Dr. Abuse

Most of us know Dr. Seuss as the beloved author of such classics as Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat, but what about his work featuring racist depictions of Japanese soldiers and a wide-eyed doll whose breasts and butt conceal bombs? Horton hears a . ...

By Laura Hahnefeld

November 11, 2010

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Most of us know Dr. Seuss as the beloved author of such classics as Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat in the Hat, but what about his work featuring racist depictions of Japanese soldiers and a wide-eyed doll whose breasts and butt conceal bombs?

Horton hears a . . . huh?

“We know him as a children’s author mainly because his children’s books are so huge,” film archivist and historian Dennis Nyback said in a recent interview. “The Cat in the Hat was his breakthrough book, but he was 50 years old when he did that. He had had this whole life before that.”

Nyback will present “The Dark Side of Dr. Seuss,” a distinctly different side of Theodore Geisel (more famously known by his pen name), with a 16mm viewing of little-known propaganda and military training cartoons that Seuss worked on during World War II.

Thu., Nov. 11, 7 & 9 p.m., 2010

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