Speaker 1: School of Humans. Oh what a life we're living. Everybody.
Speaker 2: It's blizzard season.
Speaker 1: Well not where I live, because I live in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: but it is slightly cold down here. You know a
Speaker 1: nice thing to do on these cold and dark winter months,
Speaker 1: Well you could read a little story with your friends
Speaker 1: and family around the fire. Yeah, in this modern age
Speaker 1: of iPads and phones and.
Speaker 2: Meth, that's what people want to do.
Speaker 1: They just want to get together and tell stories around
Speaker 1: the fire or read a book. You know. But if
Speaker 1: you are going to read a book, maybe you want
Speaker 1: something that's fun for the whole family. And oh, I know,
Speaker 1: perhaps you could read something by Doctor Seuss, the author
Speaker 1: and illustrator whose work is ubiquitous across American childhoods. His
Speaker 1: books like Green Eggs and Ham, the Cat and the Hat,
Speaker 1: Horton Hears Who, the Lorax, they're all efflective of the
Speaker 1: American spirit. They all include a passion for democracy, and
Speaker 1: some of them could be a little bit racist, just
Speaker 1: to touch. Like. In twenty twenty one, publishers decided to
Speaker 1: stop printing some of doctor Seuss's books, the ones that
Speaker 1: included racist images and ideas, And this might get be canceled.
Speaker 1: And that's fine, I'm tired, but I'm actually here to
Speaker 1: defend doctor Seuss because a lot of his books took
Speaker 1: stands against anti Semitism dictatorships. They're really pro environment, very
Speaker 1: pro democracy. And in the nineteen seventies, doctor susan his
Speaker 1: wife Audrey, got pissed off at some pro life groups
Speaker 1: because they had co opted a line from Horton here's
Speaker 1: a who you know, the famous one. A person's a person,
Speaker 1: no matter how small. Pro life people took that and
Speaker 1: we're like, well, if that's the case, then you shouldn't
Speaker 1: get an abortion, and doctor SEUs was like, shut up,
Speaker 1: that's not the context.
Speaker 2: So Docressus, that's a pretty cool guy. I like him.
Speaker 1: But all that controversy aside, because yeah, there are a
Speaker 1: few of his books that are a little racist against
Speaker 1: Asian people and black people. If you are gonna have
Speaker 1: a little story time with your family by the sweltering fire,
Speaker 1: let me suggest a doctor Seuss book.
Speaker 2: You shouldn't read.
Speaker 1: First, let's hear some reviews from the library I go to.
Speaker 1: That's in the Fulson County Library System. Yes, I am
Speaker 1: bragging that I go to the library and sometimes I
Speaker 1: even read the books.
Speaker 2: I check out.
Speaker 1: So with this Doctor Seuss book. One of the reviewers
Speaker 1: on the library website gave it a half star out
Speaker 1: of five. Yeah, just a half, and the review said
Speaker 1: astoundingly awful, painfully unfunny, boring, tedious, ghastly illustrations. And it
Speaker 1: doesn't even rhyme. That's right, doesn't even rhyme? Doesn't that suck.
Speaker 1: Another review is not as bad. It gave it a
Speaker 1: three out of five stars, but it said this is
Speaker 1: not Doctor SEUs for children. The cover alone is enough
Speaker 1: to make that statement. Ooh, isn't that spicy? And I
Speaker 1: bet you're wondering.
Speaker 2: What is the cover of the book.
Speaker 1: Well, it's seven women riding a horse, and all of
Speaker 1: these ladies are naked, naked Doctor Seuss what it definitely
Speaker 1: is not for children. The rest of that review said,
Speaker 1: although SEUs was clever in some spots, the nakedness of
Speaker 1: these ladies while everyone else's clothes is silly, and the
Speaker 1: story is simply strange. I think if the ladies had
Speaker 1: their clothes on, the story would have been more interesting,
Speaker 1: but then they couldn't be Lady Godiva's.
Speaker 2: I suppose this.
Speaker 1: Was written in nineteen thirty nine, which is rather surprising
Speaker 1: for the time period, not even close to my favorite
Speaker 1: Doctor SEUs materials, so yes. In nineteen thirty nine, Doctor
Speaker 1: Seu's published a book featuring seven naked women called The
Speaker 1: Seven Lady Godivas, and oh boy, did not sell well,
Speaker 1: as the reviewer said, it didn't even rhyme cute.
Speaker 2: The theme song.
Speaker 1: This is American Filth and I'm Gaby Watts. Every week
Speaker 1: I tell you a filthy story from American history. This
Speaker 1: week's episode Naked Doctor Seuss.
Speaker 2: The thing about.
Speaker 1: Doctor Seuss is he is a man. And the thing
Speaker 1: about men that I find is, at some point in
Speaker 1: their artistic career they're probably gonna draw pictures of naked ladies.
Speaker 1: And that's what he did in his book The Seven
Speaker 1: Lady get So, what's this book about? While the Seven
Speaker 1: Lady Godivas are sisters, they're all noble women, and they
Speaker 1: are committed to living their lives bare, both physically without
Speaker 1: clothes and metaphorically. They are dedicated to truth and honesty.
Speaker 1: And one day their father, a lord, he decides to
Speaker 1: go off to war. But unfortunately, when he mounts his horse,
Speaker 1: whose name is Nathan, an obvious horse name Nathan rears
Speaker 1: and the Lord Godiva flies off the horse and dies.
Speaker 1: Now in this moment, you might think that the sisters
Speaker 1: would have significant PTSD after witnessing their father's death, but no,
Speaker 1: what they realize instead is that horses must be studied
Speaker 1: and charted, made safe for posterity. So the seven sisters
Speaker 1: swear that they will bring to light new horse truths,
Speaker 1: you know, horse truths, lessons about the world revealed through horses.
Speaker 1: So each sister embarks on a quest to discover one
Speaker 1: horse truth and they have to do this before they
Speaker 1: can marry one of the seven Peeping brothers. Yes, there's
Speaker 1: a family of seven brothers, the Peepings, one of whom
Speaker 1: is obviously Peeping Tom.
Speaker 2: And they wear clothes by the way, And you.
Speaker 1: Guys might be thinking, this is a pretty strange concept
Speaker 1: for a book. Yes, I mean, I guess so is
Speaker 1: a cat and a hat and one fish and two
Speaker 1: fish and a bluefish and a redfish.
Speaker 2: But this story is actually based.
Speaker 1: On an even older story, a famous English tale about
Speaker 1: a noble woman known for her act of compassion and
Speaker 1: defiance against oppressive taxation. This is a story from the
Speaker 1: eleventh century and is based on a real historical figure
Speaker 1: named Lady Godiva. She was the wife of the Earl
Speaker 1: of who is a powerful nobleman in Anglo Saxon, England. So,
Speaker 1: according to this legend, the Earl Lady Godiva's husband imposed
Speaker 1: harsh taxes on the people of Coventry, which caused a
Speaker 1: lot of suffering amongst the townsfolk, and then Lady Godiva
Speaker 1: begged her husband. She was like, Hey, we need to
Speaker 1: reduce these taxes so they don't suffer. Her husband was
Speaker 1: frustrated and he was like, Hey, I'll reduce the taxes
Speaker 1: if you do this one impossible thing that I know
Speaker 1: that you're not going to do.
Speaker 2: Haha, So I'm going to win.
Speaker 1: He was like, I'll lower the taxes if you ride
Speaker 1: naked through the streets of Coventry on horseback. He was like,
Speaker 1: she'll never agree to do that because of modesty and
Speaker 1: societal expectations.
Speaker 2: Ha ha. I got her. I tricked her.
Speaker 1: But to his surprise and to everybody else's, Lady Godiva
Speaker 1: accepted the challenge. She rode unclothed through the town, her
Speaker 1: long hair covering most of.
Speaker 2: Her body to shield her.
Speaker 1: Modestly, and out of respect for her, the townspeople supposedly
Speaker 1: stayed indoors and did not look as she passed. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sure not a single man looked at this naked
Speaker 1: lady on a horse. And then her husband was like, damn,
Speaker 1: I didn't know she was gonna do that, and I
Speaker 1: am impressed by her bravery and her commitment, So I'm
Speaker 1: actually going to reduce the taxes. And then all the
Speaker 1: townspeople of Coventry were happy, thank you, lady Godiva for
Speaker 1: being naked on a horse.
Speaker 2: So that's kind of like the original story.
Speaker 1: And then in later versions of it, there's a peeping
Speaker 1: tom who actually does look at her as she passes by,
Speaker 1: but he's punished. In some versions he ends up dying
Speaker 1: and others he just goes blind. And so yeah, this
Speaker 1: is a pretty well known story, though I feel like
Speaker 1: a most Americans don't know about it today. I'm going
Speaker 1: to say that, I mean, we're not the smartest people
Speaker 1: at this point. We don't really get that much info,
Speaker 1: or we get too much info that's wrong. Like if
Speaker 1: I said Godiva, most of us are going to associate
Speaker 1: it with the chocolate brand. You know, the chocolate brand
Speaker 1: that I eat while crying bitterly about the failure of
Speaker 1: my life.
Speaker 2: You guys too. But in doctor.
Speaker 1: Seuss's early career as an illustrator, artist writer, A lot
Speaker 1: of people were talking about this Lady Goadiva tale. Like
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty five, the actress and dancer named Thelma
Speaker 1: White rode down Broadway in New York City atop a
Speaker 1: horse wearing next to nothing. According to one newspaper, throngs
Speaker 1: of peeping toms climbed over one another in their anxiety
Speaker 1: to examine a plain white nag ambling up the famed thoroughfare.
Speaker 1: One onlooker yelled, she's naked, said The reason she did
Speaker 1: this little ride was to commemorate the anniversary of Lady
Speaker 1: Godivas Canter. And the thing is Thelma wasn't actually completely naked.
Speaker 1: She had a tricky net arrangement of ribbon that was
Speaker 1: placed strategically over her body. Thelma was quickly arrested. Her
Speaker 1: ride only lasted a block, but her state of undress
Speaker 1: wasn't the main issue. The bigger issue at hand was
Speaker 1: the traffic. Her ride caused a major traffic jam, so
Speaker 1: she was arrested, taken to jail, and was hailed on
Speaker 1: a fifty dollars bail for disorderly conduct. Thelma never again
Speaker 1: did this stunt. But she did skyrocket to fame, and
Speaker 1: by skyrocket I mean mostly just get a job in
Speaker 1: a movie that you might be familiar with the next
Speaker 1: year in nineteen thirty six called Reefer Madness, you guys know,
Speaker 1: the over the top propaganda film that warned youths about
Speaker 1: the terrors of smoking marijuana. According to that movie, if
Speaker 1: you smoke dope, it might lead to a life of prostitution, insanity, manslaughter, suicide,
Speaker 1: among a lot of other terrible side effects. Bellemawhite was
Speaker 1: just one Lady Godiva out there. Like in nineteen twenty seven,
Speaker 1: there's these two Chicago architects who are hosting a artist
Speaker 1: ball where they promised there would be seven Lady Godivas there.
Speaker 1: They're like, yeah, we're gonna have seven naked ladies on horseback.
Speaker 2: Isn't that exciting?
Speaker 1: One of the architects and organizers of this event said, certainly,
Speaker 1: we should have a Lady Godiva.
Speaker 2: The legend about her is beautiful.
Speaker 1: Her appearance on a horse, provided it isn't too cold,
Speaker 1: will be an artistic achievement such as Chicago has seldom seen. Yes,
Speaker 1: what an artistic achievement to be a naked woman on
Speaker 1: horseback and The thing is, I do think it would
Speaker 1: be too cold for a Lady Godiva, because this was
Speaker 1: supposed to be in November, which I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've been to Chicago in the winter, but it's pretty
Speaker 1: frick and cold. But Thelma White, these seven Lady Godivas,
Speaker 1: don't worry. There's even more Lady Godivas. In nineteen thirty
Speaker 1: three in Hollywood, there was a call for a casting
Speaker 1: of a Lady Godiva. The advertisement said, the lady who
Speaker 1: is to ride a snow white horse in a fiesta
Speaker 1: must have a beautiful face, a divine figure, and a
Speaker 1: wealth of golden locks real that all but sweep to
Speaker 1: the ground. Also that year, in Hollywood, seven lady Godivas
Speaker 1: appeared in a parade, but instead of riding horses, they
Speaker 1: rode elephants. Obviously, this all goes to say that in
Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties and thirties, people were excited about
Speaker 1: Lady Godiva, specifically because that meant naked women riding horses
Speaker 1: or elephants or whatever, and they seemed particularly excited if
Speaker 1: you had seven of them. And then there was doctor Seuss.
Speaker 1: Perhaps he had read about Thelma White, perhaps he had
Speaker 1: seen all these calls for Lady Godiva's especially seven of them,
Speaker 1: and he was like, huh, I got an idea for
Speaker 1: a book. We'll be right back after these soothing advertisements.
Speaker 1: Doctor Seus's full name is Theodore Seuss Geisel, and if
Speaker 1: you can believe it, he's not actually a doctor. And
Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty nine he was still trying to make it.
Speaker 1: He had a lot of different jobs in different fields,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't fully clicking yet.
Speaker 2: At first. When he was younger, he tried to be
Speaker 2: a novelist.
Speaker 1: And right after college he wrote a book, and apparently
Speaker 1: it sucked.
Speaker 2: Later in life. This is what Geisel said about the book.
Speaker 1: It was a very long novel and nobody would publish it.
Speaker 1: So I boiled it down to a short story, and
Speaker 1: still nobody would publish that. So then I boiled it
Speaker 1: down to a short short story, and still nobody would
Speaker 1: publish it. Finally, I took one joke out of it
Speaker 1: and sold it as a two line joke, which proved
Speaker 1: that nothing is ever lost. Wow, what a positive spin
Speaker 1: on spending years of your life writing a book. And
Speaker 1: that's the thing about art, isn't it fulfilling all the time?
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can just work really hard on something and
Speaker 1: just get two sentences out of it. Anyway, after that
Speaker 1: novel failed, Geisel had started working as an illustrator and
Speaker 1: humorous for some magazines. He also did some political cartoons.
Speaker 1: But even the magazine business wasn't lucrative enough, so he
Speaker 1: started working at Standard Oil as an advertiser, and there
Speaker 1: he made a bit of a splash because he created
Speaker 1: a famous ad campaign for a pest to side. He
Speaker 1: came up with this slogan, quick Henry the flit, the
Speaker 1: flit being a pesticide against flies and mosquitoes. But if
Speaker 1: you can believe it, for a creative mind like Geisel,
Speaker 1: working in advertising and creating slogans for bug killing solutions
Speaker 1: wasn't creatively satisfying. I know, isn't that crazy? And so
Speaker 1: Geisel wanted to make something else. But unfortunately, Geisel couldn't
Speaker 1: go back to writing novels or illustrating cartoons for newspapers
Speaker 1: because he still needed his advertising job for the money,
Speaker 1: and at Standard Oil he had a non compete clause
Speaker 1: in his contract that was like, you can't write or
Speaker 1: draw anything else outside of this company. The only exception
Speaker 1: is children's books. And so that might have been part
Speaker 1: of the reason why doctor Seuss became doctor Seuss because
Speaker 1: of a non compete agreement. The first couple were moderately successful,
Speaker 1: but the sales they're pretty sluggish in general, Like, they
Speaker 1: were fine, but he wasn't popping off yet. He wasn't
Speaker 1: a household name. But it seemed at this point he
Speaker 1: was making enough money off of these books to have
Speaker 1: a new career. Of course, you want more success than
Speaker 1: sluggish sales. So Geisel doctor Seuss, was like, hmm, let
Speaker 1: me try something else. These children books are fine, but
Speaker 1: maybe I could be more successful doing, you know, something
Speaker 1: for adults. So this was like the later nineteen thirties,
Speaker 1: and at this time people were wanting unconventional and experimental literature,
Speaker 1: you know, they wanted something spicy, something interesting. We were
Speaker 1: coming out of the Depression, which was right after the
Speaker 1: jazz Age, with the speakeasies and the flappers. There was
Speaker 1: a general loosening of societal norms. Geisel was like, well,
Speaker 1: if I make a risque in a reverent book for adults.
Speaker 2: Maybe they'll like that.
Speaker 1: Maybe that audience I want to read it, and I'll
Speaker 1: make a lot of money and be very successful. Doctor
Speaker 1: Seus's publisher was Random House, and before he got started
Speaker 1: working on this adult book, Random House was like, hey,
Speaker 1: doctor Seuss, in you're twelve years of working as an illustrator.
Speaker 2: We've kind of noticed that.
Speaker 1: You've drawn men, children, insects, dragons, fish, and other animals,
Speaker 1: but you have actually never drawn a woman whoopsies. So
Speaker 1: when doctor SEUs started on his endeavor to create an
Speaker 1: adult book, this was in the back of his mind
Speaker 1: and he was like, Hey, I won't draw just one lady,
Speaker 1: I will draw seven.
Speaker 2: How's that, Random House. That's a lot of ladies.
Speaker 1: So the book came out in nineteen thirty nine, featured
Speaker 1: forty three illustrations, and if you can believe it, it
Speaker 1: was a commercial flop. Yeah. They printed like ten thousand
Speaker 1: copies and only twenty five hundred sold. People hated it,
Speaker 1: which probably made guys a little upset. He was like, well,
Speaker 1: I thought people wanted stuff like this. I thought adults
Speaker 1: were freaky. They want some naked ladies. I delivered, and
Speaker 1: they hate it. So why did it flop so hard? Well,
Speaker 1: the book's humor didn't resonate with readers, and the illustrations
Speaker 1: weren't seen as provocative or engaging. Instead, they just looked
Speaker 1: silly and ridiculous. One review said, his little book is
Speaker 1: only mildly amusing. That may be due to the fact
Speaker 1: that he has never before written or drawn about women,
Speaker 1: or it may be the result of too obvious humor
Speaker 1: plus a lack of definition in the character of each
Speaker 1: Lady Godiva. Better luck next time, doctor Seuss. Another of
Speaker 1: you agreed, saying doctor Seuss has a with women in
Speaker 1: caricature at least. And I really appreciate these reviews. They're
Speaker 1: actually kind of feminists for the nineteen thirties. They're saying, hey,
Speaker 1: doctor Seuss, you're not presenting these women as real people. Also,
Speaker 1: they look stupid and worse than these negative reviews.
Speaker 2: It seems a lot of the reviews just didn't care
Speaker 2: about the book.
Speaker 1: Like one of the reviews just said, the seven Lady
Speaker 1: Godivas is the title.
Speaker 2: Of a book. Wow, that's it the whole review.
Speaker 1: Yes, this book exists, devastating and I'm sure you guys
Speaker 1: all want my personal opinion on the book, of course,
Speaker 1: Well I will say the ladies do look a little weird,
Speaker 1: like for one of the sisters, her elbow.
Speaker 2: Is at the same height as her knee, which is
Speaker 2: a little messed up, you know.
Speaker 1: So their arms are a bit too long, they got
Speaker 1: short little legs, their torsos are really long, and they
Speaker 1: all have like pretty huge asses, and they all have
Speaker 1: like the perkiest tits I've ever seen. They're often like
Speaker 1: angled upwards they like almost look like they're about to
Speaker 1: hit them in.
Speaker 2: The neck kind of.
Speaker 1: And all the sisters they have different haircuts or whatever.
Speaker 1: And one of the sisters, she's larger, and the rest
Speaker 1: of them are just very skinny.
Speaker 2: Asexual looking ladies.
Speaker 1: Like in the nineteen thirties, adults were like, I want
Speaker 1: something provocative, and yes, these are just like silly little
Speaker 1: drawings of ladies. Like if you found these ladies sexual,
Speaker 1: there's something wrong with you, okay.
Speaker 2: And as far as.
Speaker 1: The story goes, it's not particularly gripping. It's also kind
Speaker 1: of weird, like it just tells the tale of the
Speaker 1: seven sisters trying to find their horse truths or whatever,
Speaker 1: so it's kind of stilted, and the horse truths that
Speaker 1: they all discover are really dumb. It's all just like
Speaker 1: horse idioms and horse puns, like don't put the cart
Speaker 1: before the horse, or don't lock the barn door after
Speaker 1: the horse has been stolen or never change horses in
Speaker 1: the middle.
Speaker 2: Of a stream. You can lead a horse to water,
Speaker 2: but you can't make him drink. So yeah, I'm not gonna.
Speaker 1: Give it a half star out of five, but I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna give it a three either. I think it's
Speaker 1: hovering somewhere in the two range for me.
Speaker 2: And guys.
Speaker 1: Old Doctor Sus himself admitted later on that the book
Speaker 1: was a huge misstep. He was like, I tried to
Speaker 1: draw the sexiest babes I could, but they came out
Speaker 1: looking absurd. I think maybe it all went to prove
Speaker 1: that I don't know anything about adults beyond the fact
Speaker 1: that they're obsolete to children.
Speaker 2: After The Seven Lady.
Speaker 1: Godivas came out and sold some soh terribly, Geisel was like, nevermind,
Speaker 1: fuck adults. I'm going back to writing children's books because
Speaker 1: they are the ones who appreciate me. And obviously that
Speaker 1: was a good choice. He went on to produce some
Speaker 1: of the most beloved works in American children's literary history,
Speaker 1: and for the most part, they all rhymed.
Speaker 2: Thank God.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing about the Seven Lady Godivas. Throughout
Speaker 1: the decades, as Doctor Seuss got more and more famous
Speaker 1: for his books. The Seven Lady Godivas had a cult
Speaker 1: like following, like it's a weird novelty, especially since most
Speaker 1: of us were introduced to Doctor SEUs as a kid.
Speaker 1: It's just funny that he has this book about naked ladies.
Speaker 1: But it got so popular in later decades that Doctor
Speaker 1: Seuss even thought about writing a musical based on The
Speaker 1: Seven Lady Godivas. He never did, but he had the
Speaker 1: idea in the nineteen eighties. At that point, copies of
Speaker 1: the book were selling for five hundred dollars a pop,
Speaker 1: and the book became so popular. I mean, I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say it was like that popular, but it was
Speaker 1: popular enough that Random House printed some more copies in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty seven. On the cover, it says it's reissued
Speaker 1: by multitudinous demand, And yeah, multitudiness.
Speaker 2: That's a bit of a reach.
Speaker 1: But it is out there and you can find it
Speaker 1: at your local library, even though in my experience it
Speaker 1: is very embarrassing to check out. I was at the
Speaker 1: library trying to be like really coy and subtle about it,
Speaker 1: trying to make sure that nobody saw that I was
Speaker 1: just getting these big lady asses. But you know what
Speaker 1: life's an imare, and I did it for you, guys,
Speaker 1: so you're fricking welcome. Every week on American Filth, we
Speaker 1: learn a lesson. I think the lesson we learned this
Speaker 1: week is that, hey, when you're an artist, when you're
Speaker 1: doing creative stuff, you're gonna fail, and you're gonna fail hard,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be embarrassing. But maybe after all those failures,
Speaker 1: maybe you'll eventually become a successful children's book writer. And
Speaker 1: I'm just saying this is reassurance to myself as I
Speaker 1: fail and fail again while I eat a dive of chocolate.
Speaker 2: And also, guys, I was lying, I don't really eat
Speaker 2: a diva that often.
Speaker 1: I'll just like eat a bunch of like chocolate chips
Speaker 1: from the store, like Kroger brand. But yes, life is
Speaker 1: a nightmare, so take that into twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Cue the credits.
Speaker 1: American Filth is a production of School of Humans and
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcast. This episode was produced, written, hosted by me
Speaker 1: Gabby Watts. Our theme song is by Jesse Niswanger. Our
Speaker 1: executive producers are Virginia Prescott, Else Crowley and Brandon Barr
Speaker 1: and you guys can follow along with the pod on
Speaker 1: Instagram at American filth Pod. I'm gonna post some pictures
Speaker 1: of the the ladies butts. Hopefully I don't get censored
Speaker 1: on Instagram. Mark Zuck is gonna come for me, and
Speaker 1: of course send the pod to your friends, to your
Speaker 1: enemies like subscribe, get the algorithm going. And even though
Speaker 1: I was saying life is a nightmare, I do hope
Speaker 1: you guys have a Grete twenty twenty five. I'll talk
Speaker 1: to you guys next time.
Speaker 2: Bye. School of Humans.