Who Was Dr. Seuss?

Back at his parents’ house, Ted spent his time drawing cartoons and writing funny articles. He sent them to everyone he could think of—magazines in New York, college friends, advertising agencies. But no one except Helen seemed to be interested in flying cows and dancing dogs.

Then a famous magazine, the Saturday Evening Post, accepted a cartoon. Ted had drawn two elegant tourists with parasols. They were sitting on tame camels and imagining that they were brave explorers. He signed it, simply, “Seuss.”

The Post paid him twenty-five dollars. Even in 1927, that wasn’t a lot of money. But it would pay for a month’s rent. Ted decided it was enough to show he could earn a living as an illustrator. He moved to New York City. But until he had a steady income, he still couldn’t marry Helen. Instead Ted shared an apartment with a friend from Dartmouth. It was cheap and dirty. Every night before they went to bed, they had to take canes and whack away the rats.

Ted’s roommate knew someone who worked for a humor magazine called Judge. He introduced Ted, and the magazine offered him a job. He would be a writer and artist and earn a salary.

Now he and Helen could marry. They had to change the date of their wedding once because Ted’s sister, Marnie, was about to give birth. Ted wanted his whole family to be able to come to his wedding. Ted’s niece, Peggy, was born on November 1, 1927. On November 29, Ted and Helen were married in her parents’ parlor.

Ted became very popular at Judge. He started writing a column called “Boids and Beasties,” where he could introduce all his strange, playful creatures. He signed the column, “Dr. Seuss.” He added the “Dr.” because he had disappointed his father by dropping out of Oxford.

Unfortunately, Judge magazine was having money troubles. They didn’t always have enough cash to pay their staff. Companies paid for ads in Judge with samples of their products instead of money. These samples got passed on to the staff as their salaries. Often Ted was paid in cases of shaving cream or soda. Once he received 1,872 nail clippers. That wasn’t much help in paying the costs of everyday life.

Then, in 1928, he had a stroke of luck. It started with Flit, a popular bug killer. Before air-conditioning, people had to leave their windows open in the summer to let in cool breezes. Houses became full of bugs. Ted started thinking about how awful summer must have been for the knights of old. It was bad enough having bugs inside—what if dragons could fly in and bite you?

He drew a cartoon showing a knight in armor who can’t get to sleep because there is a dragon in his room. The caption says: “Darn it all, another dragon. And just after I’d sprayed the whole castle with Flit.”

The wife of an advertising executive for Flit was at a beauty salon where she happened to see the cartoon in a magazine. She loved it so much, she made her husband hire Ted to do all the Flit ads.

Ted drew people in funny situations being attacked by huge bugs. This became one of the most successful advertising campaigns in history.

Today, few people remember the tagline Ted invented: “Quick, Henry, the Flit!” But from the late twenties to the fifties, everyone knew it. Comedians quoted it, and it appeared in popular songs. Sales of Flit shot way up. And Dr. Seuss’s drawings became famous.

Flit hired Ted at a salary of twelve thousand dollars a year—a lot of money at the time. The next year, the stock market crashed, and America plunged into the Great Depression. All over the country, people were out of work, poor, and starving. But thanks to Flit, Ted had plenty of money.

With his new wealth, he and Helen began throwing parties. They had a very active social life, and Ted became famous in their circle of friends for his practical jokes. Once he sneaked into the kitchen and put a huge plastic pearl in one of the oysters that was going to be served at dinner. Another time, he filled a friend’s bathtub with Jell-O and goldfish.

In 1931, Ted’s mother died at the age of fifty-two. Her early death was a shock to Ted. But at least she had lived long enough to see his first big success.

Flit made Ted financially secure for life, but there was one problem: He didn’t want to spend all his time drawing Flit ads. But his contract wouldn’t let him do most other kinds of work. Years later he wrote, “I would like to say I went into children’s book work because of my great understanding of children.” But it wasn’t really true. Actually, illustrating children’s books was one of the few things his contract let him do.

NEW YORK APARTMENTS

THE GEISELS’ FIRST APARTMENT IN MANHATTAN WAS RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET FROM A HORSE STABLE. SOON THEY MOVED TO A BETTER APARTMENT. THEIR NEW PHONE NUMBER WAS ONLY ONE DIGIT DIFFERENT FROM A NEARBY FISH STORE. THEY OFTEN GOT TELEPHONE CALLS FROM PEOPLE WHO WANTED TO BUY FISH. INSTEAD OF TELLING THEM THEY HAD THE WRONG NUMBER, TED WOULD DRAW A PICTURE OF THE FISH THEY HAD ORDERED AND DELIVER IT. NOT EVERYONE WAS AMUSED AT THE TIME, BUT JUST THINK WHAT THOSE DRAWINGS WOULD BE WORTH TODAY!