1 00:00:01,120 --> 00:00:04,560 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should Know from how Stuff Works 2 00:00:04,600 --> 00:00:14,360 Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 3 00:00:14,440 --> 00:00:18,439 Speaker 1: There's Charles w Chuck Bryant, there's Jerry over there. And 4 00:00:18,520 --> 00:00:22,840 Speaker 1: this is the Doctor Sois Cast, our final episode of 5 00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:29,000 Speaker 1: this year two eighteen. So long in the books Dr 6 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:33,200 Speaker 1: Sois Dr Sois. That's right, you know, it's funny. Well 7 00:00:33,200 --> 00:00:38,240 Speaker 1: we'll get to that. All right, everything that's funny can wait? Yep, 8 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:42,080 Speaker 1: we're gonna talk serious. Dr SEUs was an author of 9 00:00:42,159 --> 00:00:46,800 Speaker 1: children's books. He was so great and also kind of racist. Chuck, 10 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:48,920 Speaker 1: there's a lot of stuff in here. I wish I 11 00:00:48,960 --> 00:00:52,080 Speaker 1: didn't know. I know. I think we're about to ruin 12 00:00:52,200 --> 00:00:56,200 Speaker 1: Dr Seuss at the end of the year, right after 13 00:00:56,240 --> 00:01:02,360 Speaker 1: the holidays. Uh yeah, but well let's just talk about 14 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:06,200 Speaker 1: the man. Okay, so um, we are talking. We keep 15 00:01:06,240 --> 00:01:09,640 Speaker 1: saying Dr Sois. Everybody knows him as Dr Seuss, but 16 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:14,040 Speaker 1: apparently the correct pronunciation is Sois and and the guy 17 00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: would know because Sois is actually his middle name. His 18 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:21,360 Speaker 1: name is Theodore Sois Geisel or Giesel? Is it geisel 19 00:01:21,440 --> 00:01:24,120 Speaker 1: er Giesel? It would be Geisel in German. That you 20 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: go with a second vowel, So Theodore sois Geisel. Yeah, 21 00:01:29,440 --> 00:01:31,760 Speaker 1: and uh, it's sort of when I saw that, everyone 22 00:01:32,040 --> 00:01:35,640 Speaker 1: basically was like SEUs until he eventually was like fine, 23 00:01:35,840 --> 00:01:38,959 Speaker 1: like I can't fight this fight any longer. Well, they're like, 24 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:42,160 Speaker 1: we'll spell it differently then. But they reminded me of 25 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 1: Joe Theisman. Oh yeah, the very famous story of the 26 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:49,440 Speaker 1: quarterback Joe Theisman who changed his spelling or his pronunciation 27 00:01:49,480 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 1: to Theisman to ron with Heisman, right, which I think 28 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:55,320 Speaker 1: is the story. I think that's true. No, No, I 29 00:01:55,320 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: think that's true. Real. Yeah, what do you think that 30 00:01:57,760 --> 00:01:59,680 Speaker 1: was just like an old football tale. No, I've never 31 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:01,760 Speaker 1: heard of though, you're just being funny. Oh no, that 32 00:02:01,960 --> 00:02:04,400 Speaker 1: that really happened, and that really came back to bite 33 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:06,760 Speaker 1: him in the rump when his thigh bone broke opened. 34 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:10,280 Speaker 1: He's like, I guess my knee would have busted if 35 00:02:10,440 --> 00:02:14,240 Speaker 1: he had just kept that these is that not okay? 36 00:02:14,440 --> 00:02:20,200 Speaker 1: Too soon? So we're obviously once we get into Joe 37 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: thisman leg breaking talk, we're talking about dr Sis. That's, 38 00:02:24,280 --> 00:02:29,640 Speaker 1: like I said, Theodore Soyce geisl Um, who is I 39 00:02:29,680 --> 00:02:33,520 Speaker 1: can't really think of a children's book author that is 40 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: more widely known maybe Charles Schultz. Maybe I think is 41 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:45,200 Speaker 1: like a comic strip guy. Children's children's book like Judy Bloom. Sure, 42 00:02:45,280 --> 00:02:47,120 Speaker 1: but I don't know if I call her children's book 43 00:02:47,360 --> 00:02:52,320 Speaker 1: young adult like children's book. I guess the baron stain 44 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,040 Speaker 1: bears not the barren steam bears. Yeah. I would say 45 00:02:56,120 --> 00:03:00,800 Speaker 1: that Teddy geisl huh holds that distinct for sure. At 46 00:03:00,800 --> 00:03:03,840 Speaker 1: the very least, his work, his drawing is just immediately 47 00:03:03,840 --> 00:03:08,400 Speaker 1: recognizable his style. Yeah, I mean that font we you 48 00:03:08,639 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 1: we use that font for our Live Christmas show shirts 49 00:03:12,919 --> 00:03:16,600 Speaker 1: on the obyright. No, it's not his. In fact, I 50 00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:18,240 Speaker 1: looked it up. I was kind of curious. I was like, 51 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,840 Speaker 1: what is that great font that he uses for his 52 00:03:20,880 --> 00:03:24,960 Speaker 1: book titles? And I don't know what he used. He 53 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:28,959 Speaker 1: probably just handrew it, I imagine. But um, now there 54 00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:33,880 Speaker 1: are fonts called uh so ice doctors s o O 55 00:03:34,360 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: s font or grenched that you can you know you 56 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: can gank that sure did for Christmas shirts. I haven't 57 00:03:43,040 --> 00:03:46,080 Speaker 1: heard that word and forever gan I think I was 58 00:03:46,120 --> 00:03:48,760 Speaker 1: wearing like Huge Jenko's the last time I heard the 59 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:53,400 Speaker 1: word gang ganked my milk off my tray bringing it 60 00:03:53,400 --> 00:03:56,600 Speaker 1: back time. I use it too, so should we go 61 00:03:56,680 --> 00:04:00,360 Speaker 1: back to the beginning, Yes, back to Springfield, mass Choose 62 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: it's a nineteen o four, that's right, March two. As 63 00:04:03,440 --> 00:04:08,240 Speaker 1: a matter of fact, fellow Pisces uh dr Soyce was 64 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:13,280 Speaker 1: born h Teddy Geisel and his grandpaps had come from 65 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:16,520 Speaker 1: Germany in the mid eighteen hundreds bought a brewery because 66 00:04:16,560 --> 00:04:20,480 Speaker 1: they were good Germans. They knew all about beer and originally, 67 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:24,440 Speaker 1: get this, the name of the brewery was Combak and Geisel, 68 00:04:25,080 --> 00:04:28,120 Speaker 1: and they locally called it come Back and Guzzle. I 69 00:04:28,240 --> 00:04:31,960 Speaker 1: love that, and then awesome in German, less whatever that 70 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:36,440 Speaker 1: would be. I think it'd be comeback in Geisel. Uh So. 71 00:04:36,480 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 1: He moved here and it would end up becoming the 72 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:42,920 Speaker 1: Springfield Breweries Company, which his father then ran um And 73 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:44,800 Speaker 1: this is really like we did. He even did a 74 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:47,800 Speaker 1: show on prohibition, and it never really hit home to 75 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,040 Speaker 1: me some of the repercussions of that. I was just like, 76 00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,160 Speaker 1: people can't drink, But I never thought about a family 77 00:04:54,200 --> 00:04:57,000 Speaker 1: business just being shut down. That was a good episode, 78 00:04:57,040 --> 00:05:00,560 Speaker 1: it was, But that's what happened that, you know, Prohibition 79 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:04,120 Speaker 1: came along. They had this successful brewery in their family. 80 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,680 Speaker 1: They're like, sorry, you're no longer in business, Go find 81 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:12,720 Speaker 1: another job. These guys, Yeah, who were secretly drinking right, Yeah, 82 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,479 Speaker 1: so um had the job, that is, his father did 83 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,479 Speaker 1: get was eventually became the supervisor of the town's parks. Yeah, 84 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:25,120 Speaker 1: kind of cool. And um there's a myth, an incorrect myth. 85 00:05:25,200 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: From what I understand, one of the parks had a 86 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,840 Speaker 1: zoo in it, and so a lot of people say 87 00:05:29,880 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 1: that drawings of the animals were some of the first 88 00:05:32,320 --> 00:05:34,880 Speaker 1: at the zoo were some of the first drawings that 89 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:40,440 Speaker 1: little Ted came up with. No, his father became superintendent 90 00:05:40,440 --> 00:05:42,159 Speaker 1: of the parks when he was already a grown man. 91 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,039 Speaker 1: But well not a grown man. He was definitely not 92 00:05:45,120 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: a little kid at the zoo. Did he go to 93 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:49,480 Speaker 1: the zoo and draw animals? Or is that all false? 94 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:51,719 Speaker 1: I think it may be all false, but I'm making 95 00:05:51,760 --> 00:05:54,200 Speaker 1: that part up. I just from what I read, he 96 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:56,680 Speaker 1: was grown enough that he wasn't a little boy drawing 97 00:05:56,760 --> 00:06:00,479 Speaker 1: pictures of animals at the zoo like people think. Interesting. Uh, 98 00:06:00,640 --> 00:06:04,880 Speaker 1: I thought it was as well. I love busting myths. Barra, 99 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:08,920 Speaker 1: you should do a show. Uh. So World War one 100 00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:11,320 Speaker 1: comes along, which I've been I've been doing a lot 101 00:06:11,320 --> 00:06:14,200 Speaker 1: of World War one reading lately with the really anniversary 102 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:19,159 Speaker 1: of the Armistist Armisists. Yeah, uh, really interesting. I didn't 103 00:06:19,160 --> 00:06:22,360 Speaker 1: know much about it. It's a pretty serious war man brutal. 104 00:06:22,640 --> 00:06:27,359 Speaker 1: Everything I know about is from the Wonder Woman movie. Yeah, 105 00:06:27,400 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 1: I kid. Uh. So they were German, uh that the 106 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:34,440 Speaker 1: Geisls were, like we said, and so in the United 107 00:06:34,440 --> 00:06:37,080 Speaker 1: States during World War One there was a lot of 108 00:06:37,120 --> 00:06:39,600 Speaker 1: anti In fact, for a long time, actually there was 109 00:06:39,640 --> 00:06:42,440 Speaker 1: a lot of anti German sentiment in the US right there, 110 00:06:42,480 --> 00:06:45,400 Speaker 1: like we're not German, we just like beer. Yeah, and 111 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:49,760 Speaker 1: her name is Geisl. Uh. So everyone it was clear 112 00:06:49,800 --> 00:06:53,960 Speaker 1: that they were German, and so, uh, you know, there 113 00:06:54,040 --> 00:06:57,279 Speaker 1: was there was I get the feeling that he, you know, 114 00:06:57,360 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 1: felt like he was like picked on and laughed at 115 00:07:01,200 --> 00:07:03,800 Speaker 1: peas because he was German. Right, So if you can't 116 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:07,000 Speaker 1: beat him, join them. Turn that same kind of bigotry 117 00:07:07,040 --> 00:07:10,280 Speaker 1: onto others will find. Right. So he starts at a 118 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: very early age in high school um drawing cartoons, writing essays, 119 00:07:15,160 --> 00:07:18,240 Speaker 1: funny essays, satirical essays. And he started using a pen 120 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:21,880 Speaker 1: name very early on, maybe because he was German, and 121 00:07:21,920 --> 00:07:25,320 Speaker 1: he just reversed his last name and he became THEO. 122 00:07:25,480 --> 00:07:30,000 Speaker 1: La Sigue. Yeah. Actually, one of my favorite books, um, 123 00:07:30,200 --> 00:07:34,960 Speaker 1: Hooper Humperdink Not Him, is written by Theo Lasigue. Yeah. 124 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:37,520 Speaker 1: I always was like, I always thought this was a 125 00:07:37,600 --> 00:07:39,720 Speaker 1: doctor's shus book, and then I saw this and I'm like, 126 00:07:39,760 --> 00:07:42,480 Speaker 1: it was a doctor's sus book. Do you ever read 127 00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:44,760 Speaker 1: that one? I don't think so. What's it called? Hooper 128 00:07:44,840 --> 00:07:47,880 Speaker 1: Humperdink Not Him. It's about this kid who's throwing a 129 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:51,520 Speaker 1: birthday party, and everybody's invited to the greatest birthday party 130 00:07:51,520 --> 00:07:54,880 Speaker 1: you've ever seen in your life, except for poor Hooper Humperdink, 131 00:07:55,160 --> 00:07:57,240 Speaker 1: and I think he gets invited finally at the end 132 00:07:57,360 --> 00:07:59,880 Speaker 1: where your parents like we should probably get Josh this 133 00:08:00,040 --> 00:08:02,560 Speaker 1: go ahead and get them ready, right, pretty much, there 134 00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:05,120 Speaker 1: actually was a birthday party I wasn't invited to. It 135 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,400 Speaker 1: really was like, I'm Hooper Harperdink. Oh well, you know. 136 00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:11,360 Speaker 1: My deal was I wasn't allowed to go to boy 137 00:08:11,440 --> 00:08:15,480 Speaker 1: girl parties for a while, so but you were still invited, right, Yeah. 138 00:08:15,480 --> 00:08:17,440 Speaker 1: But that was even worse because I was invited and 139 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:19,080 Speaker 1: I was like I had to say, no, I can't 140 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: go because there's girls there, right, I got you. I mean, 141 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:25,360 Speaker 1: how humiliating is that? Especially in college. Yeah, and they 142 00:08:25,400 --> 00:08:27,600 Speaker 1: were like, uh, what's wrong with girls? I'm like, I 143 00:08:27,640 --> 00:08:31,480 Speaker 1: don't know. As my parents, he seemed great to me. 144 00:08:31,640 --> 00:08:35,880 Speaker 1: The smell nice. Um alright, So he reversed his name 145 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:40,400 Speaker 1: became La Siege. I went to Dartmouth College, and, like 146 00:08:40,559 --> 00:08:44,719 Speaker 1: many many famous um humorist I guess you could call him, 147 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,640 Speaker 1: he wrote for the His college humor magazine was called 148 00:08:48,640 --> 00:08:51,880 Speaker 1: The jack O Lantern, and it was just like, really 149 00:08:51,880 --> 00:08:55,240 Speaker 1: solidifies that college humor magazines really have produced some of 150 00:08:55,280 --> 00:08:58,920 Speaker 1: the brightest comedic minds that in this country over the years. 151 00:08:59,040 --> 00:09:04,080 Speaker 1: You know, um, yeah Letterman. I think he worked at 152 00:09:04,160 --> 00:09:09,760 Speaker 1: National Lampoon's, didn't he Jan certainly did the Harvard Lampoon. 153 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,480 Speaker 1: I'm pretty sure um Letterman did as well, at the 154 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:18,480 Speaker 1: very least a lot of his writers did. Okay, fine, okay, 155 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:22,319 Speaker 1: well we'll settle on that that version of the truth. 156 00:09:24,080 --> 00:09:26,960 Speaker 1: But he got kicked off of the magazine staff when 157 00:09:27,000 --> 00:09:30,120 Speaker 1: he was caught drinking on campus during prohibition, which is 158 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:34,120 Speaker 1: kind of awesome. Yeah, I bet it wasn't for him. 159 00:09:34,240 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: What do you mean? Oh, but he was like, well, 160 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:38,960 Speaker 1: I want to be on the magazine staff. This is terrible. 161 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:42,400 Speaker 1: This is an unjust Yeah, not awesome for him, right yeah, yeah, 162 00:09:42,400 --> 00:09:44,600 Speaker 1: I thought you meant he wasn't doing the drinking or something. Right. 163 00:09:44,760 --> 00:09:47,400 Speaker 1: This did nothing to cut his career off though, No, no, no, 164 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:51,840 Speaker 1: he just adopted a new pseudonym. Yeah, sois right s 165 00:09:51,840 --> 00:09:55,000 Speaker 1: e U s s again, but he pronounced it sois. 166 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:58,440 Speaker 1: But he was the only person who did. Um. So 167 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:02,240 Speaker 1: he did graduate from Dartmouth in I think, which also 168 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:04,760 Speaker 1: further goes to show that he was so if he 169 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:10,600 Speaker 1: graduated college in that his father's brewery wouldn't have been 170 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:14,600 Speaker 1: shut down until I don't remember when prohibition started, but 171 00:10:14,720 --> 00:10:18,120 Speaker 1: he would. He was obviously not a young kid necessarily 172 00:10:20,040 --> 00:10:24,719 Speaker 1: dumb animals. Um. But he Uh. He went on to 173 00:10:24,840 --> 00:10:29,000 Speaker 1: Oxford to I guess pursue a higher degree. Um. I 174 00:10:29,040 --> 00:10:31,160 Speaker 1: think he was going to be a teacher, was his 175 00:10:31,240 --> 00:10:36,240 Speaker 1: original intent, and he didn't like Oxford, but Oxford brought 176 00:10:36,360 --> 00:10:40,360 Speaker 1: him to his wife, Helen Palmer, his first wife, his 177 00:10:40,400 --> 00:10:44,160 Speaker 1: first wife, and um, they met and she actually had 178 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:47,120 Speaker 1: a really great influence on him by saying, uh, I 179 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:49,760 Speaker 1: think you are maybe going to be a better artist 180 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:52,319 Speaker 1: than a teacher, and kind of pushed him toward that, 181 00:10:53,160 --> 00:10:56,199 Speaker 1: and he ended up pursuing a career in art, largely 182 00:10:56,240 --> 00:10:58,840 Speaker 1: because of her influence. Yeah, and he sort of did 183 00:10:58,880 --> 00:11:02,760 Speaker 1: the student thing. He he worked on a novel, and 184 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:06,480 Speaker 1: he traveled around Europe and was sort of uh doing 185 00:11:06,600 --> 00:11:08,520 Speaker 1: and he was with Helen of course this whole time. 186 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:12,000 Speaker 1: They eventually get married and then he went to work 187 00:11:12,040 --> 00:11:17,679 Speaker 1: for a magazine called Judge drawing once again like political cartoons, 188 00:11:17,760 --> 00:11:21,360 Speaker 1: humor cartoons acted. This is where he added the doctor 189 00:11:21,760 --> 00:11:24,440 Speaker 1: to his name as sort of a joke because he, 190 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:26,920 Speaker 1: I guess did not get that doctorate degree or whatever 191 00:11:26,960 --> 00:11:29,480 Speaker 1: he was pursuing. No, he didn't, but later on in life, 192 00:11:29,600 --> 00:11:32,960 Speaker 1: Dartmouth did bestow an honorary degree to make him an 193 00:11:32,960 --> 00:11:34,960 Speaker 1: official doctor. When are we going to get one of those? 194 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:37,640 Speaker 1: I've been waiting a long time, chuck. And are they 195 00:11:37,679 --> 00:11:41,360 Speaker 1: as worthless as I think they are? Totally? Yeah, I 196 00:11:41,400 --> 00:11:44,280 Speaker 1: mean sure you'll get like the discounted Wendy's that they offered. 197 00:11:44,320 --> 00:11:47,200 Speaker 1: But that's that's really the only perk aside from saying, like, 198 00:11:47,320 --> 00:11:51,240 Speaker 1: I'm a doctor. Can you really call yourself that? Though? Sure? 199 00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:53,920 Speaker 1: Like only chumps do that, right, Like you have to 200 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:57,320 Speaker 1: call me doctor now, dude. You you will see me 201 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:00,640 Speaker 1: telling people to call me Dr. Clark. I'll just I'll 202 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:03,199 Speaker 1: be more personal. I'll be Dr Josh like a chiropractor. 203 00:12:03,360 --> 00:12:05,480 Speaker 1: I could see you going off and getting your PhD 204 00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:12,559 Speaker 1: one day. Yeah, yeah, I want from Bowling Green State 205 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:18,880 Speaker 1: University and the backdoor version pretty much. Yeahs um alright. 206 00:12:18,920 --> 00:12:21,520 Speaker 1: So he got the doctor on the name became Dr 207 00:12:21,600 --> 00:12:25,520 Speaker 1: Syce and from then on he he never wrote under 208 00:12:25,559 --> 00:12:28,000 Speaker 1: his given name again, he was always doctor. Sois from 209 00:12:28,040 --> 00:12:30,680 Speaker 1: that point for it? Do we take a break? You 210 00:12:30,720 --> 00:12:34,320 Speaker 1: can see me getting a PhD? Yeah? This late in 211 00:12:34,360 --> 00:12:39,880 Speaker 1: my career. Yeah, this mid in my career. Huh am 212 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:43,440 Speaker 1: I like Natalie Portman or something? Yes, all right, let's 213 00:12:43,440 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 1: take a break. All right, Natalie Nat, I wish right. 214 00:13:06,760 --> 00:13:09,880 Speaker 1: I'll bet Natalie Portman hates being called Nat. Do you 215 00:13:09,920 --> 00:13:12,640 Speaker 1: think she seems like the type of Natalie who would 216 00:13:12,679 --> 00:13:16,800 Speaker 1: hate being called Nat? Let's find out, Dr Portman. Natalie Portman, 217 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:18,840 Speaker 1: will you please get in touch with Listen and let 218 00:13:18,920 --> 00:13:21,760 Speaker 1: us know whether you're cool with being called Nat or not? Well, hey, 219 00:13:21,800 --> 00:13:25,880 Speaker 1: since we're on that big shout out to Mr Mark Ruffalo, 220 00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,400 Speaker 1: it was basically the male Natalie Portman. Yeah, he tweeted 221 00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:32,880 Speaker 1: out our Navajo Code Talkers episode which means that he's 222 00:13:32,920 --> 00:13:36,400 Speaker 1: aware of this podcast and we're huge fans. So if 223 00:13:36,400 --> 00:13:39,600 Speaker 1: you're listening, man, thanks yeah a lot. Not just aware, 224 00:13:39,760 --> 00:13:42,040 Speaker 1: he liked it, he encouraged people to listen to it. 225 00:13:42,240 --> 00:13:44,960 Speaker 1: He wasn't like, steer clear of this piece of poop. 226 00:13:45,720 --> 00:13:48,240 Speaker 1: This is a good podcast, is what he was saying. Man, 227 00:13:48,520 --> 00:13:50,440 Speaker 1: I remember when I saw You Can count On Me 228 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:53,240 Speaker 1: for the first time. Oh my god, that movie correct me. 229 00:13:53,400 --> 00:13:55,600 Speaker 1: It was such a good movie. Yeah, not just the 230 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,040 Speaker 1: first time, like just every time you watch that movie. 231 00:13:58,040 --> 00:14:00,840 Speaker 1: It's wonderful. It's really great. So I have another show 232 00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: called movie Crush. Mr Ruffalo would love to have you on. 233 00:14:04,640 --> 00:14:10,960 Speaker 1: We'll just leave it there, alright. So um, alright, here's 234 00:14:11,000 --> 00:14:16,680 Speaker 1: what happens. Teddy Geist starts doing ads yeah, and does 235 00:14:16,920 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 1: quite well. Yeah. I mean, if you're an ad illustrator, 236 00:14:20,360 --> 00:14:22,640 Speaker 1: you you basically do what you're told the client says, 237 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:25,440 Speaker 1: this is what we want. He was the kind of 238 00:14:25,560 --> 00:14:30,480 Speaker 1: artist who, because of his distinctive style, his style is 239 00:14:30,520 --> 00:14:35,600 Speaker 1: what the clients wanted. So as an ad illustrator, he 240 00:14:35,760 --> 00:14:39,720 Speaker 1: became nationally famous. Yeah, which is crazy to think of now, 241 00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:42,640 Speaker 1: it really is. His first big break was for something 242 00:14:42,680 --> 00:14:44,800 Speaker 1: called flit It was a bug spray. And if you 243 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:47,760 Speaker 1: look at the flit ads, they have a picture of 244 00:14:47,840 --> 00:14:50,560 Speaker 1: the flit and it was that old timey Tom and 245 00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:54,600 Speaker 1: Jerry Pump candidates like couldn't be more poisonous? Out like 246 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:57,320 Speaker 1: a cloud of noxious smoke that formed like a skull 247 00:14:57,320 --> 00:15:00,880 Speaker 1: and crossbones in the air. Basically, right, that's what he 248 00:15:00,920 --> 00:15:02,680 Speaker 1: was drawing stuff for. And he came up with a 249 00:15:02,720 --> 00:15:05,960 Speaker 1: catchphrase because he wasn't just illustrating, he was also copyrighting 250 00:15:06,040 --> 00:15:08,520 Speaker 1: in these ads, and he came up with quick Henry 251 00:15:08,560 --> 00:15:12,160 Speaker 1: the flit, and that just became a national catchphrase, like 252 00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:15,240 Speaker 1: where's the beef? Right, like somebody's pestering You're just like 253 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:17,920 Speaker 1: to somebody else, Quick Henry the flit. That's how I 254 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:21,280 Speaker 1: probably would have used it. But um, so he became 255 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:24,440 Speaker 1: known for that, and then a second egg campaign made 256 00:15:24,480 --> 00:15:28,200 Speaker 1: him even bigger. Oh right, so he did flit for 257 00:15:28,240 --> 00:15:32,440 Speaker 1: seventeen years, dude, which is like I thought, yeah, sure, 258 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:33,960 Speaker 1: he did that for a couple of years. I mean 259 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:36,520 Speaker 1: there's almost two decades of doing those ads, made a 260 00:15:36,560 --> 00:15:39,720 Speaker 1: lot of money, kept him you know, uh nice and 261 00:15:40,240 --> 00:15:43,200 Speaker 1: employed through the through the Great Depression. And then this 262 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:47,160 Speaker 1: one's even weirder. Uh. He went to work for Standard Oil, 263 00:15:47,720 --> 00:15:51,320 Speaker 1: who had s O Oil and s O Gas and 264 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:57,160 Speaker 1: this was s O Marine, which was their boat oil. Yeah. 265 00:15:57,400 --> 00:16:03,320 Speaker 1: He has this pr idea to create a a fake navy, 266 00:16:03,720 --> 00:16:07,440 Speaker 1: the Sious Navy, the Sious Navy, which is nothing. He 267 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:09,440 Speaker 1: just made it up out of nowhere to promote the 268 00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:12,280 Speaker 1: s O Marine oil. Yeah, and it worked, yeah, because 269 00:16:12,280 --> 00:16:15,000 Speaker 1: he basically drafted people into his navy. He would draw 270 00:16:15,200 --> 00:16:19,320 Speaker 1: like famous figures um like say eleanor Roosevelt or something 271 00:16:19,360 --> 00:16:21,960 Speaker 1: like that, dressed up in the suit the Sious Navy 272 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:24,720 Speaker 1: uniform or whatever, and it became a thing like people 273 00:16:24,760 --> 00:16:26,440 Speaker 1: wanted to be in it, so they would apply to 274 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:28,520 Speaker 1: be in it. And I guess so would hold the 275 00:16:28,920 --> 00:16:32,160 Speaker 1: party every year and just pull out all the stops 276 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:35,920 Speaker 1: and there would be this lavish sious Sious Navy party. 277 00:16:36,040 --> 00:16:39,480 Speaker 1: You know, it's called the Sious Navy Luncheon and frolic. 278 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:43,800 Speaker 1: That sounds so like. Uh. They had two thousand admirals 279 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:48,800 Speaker 1: and they included among them, uh, Vincent Astor and Guy Lombardo, 280 00:16:48,920 --> 00:16:52,560 Speaker 1: famous band leader. And as this is a grabstar article. 281 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:54,480 Speaker 1: As Ed put it, they were what you would call 282 00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:58,560 Speaker 1: like tastemakers today, like wealthy, influential Americans wanted to be 283 00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:02,320 Speaker 1: in this fake navy, to go to this luncheon and 284 00:17:02,360 --> 00:17:06,200 Speaker 1: frolic And he wrote these little navy story booklets and 285 00:17:07,119 --> 00:17:10,639 Speaker 1: it astonishingly it was a big deal and it actually worked. 286 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:12,600 Speaker 1: And when you look at him there, they look like Dr. 287 00:17:12,680 --> 00:17:15,400 Speaker 1: Seuss books. Like, it's not like he changed his style. No, no, 288 00:17:15,640 --> 00:17:18,639 Speaker 1: this is the thing, like he became famous for famous 289 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:21,600 Speaker 1: and saw it after for his style. Yeah, exactly. And 290 00:17:22,160 --> 00:17:24,720 Speaker 1: weirdly enough, he said that the only reason he went 291 00:17:24,760 --> 00:17:28,560 Speaker 1: into children's books initially was because his standard oil contract 292 00:17:28,600 --> 00:17:31,120 Speaker 1: didn't forbid it. Like that was some of the work 293 00:17:31,200 --> 00:17:33,399 Speaker 1: that he was allowed to do on the side. He 294 00:17:33,480 --> 00:17:36,000 Speaker 1: never he was like, it's not like I had a 295 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,920 Speaker 1: great thing for kids. Well he even said very famously 296 00:17:39,040 --> 00:17:42,960 Speaker 1: multiple times, um, that he didn't write for kids. He 297 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,240 Speaker 1: wrote for people. And he also famously said, you have kids, 298 00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: I'll entertain them, right. Yeah, he didn't want kids, did 299 00:17:49,800 --> 00:17:52,240 Speaker 1: not want kids, and he never had him, so his 300 00:17:52,320 --> 00:17:57,359 Speaker 1: which came true. So um. He he was already pretty 301 00:17:57,359 --> 00:18:00,880 Speaker 1: famous by the time World War two came around, um, 302 00:18:00,920 --> 00:18:05,679 Speaker 1: and he actually volunteered to become a soldier, but he 303 00:18:05,800 --> 00:18:09,480 Speaker 1: was sent to Hollywood to work at what was called 304 00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:12,719 Speaker 1: Fort Fox. Yeah, this was strange. I mean I had 305 00:18:12,760 --> 00:18:17,879 Speaker 1: heard of the Signal Corps. Um, well, the Signal Corps 306 00:18:18,080 --> 00:18:22,360 Speaker 1: is everything from code like a code and code breakers 307 00:18:22,880 --> 00:18:26,440 Speaker 1: all the way to psychological operations. Oh, I thought the 308 00:18:26,440 --> 00:18:29,160 Speaker 1: Signal Corps was just like the people that made documentaries 309 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:31,720 Speaker 1: and stuff. This was a division within the Signal Corps. 310 00:18:32,280 --> 00:18:36,719 Speaker 1: And so he was basically in this this um, this 311 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:42,040 Speaker 1: division with Frank Capra and some other like screenwriters, actors, 312 00:18:42,080 --> 00:18:45,520 Speaker 1: like basically anybody who had anything to do with visual 313 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:49,280 Speaker 1: entertainment was put into this group in Hollywood on the 314 00:18:49,320 --> 00:18:52,639 Speaker 1: Fox lot at what was called Fort Fox, and he 315 00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,200 Speaker 1: Um that's where he spent most of the war, although 316 00:18:55,240 --> 00:18:59,040 Speaker 1: there was a fascinating story about a time when he 317 00:18:59,119 --> 00:19:01,240 Speaker 1: went to Europe as he had to go get approvals 318 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:03,720 Speaker 1: for a documentary he had worked on from all the 319 00:19:03,760 --> 00:19:06,800 Speaker 1: high ranking generals in Europe. So we went from headquarters 320 00:19:06,800 --> 00:19:09,720 Speaker 1: to headquarters throughout Europe. And while he was in Luxembourg 321 00:19:09,760 --> 00:19:14,800 Speaker 1: he visited some of his friends and he Um basically 322 00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:18,000 Speaker 1: got the skinny they think on the Ghost Army, you 323 00:19:18,040 --> 00:19:20,280 Speaker 1: know the Ghost Army where they had inflatable tanks and 324 00:19:20,640 --> 00:19:23,760 Speaker 1: like that. It was meant to make America's military look 325 00:19:23,840 --> 00:19:26,720 Speaker 1: way bigger than it was. And these guys were running 326 00:19:26,720 --> 00:19:30,240 Speaker 1: psychological operations. Well Dr SEUs was friends with some of 327 00:19:30,240 --> 00:19:33,480 Speaker 1: the higher ups in the Ghost Army, and they think 328 00:19:33,600 --> 00:19:36,200 Speaker 1: that they showed him on a map like where to 329 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:39,399 Speaker 1: go to go see some of these Well, in between 330 00:19:39,440 --> 00:19:41,800 Speaker 1: the time he left and the time he got there, 331 00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:45,440 Speaker 1: that was suddenly behind enemy lines at the Battle of 332 00:19:45,480 --> 00:19:49,480 Speaker 1: the Bulge literally started around him, around him while he 333 00:19:49,560 --> 00:19:51,639 Speaker 1: was yeah, and he was like I was just driving 334 00:19:51,640 --> 00:19:54,000 Speaker 1: around thinking like it was just hard to find friendly 335 00:19:54,080 --> 00:19:57,679 Speaker 1: troops like as part of combat. But he ended up 336 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:02,360 Speaker 1: inadvertently spending three days ten miles behind enemy lines during 337 00:20:02,400 --> 00:20:04,600 Speaker 1: the Battle of the Bulge and just barely made it 338 00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:06,919 Speaker 1: out with his life. Yeah, he was rescued by the 339 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,320 Speaker 1: Brits um but he would eventually become a lieutenant colonel. Yeah, 340 00:20:11,840 --> 00:20:14,560 Speaker 1: in his short stint as a late thirty year old, 341 00:20:14,960 --> 00:20:16,760 Speaker 1: he's like think thirty eight when he first went in, 342 00:20:17,720 --> 00:20:20,719 Speaker 1: which really kind of interesting piece of backstory. Well, he 343 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,200 Speaker 1: he was we left out a pretty pretty big part 344 00:20:23,240 --> 00:20:26,280 Speaker 1: of his formative years early on in his career was 345 00:20:27,080 --> 00:20:31,600 Speaker 1: he wanted to become he wanted to have a say, 346 00:20:31,640 --> 00:20:34,679 Speaker 1: in the direction America took in World War Two, and 347 00:20:34,720 --> 00:20:37,800 Speaker 1: he was very much in favor of going to war 348 00:20:37,880 --> 00:20:41,520 Speaker 1: against the Nazis and Japan and Italy and um. One 349 00:20:41,600 --> 00:20:43,480 Speaker 1: of the reasons why he was in favor was because 350 00:20:43,480 --> 00:20:48,560 Speaker 1: he was extremely anti fascist. He hated fascism. And he 351 00:20:48,760 --> 00:20:51,280 Speaker 1: got a job at a liberal magazine I think a 352 00:20:51,280 --> 00:20:55,720 Speaker 1: newspaper actually called PM that was founded in New York 353 00:20:56,520 --> 00:20:59,560 Speaker 1: and it was founded with the Eye too to basically 354 00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:01,840 Speaker 1: call p all out who are pushing other people around. 355 00:21:02,359 --> 00:21:06,720 Speaker 1: It's a very liberal, very anti fascist, very pro um 356 00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,560 Speaker 1: World War two. They didn't call it that at the time. 357 00:21:09,920 --> 00:21:14,600 Speaker 1: And it was very anti isolationists too. And Dr Seuss 358 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:20,960 Speaker 1: was drawing editorial cartoons, very political editorial cartoons, about seven 359 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,880 Speaker 1: days a week for this magazine. UM. And he did 360 00:21:24,920 --> 00:21:27,760 Speaker 1: some really good work in it actually. Well yeah, and 361 00:21:27,760 --> 00:21:31,800 Speaker 1: then in the in the army he actually made films. 362 00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:36,199 Speaker 1: He was he was making documentaries right alongside Frank Capra. Uh. 363 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:39,639 Speaker 1: He had one series of training videos called Private Snaffoo 364 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:42,639 Speaker 1: that were animated, UM. But they were the work of 365 00:21:42,720 --> 00:21:45,639 Speaker 1: Chuck Jones. Actually, it's just so crazy about all this 366 00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:47,879 Speaker 1: talent that's like in the army producing these things at 367 00:21:47,920 --> 00:21:50,160 Speaker 1: the time, but he he went on to make live 368 00:21:50,200 --> 00:21:54,240 Speaker 1: action documentaries UM. One called Your Job in Germany, another 369 00:21:54,240 --> 00:21:58,080 Speaker 1: called Our Job in Japan. UM. MacArthur stopped the release 370 00:21:58,160 --> 00:22:02,560 Speaker 1: of Our Job in Japan. Uh and apparently UM General 371 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,520 Speaker 1: Patton stormed out of a screening of one of the 372 00:22:05,560 --> 00:22:07,880 Speaker 1: other ones. And I couldn't find the word but it said, 373 00:22:07,920 --> 00:22:11,520 Speaker 1: he uttered one loud curse word. Oh you couldn't find it? No, 374 00:22:11,760 --> 00:22:14,680 Speaker 1: do you? Did you? It was b s Okay, what 375 00:22:14,720 --> 00:22:16,920 Speaker 1: are you trying to think? What it would be? Sure? 376 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,040 Speaker 1: I was like, but one word. So it wasn't the 377 00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 1: F word unless it was just a very just long 378 00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:28,480 Speaker 1: drawn out like you know, alright, bs, that makes sense, 379 00:22:29,840 --> 00:22:32,359 Speaker 1: which I don't understand. I don't know what the problem was. 380 00:22:32,400 --> 00:22:35,800 Speaker 1: But they were both the our Job in Japan or 381 00:22:35,880 --> 00:22:42,360 Speaker 1: your Job in Germany, Yeah, was about occupation post post occupation, 382 00:22:43,040 --> 00:22:46,320 Speaker 1: UM life in Germany or Japan and what Yeah, you 383 00:22:46,320 --> 00:22:48,920 Speaker 1: can watch Your Job in Germany on YouTube. Yeah, and 384 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:51,360 Speaker 1: and our Job in Japan too. Yeah. So he he 385 00:22:51,920 --> 00:22:55,120 Speaker 1: recut those basically kind of rewrote and recut those later 386 00:22:55,200 --> 00:22:59,000 Speaker 1: on and retitled them Hitler Lives and Designed for Death. No, 387 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,280 Speaker 1: he didn't. They were recut around him without his say 388 00:23:02,520 --> 00:23:04,320 Speaker 1: oh no, no no. He and his wife later got 389 00:23:04,320 --> 00:23:08,119 Speaker 1: those films and recut them and won an Academy award. Yeah, 390 00:23:08,280 --> 00:23:10,760 Speaker 1: I had read that a producer went and and did 391 00:23:10,800 --> 00:23:13,840 Speaker 1: some recutting against their wishes and made it way worse 392 00:23:13,920 --> 00:23:16,919 Speaker 1: than they originally intended. Oh well, that may have happened, 393 00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:20,240 Speaker 1: and then maybe they then later on we recut it, 394 00:23:20,520 --> 00:23:23,480 Speaker 1: got the Oscar for their version. I don't know, but 395 00:23:23,680 --> 00:23:26,879 Speaker 1: we left out a lot actually because he Um he 396 00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:29,840 Speaker 1: was actually had previous to the army, had already written 397 00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:34,119 Speaker 1: children's books. Like he went fully into this because of 398 00:23:34,119 --> 00:23:38,879 Speaker 1: a ship trip that he took. Let's let's walk it 399 00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:42,400 Speaker 1: back a little bit. They went on a transatlantic voyage 400 00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:47,480 Speaker 1: aboard the MS uh Kung's home and apparently the ship's 401 00:23:47,520 --> 00:23:52,359 Speaker 1: engine had this beat, this hypnotic throbbing sound that just 402 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:55,040 Speaker 1: really stuck with him and it got into his head, 403 00:23:55,160 --> 00:23:58,720 Speaker 1: and so he started composing rhyming couplets that matched with 404 00:23:58,760 --> 00:24:04,720 Speaker 1: this rhythm, kind of like, uh, that's my S S 405 00:24:04,800 --> 00:24:07,440 Speaker 1: Kung's home impression, all right. Well, it ended up being 406 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:12,639 Speaker 1: what's called anapestic t traanmeter, which is what he would 407 00:24:12,640 --> 00:24:16,560 Speaker 1: make his career on this poetic meter. You know what? 408 00:24:16,680 --> 00:24:20,280 Speaker 1: That made me think of Chuck um that, Like, I've 409 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:24,199 Speaker 1: never heard those words together in my life. But no 410 00:24:24,240 --> 00:24:28,080 Speaker 1: one ever taught me how to read a Doctor Seuss book. 411 00:24:28,520 --> 00:24:31,040 Speaker 1: It's almost like we have some ingrain thing in our 412 00:24:31,080 --> 00:24:34,760 Speaker 1: brain to read things in that kind of rhythm or rome, 413 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:37,520 Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Or is it just like 414 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:39,199 Speaker 1: my parents read that to me and that's where I 415 00:24:39,200 --> 00:24:42,359 Speaker 1: picked it up from. But who taught them? I taught 416 00:24:42,400 --> 00:24:44,760 Speaker 1: anybody how to read something in rhymes. It's just like 417 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 1: you just and even when you when you when you're 418 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:50,679 Speaker 1: not reading it in the right rhythm, your brain realizes 419 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:53,200 Speaker 1: it and corrects you and you go back and reread 420 00:24:53,240 --> 00:24:55,199 Speaker 1: it the right way. Like when you get to the 421 00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:56,840 Speaker 1: next line, you're like, oh wait, that's out a beat 422 00:24:56,960 --> 00:24:59,600 Speaker 1: or whatever. Like you figure it out naturally, And I 423 00:24:59,600 --> 00:25:02,840 Speaker 1: wonder why we're geared toward that. Yeah, it's funny too, 424 00:25:02,880 --> 00:25:05,680 Speaker 1: because obviously read a lot of kids books every night now, 425 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:08,600 Speaker 1: and some of them are great, and some of them 426 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:11,520 Speaker 1: just like they'll do a word that doesn't quite rhyme, 427 00:25:11,520 --> 00:25:14,919 Speaker 1: and I'm always like, come on, or they'll stuff too 428 00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:17,639 Speaker 1: much in a line and it's not like graceful in 429 00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,960 Speaker 1: the read, I'm like, man, this is lame. Do better 430 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:26,600 Speaker 1: orange and door hinge. Hey, that's not bad. Well that's out, okay. 431 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:29,640 Speaker 1: Very famously can rhyme something with orange, which I found 432 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:31,760 Speaker 1: out because I think I said nothing rhymes with orange, 433 00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:35,080 Speaker 1: and well everyone's always said that because that's true. Well 434 00:25:35,119 --> 00:25:38,920 Speaker 1: I meant it door hinge. That's funny. So he created 435 00:25:38,920 --> 00:25:43,840 Speaker 1: a children's book on that anapestic t trameter called and 436 00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:46,960 Speaker 1: this is a story no One Can Beat that was 437 00:25:47,080 --> 00:25:51,119 Speaker 1: later changed and published in ninety seven as and to 438 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:53,800 Speaker 1: think that I saw it on Mulberry Street because he 439 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:56,560 Speaker 1: had an old friend that he ran into from Dartmouth 440 00:25:56,800 --> 00:25:58,679 Speaker 1: that turned out to be a children's book editor at 441 00:25:58,760 --> 00:26:02,000 Speaker 1: Vanguard Press. So I read an account of the story, 442 00:26:02,080 --> 00:26:05,760 Speaker 1: and the person saying telling the story said, had he 443 00:26:05,800 --> 00:26:07,880 Speaker 1: been walking on the other side of the street that day, 444 00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:10,760 Speaker 1: he may have never become a children's author. Like it 445 00:26:10,840 --> 00:26:15,439 Speaker 1: was that fateful um. He his friend from Dartmouth was 446 00:26:15,480 --> 00:26:19,760 Speaker 1: a new children's book editor at Vanguard, you said, And 447 00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:22,720 Speaker 1: it was so new that he was looking for material. 448 00:26:23,400 --> 00:26:26,480 Speaker 1: And Dr Seuss happened to be walking around with the 449 00:26:26,520 --> 00:26:29,840 Speaker 1: manuscript on him and just happened to be down there 450 00:26:30,200 --> 00:26:32,200 Speaker 1: and they ran into each other and this book got 451 00:26:32,240 --> 00:26:34,640 Speaker 1: published and that was the one where he first made 452 00:26:34,680 --> 00:26:37,280 Speaker 1: his name as a children's book writer. You're right, and 453 00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:41,400 Speaker 1: shout out to Stephen Barr, book agent. That's right. Uh 454 00:26:41,520 --> 00:26:45,800 Speaker 1: So this, this uh antipastic to traametter is what he 455 00:26:45,840 --> 00:26:48,720 Speaker 1: basically stuck with the rest of his career. He would 456 00:26:48,720 --> 00:26:51,480 Speaker 1: alter it here and there, use other meters here and there, 457 00:26:52,040 --> 00:26:54,560 Speaker 1: but this is where he you know, as Ed said, 458 00:26:54,560 --> 00:26:56,880 Speaker 1: that was his bread and butter. And it's very waltz 459 00:26:56,920 --> 00:26:59,320 Speaker 1: like you can count it off in three or four time, 460 00:27:00,080 --> 00:27:02,879 Speaker 1: and it just was sort of perfect for kids books. 461 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:05,680 Speaker 1: And with that first kid's book, Um, and to think 462 00:27:05,720 --> 00:27:07,520 Speaker 1: I saw in the Mulberry Street Apparently it's about a 463 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:10,240 Speaker 1: kid named Marco who sees a horse and cart on 464 00:27:10,280 --> 00:27:13,160 Speaker 1: the street and as he's retelling it, it just becomes 465 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:16,720 Speaker 1: this bigger and bigger and more like bizarre and grand 466 00:27:17,160 --> 00:27:20,920 Speaker 1: thing that he saw. Um. And this will come back 467 00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:25,320 Speaker 1: later on in the episode. Yeah. So he's writing these books. 468 00:27:25,720 --> 00:27:28,520 Speaker 1: He's doing okay. Uh. He had his fourth book was 469 00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,000 Speaker 1: called Horton Hatches the Egg. I think that's where we 470 00:27:31,040 --> 00:27:34,240 Speaker 1: first meet Horton. Um. But but he wasn't like lighting 471 00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:36,200 Speaker 1: the world on fire. And then that's when he goes 472 00:27:36,240 --> 00:27:38,359 Speaker 1: in the army. Right, and let me tell you the 473 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:40,920 Speaker 1: story about getting caught in the Battle of the Bulge. Again, 474 00:27:42,760 --> 00:27:46,040 Speaker 1: here we go. So he makes it through World War two, 475 00:27:46,280 --> 00:27:48,520 Speaker 1: he escapes with his life from the Battle of the Bulge, 476 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,240 Speaker 1: and when he comes out of World War Two, he goes, 477 00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:54,399 Speaker 1: um right back to writing books. And he he wrote 478 00:27:54,400 --> 00:27:58,119 Speaker 1: a few more in the forties. Um. I believe he 479 00:27:58,160 --> 00:28:01,640 Speaker 1: wrote yourl the Turtle, which I know is an allegory 480 00:28:01,720 --> 00:28:04,560 Speaker 1: for Hitler, and he was on record say yeah, apparently 481 00:28:04,600 --> 00:28:06,760 Speaker 1: the early drafts of it he had drawn a Hitler 482 00:28:06,840 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 1: mustache on yoursal the Turtle. It's about anti authoritarianian Is 483 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:15,920 Speaker 1: that Hitler or Michael Jordan's. Does he have a Hitler mustache? 484 00:28:15,960 --> 00:28:18,760 Speaker 1: He did very famously, and that this one Haynes Stevie 485 00:28:18,800 --> 00:28:24,000 Speaker 1: commercial and everyone was like, uh, someone not told him. 486 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:27,240 Speaker 1: I don't I didn't see that. I'll have to show 487 00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:28,800 Speaker 1: you picture. I had my head in the sand like 488 00:28:28,880 --> 00:28:32,760 Speaker 1: I was Charles Limberg or something. Oh, that's a nice 489 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:35,800 Speaker 1: circular reft. It's just for you and me. Um. So 490 00:28:35,880 --> 00:28:37,720 Speaker 1: he was writing some more and he was. I mean, 491 00:28:37,800 --> 00:28:41,160 Speaker 1: he was selling like thousands of copies every every time 492 00:28:41,160 --> 00:28:44,280 Speaker 1: he released a book. He was a known children's author. 493 00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:47,520 Speaker 1: He had already established his his style as something that 494 00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:51,080 Speaker 1: was pretty recognizable around the United States. But it wasn't 495 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:57,040 Speaker 1: until the mid fifties that things really changed for him. 496 00:28:57,080 --> 00:29:00,560 Speaker 1: Oh wow, it is a Hitler mustache. There's no taken that. 497 00:29:00,840 --> 00:29:05,560 Speaker 1: It's it's a decision. Um. So I think in nineteen 498 00:29:05,680 --> 00:29:09,400 Speaker 1: fifty five there was a book written called why Can't 499 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:13,840 Speaker 1: Johnny Read? Right? And a guy named Rudolph Flesh And 500 00:29:13,880 --> 00:29:15,720 Speaker 1: I realized what we've jumped over. We'll get back to 501 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:19,600 Speaker 1: I'm not ready for you yet, right, Um, a guy 502 00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:26,000 Speaker 1: named Rudolph Flesh It was this, Yeah, f l e age, 503 00:29:26,600 --> 00:29:30,480 Speaker 1: it would be a good one though. Yeah, you'd have 504 00:29:30,560 --> 00:29:34,920 Speaker 1: to call yourself Rudy too. And anyway, Rudolf Flesh Um, 505 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:37,400 Speaker 1: he wrote Why Can't Johnny Read? And it was basically 506 00:29:37,440 --> 00:29:41,640 Speaker 1: like an indictment of the American public school system, the 507 00:29:41,720 --> 00:29:45,240 Speaker 1: education system, and how we taught kids to read. And 508 00:29:45,280 --> 00:29:48,400 Speaker 1: it was equally an indictment of like Dick and Jane, 509 00:29:48,880 --> 00:29:50,640 Speaker 1: and the way that kids used to read or be 510 00:29:50,720 --> 00:29:53,480 Speaker 1: taught to read was just basically, here are words on 511 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:56,720 Speaker 1: a page, memorize them. This is a red ball. This 512 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:59,960 Speaker 1: is the word read. Don't be an idiot red ball 513 00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:02,520 Speaker 1: say it's kind of the worst way to teach kids 514 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,320 Speaker 1: stuff it is. And the guy in the article said, um. 515 00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:09,160 Speaker 1: He wrote an article in Life later on too, he said, 516 00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:11,240 Speaker 1: you know, he would be a great children's book author 517 00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:13,600 Speaker 1: to teach kids how to read? Is Dr Seuss? He 518 00:30:13,720 --> 00:30:17,240 Speaker 1: hates kids, He's already writing books for kids. Why but 519 00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:19,600 Speaker 1: if he just directed that toward actually teaching them how 520 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:21,960 Speaker 1: to read, that be that kids would definitely want that. 521 00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:25,000 Speaker 1: And it turns out that, um, an editor I think 522 00:30:25,040 --> 00:30:28,320 Speaker 1: at Houghton Mifflin or somebody wherever, wherever Dr SEUs was 523 00:30:28,360 --> 00:30:32,000 Speaker 1: writing at the time under Mifflin dunder Mifflin, what you 524 00:30:32,120 --> 00:30:36,120 Speaker 1: got me? Um? He said, that's actually a pretty good idea. 525 00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 1: And that's where we got the cat in the hat. 526 00:30:38,320 --> 00:30:40,280 Speaker 1: That's right, it was. It was originally meant as a 527 00:30:40,320 --> 00:30:46,880 Speaker 1: reading primer. I think there were words and and very 528 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:50,320 Speaker 1: famously his editor bet him after that that he could 529 00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:53,200 Speaker 1: not write a book with only fifty words. And he went, 530 00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,560 Speaker 1: take this book green eggs and ham and shove it 531 00:30:57,640 --> 00:31:00,239 Speaker 1: and shove it and give me my fifty dollars, right, 532 00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:03,520 Speaker 1: and that is supposedly true. His editor bet him that 533 00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:05,640 Speaker 1: he could not do so, and that's where green eggs 534 00:31:05,680 --> 00:31:08,520 Speaker 1: and Ham came from. Yeah, and it's fifty words exactly, 535 00:31:08,720 --> 00:31:11,880 Speaker 1: that's right. Um. So he at this point he went 536 00:31:11,960 --> 00:31:14,000 Speaker 1: from ed says, he went from being a well known 537 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:16,680 Speaker 1: children's author to probably the best known children's author in 538 00:31:16,680 --> 00:31:20,880 Speaker 1: the world. Yeah. He'd shown not only could he write fun, 539 00:31:21,200 --> 00:31:25,840 Speaker 1: whimsical um stories with the disguised moral lesson in the 540 00:31:25,840 --> 00:31:29,440 Speaker 1: middle of it too, um, with great illustrations and hand 541 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:32,040 Speaker 1: drawn fonts and all, that he could actually teach the 542 00:31:32,080 --> 00:31:35,520 Speaker 1: world's children how to read English at least. Yeah. And 543 00:31:35,560 --> 00:31:38,880 Speaker 1: then from that success he he wrote, uh, that same year, 544 00:31:39,680 --> 00:31:42,280 Speaker 1: how the Grinch stold Christmas? That's a big year man, 545 00:31:43,360 --> 00:31:45,240 Speaker 1: So so Cat the Hat and the Grinch of the 546 00:31:45,240 --> 00:31:47,920 Speaker 1: same year, right, yeah, okay, yeah, which is just amazing. 547 00:31:47,960 --> 00:31:50,160 Speaker 1: And then in nine six, of course, we get the 548 00:31:50,240 --> 00:31:55,120 Speaker 1: very famous TV cartoon adaptation, which people still love and 549 00:31:55,200 --> 00:32:00,440 Speaker 1: enjoy today, including me. Uh. And he ended up being 550 00:32:00,440 --> 00:32:02,600 Speaker 1: so successful that they gave him his own imprint at 551 00:32:02,680 --> 00:32:07,800 Speaker 1: Random House. Um. With his wife Helen Palmer Geisel, who 552 00:32:07,880 --> 00:32:10,960 Speaker 1: was um kind of by all accounts that the woman 553 00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,480 Speaker 1: behind the man. She was an author herself. She wrote 554 00:32:14,560 --> 00:32:17,200 Speaker 1: quite a few books. One called do you Know Do 555 00:32:17,240 --> 00:32:19,480 Speaker 1: you Know what I'm going to do next Saturday? To you? 556 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:28,680 Speaker 1: One called I Know What She Did last Summer? Um, Man, 557 00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:31,360 Speaker 1: it's funny. Adding those two words just makes it threatening. 558 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:34,640 Speaker 1: It's a horror novel. Uh, one called Why I Built 559 00:32:34,640 --> 00:32:37,160 Speaker 1: the Google House, and one called I Was Kissed by 560 00:32:37,160 --> 00:32:40,320 Speaker 1: a Seal at the Zoo. Uh. So I didn't want 561 00:32:40,320 --> 00:32:42,680 Speaker 1: to just kind of wash over her because she she 562 00:32:42,880 --> 00:32:46,240 Speaker 1: was an author, and very sadly she ended up committing 563 00:32:46,240 --> 00:32:49,560 Speaker 1: suicide very late in life. Yeah, within a couple of 564 00:32:49,600 --> 00:32:52,440 Speaker 1: years of an affair that he had yeah um, And 565 00:32:52,480 --> 00:32:57,800 Speaker 1: he'd apparently had multiple affairs and her um. Her suicide 566 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:01,240 Speaker 1: note supposedly referenced this, this feeling that she'd kind of 567 00:33:01,280 --> 00:33:04,560 Speaker 1: been overshadowed by him in his career. And like you said, 568 00:33:04,720 --> 00:33:07,080 Speaker 1: she was very much the woman behind the man, and 569 00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:09,959 Speaker 1: I think expected to support him and all that thing, 570 00:33:10,080 --> 00:33:12,160 Speaker 1: and she did. She put her own career away so 571 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,600 Speaker 1: that she could handle his correspondence and business affairs. She 572 00:33:15,720 --> 00:33:18,560 Speaker 1: was in charge of correspondence to like sick kids that 573 00:33:18,560 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 1: wrote them our entire classes. And um, she was she 574 00:33:22,480 --> 00:33:25,960 Speaker 1: was he all he he was the artistic genius who 575 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:27,640 Speaker 1: just needed to be left alone so he could make 576 00:33:27,680 --> 00:33:31,240 Speaker 1: these books every year, and she handled everything else. And 577 00:33:31,360 --> 00:33:33,880 Speaker 1: ask somebody to put their career away so that you 578 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:37,600 Speaker 1: can have yours. It's a big thing to ask somebody. Yeah, 579 00:33:37,640 --> 00:33:40,959 Speaker 1: I mean she was sixty nine when she uh, and 580 00:33:41,000 --> 00:33:44,840 Speaker 1: I believe I said committed suicide earlier. I apologize, I know, 581 00:33:44,880 --> 00:33:47,680 Speaker 1: we don't use that term anymore, So we say now 582 00:33:47,760 --> 00:33:51,360 Speaker 1: that she died by suicide, Yeah, because committed makes it 583 00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:54,120 Speaker 1: sound like, oh my god, she committed a sin. Yeah, 584 00:33:54,160 --> 00:33:56,200 Speaker 1: and we people have written in about that, and I was, 585 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,120 Speaker 1: I was. We were both glad to be made aware 586 00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:00,840 Speaker 1: of that. So she was sixteen, ten years old and 587 00:34:00,920 --> 00:34:06,760 Speaker 1: apparently also suffered from uh Gilliam bear bar game bar 588 00:34:06,920 --> 00:34:10,640 Speaker 1: a syndrome. Yeah. We got corrected on that some other time. 589 00:34:10,640 --> 00:34:13,400 Speaker 1: It's how I remember of how to pronounce it. Yeah. 590 00:34:13,560 --> 00:34:18,399 Speaker 1: Uh so, I mean, who knows why someone eventually takes 591 00:34:18,440 --> 00:34:20,560 Speaker 1: that path in life. Could be a lot of factors, 592 00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:27,040 Speaker 1: but yeah, October sixty seven, she overdosed on medication after 593 00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:30,120 Speaker 1: they've been married for forty years too. Yeah, man um 594 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:36,880 Speaker 1: and so shortly after that he married Audrey Diamond geisl 595 00:34:37,120 --> 00:34:40,360 Speaker 1: who's his widow, who is I believe still alive and 596 00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:44,160 Speaker 1: basically running his estate still. Yeah, her name was Audrey 597 00:34:44,200 --> 00:34:46,840 Speaker 1: Stone Diamond, but it was d I M O N 598 00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:49,719 Speaker 1: D no A. Oh yeah, which is interesting. I wonder 599 00:34:49,719 --> 00:34:54,640 Speaker 1: if it's efficient. But yes, she became Soyce and he went, 600 00:34:55,360 --> 00:34:57,040 Speaker 1: just go ahead and get used to it. It's SEUs. 601 00:34:58,080 --> 00:35:00,640 Speaker 1: She's like, really, I've always said Soyce. He's like, I 602 00:35:00,719 --> 00:35:04,960 Speaker 1: love you. And she had two daughters. Uh, And he said, 603 00:35:05,400 --> 00:35:08,279 Speaker 1: I bet you they'd love boarding school. Yeah, and she 604 00:35:08,320 --> 00:35:12,040 Speaker 1: went okay, And she later on even said, uh, this 605 00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:13,759 Speaker 1: is a direct quote. She said they wouldn't have been 606 00:35:13,760 --> 00:35:17,319 Speaker 1: happy with Ted, and Ted wouldn't have been happy with them. Yeah. 607 00:35:17,320 --> 00:35:20,080 Speaker 1: He really did not want kids or kids to be around. 608 00:35:20,120 --> 00:35:22,560 Speaker 1: He just liked doing the books that he liked to do. 609 00:35:23,600 --> 00:35:28,719 Speaker 1: It's pretty interesting. So he um that nineteen fifty seven year, 610 00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:33,280 Speaker 1: that was a big breakout year for him, and um, 611 00:35:33,560 --> 00:35:36,520 Speaker 1: that was kind of the year that he became the 612 00:35:36,600 --> 00:35:40,160 Speaker 1: doctor SEUs that we we see. But he kept writing 613 00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,839 Speaker 1: for many many years, I mean up until his death. 614 00:35:43,920 --> 00:35:48,840 Speaker 1: In he apparently cranked out like a book a year. Um, 615 00:35:50,640 --> 00:35:53,359 Speaker 1: some of the some of them over time kind of 616 00:35:53,360 --> 00:35:57,400 Speaker 1: took on much more progressive tones until he became the 617 00:35:57,440 --> 00:36:03,719 Speaker 1: Doctor Seuss that we see today. So prior to that though, Um, 618 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:06,719 Speaker 1: in recent years, some people have kind of said, hey, 619 00:36:06,840 --> 00:36:11,200 Speaker 1: you know, Dr SEUs had some really racist, bigoted stuff 620 00:36:11,320 --> 00:36:14,319 Speaker 1: in his early work, and it's become kind of this 621 00:36:16,239 --> 00:36:18,880 Speaker 1: national conversation to kind of figure out how to do this, 622 00:36:18,920 --> 00:36:23,960 Speaker 1: because everyone loves Dr SEUs, loves Dr SEUs, there's nobody 623 00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:28,399 Speaker 1: who doesn't like Dr Seuss. But if you or his work, 624 00:36:28,440 --> 00:36:31,359 Speaker 1: I should say, but if you if you start digging into, 625 00:36:31,440 --> 00:36:34,960 Speaker 1: especially some of his early work, it becomes problematic. Um, 626 00:36:35,719 --> 00:36:39,160 Speaker 1: you want to take a break, Okay, all right, all right, 627 00:36:39,239 --> 00:36:41,239 Speaker 1: let's take a break and we will take part in 628 00:36:41,239 --> 00:37:01,960 Speaker 1: that national conversation right after this. Alright, Chuck, So it's 629 00:37:02,080 --> 00:37:07,800 Speaker 1: national conversation time. So Dr Seuss, especially in his earliest 630 00:37:07,840 --> 00:37:12,000 Speaker 1: work as Jack o' lantern and judge writer, the Humor 631 00:37:12,040 --> 00:37:15,360 Speaker 1: magazine writer, a lot of his stuff was extremely racist, 632 00:37:16,239 --> 00:37:18,399 Speaker 1: as Ed puts it, not just racist for the time, 633 00:37:18,440 --> 00:37:23,120 Speaker 1: but but monstrously racist stuff. Yeah, like uh, full on 634 00:37:23,480 --> 00:37:31,759 Speaker 1: blackface caricatures, um, depicted African American characters, as lazy savages 635 00:37:32,960 --> 00:37:36,279 Speaker 1: have too many kids. He made jokes about slavery. There's 636 00:37:36,320 --> 00:37:39,880 Speaker 1: one way can't even read on this show, but it's awful. 637 00:37:40,400 --> 00:37:45,520 Speaker 1: Yeah right. Um. He also, especially as after Pearl Harbor, 638 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:50,280 Speaker 1: directed a lot of his creative energy toward making ugly 639 00:37:50,840 --> 00:37:56,120 Speaker 1: caricatures of Japan and depicting Japanese and Japanese Americans in 640 00:37:56,600 --> 00:38:01,719 Speaker 1: really unflattering light too. Yeah, and apparently supported tournament. Uh 641 00:38:01,760 --> 00:38:04,960 Speaker 1: and this isn't you know, you don't want to drag 642 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,080 Speaker 1: somebody through the mud, but if we're going to give 643 00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:08,839 Speaker 1: a picture of the man, this is who he was 644 00:38:08,920 --> 00:38:11,920 Speaker 1: earlier in his life. Right, So Ed makes a really 645 00:38:11,960 --> 00:38:14,520 Speaker 1: good point. I think Ed's a great American for the 646 00:38:14,560 --> 00:38:18,759 Speaker 1: way that he kind of kind of handled this too. Um. 647 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,040 Speaker 1: He's saying that, uh that if you look at his 648 00:38:22,120 --> 00:38:25,040 Speaker 1: early stuff, he was a younger man at the time, 649 00:38:25,600 --> 00:38:27,360 Speaker 1: and I think it was we should also say it 650 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:31,040 Speaker 1: qualifies as like none of this excuses anything, but but 651 00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,359 Speaker 1: you know, look at the whole, the whole picture of 652 00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:36,720 Speaker 1: the person. Um, if you look at his earlier stuff 653 00:38:37,200 --> 00:38:40,520 Speaker 1: or his his worst most racist stuff is when he 654 00:38:40,600 --> 00:38:44,160 Speaker 1: was youngest, and his most progressive stuff that everybody knows 655 00:38:44,160 --> 00:38:47,160 Speaker 1: and loves his Dr Seuss when the world was kind 656 00:38:47,160 --> 00:38:49,759 Speaker 1: of changing too. It's not like in N nine and 657 00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:51,680 Speaker 1: he was like, I'm gonna deliver, I'm gonna serve up 658 00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:53,960 Speaker 1: a good old racist cartoon, right exactly. It's not like 659 00:38:53,960 --> 00:38:57,200 Speaker 1: he invented sea monkeys or something like that. Right. Um, 660 00:38:57,280 --> 00:38:59,799 Speaker 1: So he kind of progressed with the world. And not 661 00:39:00,000 --> 00:39:02,160 Speaker 1: only did he progress with the world and kind of 662 00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:06,560 Speaker 1: change his views too to take on much more progressive stuff. Um. 663 00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:13,120 Speaker 1: Themes like um like, uh, bigotry with the sneeches is 664 00:39:13,160 --> 00:39:16,480 Speaker 1: about discriminating against people and just how ridiculous that is 665 00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,560 Speaker 1: how people are actually people. Um. A lot of people 666 00:39:19,600 --> 00:39:21,840 Speaker 1: point to Horton here's a who as a bit of 667 00:39:21,840 --> 00:39:26,080 Speaker 1: a mia culpa for his treatment of the Japanese prior 668 00:39:26,200 --> 00:39:30,480 Speaker 1: to World War two and during World War two. Um, 669 00:39:30,560 --> 00:39:35,880 Speaker 1: the lorax is obviously pro environmentalism. Um. He fully changed 670 00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,840 Speaker 1: one of us books altogether, an earlier version of and 671 00:39:39,840 --> 00:39:41,879 Speaker 1: And to think of so On on on Mulberry Street. Yeah, 672 00:39:41,880 --> 00:39:44,239 Speaker 1: it had the word chinaman in there. It was worse 673 00:39:44,280 --> 00:39:47,840 Speaker 1: than chinaman, and he he changed that to Chinese person 674 00:39:48,360 --> 00:39:52,839 Speaker 1: like in the publication of the book for future printings. Um. 675 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:58,839 Speaker 1: So he he definitely Um evolved his his works of volts. 676 00:39:58,920 --> 00:40:01,160 Speaker 1: He never came out in public he said, Hey, I'm 677 00:40:01,160 --> 00:40:03,720 Speaker 1: really sorry about all the racist stuff that I did earlier. 678 00:40:04,320 --> 00:40:08,359 Speaker 1: Um by the time he died in I think that 679 00:40:08,360 --> 00:40:10,759 Speaker 1: that really wasn't the way that the the world was 680 00:40:10,840 --> 00:40:14,279 Speaker 1: turning at the time. But he does seem to have 681 00:40:14,920 --> 00:40:17,640 Speaker 1: evolved and changed with the times and and did go 682 00:40:17,719 --> 00:40:21,160 Speaker 1: back and revise some stuff that had crept into his 683 00:40:21,160 --> 00:40:24,439 Speaker 1: his work. Yeah. And this is um come to light 684 00:40:24,880 --> 00:40:28,000 Speaker 1: more prominently in the past few years because there have 685 00:40:28,080 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 1: been like some book festivals and children's literature festivals that 686 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,439 Speaker 1: have either been boycotted or where they've sort of tried 687 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:39,600 Speaker 1: to make him a little less prominent. The cat and 688 00:40:39,600 --> 00:40:43,279 Speaker 1: the Hat I think was used. Um, wasn't it like 689 00:40:43,560 --> 00:40:47,080 Speaker 1: an official Read across America? Right here was the mascot 690 00:40:47,120 --> 00:40:49,799 Speaker 1: for it? Yeah, And did they officially remove the captain. 691 00:40:49,880 --> 00:40:51,919 Speaker 1: I think they've backed a little bit away from from 692 00:40:52,120 --> 00:40:54,640 Speaker 1: the Cat in the Hat as a mascot, if not entirely. 693 00:40:55,280 --> 00:40:58,080 Speaker 1: And I think that they've kind of like Dr Seuss 694 00:40:58,080 --> 00:41:00,920 Speaker 1: books are not like the focal of the Read Across 695 00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:04,120 Speaker 1: America campaign like they were right. Uh. And then last 696 00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:07,520 Speaker 1: year Millennia Trump made the news when she gifted a 697 00:41:07,719 --> 00:41:11,719 Speaker 1: library some Dr. Seuss books, and the librarian refused that 698 00:41:11,800 --> 00:41:15,640 Speaker 1: gift and said they are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, 699 00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,960 Speaker 1: and harmful stereotypes. I don't know that that all is 700 00:41:19,040 --> 00:41:22,360 Speaker 1: necessarily true, is it? Yeah? You know, I think that 701 00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,279 Speaker 1: might have been a little too harsh. Well, I mean, 702 00:41:26,080 --> 00:41:28,200 Speaker 1: if it's if I'm wrong, I don't want to know. 703 00:41:28,480 --> 00:41:30,840 Speaker 1: The only thing that I've seen that could be pointed 704 00:41:30,880 --> 00:41:34,040 Speaker 1: to in his work, like his books, was the was 705 00:41:34,120 --> 00:41:39,000 Speaker 1: the reference in drawing of the Chinese guy um in 706 00:41:39,400 --> 00:41:41,440 Speaker 1: his first book, And to think I saw it on 707 00:41:41,520 --> 00:41:44,319 Speaker 1: Mulberry Street. I didn't see anything else. I saw some 708 00:41:44,440 --> 00:41:46,720 Speaker 1: reference that maybe the cat in the hat was supposed 709 00:41:46,760 --> 00:41:49,640 Speaker 1: to be black face, but I I saw that one 710 00:41:49,760 --> 00:41:52,120 Speaker 1: place right and nowhere else. It seemed to be his 711 00:41:52,239 --> 00:41:55,960 Speaker 1: earlier work, not as children's books. And I didn't see 712 00:41:56,000 --> 00:42:00,440 Speaker 1: any racist propaganda that had that was hidden in books. 713 00:42:00,680 --> 00:42:03,520 Speaker 1: If anything, the books that you would give a library, 714 00:42:03,520 --> 00:42:05,080 Speaker 1: and I didn't know. I don't know what title she 715 00:42:05,120 --> 00:42:08,520 Speaker 1: gave would have been the more progressive stuff. Yes, she 716 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:10,960 Speaker 1: didn't go there and say here, look, here's the old 717 00:42:11,040 --> 00:42:13,680 Speaker 1: Jack O lantern here's the really dirty stuff, college humor, 718 00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:17,919 Speaker 1: racist cartoons. Um. And Yeah, to say that his work 719 00:42:17,960 --> 00:42:21,520 Speaker 1: was steeped in racist propaganda when talking about the children's books, 720 00:42:21,520 --> 00:42:24,080 Speaker 1: is I agree, it's not accurate, right. What I'm what 721 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,080 Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out is is that librarian hip 722 00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:30,719 Speaker 1: to something we don't know about or or not. I'm 723 00:42:30,800 --> 00:42:33,359 Speaker 1: very curious to know, Like if we didn't dig quite 724 00:42:33,360 --> 00:42:36,440 Speaker 1: deep enough. I'm a little surprised because you know us, 725 00:42:37,160 --> 00:42:39,640 Speaker 1: but um, I want to know if we're missing something 726 00:42:39,640 --> 00:42:42,120 Speaker 1: that Yeah, for sure. Um. I found an article where 727 00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,880 Speaker 1: they were just asking a lot of professionals, um in 728 00:42:44,960 --> 00:42:47,839 Speaker 1: children's literature what they thought about all this Because I'm 729 00:42:47,840 --> 00:42:49,000 Speaker 1: a big dummy, you know, I don't know how to 730 00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:51,520 Speaker 1: figure this stuff out of my own uh. And and Neelie, 731 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:54,759 Speaker 1: she's a professor of children's lit at Vanderbilt, said this, 732 00:42:55,520 --> 00:42:58,240 Speaker 1: just as every author illustrator is. I think Theodore Geisel 733 00:42:58,320 --> 00:43:00,680 Speaker 1: was a product of his time. We should not judge 734 00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:03,960 Speaker 1: him by today's standards, but we must evaluate his books 735 00:43:03,960 --> 00:43:07,200 Speaker 1: that we decided to share with children using today's standards. 736 00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:09,520 Speaker 1: That a really great point. Yeah, we cannot wallow in 737 00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:11,640 Speaker 1: our own nostalgia when we make choices for the books 738 00:43:11,640 --> 00:43:14,200 Speaker 1: we share with young children. They're simply too many outstanding 739 00:43:14,200 --> 00:43:17,680 Speaker 1: books available, especially also of the books that were raising 740 00:43:17,680 --> 00:43:20,560 Speaker 1: our kids on it. It's new to them. If it's 741 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,359 Speaker 1: if it is steeped in racist propaganda that we're not 742 00:43:23,640 --> 00:43:26,800 Speaker 1: realizing we're sharing or perpetuating, then yeah, that shouldn't be 743 00:43:26,880 --> 00:43:29,200 Speaker 1: the case. And Ed makes the great point that in 744 00:43:29,200 --> 00:43:33,880 Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties and thirties it was the exceptional American 745 00:43:34,000 --> 00:43:39,200 Speaker 1: who broke out of that mold and was very progressive. Uh. 746 00:43:39,280 --> 00:43:41,560 Speaker 1: And I wish he would have been one of those, 747 00:43:41,560 --> 00:43:43,759 Speaker 1: but he wasn't. Yeah, And I think that's one of 748 00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:46,960 Speaker 1: the reasons why it's there's such a cognitive dissonance when 749 00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:50,279 Speaker 1: you find this stuff out is because that's what you 750 00:43:50,320 --> 00:43:53,400 Speaker 1: think of Dr. Seuss based on his work, that like, 751 00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,160 Speaker 1: he would be that kind of guy, but he was human. 752 00:43:56,440 --> 00:43:59,480 Speaker 1: His work is larger than him because I think what 753 00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,600 Speaker 1: it is. And that's the case with just about everything. 754 00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:03,960 Speaker 1: It seems like, yeah, I mean, I don't want this 755 00:44:04,040 --> 00:44:07,520 Speaker 1: to taint your reading of how the grinchtl Christmas this year. 756 00:44:07,680 --> 00:44:10,399 Speaker 1: Although another thing that he was called out on once 757 00:44:10,520 --> 00:44:13,919 Speaker 1: was his um there was no female protagonists in any 758 00:44:13,960 --> 00:44:17,120 Speaker 1: of his books either again products at the time, Yeah, 759 00:44:17,280 --> 00:44:20,319 Speaker 1: he was a man writing about little male characters. But 760 00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:23,359 Speaker 1: he went and created a daisy headed Mazie after that, 761 00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,200 Speaker 1: so um he so again. His books became more progressive 762 00:44:28,280 --> 00:44:30,520 Speaker 1: further on in his career and he handled things like 763 00:44:31,000 --> 00:44:36,360 Speaker 1: um segregation and discrimination like with the Sneeches Um. The 764 00:44:36,400 --> 00:44:41,640 Speaker 1: Butter Battle Book was a clear, like glaring allegory for 765 00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:45,200 Speaker 1: the Cold War in the mutual assured destruction arms race. 766 00:44:45,840 --> 00:44:49,279 Speaker 1: Kind of a haunting book that ends without any resolution 767 00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:53,320 Speaker 1: with both sides, the Yuks and the Zooks. I think, um, 768 00:44:53,400 --> 00:44:56,280 Speaker 1: with their bombs pointed at one another, and it doesn't. 769 00:44:56,440 --> 00:44:58,799 Speaker 1: It's not like and they lived happily ever after. It's like, 770 00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:02,879 Speaker 1: what's going to happen? And then his last book that 771 00:45:02,960 --> 00:45:05,239 Speaker 1: he wrote and published while he was alive was Oh 772 00:45:05,320 --> 00:45:08,880 Speaker 1: the Places You'll Go, which I had no idea was published, 773 00:45:09,760 --> 00:45:13,799 Speaker 1: did you. I didn't know anything about it, so it 774 00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:16,680 Speaker 1: was not. It was his last book that was published 775 00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:20,200 Speaker 1: while he's alive. It's also his top selling book. So 776 00:45:20,280 --> 00:45:22,400 Speaker 1: some of these other books have been around for decades 777 00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:24,680 Speaker 1: longer than All the Places You'll Go. But All the 778 00:45:24,680 --> 00:45:27,719 Speaker 1: Places You'll Go is this top selling book. Because it's 779 00:45:27,760 --> 00:45:31,280 Speaker 1: given to grads. Uh every spring there's a new batch 780 00:45:31,360 --> 00:45:34,120 Speaker 1: of graduates who get All the Places You'll Go as 781 00:45:34,160 --> 00:45:36,719 Speaker 1: a gift, and like ten million copies have been sold 782 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,440 Speaker 1: because it's about like your your future from what a 783 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:42,600 Speaker 1: wait to just like doing things and taking risks and 784 00:45:42,680 --> 00:45:45,279 Speaker 1: like trying stuff and you can do it and it'll 785 00:45:45,320 --> 00:45:47,880 Speaker 1: be hard and you're going to run into two problems, 786 00:45:47,920 --> 00:45:50,319 Speaker 1: but you know you're you're you're a good person and 787 00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:52,560 Speaker 1: you're going to make good choices. And I have a 788 00:45:52,600 --> 00:45:57,120 Speaker 1: story about this. So last night, Um, I was talking 789 00:45:57,120 --> 00:45:59,040 Speaker 1: to you me and I was like, just out of nowhere. 790 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:00,359 Speaker 1: I was like, did you know that of the Place 791 00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:03,720 Speaker 1: She'll Go was only published in but it's Dr Seus's 792 00:46:03,719 --> 00:46:06,440 Speaker 1: greatest selling book. And she just looked at me kind 793 00:46:06,480 --> 00:46:09,520 Speaker 1: of like a little flabbergas, like why would you say that. 794 00:46:09,960 --> 00:46:12,480 Speaker 1: I was like, Oh, we're doing a Doctor SEUs episode tomorrow, 795 00:46:12,960 --> 00:46:15,320 Speaker 1: and she's like, that's really weird. I'll be right back. 796 00:46:15,680 --> 00:46:18,239 Speaker 1: And she went into our bedroom and came back out 797 00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:20,600 Speaker 1: with a copy of All the Places You'll Go and 798 00:46:20,640 --> 00:46:23,239 Speaker 1: said this has been under your pillow. She said, I 799 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:25,400 Speaker 1: was going to give this to you tomorrow for the 800 00:46:25,480 --> 00:46:28,360 Speaker 1: last episode of the End of the World. But I 801 00:46:28,480 --> 00:46:30,600 Speaker 1: just happened to bring it up the day before, and 802 00:46:30,640 --> 00:46:33,080 Speaker 1: that's crazy. Yeah, I thought that was really surprised. Man, 803 00:46:33,120 --> 00:46:35,240 Speaker 1: how things work out. But I read it as recently 804 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:37,920 Speaker 1: as last night. I'm like, this is an amazing even 805 00:46:38,000 --> 00:46:41,400 Speaker 1: for SEUs, it's an amazing book. Like an article I 806 00:46:41,480 --> 00:46:44,680 Speaker 1: read said that somebody somebody said, like, you can tell 807 00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:47,160 Speaker 1: that he knew this was the last book that that 808 00:46:47,200 --> 00:46:48,719 Speaker 1: was going to be published while he was alive, that 809 00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:52,840 Speaker 1: he wanted this to be as his swan song. Interesting, Yeah, 810 00:46:52,360 --> 00:46:56,480 Speaker 1: I would not be surprised talking about his more progressive 811 00:46:56,880 --> 00:46:59,279 Speaker 1: views and sort of catching up with the time if 812 00:46:59,600 --> 00:47:03,720 Speaker 1: either Ellen and or Audrey as the women behind the Man, 813 00:47:03,560 --> 00:47:07,400 Speaker 1: we weren't helping him along in that respect and saying 814 00:47:07,440 --> 00:47:12,640 Speaker 1: like hey, get with it. Ohh like for changing his views. 815 00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:15,439 Speaker 1: Maybe I thought that as well. I could totally see that. Yeah, 816 00:47:15,480 --> 00:47:17,799 Speaker 1: because if you think about it, Helen Palmer came into 817 00:47:17,880 --> 00:47:22,960 Speaker 1: his life. Um, yeah, yeah, I could see her having 818 00:47:22,960 --> 00:47:27,520 Speaker 1: that influence on him. Yeah. He passed away finally of 819 00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:34,440 Speaker 1: cancer sept seven. And I remember this because that was 820 00:47:34,480 --> 00:47:37,440 Speaker 1: a rough week. Uh. I was in college and he 821 00:47:37,520 --> 00:47:39,800 Speaker 1: and Miles Davis died about five or six days apart, 822 00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:42,880 Speaker 1: and I just remember being like, man, this is this 823 00:47:42,920 --> 00:47:46,520 Speaker 1: is one of those tough ones for dude, it's my age. 824 00:47:46,840 --> 00:47:49,919 Speaker 1: They were beeboppers and children's book readers at the same time. 825 00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:53,280 Speaker 1: I've got one last thing for you about Dr Seuss. 826 00:47:53,280 --> 00:47:54,560 Speaker 1: Do you have anything else? And I got one more 827 00:47:54,600 --> 00:47:57,520 Speaker 1: thing too first, Okay, I'll go first. He was a 828 00:47:57,600 --> 00:48:01,719 Speaker 1: voracious chain smoker, interesting so much so that even back 829 00:48:01,719 --> 00:48:03,960 Speaker 1: in like the fifties and sixties, he knew he needed 830 00:48:03,960 --> 00:48:06,480 Speaker 1: to lay off sometimes. So when he needed to lay 831 00:48:06,520 --> 00:48:10,520 Speaker 1: off of smoking, he would um take up. He would 832 00:48:10,520 --> 00:48:13,040 Speaker 1: take up a corn cob pipe that he kept turn 833 00:48:13,160 --> 00:48:15,879 Speaker 1: up seeds in, and anytime he wanted to smoke, rather 834 00:48:15,920 --> 00:48:18,239 Speaker 1: than light it, he would put a water dropper in there, 835 00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:20,640 Speaker 1: and then when the turn up seeds started to sprout, 836 00:48:21,080 --> 00:48:26,439 Speaker 1: he would go back to cigarettes. What yes, I don't 837 00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:30,520 Speaker 1: fully understand that. He would start a little corn cob pipe, 838 00:48:30,920 --> 00:48:33,000 Speaker 1: turn up seeds, and then rather than light it, he 839 00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:35,560 Speaker 1: would just put a seed dropper in puff on it. 840 00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:38,920 Speaker 1: But nothing was going on. It's all just mental oral fixation. 841 00:48:39,360 --> 00:48:42,000 Speaker 1: And then after about three days of doing this, the 842 00:48:42,080 --> 00:48:45,480 Speaker 1: seeds would would sprout. German eight, and he'd be like, okay, 843 00:48:45,680 --> 00:48:48,719 Speaker 1: I can go back to cigarettes now. So you take 844 00:48:48,719 --> 00:48:50,920 Speaker 1: about three days off of cigarettes. And he used the 845 00:48:51,000 --> 00:48:55,200 Speaker 1: crop of turn up greens as his his indicator. I 846 00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:56,680 Speaker 1: thought you were going to say that that went on 847 00:48:56,719 --> 00:48:59,600 Speaker 1: to feed like the children in poor neighborhoods or something 848 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:03,399 Speaker 1: who hate turn ups. Kids don't mat turn ups. Turn 849 00:49:03,480 --> 00:49:06,160 Speaker 1: ups are great. I agree. I'm a I'm a root 850 00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:11,480 Speaker 1: vegetable man myself, so my last thing. In two thousand seven, 851 00:49:11,640 --> 00:49:15,799 Speaker 1: the federal judge h received a hard boiled egg in 852 00:49:15,840 --> 00:49:19,320 Speaker 1: the mail from an inmate in prison protesting his diet 853 00:49:19,360 --> 00:49:24,880 Speaker 1: in prison and the federal The federal judge rendered a decision, 854 00:49:25,440 --> 00:49:27,359 Speaker 1: and apparently it was worked up the ladder. I can't 855 00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:29,960 Speaker 1: remember even what it was about, but he rendered a decision. Thusly, 856 00:49:30,440 --> 00:49:33,120 Speaker 1: I do not like eggs in the file. This is 857 00:49:33,239 --> 00:49:36,239 Speaker 1: Judge James um your head. I do not like them 858 00:49:36,280 --> 00:49:38,840 Speaker 1: in any style. I will not take them fried or boiled. 859 00:49:39,239 --> 00:49:41,640 Speaker 1: I will not take them poached or broiled. I will 860 00:49:41,640 --> 00:49:45,560 Speaker 1: not take them softer scrambled despite an argument, well rambled, 861 00:49:46,120 --> 00:49:49,080 Speaker 1: No fan, I am of the egg at hand. Destroyed 862 00:49:49,160 --> 00:49:54,720 Speaker 1: that egg today today, today, I say, without delay, And 863 00:49:54,960 --> 00:49:58,920 Speaker 1: they threw him out of court, fired him because he 864 00:49:58,960 --> 00:50:02,800 Speaker 1: was drunk. No, I don't know. Um wow, I wonder 865 00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:04,839 Speaker 1: what came out of that. I don't know. And and 866 00:50:04,840 --> 00:50:07,239 Speaker 1: and it gave very little information about what the case 867 00:50:07,280 --> 00:50:09,600 Speaker 1: was even on I know, like the guys like, no, really, 868 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:12,400 Speaker 1: this is a serious complaint. Please, you're focusing on the 869 00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:16,200 Speaker 1: wrong thing. Someone help me. Oh goodness. If you want 870 00:50:16,200 --> 00:50:18,640 Speaker 1: to know more about Dr Seuss, go research and make 871 00:50:18,680 --> 00:50:24,120 Speaker 1: your own decisions about the man, the work, all that stuff. Okay, agreed. Uh. 872 00:50:24,160 --> 00:50:27,160 Speaker 1: And since I said that, it's time for listener mail. No, 873 00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:29,000 Speaker 1: this is our last show of the year, so no 874 00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:30,960 Speaker 1: listener mail. It's just our time of the year to 875 00:50:31,000 --> 00:50:34,640 Speaker 1: thank everyone here and year. Is this the end of 876 00:50:34,640 --> 00:50:38,000 Speaker 1: ten years? Yes, or it's sort of in the middle. 877 00:50:38,120 --> 00:50:41,040 Speaker 1: April is the beginning and end of a year, right, 878 00:50:41,080 --> 00:50:43,080 Speaker 1: but the end of our calendar year. And we just 879 00:50:43,200 --> 00:50:45,600 Speaker 1: thank everyone for hanging in for this long with us. 880 00:50:46,239 --> 00:50:48,759 Speaker 1: It's amazing that we're still allowed to do this job, 881 00:50:49,040 --> 00:50:52,520 Speaker 1: hanging there. It'll pay off eventually, and we're gonna keep 882 00:50:52,520 --> 00:50:57,000 Speaker 1: at it forever forever. And on a personal note, a 883 00:50:57,160 --> 00:50:59,600 Speaker 1: very happy birthday to my dear sweet wife you me 884 00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:03,840 Speaker 1: birthday birthday you me uh, And thank you guys for 885 00:51:03,960 --> 00:51:06,040 Speaker 1: being with us for yet another year, and we'll see 886 00:51:06,080 --> 00:51:13,480 Speaker 1: you next year, everybody. For more on this and thousands 887 00:51:13,480 --> 00:51:22,200 Speaker 1: of other topics, visit how Stuff Works dot com m