The Political Dr. Seuss Airs Nationally on PBS October 26th

Ron Lamothe’s '00G Film, The Political Dr. Seuss Airs Nationally on PBS October 26th

This fascinating documentary, by UMass Amherst Alumnus Ron Lamothe '00G illuminates the life and work of the best-selling and most influential children's writer of our time, the enigmatic Theodor Geisel, a.k.a. Dr. Seuss. The film will air on "Independent Lens," ITVS's Acclaimed Series on PBS, Tuesday, October 26, 2004 at 10 PM.

Ron Lamothe's revealing portrait traces the evolution of Geisel's art and political philosophy and shows how Seuss deftly combined his delightful, otherworldly creations with moral parables, teaching children not only to be better readers but better people as well.

The Political Dr. Seuss traces Geisel's life from his boyhood in Springfield, Massachusetts, through his final days living atop Mt. Soledad in La Jolla, California. In-depth interviews with his widow Audrey, his biographers Judith and Neil Morgan (Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel) and Richard H. Minear (Dr. Seuss Goes to War), his long-time Random House publisher Robert Bernstein and editor Michael Frith, and historian Michael Kazin-not to mention Geisel's own words through voice-over-bring the man to life.

The Political Dr. Seuss includes a great deal of previously unseen material such as illustration drafts, family photographs and rare television appearances. The film explores Geisel's little-known World War II era cartoons for PM and his educational and propaganda film work with Frank Capra's Signal Corps including the Private Snafu films he made with Chuck Jones, and Design for Death, his Academy Award-winning documentary on Japan, which is seen here for the first time since its original theatrical release in 1947.

Also explored are Seuss's postwar allegorical children's books (Horton Hears a Who!, Yertle the Turtle and The Sneetches) as well as his more overtly political works of the 1970s and 80s, The Lorax and The Butter Battle Book. One of Seuss's greatest achievements was his work in children's literacy in the 1950s and 60s, when the delightfully subversive The Cat in the Hat replaced boring old Dick and Jane and inspired an entire generation of enthusiastic young readers. What emerges is not only an intriguing portrait of a largely unknown side of Geisel, but also a fascinating lens through which to view the complex political and social history of the 20th Century.

Ron Lamothe (producer/writer/director/editor/narrator) was born in 1968 and grew up in the small New England town of Lunenburg, Massachusetts. He received his B.A. in 1990 from Tufts University, where he studied Clinical Psychology and Political Science. Lamothe traveled across Africa from Morocco to Tanzania in 1990-1991. Upon his return, he moved to Washington, D.C., where he taught History and English for three years at DeMatha Catholic High School. After a sojourn in Prague in 1995, he relocated to Leverett, Massachusetts, and enrolled as a graduate student in History at the UMass Amherst. In addition to receiving a Master's degree in 2000, Lamothe spent four years in the UMass Amherst Academic Instructional Media Services department as a producer, videographer and editor. In 1999, he also worked as a researcher and associate producer for Florentine Films/Hott Productions. Most recently, Lamothe and Terra Incognita Films have moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he now lives with his wife Karen and two daughters, Madeleine and Parker. He is currently a Dean's Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in African History at Boston University.

The Western Mass premiere of The Political Dr. Seuss will take place at UMass Amherst on Friday, October 15 at 8:00 PM in the Isenberg School of Management, room 137.

Posted for informational and discussion purposes only. Not for commercial use.

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I know its on PBS and it could be very politically correct,but seeing some of the WWII work Seuss was involved with, especially the "Design For Death" film could be interesting.

From Imdb:

Plot Summary for Design for Death (1947)

An Academy Award winner for best documentary, the film opens with a notice that..."Exhibition of confiscated Japanese film material authorized by permission of the Alien Property Custodian in the public interest under License No. LM 979"...and was assembled from hundreds of captured newsreels, historical dramas and propaganda films. While revealing the steps that Japan took that led to Pearl Harbor, it goes back 700 years to the feudal caste system, a peasant revolt suppressed after the Samurai murdered over 40,000 people, to Admiral Perry forcibly opening Japan to foreign trade, to the perversion of converting the Shinto religion of nature-worship to that of a fanatic state creed that preached the Japanese were a Master Race and the Emperor was a sun-god to be blindly obeyed. The film carried no credit for a director, while Richard Fleischer shared the Producer credit with Theron Warth.

Greetings BansheeBill...Dr Suess aka Theodore Geisel WWII contributions was covered in the Septmeber 26th, 2004 edition of the Freeper Foxhole. Link below

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1227321/posts

Regards

alfa6 ;>}

After seeing a collection of his political "cartoons," I have been unable to stomach anything that "Doctor Seuss" penned.

(And I dearly loved the "Birthday Book" as well as the "Sleep Book.")

We read lots of Dr. Suess to our 3 year old, with the ABC Book, and Mr. Brown Can Moo (Can You?), being two particular favorites. I've banned the Butter Battle Book, though, since as far as I'm concerned, it preaches that it isn't right to defend your country.

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