Ollie: “I saw a man I recognized… and never thought I’d see in Hollywood. It was the cartoonist who publishes under the name Dr. Seuss. And he was in uniform with captain bars!“
Ollie: “… I made sure I read every cartoon you did for PM. I admired the way you took a stand against Lindbergh and the isolationists….”
Theodor Seuss Geisel was born and raised in Springfield, Massachusetts, the son of Henrietta (née Seuss) and Theodor Robert Geisel… Geisel attended Dartmouth College, graduating in 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern, eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief.While at Dartmouth, he was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. At the time, the possession and consumption of alcohol was illegal under Prohibition laws, which remained in place between 1920 and 1933. As a result of this infraction, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that Geisel resign from all extracurricular activities, including the Jack-O-Lantern. To continue working on the magazine without the administration’s knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name ‘Seuss.’ Wikipedia
As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper, PM. Geisel’s political cartoons, later published in Dr. Seuss Goes to War, denounced Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini and were highly critical of non-interventionists (“isolationists”), such as Charles Lindbergh, who opposed US entry into the war. Wikipedia
The UC San Diego Library houses and controls Geisel’s political cartoons. This website – “Dr. Seuss Went To War” – provides an excellent, searchable catalog.
Drafted by Lt. Colonel Frank Capra, Ted Geisel joined the U.S. Army. Commissioned as a captain, he moved form New York City to Los Angeles (in January, 1943), joining Capra’s Signal Corps unit at “Fort Fox,” the film studio located at 1421 North Western Avenue, which Fox mogul Darryl F. Zanuck had leased to the government for one dollar a year.
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