One fat cat

By Michelle Morgante
Associated Press

Dr. Seuss, who was born 100 years ago today, took readers on a whimsical journey. Associated Press, Gannett News Service, PR Newswire Photo Service Celebrating 100 years of Dr. Seuss What's today Theodor "Dr. Seuss" Geisel was born 100 years ago today. The National Education Association's annual Read Across America day today will feature Dr. Seuss in many schools. A Theodor "Seuss" Geisel stamp goes on sale nationwide. What's coming An animated film based on the elephant character Horton, from "Horton Hears a Who!" Favorite Seuss books "And to Think That I saw It on Mulberry Street," 1937 "Horton Hears a Who!" 1954 "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and "The Cat in the Hat," 1957 "Green Eggs and Ham," 1960

Just afterward, he bumped into a friend who worked for Vanguard Press.

"Ted told him that he'd been refused all of these times, and he was going home to burn it," said his 82-year-old widow, Audrey Stone Geisel. The encounter changed that plan, and led to publication.

"Mulberry Street" created a stir among teachers and parents, who feared it would encourage children to lie. "It was so off the wall," Audrey Geisel said. "They even thought, 'Oh, it might teach a child to fib,' instead of imagine, you see? There's the difference."

Remember the book? It reads:

Now, what can I say

When I get home today?

All the long way to school

And all the way back,

I've looked and I've looked

And I've kept careful track.

But all that I've noticed,

Except my own feet,

Was a horse and a wagon

On Mulberry Street.

That's nothing to tell of,

That won't do, of course ...

Just a broken-down wagon

That's drawn by a horse.

That can't be my story. That's only a start. I'll say that a ZEBRA was pulling that cart!

Children responded to the book, and it became a hit. Over the years, Dr. Seuss became one of the most popular children's authors ever.

Dr. Seuss' books appeal to children — and adults — with their clever rhymes and plot twists.

" 'The Cat in the Hat,' for example — kids really, really like that because they're expecting the boy and the girl to get in trouble when the mother gets home, but suddenly it's the cat to the rescue," said Barbara Parker of the National Education Association.

Philip Nel, a Kansas State University English professor and author of the new book "Dr. Seuss: American Icon," says Seuss' heroes are rebels and underdogs.

"They go against the grain. They don't do what they're expected to do," he said. As in "The Cat in the Hat," Nel said: "Why not fly a kite in the house?"

Part of Seuss' charm is his ability to make the ordinary into the extraordinary. He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his contribution to children's literature in 1984.

" 'Ham and eggs' is just ordinary, but if you turn it around so that it's 'eggs and ham,' that's interesting. And then if you make it green, there's real genius," Nel said.

"He gives us a world that is both familiar and strange. ... He gives us an ordinary house in which an extraordinary cat enters. There's something brilliant in the way he does that."

Audrey Geisel is presiding over a year's worth of ceremonies celebrating "Seussentenial: A Century of Imagination." Events include the debut of a Postal Service stamp; a tour of theatrical performances and children's workshops across 40 cities; the unveiling of a Dr. Seuss sculpture at the Geisel Library at the University of California, San Diego; and the presentation of a star honoring the author on Hollywood's Walk of Fame.

Nearly 13 years after her husband's passing, Geisel leads the global enterprise that has sprouted from Seuss' beloved books — watching over the Cat in the Hat, the Grinch and all the other critters and characters who live on in movies, toys, games and ventures that perhaps not even the imaginative doctor could have envisioned.

As she gazes toward the Pacific from her hilltop home in La Jolla, Calif., she says she understood the weight of the job immediately upon inheriting it, but was surprised by how it steadily grew heavier.

"And then suddenly, I had so much to do each day," she says, describing business responsibilities as well as her philanthropic work as head of the Dr. Seuss Foundation.

As president and CEO of Dr. Seuss Enterprises, Geisel is tough on those encroaching on Seuss trademarks and copyrights. And when she wanted to have the local Old Globe Theater produce "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" years ago, she went to New York to free the miserly character from a production that later evolved into the musical "Seussical."

Geisel had high hopes for the 2000-01 Broadway production of "Seussical," but poor reviews doomed the musical in New York. It later won a second life on tour.

There have been greater successes, namely the 2000 film version of "Grinch" starring Jim Carrey. Earning $260 million domestically, it was the year's highest-grossing movie.

But Geisel remains soured by her most recent Hollywood experience where, she says, Universal Pictures forced Mike Myers into the lead role of "The Cat in the Hat."

"Oh! Now, you're talking!" she says with a grunt. "I never saw 'Austin Powers,' but I knew 'Yeah, baby!' and I didn't want 'Yeah, baby!' at all," she says, imitating the Myers' character.

Geisel says she will never again allow Hollywood to portray Seuss characters in live action. An animated work based on the elephant character Horton will be the next film project.

"But I'm not ready to do anything for a little bit," she says. "I think you have to take a rest. You have to step back and not flood the market."

"The Cat in the Hat" was a particular disappointment because the character, after all, is the business' "spokescat," she says. His signature stovepipe hat decorates her business cards as well as the glass front doors of her home.

"The layers of skin ... have to get tougher," she says. "And you've got to be able to say, 'I've got my cat back out of the litter box. It's no big deal.' And we march on."

The Geisels had no children, and Ted Geisel himself was not particularly fond of spending time with them. "He was afraid of children to a degree," Audrey Geisel says.

Oddly for the creator of things illogical and unusual, the unpredictability of children unnerved him.

" 'What might they do next? What might they ask next?' " she says her husband would muse.

"No, he couldn't just sit down on the floor and play with children. It was none of that. He just had to do what he had to do, and they loved him. And he loved them for loving what he did."

Children continue to love Seuss, even in an age when babies seem to "come down the birth canal with a computer," Geisel says.

In a world buzzing with action, she says, it is all the more important to share with them the original seed of the Seuss enterprise — the nonsensical yet completely sensible Seuss words.

"Just to have their favorite Seuss story read to them by a parent — that is the most calming, uniting, understanding thing that one generation can share with an oncoming generation."

On the Web:

• www.seussville.com