Dr. Seuss



Fun Seuss Facts

 

• The Grinch’s theme song is sung by Thurl Ravenscroft, also known as the “grrreat!” voice of Kellogg’s Frosted Flakes’ Tony the Tiger? Ravenscroft also lended his voice to Thing 1 in the animated The Cat in the Hat.
• Horror movie icon Boris Karloff narrated the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas? Karloff is best known as Frankenstein’s monster in the 1931 movie Frankenstein.
• Publisher Bennett Cerf wagered $50 that Ted couldn’t write a book using 50 words or less? In response, Ted wrote Green Eggs and Ham, one of his most popular books. Ted often joked that Cerf never paid up.
• When Ted was offered two advertising jobs by two competing firms, he flipped a coin to make his decision? (and worked for Standard Oil as a result.)
• Ted and wife Helen made up a “code” that was a phony law firm named Grimalkin, Drouberhannus, Knalbner and Fepp, and used it for secret messages?
• The Butter Battle Book remained, for six months, on the New York Times Bestseller List . . . for adults?
• The books If I Ran the Zoo and If I Ran the Circus probably stem, to some extent, from his father’s brief stint as a zookeeper?
• Chrysanthemum-Pearl was the name of a fictitious child of Ted and Helen’s, as was Norval, Wally, Wickersham, Thnud, and others?
• In Ted’s WWII days, the movies he made were only shown to men?
• Ted also created ads for NBC Radio, Schaefer Beer, and Ford Motor Company, to name a few?
• Ted wrote and illustrated a picture book for adults titled The Seven Lady Godivas, and that it almost became a Broadway musical?
• The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T was a live-action, feature-length film and Ted considered it a disaster? It took years to convince him to reconsider film of any sort, and only then it would be animation.
• At the 1985 Princeton University Commencement Exercises, where Ted was to accept an honorary degree, the graduates stood and recited the entire text of Green Eggs and Ham?
• Ted once drew cartoons on the vest of a distinguished naval officer, whom he caught sleeping?
• When Ted quit smoking, he planted radish seeds in a corncob pipe and watered them with an eyedropper?
• Children made fun of Ted’s German heritage when he was a young boy, calling him names like “Kaiser” (KI-zer)? And during his childhood (World War I years), frankenfurters were called “hotdogs” and sauerkraut “liberty cabbage” as an act of U.S. patriotism?
• That even Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis received the “Uber Gletch” response when she asked Ted where he got his ideas?
• Ted wrote the text for The Lorax in 45 minutes?
• Ted used to create mail-order art?
• A 1968 television interview with Dick Cavett went so poorly that Ted rarely agreed to TV appearances after that?
• Ted never had children of his own, but had close relationships with stepdaughters Lark and Lea, niece Peggy, and great-nephew/namesake Ted?
• One of NASA’s deep space explorers, the Data Relay Solar Electric Utility Spacecraft (DRSEUS) is called the “Dr. Seuss”?
• One of Ted’s many pseudonyms, Theo LeSieg, is actually ‘Geisel’ spelled backwards?
• Ted was asked why he added the title “Dr.” to his pseudonym? He replied that his father had always wanted a doctor in the family.
• That Ted preferred the Germanic pronunciation of Seuss, which sounds like “zoice”?

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