WEBVTT - Selects: Dr. Seuss: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.800 Hi, everybody. I hope you're having a great weekend. Chuck 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:06.040 Bryant here, co host of the Stuff You Should Know 0:00:06.120 --> 0:00:10.040 podcast of what you are listening to. This Selects episode 0:00:10.080 --> 0:00:14.560 comes from December twenty eighteen, and it's all about old 0:00:14.640 --> 0:00:19.479 Doctor Seuss, Theodor Geisel, Doctor Seuss Colan, The Good, the Bad, 0:00:19.520 --> 0:00:22.760 and the Ugly. Because if you talk about doctor Seuss, 0:00:22.760 --> 0:00:27.320 you gotta talk about it all the books, the great stuff. 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.040 And some of the not so great stuff. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.920 So check it out now if you'd like Doctor Seuss Colon, 0:00:33.120 --> 0:00:34.640 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:47.320 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.800 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:56.920 Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. This is 0:00:56.960 --> 0:00:58.320 the Doctor Soys. 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.160 Cast, our final episode of this. 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:07.560 Year, twenty eighteen. So long in the books, Doctor Seuss, 0:01:08.240 --> 0:01:09.399 Doctor Seys. That's right. 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:10.880 You know what's funny? 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:15.160 Well we'll get to that, all right, Everything that's funny 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.240 can wait. Yep, we're gonna talk serious. 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.920 Doctor SEUs was an author of children's books. He was 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:24.399 so great and also kind of racist. 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:26.880 Chuck, there's a lot of stuff in here. I wish 0:01:26.959 --> 0:01:29.080 I didn't know. I know. 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.160 I think we're about to ruin doctor SEUs at the 0:01:32.280 --> 0:01:38.200 end of the year, right after the holidays, right, uh yeah, 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.760 but well let's just talk about the man. 0:01:40.840 --> 0:01:45.400 Okay. So we are talking. We keep saying doctor Seuss. 0:01:45.840 --> 0:01:48.920 Everybody knows him as doctor Seuss, but apparently the correct 0:01:48.920 --> 0:01:52.880 pronunciation is sous. Yeah, and the guy would know because 0:01:52.960 --> 0:01:56.200 Suss is actually his middle name. His name is Theodore 0:01:56.600 --> 0:01:59.960 Seuss Geisel or Geisel? Is it Geisel or Geisel? 0:02:00.120 --> 0:02:02.600 It would be Geisel in German you go with a 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:04.440 second vowel. 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:06.480 So Theodore soys Geisel. 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:07.480 Yeah. 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.679 And it's sort of when I saw that, everyone basically 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:14.040 was like Seuss until he eventually is like fine, like 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:16.320 I can't fight this fight any longer. 0:02:16.600 --> 0:02:18.600 Well, they're like, we'll spell it differently. 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:22.720 Then, But they're reminded me of Joe Thiesman. Oh yeah, 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.880 the very famous story of quarterback Joe Theisman who changed 0:02:25.919 --> 0:02:29.120 his spelling or his pronunciation to Thigsman to run with Heisman, 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:30.200 which I. 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:33.240 Think is the story. I think that's true. No, No, 0:02:33.360 --> 0:02:35.560 I think that's true. Oh really, yeah, what do you 0:02:35.560 --> 0:02:37.280 think that was just like an old football tale? 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:39.120 No, I'd never heard. I thought you're just being funny. 0:02:39.200 --> 0:02:42.160 Oh no, that really happened, and that really came back 0:02:42.160 --> 0:02:44.200 to bite him in the rump when his thigh bone 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.520 broke open. God, he's like, I guess my knee would 0:02:47.520 --> 0:02:51.440 have busted if he had just kept that thievesman? Oh 0:02:51.600 --> 0:02:57.240 is that not? Okay? Too soon? No, so we're obviously 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.320 once we get into Joe, thisman leg breaking tip awkward 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:03.720 talking about doctor series. That's right, Like I said, Theodore 0:03:03.960 --> 0:03:08.880 sooys Geisel, who is I can't really think of a 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:12.720 children's book author that is more widely known. 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:14.560 Maybe Charles Schultz. 0:03:15.760 --> 0:03:20.799 Maybe I think a comic strip guy children's sure, sure, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:23.919 children's book, yeah, like Judy Bloom, Sure, But I don't 0:03:23.960 --> 0:03:27.720 know if I call her children's book young adult like 0:03:27.960 --> 0:03:32.920 children's book. I guess the Berenstein Bears not the Berenstein Bears. 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:38.200 Yeah, I would say that Teddy Geisel holds that distinction 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:38.680 for sure. 0:03:38.760 --> 0:03:41.120 At the very least, his work, his drawing is just 0:03:41.280 --> 0:03:43.280 immediately recognizable. His style. 0:03:43.680 --> 0:03:47.800 Yeah, I mean that font you we use that font 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:50.320 for our Live Christmas show shirts. 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:52.200 Nay on the oppy right, Kay? 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:55.200 No, it's not his. In fact, I looked it up. 0:03:55.240 --> 0:03:56.640 I was kind of curious. I was like, what is 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:59.680 that great font that he uses for his book titles? 0:04:00.280 --> 0:04:03.640 And I don't know what he used. He probably just 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:07.240 hand drew it. Sure, I imagine. But now there are 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:13.920 fonts called sois doctor soos. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.039 Font or grinched that you can you know, you can 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.680 gank that. Sure we did for our Christmas shirt. 0:04:20.760 --> 0:04:23.960 I haven't heard that word in forever, gank. I think 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:26.560 I was wearing like huge Jenko's the last time I 0:04:26.600 --> 0:04:27.599 heard the word gank. 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.680 He ganked my milk off my tray bringing it back. 0:04:31.720 --> 0:04:33.240 It's the last time I used it too. 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:35.680 So should we go back to the beginning? 0:04:36.120 --> 0:04:39.840 Yes, back to Springfield, Massachusetts in nineteen oh four. 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:41.120 That's right, March two. 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:46.359 As a matter of fact, fellow Pisces, doctor Seuss was 0:04:46.440 --> 0:04:51.880 born Teddy Geisel and his grandpops had come from Germany 0:04:52.160 --> 0:04:54.760 in the mid eighteen hundreds bought a brewery because they 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:57.920 were good Germans, they knew all about beer. 0:04:57.839 --> 0:05:01.000 And originally, get this, the name of the brewery was 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:05.600 Combach and Geisel, and they locally called it comeback and guzzle. 0:05:06.160 --> 0:05:08.240 I love that and that awesome in German. 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.280 No less, yeah, whatever, that would be I think it'd 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:12.600 be comback and Geisel. 0:05:14.440 --> 0:05:16.599 So he moved here and it would end up becoming 0:05:16.640 --> 0:05:19.520 the Springfield Breweries Company, which his father then ran. 0:05:20.920 --> 0:05:22.240 And this is really like we did. 0:05:22.320 --> 0:05:25.080 He even did a show on prohibition, and it never 0:05:25.120 --> 0:05:28.480 really hit home to me some of the repercussions of that. 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.200 I was just like, people can't drink, But I never 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:33.760 thought about a family business just being shut down. 0:05:33.920 --> 0:05:35.640 That was a good episode, it was. 0:05:36.279 --> 0:05:39.240 But that's what happened that, you know, Prohibition came along. 0:05:39.680 --> 0:05:43.880 They had this successful brewery in their family. They're like, sorry, 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:46.400 you're no longer in business, Go find another job. 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:48.560 These guys, yeah, who. 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:49.760 Were secretly drinking. 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.280 Right, you know. So I had the job that is 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:58.320 his father did get was eventually became the supervisor of 0:05:58.360 --> 0:05:59.240 the town's parks. 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:00.000 Yeah, kind of cool. 0:06:00.520 --> 0:06:04.360 And there's a myth, an incorrect myth. From what I understand. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:06.839 One of the parks had a zoo in it, and 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:08.919 so a lot of people say that drawings of the 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:11.680 animals were some of the first at the zoo were 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.240 some of the first drawings that little Ted came up with. 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:15.800 Not true. 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.240 No, his father became superintendent of the parks when he 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:21.880 was already a grown man. Oh, but well not a 0:06:21.880 --> 0:06:24.040 grown man. He was definitely not a little kid at 0:06:24.040 --> 0:06:24.480 the zoo. 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:26.320 Did he go to the zoo and draw animals? Or 0:06:26.400 --> 0:06:27.599 is that all false? 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:29.840 I think it may be all false, but I'm making 0:06:29.880 --> 0:06:32.279 that part up. I just from what I read he 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.800 was grown enough that he wasn't a little boy drawing 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.560 pictures of animals at the zoo. Like people think, interesting, Yeah, 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.400 I thought it was as well. I love busting myths. 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:43.480 I'm going to wear a brake now. 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:44.560 He should do a show. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:48.880 So World War one comes along, which I've been I've 0:06:48.920 --> 0:06:50.880 been doing a lot of World War One reading lately, 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:54.320 with the really anniversary of the Armisist armacists. Yeah, you 0:06:54.360 --> 0:06:58.120 got really interesting. I didn't know much about it. 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:01.679 It's a pretty serious war, brutal. Everything I know about 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.960 is from the Wonder Woman movie. Yeah, I kid. 0:07:07.160 --> 0:07:10.920 So they were German, that the Geisels were like we said, 0:07:11.000 --> 0:07:14.240 and so in the United States during World War One 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:16.400 there was a lot of anti In fact, for a 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:18.880 long time, actually, there was a lot of anti German 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:19.920 sentiment in the US. 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.040 Right, They're like, we're not German. Were just like beer. 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:27.640 Yeah, and her name is Geisel, so everyone it was 0:07:27.640 --> 0:07:32.040 clear that they were German, and so, you know, there 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:35.400 was there was I get the feeling that he, you know, 0:07:35.440 --> 0:07:38.840 felt like he was like picked on and laughed at, 0:07:39.320 --> 0:07:40.560 teased because he was German. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.640 Right, So if you can't beat him, join them. Turn 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.120 that same kind of bigotry onto others we'll find right. 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:49.640 So he starts at a very early age in high 0:07:49.640 --> 0:07:55.400 school drawing cartoons, writing essays, funny essays, satirical essays. And 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.520 he started using a pen name very early on, maybe 0:07:58.560 --> 0:08:01.640 because he was German, and he just reversed his last 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.320 name and he became Theo la Sigue. 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:10.120 Yeah. Actually, one of my favorite books, Hooper Humperdink Not Him, 0:08:10.360 --> 0:08:11.840 is written by Theo Lasigue. 0:08:12.000 --> 0:08:13.160 Oh really yeah? 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.960 Interesting, was like I always thought this was a doctor 0:08:16.040 --> 0:08:17.840 Seu's book, and then I saw this and I'm like, 0:08:17.880 --> 0:08:19.320 it was a doctor Seuss book. 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:19.800 Wow? 0:08:20.080 --> 0:08:20.920 Do you ever read that one? 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:21.560 I don't think so. 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.200 What's it called? Hooper Humperdink Not Him. It's about this 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:28.360 kid who's throwing a birthday party and everybody's invited to 0:08:28.400 --> 0:08:30.840 the greatest birthday party you've ever seen in your life, 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:33.720 except for poor Hooper humber Ink. And I think he 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:35.600 gets invited finally at the end. 0:08:35.480 --> 0:08:37.800 Where your parents are like, we should probably get Josh 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:40.200 this and go ahead and get him ready, right pretty much. 0:08:40.480 --> 0:08:43.000 There actually was a birthday party I wasn't invited to. 0:08:43.160 --> 0:08:45.599 It really was like, I'm hooper humperdink. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:48.199 Oh, well, you know my deal was I wasn't allowed 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:51.520 to go to boy girl parties for a while. 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:53.440 So but you were still invited, right. 0:08:53.360 --> 0:08:55.440 Yeah, But that was even worse because I was invited 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:56.880 and I was like I had to say, no, I 0:08:56.920 --> 0:08:58.880 can't go because there's girls there. 0:08:58.920 --> 0:08:59.600 Right, I gotcha? 0:09:00.040 --> 0:09:01.240 And how humiliating is that? 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:02.680 Especially in college? 0:09:02.880 --> 0:09:05.160 Yeah, And they were like, uh, what's wrong with girls? 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:06.160 I'm like, I don't know. 0:09:06.800 --> 0:09:07.720 Ask my parents. 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:08.600 He seemed great to me. 0:09:08.800 --> 0:09:13.120 They told me they smell nice, all right. So he 0:09:13.200 --> 0:09:17.360 reversed his name became Lesigue. I went to Dartmouth College, 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:22.440 and like many many famous humorist, I guess you could 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.720 call him Yeah, for sure. He wrote for his college 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.560 humor magazine was called The jack O Lantern, and it 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.560 was just like, really solidifies that college humor magazines really 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.760 have produced some of the brightest comedic minds that in 0:09:35.800 --> 0:09:37.040 this country over the years. 0:09:37.120 --> 0:09:43.120 You know, yeah, Letterman, I think he worked at National Lampoons, 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:43.439 didn't he? 0:09:44.520 --> 0:09:47.040 I don't know if Terman is Conan certainly did the 0:09:47.040 --> 0:09:47.840 Harvard Lampoon. 0:09:48.040 --> 0:09:52.559 I'm pretty sure Letterman did as well, all right, at 0:09:52.559 --> 0:09:54.120 the very least a lot of his writers did. 0:09:54.400 --> 0:09:54.679 Sure. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:58.240 Okay, fine, okay, we'll settle on. 0:09:58.200 --> 0:10:00.520 That that version of the truth. 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:01.160 Okay. 0:10:02.200 --> 0:10:05.120 But he got kicked off of the magazine staff when 0:10:05.120 --> 0:10:08.240 he was caught drinking on campus during prohibition, which is 0:10:08.320 --> 0:10:08.920 kind of awesome. 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:11.400 Yeah, I'll bet it wasn't for him. 0:10:12.320 --> 0:10:12.840 What do you mean? 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:14.719 Oh? But he was like, well, I want to be 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.160 on the magazine staff. This is terrible. This is an unjustice. 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:20.559 Oh yeah, not awesome for him, right, yeah, yeah, I 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.400 thought you meant he wasn't doing the drinking or something. 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:25.520 Right. This did nothing to cut his career off though, No, no, no, 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:29.920 he just adopted a new pseudonym. Yeah, soiss right s 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:34.040 auss again, but he pronounced it soys right. But he 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.439 was the only person who did so. He did graduate 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.280 from Dartmouth and I think nineteen twenty six, which also 0:10:40.480 --> 0:10:42.880 further goes to show that he was so if he 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:48.120 graduated college in nineteen twenty six. Then his father's brewery 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:51.400 wouldn't have been shut down until I don't remember when 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.760 prohibition started, but he would He was obviously not a 0:10:54.800 --> 0:10:56.839 young kid necessarily. 0:10:56.360 --> 0:10:59.920 Gotcha okay, drawn dumb animals at the zoo at the zoo. 0:11:00.920 --> 0:11:04.800 But he went on to Oxford to I guess pursue 0:11:04.800 --> 0:11:05.760 a higher degree. 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:06.160 Yeah. 0:11:07.080 --> 0:11:09.080 I think he was going to be a teacher, was 0:11:09.160 --> 0:11:14.160 his original intent, and he didn't like Oxford, but Oxford 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:18.320 brought him to his wife, Helen Palmer, Yeah, his first wife, 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:22.280 his first wife, and they met and she actually had 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.480 a really great influence on him by saying, I think 0:11:25.559 --> 0:11:28.120 you are maybe going to be a better artist than 0:11:28.160 --> 0:11:31.199 a teacher, and kind of pushed him toward that. Yeah, 0:11:31.240 --> 0:11:34.319 and he ended up pursuing a career in art, largely 0:11:34.360 --> 0:11:35.600 because of her influence. 0:11:35.960 --> 0:11:38.320 Yeah, And he sort of did the student thing. 0:11:38.840 --> 0:11:42.160 He worked on the novel, and he traveled around Europe 0:11:42.200 --> 0:11:45.600 and was sort of doing and he was with Helen 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:49.000 of course this whole time. They eventually get married and 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:52.080 then he went to work for a magazine called Judge, 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:58.160 drawing once again like political cartoons, humor cartoons acted. This 0:11:58.240 --> 0:12:00.760 is where he added the doctor to his name as 0:12:00.760 --> 0:12:03.320 sort of a joke because he, I guess, did not 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:05.680 get that doctorate degree or whatever he was pursuing. 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:08.520 No, he didn't, but later on in life, Dartmouth did 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.760 bestow an honorary degree to make him an official doctor. 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:13.040 When are we gonna get one of those? 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.120 I've been waiting a long time, Chuck. 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.319 And are they as worthless as I think they are? 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:21.080 Totally? Yeah? I mean sure you'll get like the discount 0:12:21.120 --> 0:12:23.680 at Wendy's that they offer, But that's that's really the 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:26.320 only perk aside from saying, like, I'm a doctor. 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:28.120 Can you really call yourself that? Though? 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:29.439 Sure? 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.040 Like only chumps do that, right, Like you have to 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:33.360 call me doctor now, dude. 0:12:33.640 --> 0:12:36.640 You you will see me telling people to call me 0:12:36.720 --> 0:12:39.679 doctor Clark. Okay, I'll just I'll be more personal. I'll 0:12:39.720 --> 0:12:41.359 be doctor Josh like a chiropractor. 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.400 I could see you going off and getting your pH 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:44.040 d one day. 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:50.320 Nah nah nah, I want the audit from Bowling Green 0:12:50.400 --> 0:12:52.200 State University in Ohio. 0:12:52.240 --> 0:12:56.959 The backdoor version pretty much, yeah version, all right? 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.959 So he got the doctor on the name, became doctor Soyer, 0:13:00.920 --> 0:13:04.079 and from then on he never wrote under his given 0:13:04.160 --> 0:13:06.440 name again. He was always doctor swye from that point 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.520 for should we take a break. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.320 You can see me getting a PhD. Yeah, this late 0:13:12.320 --> 0:13:16.480 in my career. Yeah, this mid in my career. Sure, 0:13:16.840 --> 0:13:19.600 huh am I like Natalie Portman or something? 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:22.079 Yes, all right, let's take a break. 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:35.480 Softly, Josh soft. 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:39.960 All right? 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.640 Natalie nat uh I wish right. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:48.240 I'll bet Natalie Portman hates being called Nat. You think 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.000 she seems like the type of Natalie who would hate 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:51.920 being called Nat. 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:53.840 Let's find out, doctor Portman. 0:13:54.040 --> 0:13:56.680 Natalie Portman, will you please get in touch with this 0:13:56.720 --> 0:13:58.560 and let us know whether you're cool with being called 0:13:58.679 --> 0:13:59.280 Nat or not. 0:13:59.480 --> 0:14:01.880 Well, hey, so we're on that big shout out to 0:14:02.600 --> 0:14:03.600 mister Mark Ruffalo. 0:14:03.840 --> 0:14:06.320 It was basically the male Natalie Portman. 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:06.720 Yeah. 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.640 He tweeted out our Navajo Code Talkers episode, which means 0:14:10.640 --> 0:14:13.880 that he's aware of this podcast and we're huge fan. 0:14:14.000 --> 0:14:15.960 So if you're listening, man, thanks. 0:14:15.720 --> 0:14:17.680 Yeah, thanks a lot and a lot. Not just aware 0:14:17.880 --> 0:14:20.360 he liked it, he encouraged people to listen to Yeah. 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.480 He wasn't like, steer clear of this piece of poop. Right, 0:14:23.800 --> 0:14:25.840 this is a good podcast, is what he was saying. 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:28.440 Man, I remember when I saw you can count on 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:30.520 me for the first time. Oh my god, that movie 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:31.320 wrecked me. 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:33.720 It was such a good movie. Yeah, not just the 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:36.160 first time, like just every time you watch that movie 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:36.720 is wonderful. 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:39.680 It's really great. So I have another show called Movie Crush. 0:14:39.760 --> 0:14:43.040 Mister Ruffalo would love to have you on. We'll just 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:50.240 leave it there, all right, So all right, here's what happens. Okay, 0:14:50.520 --> 0:14:55.600 Teddy Geisel starts doing ads, yeah, and does quite well. 0:14:56.160 --> 0:14:59.200 Yeah. I mean, if you're an ad illustrator, you basically 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.600 do what you're told. Client says, this is what we want. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:05.800 He was the kind of artist who, because of his 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:11.120 distinctive style, his style is what the clients wanted. So 0:15:11.320 --> 0:15:15.920 as an ad illustrator, he became nationally famous. 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:18.040 Yeah, which is crazy to think of now. 0:15:17.920 --> 0:15:20.800 It really is. His first big break was for something 0:15:20.800 --> 0:15:22.920 called Flit. It was a bug spray and if you 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:25.800 look at the Flit ads, they have a picture of 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.680 the flit and it was that old timey Tom and 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.120 Jerry Pump candidate's like, couldn't be more poisonous? 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.160 Post out like a cloud of noxious smoke. 0:15:34.320 --> 0:15:37.480 So that formed like a skull and crossbones in the air, basically, right, 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:40.400 that's what he was drawing stuff for and he came 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:42.720 up with a catchphrase because he wasn't just illustrating, he 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:45.560 was also copywriting in these ads, and he came up 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:48.680 with quick Henry the flit, and that just became a 0:15:48.760 --> 0:15:49.880 national catchphrase. 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:51.040 Yeah, like where's the beef? 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:54.080 Right, like somebody's pestering You're just like to somebody else, 0:15:54.160 --> 0:15:56.640 Quick Henry the flit. That's how I probably would have 0:15:56.720 --> 0:16:00.600 used it. But so he became known for that, and 0:16:00.640 --> 0:16:03.560 then a second egg campaign made him even bigger. 0:16:04.840 --> 0:16:07.840 Oh right, so he did flit for seventeen years, dude, 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:10.880 which is like I thought, yeah, sure, he did that 0:16:10.920 --> 0:16:12.520 for a couple of years, right, I mean there's almost 0:16:12.520 --> 0:16:15.280 two decades of doing those ads, made a lot of money, 0:16:15.640 --> 0:16:20.200 kept him, you know, nice and employed through the Great Depression. 0:16:20.680 --> 0:16:24.360 And then this one's even weirder. He went to work 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:28.800 for Standard Oil, who had ESO Oil and so So Gas, 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.400 and this was ESO Marine, which was their boat oil. 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:33.680 Yeah. 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:37.360 In nineteen thirty four, he has this pr idea to 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:42.960 create a fake navy. 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:45.560 The Sous Navy, the SEUs Navy, which is nothing. He 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:47.520 just made it up out of nowhere to promote the 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.440 ESO Marine oil. Yeah, and it worked, yeah, because he 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:53.400 basically drafted people into his navy. He would draw like 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:57.800 famous figures like say eleanor Roosevelt or something like that, 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:01.680 dressed up in the sous navy uniform or whatever, and 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:03.680 it became a thing like people wanted to be in it, 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:05.359 so they would apply to be in it. And I 0:17:05.359 --> 0:17:08.600 guess so So would hold a party every year and 0:17:08.720 --> 0:17:11.000 just pull out all the stops and there would be 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:14.080 this lavish so Seuss Navy party. 0:17:14.160 --> 0:17:17.240 You know, it's called what the Seuss Navy Luncheon and. 0:17:17.160 --> 0:17:20.080 Frolic That sounds so like thirties. 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:23.560 They had two thousand admirals and they included among them 0:17:24.359 --> 0:17:29.680 Vincent Astor and Guy Lombardo, famous bandleader. And as this 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:31.640 is a Grabstarre article is ed put it, they were 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:35.119 what you would call like tastemakers today, like wealthy influential 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.520 Americans wanted to be in this fake navy, to go 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:42.760 to this luncheon and frolic. Right, And he wrote these 0:17:42.760 --> 0:17:47.399 little navy story booklets and it astonishingly it was a 0:17:47.400 --> 0:17:49.560 big deal and it actually worked. And when you look 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:51.679 at him there they look like Doctor Seuss books like right, 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:53.040 It's not like he changed his style. 0:17:53.160 --> 0:17:55.760 No, No, this is the thing. Like he became famous 0:17:55.760 --> 0:17:58.240 for famous and salt after for his style. 0:17:58.400 --> 0:17:59.280 Yeah, exactly. 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.679 And weirdly enough, he said that the only reason he 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.160 went into children's books initially was because his standard oil 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.960 contract didn't forbid it. Huh, Like that was some of 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:10.680 the work that he was allowed to do with outside. 0:18:10.760 --> 0:18:11.240 Gotcha. 0:18:11.440 --> 0:18:13.400 He never he was like, it's not like I had 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:15.360 a great thing for kids. 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:19.840 Well, he even said very famously multiple times that he 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:21.879 didn't write for kids. He wrote for people. 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.440 And he also famously said, you have kids, I'll entertain them. 0:18:26.520 --> 0:18:28.639 Right. Yeah, he didn't want kids, did not want kids, No, 0:18:29.200 --> 0:18:31.240 and he never had them, so his wish came true. 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:36.600 So he was already pretty famous by the time World 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:41.800 War two came around and he actually volunteered to become 0:18:42.160 --> 0:18:46.920 a soldier, but he was sent to Hollywood to work 0:18:46.960 --> 0:18:48.400 at what was called Fort Fox. 0:18:48.920 --> 0:18:51.159 Yeah, this is strange. I mean I had heard of 0:18:51.200 --> 0:18:52.080 the Signal Corps. 0:18:55.040 --> 0:18:59.560 Well, the Signal Core is everything from code like code 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:03.800 and code all the way to psychological operations. 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:05.960 Oh, I thought the Signal Corps was just like the 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:07.679 people that made documentaries and stuff. 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:10.560 This was a division within the Signal Corps gotcha, and 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:16.560 so he was basically in this division with Frank Capra 0:19:17.040 --> 0:19:21.400 and some other like screenwriters, actors, like basically anybody who 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.160 had anything to do with visual entertainment was put into 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:28.320 this group in Hollywood on the Fox Lot at what 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:32.200 was called Fort Fox, and that's where he spent most 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:36.400 of the war, although there was a fascinating story about 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:38.399 a time when he went to Europe because he had 0:19:38.440 --> 0:19:40.920 to go get approvals for a documentary he had worked 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:43.639 on from all the high ranking generals in Europe. So 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:46.760 we went from headquarters to headquarters throughout Europe. And while 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.480 he was in Luxembourg, he visited some of his friends 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:55.399 and he basically got the skinny they think on the 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:57.280 Ghost Army, you know the Ghost Army where they had 0:19:57.280 --> 0:20:01.040 inflatable tanks and like it was meant to make America's 0:20:01.119 --> 0:20:04.360