Becoming Dr. Seuss
Page 50
12. Berg, Lindbergh, 417.
13. Ibid.
14. Freedman, “Nearing 80, Dr. Seuss Still Thrills Young, Old.”
15. Some thought that, given PM’s use of photography, it stood for “Photo Magazine.” Others thought it simply referred to the fact that it was published in the afternoons.
16. Paul Milkman, PM: A New Deal in Journalism, 1940-1948 (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997), 34.
17. Ibid., 37-38.
18. Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995), 101.
19. TSG, undated draft of letter to “Mr. Americus Vesputius Fepp.” The contract itself, however, for four cartoons a week, wouldn’t be signed until May. See notice in the May 22, 1941, Springfield Newspapers Report.
20. Ibid.
21. “Talk talk talk talk talk talk talk,” PM, May 8, 1941; “Ho hum! No chance of contagion,” PM, May 15, 1941.
22. PM, June 2, 1941.
23. “Said a bird in the midst of a Blitz,” PM, June 23, 1941.
24. PM, June 18, 1941.
25. TSG to Evelyn Shrifte, September 8, 1941, Random House records, Columbia University Libraries.
26. TSG, undated rough notes on PM, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
27. See Berg, Lindbergh, 427.
28. Ibid., 428.
29. PM, September 18, 1941.
30. PM, September 22, 1941.
31. PM, October 1, 1941.
32. See Berg, Lindbergh, 428.
33. TSG, undated rough notes on PM, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
34. Letter quoted in Richard H. Minear, Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel (New York: New Press, 1999), 23.
35. Ibid.
36. PM, November 28, 1941.
37. Minear, Dr. Seuss Goes to War, 183.
38. PM, December 9, 1941.
39. Robert C. Jennings, “Dr. Seuss: ‘What Am I Doing Here?’” Saturday Evening Post, October 23, 1965.
40. Milkman, PM: A New Deal in Journalism, 1940-1948, 21.
41. TSG, undated rough notes on PM, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
42. Milkman, PM: A New Deal in Journalism, 1940-1948, 20.
43. Robert Bendiner to TSG, October 29, 1942,Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
44. Thomas Sancton to TSG, October 29, 1942, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
45. “Malice in Wonderland,” Newsweek, February 9, 1942.
46. “Holmes as Pacifist Offers to Resign,” New York Times, December 15, 1941.
47. PM, January 13, 1942.
48. See “Letters to and from the Editor,” PM, January 21 and 28, 1942.
49. See PM, January 21, 1942.
50. “A Slap’s a Slap,” Alan Walker, The Text Message Blog, National Archives website, November 22, 2013. Retrieved at https://text-message.blogs.archives.gov/2013/11/22/a-slaps-a-slap-general-john-l-dewitt-and-four-little-words/.
51. PM, February 13, 1942.
52. PM, March 30, 1942.
53. Milton S. Mayer, “The Case Against the Jew,” Saturday Evening Post, March 27, 1942.
54. Ralph Ingersoll, “An Editorial Answer to the Saturday Evening Post,” PM, March 27, 1942. I am deeply indebted to Charles D. Cohen for his research on this matter in his superb The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss (New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2004).
55. PM, April 1, 1942.
56. PM, April 14, 1942.
57. PM, June 11, 1942.
58. PM, June 30, 1942.
59. PM, December 24, 1941.
60. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 98.
61. PM, January 20, 1942.
62. PM, January 21, 1942.
63. PM, March 24, 1942.
64. PM, July 20, 1942.
65. “Protest from Down Under,” PM, December 18, 1942.
66. “Gerald L. K. Smith Still in Business; Rightist Continues to Print Anti-Semitic Tracts,” New York Times, October 11, 1964.
67. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 101.
68. Ibid., 102.
69. TSG, undated rough notes on PM, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
70. PM, January 19, 1942.
71. PM, March 21, 1942.
72. PM, April 7, 1942.
73. Helen Geisel to Evelyn Shrifte, July 26, 1942. Quoted in Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 105.
74. Ibid.
75. Terry Bell, “Hitler and ‘Quick, Henry the Flit’ Shaped the Saga of Dr. Seuss,” NZEE (New Zealand), June 7, 1976.
Chapter 7. SNAFU
1. Sally Hammond, “Dr. Seuss: The Man Who Stole Boredom,” unidentified clipping, c. 1966, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
2. Jonathan Freedman, “Nearing 80, Dr. Seuss Still Thrills Young, Old,” San Diego Union, February 24, 1984.
3. Mark Harris, Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War (New York: Penguin, 2014), 235.
4. Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995), 106.
5. Edward Connery Lathem, “Beginnings of Dr. Seuss: A Conversation with Theodor S. Geisel,” Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, April 1976.
6. PM, January 5, 1943.
7. Rough draft, “Re: PM Political Cartoons,” Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
8. Joseph McBride, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), 455.
9. Frank Capra, Frank Capra: The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography (New York: Macmillan, 1971), 326.
10. McBride, Frank Capra, 474.
11. See Ted’s notes for The 25er, June 8, 1945, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
12. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 109.
13. Ibid., 108.
14. McBride, Frank Capra, 453.
15. Ibid., 456.
16. Ibid., 475.
17. Ibid., 474
18. Ibid.
19. Ibid., 454.
20. Ibid.
21. Ted’s notes for The 25er, June 8, 1945.
22. Judith Martin, “Dr. Seuss: Good Times with Rhymes,” Washington Post, November 15, 1971.
23. TSG to Harold Rugg, November 23, 1943, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
24. “This is Ann!” pamphlet (U.S. Government Printing Office, 1943).
25. TSG to Harold Rugg, November 23, 1943, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
26. McBride, Frank Capra, 470.
27. Ibid., 475. Ted would tell this story many times. This is the most concise.
28. TSG, “Non-Autobiography.” Quoted in Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 109.
29. Damien Love, “Happy Birthday, Ray Harryhausen (June 29, 1920–May 7, 2013): An Interview with the Titan of Stop-Motion Animation,” Bright Lights Film Journal, June 29, 2014.
30. Cohen, The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 249.
31. Harry McCracken, “Interview with Maurice Noble,” Animato 21, 1991.
32. Ibid.
33. Private Snafu: Coming!!, directed by Chuck Jones, 1943.
34. Richard Corliss, “That Old Feeling: Seuss on First,” Time, March 2, 2004.
35. Private Snafu: Gripes, directed by Friz Freleng, 1943.
36. Ibid.
37. Harris, Five Came Back, 236.
38. “Chuck Jones on animating World War II training films with Dr. Seuss,” Emmy TV Legends Interviews, Television Academy Foundation, 1998. Retrieved at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zh_OY0XYGmI
.
39. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 107.
40. Ibid., 112.
41. Notes on “Officer’s Qualifications Note Sheet.” I am grateful to Phil Nel for providing this information.
42. See Ted’s cartoon “Can you deny that these statuettes were made at the expense of the United States government?” Army Cartoons Folder, Oversize MC 12703 Folder 35, Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
43. Private Snafu: Rumors, directed by Friz Freleng, 1943.
44. See Army Cartoons Folder, Oversize MC 12703 Folder 35, Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
45. Ted’s notes for The 25er, June 8, 1945.
46. PM, December 30, 1942.
47. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 111.
48. Your Job in Germany, 1945.
49. Robert Kupferberg, “A Seussian Celebration,” Parade, February 26, 1984.
50. TSG World War II diary, quoted in Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 112.
51. Ibid., 113.
52. Ibid.
53. Ted’s notes for The 25er, June 8, 1945.
54. Philip Nel, Dr. Seuss: American Icon (New York: Continuum, 2003), 60.
55. TSG World War II diary, quoted in Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 113.
56. TSG World War II diary, quoted in Nel, Dr. Seuss: American Icon, 61.
57. Cohen, The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss, 268. As Cohen also explains, the camp Ted toured was “mostly a slave-labor camp. However, later reports would confirm that the gas chamber . . . was used to supply bodies to the Strasbourg University Institute of Anatomy, which paid the gas bill.”
58. Your Job in Germany, 1945.
59. Digby Diehl, “Q&A: Dr. Seuss,” Los Angeles Times West, September 17, 1972.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid. Emphasis added.
62. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 113.
63. McBride, Frank Capra, 496.
64. E. J. Kahn, “Profiles: Children’s Friend,” The New Yorker, December 17, 1960.
65. Freedman, “Nearing 80, Dr. Seuss Still Thrills Young, Old.”
66. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 114.
67. Ibid.
68. Kahn, “Profiles: Children’s Friend.”
69. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 114.
70. McBride, Frank Capra, 499.
71. Ibid., 497.
72. Ibid., 499.
73. Hal Humphrey, “Zoo’s Who? Dr. Seuss, That’s Who,” Coronet, December 1964.
74. Ibid.
75. Ibid.
76. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 115.
77. Kahn, “Profiles: Children’s Friend.”
78. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 115–16.
79. See Geisel’s letter awarding his Legion of Merit, Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
Chapter 8. A Good Profession
1. “Honor Milland, Joan Crawford; Best Picture ‘Oscar’ to ‘Lost Week-End’; Joan Crawford and Ray Milland Win ‘Oscars,’” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 8, 1946.
2. Jonathan Freedman, “Nearing 80, Dr. Seuss Still Thrills Young, Old,” San Diego Union, February 24, 1984.
3. Digby Diehl, “Q&A: Dr. Seuss,” Los Angeles Times West, September 17, 1972.
4. Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995), 118.
5. Ibid., 119.
6. Ibid., 141.
7. See Charles D. Cohen, The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel (New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2004), 297.
8. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 121.
9. Terry Bell, “Hitler and ‘Quick, Henry the Flit’ Shaped the Saga of Dr. Seuss,” NZEE (New Zealand), June 7, 1976.
10. Elmo Williams, Elmo Williams: A Hollywood Memoir (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2006), 69.
11. Ibid., 70.
12. TSG to Dartmouth Literary Magazine, circa December 1947, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
13. Diane Clark, “He Is Waking Children to a World of Words,” San Diego Union, December 19, 1976.
14. “McElligot’s Pool,” New York Times, November 16, 1947.
15. Rob Wilder, “Catching Up with Dr. Seuss,” Parents, June 1979.
16. Bosley Crowther, “‘Design for Death,’ Factual Film About the Japanese, Opens at Victoria—‘Bad Sister’ Also Arrives,” New York Times, June 11, 1948.
17. Williams, Elmo Williams, 70.
18. Max Miller, “Max Miller,” Tribune-Sun (San Diego, CA), November 20, 1948.
19. Ibid.
20. See any version of Dr. Seuss, Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose.
21. Mike Salzhauer, “A Carnival Cavort with Dr. Seuss,” Dartmouth Review, February 2, 1981.
22. Reviews reprinted in Thomas Fensch, The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss: The Life and Work of Theodor Geisel (The Woodlands, Texas: New Century Books), 2000, pages unnumbered.
23. “Books,” Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, undated clipping, c. 1948, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
24. Reviews reprinted in Fensch, The Man Who Was Dr. Seuss.
25. From here until page 209, unless otherwise noted, all quotes are taken from Ted’s handwritten notes for “Mrs. Mulvaney and the Billion-Dollar Bunny, an Address, with Drawings on a Blackboard,” by Dr. Seuss, c. 1949, Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
26. Arthur Gordon, “The Wonderful Wizard of Soledad Hill,” Woman’s Day, September 1965.
27. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 124.
28. Ibid., 125.
29. “Spur Toward Comic Books Blamed on Parents’ Laxity,” Salt Lake Tribune, July 8, 1949.
30. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 126.
31. Ibid.
32. Ibid.
33. Letter to Harold Rapp (?), January 27, 1950, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
34. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 123.
35. Ibid., 122.
36. Ibid., 123.
37. “Children’s Books: Bartholomew and the Oobleck,” Boston Globe, December 4, 1949.
38. T.R.C., “For the Younger Element: Bartholomew and the Oobleck,” Press and Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY), October 23, 1949.
39. Polly Goodwin, “Books for Children,” Chicago Tribune, November 13, 1949.
40. See 1949 Dartmouth Alumni form, Rauner Special Collections Library, Dartmouth College.
41. TSG’s handwritten notes for “Mrs. Mulvaney and the Billion-Dollar Bunny.”
Chapter 9. A Person’s a Person
1. See Dr. Seuss, If I Ran the Zoo (New York: Random House, 1950).
2. “Jelly Tot, Square Bear-Man!” Newsweek, October 8, 1951.
3. Arthur Gordon, “The Wonderful Wizard of Soledad Hill,” Woman’s Day, September 1965.
4. Diane Clark, “He Is Waking Children to a World of Words,” San Diego Union, December 19, 1976.
5. “Let’s Talk About Books,” Kingsport Times-News (TN), July 2, 1950.
6. Dr. Seuss, If I Ran the Zoo, 16.
7. P.G., “If I Ran the Zoo” by Dr. Seuss, Chicago Tribune, November 12, 1950.
8. “Book on Zoo Bright, Funny,” Akron Beacon Journal (OH), November 5, 1950.
9. See TSG’s handwritten notes for “Mrs. Mulvaney and the Billion-Dollar Bunny, an Address, with Drawings on a Blackboard,” by Dr. Seuss, c. 1949, Mandeville Special Collections Library, UCSD.
10. Or perhaps McCoy. There doesn’t seem to be a consensus on the pronunciation, which Gildersleeve slurs through. The narration in the Gerald McBoing-Boing cartoon, however, sounds di
stinctly like McCloy.
11. Judith and Neil Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1995), 130.
12. Ibid., 131.
13. Dick Bothwell, “McBoing-Boing Creators Busy with More Cartoons,” Tampa Bay Times, April 24, 1951.
14. Sydney J. Harris, “Extra! New Idea in Movie Cartoons!” Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio), April 6, 1951.
15. See Carolyn Robbins, “Passing of Dr. Seuss’s Niece, ‘Peggy the Hoofer,’ Puts Spotlight on Springfield Childhood,” Springfield Republican, March 7, 2015.
16. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 144.
17. Stanley Kramer would also have Death of a Salesman (1951), The Sniper (1952), and The Member of the Wedding (1952) in production at around this time.
18. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 137.
19. Elaine Dutka, “Stanley Kramer: Acclaimed Movies Focused on Social Issues,” Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2001.
20. Donald Spoto, Stanley Kramer, Film Maker (New York: G.P. Putnam, 1978), 149.
21. Eleanor Quin, “The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.” Retrieved at www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/75073/The-5000-Fingers-of-Dr-T/articles.html.
22. Helen Palmer to Barbara Palmer Bayler, May 11, 1952, cited by Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 133. Barbara was the daughter of Robert Palmer, her only brother.
23. Ibid., 134.
24. Ibid.
25. Ibid.
26. Stan and Jan Berenstain, Down a Sunny Dirt Road: An Autobiography (New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2002), 147.
27. Quin, “The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T.”
28. Charles D. Cohen, The Seuss, the Whole Seuss, and Nothing but the Seuss: A Visual Biography of Theodor Seuss Geisel (New York: Random House Books for Young Readers, 2004), 294–95.
29. Spoto, Stanley Kramer, Film Maker, 149.
30. TSG, “Non-Autobiography.” Quoted in Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 134–35.
31. E. J. Kahn, “Profiles: Children’s Friend,” The New Yorker, December 17, 1960.
32. Hal Humphrey, “Zoo’s Who? Dr. Seuss, That’s Who,” Coronet, December 1964.
33. Morgan and Morgan, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, 135.
34. Ibid., 137.
35. TSG, “. . . But for Grown-Ups Laughing Isn’t Any Fun,” New York Times, November 16, 1952.