Dr. Seuss – Birthday Facts

“The more that you read,
the more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
the more places you’ll go.”

 

1)      If Dr. Seuss were alive he’d be 107 years old today.

2)      Dr. Seuss’ first book “And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street” was rejected 27 times before it found a publisher.

3)      Dr. Seuss never had children and according to his wife Audrey he was slightly afraid of them and “couldn’t just sit down on the floor and play with them”.

4)      Seuss was Mrs. Geisel’s (his mother) maiden name.

5)      During his service in the US Army Signal Corps Geisel worked with a wonderful group who would later become animation pioneers such as legendary Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones and renowned voice actor  Mel Blanc.

6)      Dr. Seuss dropped out of Oxford and never received his doctorate.

7)      Dr. Seuss wrote “The Cat in the Hat” because he thought children stories were too boring.

8)      “Green Eggs and Ham” was written as a bet between Geisel and his publisher to come up with a story which uses exactly 50 words (a, am, and, anywhere, are, be, boat, box, car, could, dark, do, eat, eggs, fox, goat, good, green, ham, here, house, I, if, in, let, like, may, me, mouse, not, on, or, rain, Sam, say, see, so, thank, that, the, them, there, they, train, tree, try, will, with, would, you).

9)      “Yertle the Turtle” is a political commentary about…Hitler.

10)   The Grinch’s voice in the cartoon is provided by no other then noted actor Boris Karloff.  Dr. Seuss didn’t like the casting because he thought Karloff, who made his fame playing Frankestien’s monster in the classic 1931 horror classic, would scare children. The voice behind “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch” was supplied by Thurl Ravenscroft who got no on-screen credit and is better known as the man behind Tony the Tiger.

Sources:

• 10 facts about Dr. Seuss (http://kindergartengs.wordpress.com/2008/03/05/10-facts-about-dr-seuss/)
• Dr. Seuss Trivia (http://weeklyworldnews.com/headlines/6611/dr-seuss-trivia/)
• Dr. Seuss’ Birthday Quick Facts (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7812728/dr_seuss_birthday_quick_facts.html?cat=38)
• Top 10 Dr. Seuss facts you may not know (http://www.abebooks.com/blog/index.php/2009/01/27/top-10-dr-seuss-facts-you-may-not-know/)
• All About Dr. Seuss (http://www.catinthehat.org/history.htm)