Fortunately, after six months,

when

blackface

media presentations died down, Ted's cartoons about blacks tapered off until they were proportionate with

those about other groups.

So

how

did Ted

grow from someone who

ticipated in this behavior to the

par-

man whose books

taught the concept of equality to generations of

The seeds

children?

of dissent

had been there from the

sumably because of the prejudice he experienced as

American child during World War

young

age, about treating

the Scopes

trial,

"hillbillies,"

lutionists,

ism.

H.

L.

Ted had

still

feelings,

Mencken

even from a

referred to the locals as "morons," a

knowing wink

to the evo-

displayed a kernel of his trademark egalitarian-

Mencken should remember

people evolved in a

way

even though these

that,

different than the rest of us, they are

and should be respected as such."

citizens

German

a

types of people with respect. During

and "yokels." While giving

Ted

"Mr.

American

all

I,

Pre-

start.

still

12

Furthermore, from the beginning, Ted created cartoons that expressed Odious imagery:

his sense of fairness, including a belief in racial equality

While homely

human all

faces of

races

were

published at the same time as some of those that

Ted's work, his

from

his knees, asking

portrayal of blacks

occasionally took

on an insulting

island.

was not offensive art

was

being published, other

work

Flit

combat the

man

cartoon in which a white black

No.

A

woman

2,"

man

it is

A 1929

He

man on the

Crusoe agrees

Friday

in charge,

and an

easily

lumped

explains that the

interracial

romance

(opposite page,

middle)

is

at in Life.

...

to

swim

in a subservient position to a black

man

Ted published a

one direction while a

strides in his finerv in

in

with the other derogatory cartoons of

man

it

was

en route

is:

background

to visit his fiancee. is

The lush lady

in the

a total stranger.

Now, no matter how

fine a

young man's

character,

hinted

no matter how devoted he

is

to his betrothed

214

.

.

.

this era.

radically different.

page, top) places

man

ad

rides sheepishly in the other direction. Labeled only "Chart

ad (opposite

"his"

Flit

flies.

However, Ted's description of the scene shows that

egalitarian

approach.

Flit to

Friday, declines unless

typical for this time period. Several years later,

more

reflected a

racist.

he can have the honor of joining the black

This portrayal of a white

(this page).

most

if

The man, presumably

back and get some

simian appearance

as Ted's

now seem

were

that

from early 1929 shows a bedraggled Robinson Crusoe washing ashore and,

trademarks of

Even

—cartoons

sometimes

SHUNNING

he

attracted

is

FRUMIOUS BRAND OF SNEETCH

HIS

by a new pair

This occasionally leads

him

of eyes.

into

forbidden pastures.

But with his head ensconced

Wooer's Cap, no one dares

in a

tempt him. His Wooer's Cap

announces

his sweetheart's

monopoly. The lady in the

background may be making eves [him]

.

.

.

but only sisterly eves.

The description far

from the

The hint

of the black

"mammy" image

year, 1934,

—

."

as a "lush lady"

was

norm

an

the

Ted

its

illustrated a tryst

regrettably simian, but Ted

still

beyond the period's usual humor

was envisioning them and

intrigue

desire.

at the

between

was required

cartoon appeared the

went

black

it

it

was

then,

in 1934,

that the

mermaid and

even

open

travels

their

and

their interactions

Although Ted

a particular type of

continued

for use in a joke. This

It is

features,

to

by 1934 he

was imputing

possible that Ted

a ship's

with people of other cultures helped

admiral)

and desirability a sea

nymph)

go

But the real change for Ted came dur-

War

newspaper

II.

PM

The

there,

and

liberal ideas in the early

issue of racism as

for the left-wing

ensured that he was sur-

rounded bv very 1940s.

Working

the

was addressed

war progressed, one

Our Inexcusable Ineptitude "In touring America, lecturing

Abvssinian Admiral,

"1

on

mv

in

Amatory Nomenclature

adventures," complains an

have been horriblv handicapped bv the wretched

limitations of vour inexpressive vocabulary.

audiences

mv

verv best

stories, for

whatever meaning a Trvst with

215

(as

to his

subjects (bottom).

14

ing World

a

certain authority (as

and Peru and Ted had

mentioned that he and Helen planned

to give

blacks apelike

minds. This particular cartoon appeared shortly after they had

traveled in Turkev

to Africa.

is

Hollvwood Film Production Code

into effect, beginning censorship in the movies.

and Helen's to

to envision

same month

had moved

expense of blacks and

of a

probably no less foreign today than creativity

cari-

power and competence,

in positions of

The concept

also

time.

an "Abyssinian Admiral" and a "Negro Mermaid." The cature faces are

is

for the time.

romance

interracial

betrayed a liberal bent far ahead of

The following

.

woman

that

at the possibility of

.

"My name'* Crusoe, Robinson J. May I have the honor of joining you?" "Sot unless you suim back after some Flit, mistah. The flies on this island are fearful." Advt.

at

a

I

am

forced to den\

mv

your doltish dictionary has no noun

Negro Mermaid."

THE SeUSS. THE WHOLE SeUSS. AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

How

question became increasingly obvious.

could anyone,

science, justify fighting overseas to protect the

without seeing the need to change the people of color

—were treated in

When Ted joined PM, began

his

on

25, 1941. (His

earlier in the year.)

from four years

Crow"

He sued

rejected his suit.

move

right to

the

Three days

earlier.

While

The

Interstate

among

Crow

car,

ruling that there

the

had been

a

Pullman

district court

the railroad's

was not enough

blacks to justify the cost of accommodating them.

Supreme Court, which ruled unani-

Mitchell appealed the case to the U.S.

mously

but the

Commerce Commission upheld

Mitchell to the Jim

first-class traffic

for S50,000,

later,

Arkansas,

in

had

Gayda,

Americans

Illinois,

car for blacks, even though he

Rock Island Railroad

He

previous work for the

Arthur W. Mitchell, a black Democratic congressman from

car ticket.

in particular,

a decision concerning the rights of black

railroad trains, related to a case

forced to ride in a "Jim

—

illustration of Italian fascist Virginio

which had been reused several times

Supreme Court made

that minorities

he was confronted with the issue immediately

one stray

just

Jews from Nazi oppression

country?

this

work for PM in earnest on April

newspaper was

U.S.

way

good con-

in

that "colored passengers

who buy first-class

tickets

must be furnished

with accommodations equal in comforts and convenience to those afforded to first-class

white passengers." 15

The following week,

ment

of black Americans.

PM began pressing the issue of the disenfranchiseIt

covered the arguments

York mayor Fiorello La Guardia,

who

made by

issued a statement

leaders like

New

"demanding

that

Negroes be given a larger share of employment in defense industries." 16 banner headline quoted the 14th readers that

all

and

all

his people are

hostility of whites.

Page

Wanted

after

... If

"life

Matter

Feel

was

a disaster, because he

oppressed

.

a

Negro

—by the blind misunderstanding

articles

You're a Negro," "This Negro

It,"

was

.

page carried sizeable

About

A full

." 17

Using Him," "What Have Negroes

Harlem

reminding

passage from Richard Wright's novel Native Son,

to a

explaining that the protagonist's

—as

to the Constitution,

people are guaranteed equal protection under the law.

page was devoted

oppressed

Amendment

A

Is

with headlines a Military

"No Help

Ace— But We're Not

to Fight For? Here's

and "North American Aviation

like

How

People in

Rejects Negroes,

No

How Expert." An editorial from that issue by Tom O'Connor sums up

the attitude that Ted encountered at

PM:

216

SHUNNING

The Negro people They don't

much

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

like Fascism.

"why should we

fight?

Things

given them so small a share of

that the very

beaten them

this war.

worse."

We have

democracy

on

They don't

like Hitler.

couldn't be

FRUMIOUS BRAND OF SNEETCH

aren't sold

"But/' they say,

.

HIS

word

is

a mockeiy.

.

.

.

We have

ignored their needs, laughed at their

.

hurts, treated their

wounds with

and

the acid of bigotry

prejudice.

Now,

our mistakes,

We

trv to correct

them?

We still

won't

don't.

airplanes.

.

do we recognize

in a time of national crisis,

.

.

.

.

We are

.

.

.

.

let

them build our

taking a few in the

army

.

.

.

but Tapping into Ted's

in strictly

an

segregated units, the very concept of which

is

truer nature:

Working

insult to the Negro.

for

PM,

a

decidedly left-wing .

.

Will

.

it

advance the cause of democracy

a tenth of the nation

What

are

we

much

to isolate

publication,

afforded Ted the

as Hitler has isolated the Jews?

chance

going

to

do about

it?

to express

18

how he

really felt.

Foremost on his

This

was

Ted's

new work

environment.

When he first arrived,

he focused on the issue that had caused him

to get

them

to get

to look

other people mattered

beyond themselves

—even

to

PM—

involved with

convincing Americans of the need to enter the war. To do

had

mind

however,

so,

he .

.

.

and the Wolf chewed up the children

But those and spit out their bones were Foreign Children and it reallv .

one cartoon,

didn't matter."

Ted satirized the

isolationist

approach of the America

First

group, aiming at the sympathy that he presumed people of nations

felt

Once

Germany and December in

all

toward innocent children.

Harbor was bombed on December

Pearl

11,

Italy

declared

war on

Ted no longer needed

now

and on

Americans interested

focused on the war effort and spent the

at stake.

first

few months of 1942 on fund-raising. he turned his attention

in the welfare of

1941,

own country's security

was

In time,

7,

the United States

to get

going to war to help other people; our

Ted

isolationist stance

regarding the war.

understand that

in other countries. In

to getting folks interested

people here at home. In June 1942, he began to

use his cartoons to address the issue of racial prejudice. Employing an image

217

—ending

America's

.

.

THE SeilSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

that Flit

would be

familiar to fans of his

famous

What

This Country' Needs

Is a

Gd Mental

advertisements, Ted began by depicting

Uncle

Sam with

a can of "mental insecticide,"

with which he cleans the "racial prejudice

bug" out of ordinary Before long,

realize that they

citizens

have

it.

who

don't even

To close the month,

Ted weighed in

on issues

Ted drew

like

prejudice (top right)

at

a

"war industry" figure seated

an organ. Uncle

Sam

taps

him on

the shoul-

and the plight of

der and reminds

black laborers

(bottom right and top

left).

summer

him

to

use both the "black

labor" and the "white labor" keys.

By the of 1942,

he was, in his

own

The next month found Ted reworking "Listen, maestro ...

make two

a couple of familiar phrases to

want

peerless way,

to get real

if

vou

harmony

.

use the black kevs as

already speaking

powerful statements. In one cartoon, he

out about Hitler's

addressed the black-labor issue by reversing

well as the white!"

treatment of the

Jews (bottom

left).

an offensive

racial slur. In the other cartoon,

he

made

a dramatic

statement concerning Hitler's treatment of

the Jews

by corrupt-

ing the Joyce Kilmer

1913

poem

"Trees."

In August, he turned his attention to populist

demagogue Eugene Talmadge, who was serving third

his

term as governor of Georgia. In 1941, Talmadge

ordered that books dealing with racial integration be

removed from Georgia school college educators racial equality" to

He swore

whom be

libraries

and caused two

he accused of "promoting

fired.

that he

signs of social equality,"

would 19

"rid the state of any

white constituent,

telling a

"Before God, friend, the niggers will never go to a

school

which

is

white while

I

am

governor." 20

These sorts of remarks led A. Philip Randolph

"What have Negroes

to fight for?

What's the

to ask, differ-

ence between Hitler and that 'cracker' Talmadge of

Georgia?" 21

218

Insccticid

SHUNNING

Ted's cartoon

—which

FRUMIOUS BRAND OF SNEETCH

HIS

made

hatred downright un-American

22

clear that

it

—came

a

he found Talmadge's

month

racial

before the Democratic

gubernatorial primary, which Talmadge lost to Attorney General Ellis Arnall.

Ted contended that he could not draw people, but judging from photographs of

Talmadge taken

A

few months

later,

Ted enlisted

wrote required him

that he

governor

at the time, his depiction of the

in the army.

to concentrate

him.

From

to the

American

that point on,

to slay intolerance

it

spot-on.

The propaganda

on reasons

groups of people, including his German ancestors, and

sound plausible

is

films

to dislike different

make

to

those reasons

troops. Aspects of that job often troubled

became Ted's personal quest

and promote

equality.

In June 1951, a U.S. district court finished hearing

the case of

Brown and

Brown the

v.

Board of Education,

which Oliver

NAACP brought suit against the Topeka,

Board of Education

Kansas,

in

Brown's daughter Linda

to the

for

refusing

admit

to

white elementarv school

seven blocks from her house. The board insisted that

Linda had to walk a mile through a railroad switchvard to attend the

The

black elementarv school.

court's decision

Homer Adolph

Plessy

v.

was based on

The State of Louisiana,

Ferguson found Plessy guiltv of of

the 1892 case of in

failing to leave a

Judge Ferguson's decision, known as Plessy

U.S.

Supreme Court

a constitutional set.

The concept

which Judge John Howard white train

v.

Ferguson, led to an 1896

ruling that upheld the finding of guilt.

precedent for separate

The appeal

car.

facilities for

As

a consequence,

whites and blacks was

which many public

of "separate but equal" developed, in

places were allowed to be segregated as long as the all-black facilities were theoreticallv of equal quality.

Because the U.S. Supreme Court had not overturned the Plessy

guson decision, the

district court in the

to rule in favor of the

1951 case

felt

it

v.

Fer-

had no choice but

Board of Education. The case was appealed

to the Sizing up the

U.S.

Supreme Court, which heard

it

in

December 1952 but

failed to reach a

segregationist:

Ted's stance on

decision.

Georgia governor It

would be another vear

again, in

December

until the U.S.

Supreme Court heard

1953, but in the interim, during the

summer

the case

of 1953,

Ted

Eugene Talmadge comes through loud and

published a three-stanza

poem

called

"The Sneetches"

219

in

Redbook.

It

predated

clear in this

1941 cartoon for

PW.

THE SeUSS, THE WHOLE SeUSS, AND NOTHING BUT THE SeUSS

the

book version by eight

Ted cut through

all

distilling prejudice

the social

down

and

to a

point of view for which he

And,

For except for those

rhymed couplet after

is

in

public schools

place. Separate educational facil-

Who!, in which Horton

." 24 .

.

is

As

a result, segregation of

unconstitutional. Four

months

ear-

Horton Hears a

his publisher

—the antithesis of the Star-Bellied

a cry for help

person"

v.

no

Ted had already given

little

appeal of Brown

public education, the doctrine of

was ruled

—hears

in the

finally read the

which the Court unanimously con-

are inherently unequal.

poor

Warren

field of

'separate but equal' has

Sneetch

the same. 23

1954, Chief Justice Earl

cluded that "in the

lier,

the

be known:

every Sneetch

Board of Education,

ities

illustration,

which he summed up

in

Supreme Court's decision

U.S.

and

a shame,

stars,

May

of language

legal issues that obfuscated the court case,

would ever

really, it's sort of

In

With economy

years.

and cares only

"shaking with

fear."

25

that

"some

Without know-

ing anything about the endangered being's race, religion, sex, or nationality,

Horton immediately

"I'll

just

realizes:

have

to save him. Because, after

A person's a person, Of

course,

it is

all,

no matter how small." 26

the smallest creature's voice that saves the

Who

race,

proving that even one tiny voice can make a difference. Horton's persistence as the sole supporter of the tiny

them so to

The shame prejudice

of

insignificant that

it

change popular opinion

Whos,

would mean nothing

—not

strikingly yet

voice can create change

plainly illustrated

in our

world as

to

many

others

just

think

even the original

Whos, reinforcing the idea

on the small

who

do them harm, manages

in the Jungle of Nool. In the end,

detractors pledge to help protect the

is

in the face of

scale of the

that

even one

Whos' world, but

well.

by Ted's Sneetches in this illustration

from the book The

Horton Hears the U.S.

a

Who! was released

in

August

Supreme Court ruled against segregation

1954, three

months

in public schools.

after

But the

Sneetches and Other Stories.

Court had not given a timetable for desegregation and had not addressed

220

SHUNNING

HIS

FRUMIOUS BRAND OF SNEETCH

segregation in other facets of public

life.

The boycott

of the

Montgomery,

Alabama, bus system, which was spurred by Rosa Parks's simple

—

landmark

courage

a

start until

December

a

of the racial equality-

had learned

to

of 1953

fall

had been

wartime rhetoric

somewhat

the "one-two" of the blade he

much ahead

urging them to enter World War

in

Ted applied his concept of equality his

was

wield against intolerance, and he was as

fellow Americans as he

—would not

work on "The Sneetches" and Horton Hears

1955. Ted's

Who! during the summer and

moyement in America

act of

in pieces like

to

humankind

II.

in general. Despite

Know Your Enemy:

of a Japanophile after the war, yisiting Japan

of his

Japan, he

became

and writing

a piece

about the Japanese educational system called "Japan's Young Dreams." 2

Horton Hears a Who! was dedicated

to a professor

he met

in

"

Kyoto: Mitsugi

Ted's view of Asians had changed along with his view of other

As he matured, Ted understood

were inappropriate. Mulberry became,

sticks"

with

sticks."

the ponytail

28

Along the way

that his earlier characterizations

"Chinaman who

man who

eats

the offensiye yellow face

and

"Chinese

people

in a discussion

only a

slight

resemblance

to the

young man

from

a later edition

eats with

(bottom).

cite a

about intolerance,

childhood encounter with

Sneetches and Other Stories or Horton Hears a

time they learned about

process helped

become

1930

were eliminated.

how many

first

A

window washer

of Mulberry Street

Street's yellow-faced

in later editions, a

The next time you're see

of Asians evolved

over time.

(top) bears

Nakamura.

groups.

Ted's depiction

him surmount

it.

Who!

TJie

as the

Ted's long maturation

the attitudes of his day to

a pioneer in the fight for equality, so that children

would grow up already knowing what

it

took him seyeral

decades to recognize. response to

In

Day id and Bob Grinch

New Jersey, who wrote to Ted name

of

his

of

Ridgewood,

requesting that he change the

famous Christmas story because people were

always teasing them about haying the name of the "bad guy," Ted wrote, "Can't they understand that the Grinch is

in

my

story

the hero of Christmas? Sure ... he starts out as a villain, but

it's

not

finish."

how you

start

out that counts.

It's

what you

29

"Come

to

my

arms,

my

beamish boy!"

221

are at the

*

TSG on TSG's

215

114-26,

22:

-

see also African

Americans; anti-Semitism;

policies in TSG's, 224-26,

TSG 's

232

Radio Cit>- Music Hall, 158 Raiker.AIid 1

Rambeau, Marjorie, 261 Ram-Tazzled Filla-ma-Zokk, 313

235-36

his,

professional. 211-1

first

segregation

1

:-5-36,

-

TSG's growing concerns about war in, .^-40,240.263 226-2

Randall, CI.

Omnibus TV-Radio Work