name	William P. Rogers
order	55th
title	United States Secretary of State
term start	January 22, 1969
term end	September 3, 1973
president	Richard Nixon
predecessor	Dean Rusk
successor	Henry Kissinger
birth date	June 23, 1913
birth place	Norfolk, New York
death date	January 02, 2001
death place	Bethesda, Maryland
party	Republican
spouse	Adele Rogers
alma mater	Colgate UniversityCornell University Law School
profession	Attorney
religion	Presbyterian
order2	63rd
title2	United States Attorney General
term start2	October 23, 1957
term end2	January 20, 1961
president2	Dwight D. Eisenhower
predecessor2	Herbert Brownell, Jr.
successor2	Robert F. Kennedy
order3	2nd
title3	United States Deputy Attorney General
term start3	1953
term end3	1957
president3	Dwight D. Eisenhower
predecessor3	A. Devitt Vanech
successor3	Lawrence Edward Walsh
signature	William P. Rogers Signature.svg
Branch	United States Navy
Rank	Lieutenant Commander
Battles	World War II
Unit	USS Intrepid }}

William Pierce Rogers (June 23, 1913 – January 2, 2001) was an American politician, who served as a Cabinet officer in the administrations of two U.S. Presidents in the third quarter of the 20th century.

Early life and education

Rogers was born June 23, 1913, in Norfolk, New York. After the death of his mother, the former Myra Beswick, he was reared during his teen years by his grandparents, in Canton, New York.

He attended Colgate University, where he was initiated into the Sigma Chi fraternity. He then went to Cornell University Law School. He received his law degree and passed the New York Bar in 1937.

Early legal career and military service

After serving about a year as an attorney for a Wall Street law office, he became an assistant district attorney in 1938 and was appointed by then District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey to a sixty-man task force aimed at routing out New York City's organized crime.

He entered the United States Navy in 1942, serving on the USS ''Intrepid'', including her action in the Battle of Okinawa. His final rank in the Navy was lieutenant commander.

In 1950, Rogers became a partner in a New York City law firm, Dwight, Royall, Harris, Koegel & Caskey. Thereafter, he returned to this firm when he was not in government service.

While serving as a Committee Counsel to a US Senate committee, he examined the documentation from the House Un-American Activities Committee's investigation of Alger Hiss at the request of Congressman Richard M. Nixon, and advised Nixon that Hiss had lied and that the case against him should be pursued.

Rogers also advised Nixon in the slush fund scandal that led to Nixon's Checkers speech in 1952.

U.S. Deputy Attorney General

Rogers joined the Administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower as Deputy Attorney General in 1953.

As Deputy Attorney General, Rogers had some role in or insight into the process that led to the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg for espionage.

As deputy attorney general, Rogers was involved in the Little Rock Integration Crisis in the fall of 1957 of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In that capacity, he worked with Osro Cobb, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas, to implement federal orders and to maintain peace in the capital city. In his memoirs, Cobb recalls that Rogers called him to discuss the possibility of violence. Cobb writes, "Our conversation was somewhat guarded. I had never recommended the use of federal tgroops, and Rogers asked if I thought they were necessary. I told him I hoped not. Then to my surprise he stated, 'They are on their way already.'"

U.S. Attorney General

Rogers served as Attorney General from 1957 to 1961. He remained a close advisor to Vice President Nixon throughout the Eisenhower administration, especially during Eisenhower's two medical crises. Rogers became attorney general upon the resignation of his superior, Herbert Brownell, who had worked to implement the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School. In 1958, Little Rock closed its public schools for a year to oppose further desegregation required by the U.S. government. At the time Rogers said that "It seems inconceivable that a state or community would rather close its public schools than comply with decisions of the Supreme Court.

In 1959, Martin Luther King, Jr., hailed Rogers for advocating the integration of an elementary school in Alabama that had excluded the children of black military personnel.

Return to legal career

Now renamed to Rogers & Wells, Rogers returned to his law practice, which made him very successful financially. He played an important role in the 1964 ''New York Times Co. v. Sullivan'' Supreme Court case.

U.S. Secretary of State

Rogers served as United States Secretary of State in the Nixon administration from January 22, 1969, through September 3, 1973, when he among other things initiated efforts at a lasting peace in the Arab-Israeli conflict through the so-called Rogers Plan. However, his influence was drastically circumscribed throughout his tenure by Nixon's determination to handle critical foreign policy strategy and execution directly from the White House through his national security adviser, Henry Kissinger.

On October 15, 1973, Rogers received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Richard Nixon. At the same ceremony, his wife Adele Rogers was presented with the Presidential Citizens Medal.

Subsequent years

Rogers led the investigation into the explosion of the space shuttle ''Challenger''. This panel, called the Rogers Commission, was the first to criticize NASA management for its role in negligence of safety in the Space Shuttle program. Among the more famous members of Rogers' panel were astronauts Neil Armstrong and Sally Ride, Air Force general Donald Kutyna, and physicist Richard Feynman.

Rogers worked at his law firm, now renamed Clifford Chance Rogers & Wells after a 1999 merger, in its Washington office until several months before his death.

Rogers died of congestive heart failure on January 2, 2001, at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. At the time of his death, he was the last surviving member of the Eisenhower Administration.

In 2001, the Rogers family generously donated to Cornell Law Library materials that reflect the lives of William and Adele Rogers, the majority of items from the years 1969-1973.

Sources

The Presidency Project

Notes

External links

Papers of William P. Rogers, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

Finding aid for the William P. Rogers Oral History, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library

{{U.S. Secretary box | before = A. Devitt Vanech | after = Lawrence E. Walsh | years = 1953–1957 | president = Dwight D. Eisenhower | department = Deputy Attorney General}} {{U.S. Secretary box | before = Herbert Brownell, Jr. | after = Robert F. Kennedy | years = 1957–1961 | president = Dwight D. Eisenhower | department = Attorney General}} {{U.S. Secretary box | before= Dean Rusk | after= Henry Kissinger | years= 1969–1973 | president= Richard Nixon | department= Secretary of State}}

Category:1913 births Category:2001 deaths Category:People from St. Lawrence County, New York Category:American Presbyterians Category:New York Republicans Category:United States Secretaries of State Category:United States Attorneys General Category:United States Deputy Attorneys General Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Colgate University alumni Category:Cornell Law School alumni Category:American prosecutors Category:Nixon administration personnel Category:Eisenhower Administration personnel Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery

ar:وليام روجرز cs:William P. Rogers da:William P. Rogers de:William P. Rogers fr:William P. Rogers it:William Pierce Rogers he:ויליאם פירס רוג'רס nl:William P. Rogers no:William P. Rogers pl:William P. Rogers pt:William P. Rogers ru:Роджерс, Уильям Пирс fi:William P. Rogers sv:William P. Rogers zh:威廉·P·罗杰斯

Birth name	Laurence Tureaud
Birth date	May 21, 1952
Birth place	Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, motivational speaker, wrestler, bodyguard, television personality
Years active	1980–present
Website	}}

Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud; May 21, 1952) is an American actor known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series ''The A-Team'', as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film ''Rocky III'', and for his appearances as a professional wrestler. Mr. T is known for his trademark African Mandinka warrior hairstyle, his gold jewelry, and his tough-guy image. In 2006 he starred in the reality show ''I Pity the Fool'', shown on TV Land, the title of which comes from the catchphrase of his Lang character.

Early life

Mr. T was born in Chicago, Illinois, the youngest son in a family with twelve children. His father, Nathaniel Tureaud Sr., was a minister. Tureaud, with his four sisters and seven brothers, grew up in a three-room apartment in one of the city's housing projects, the Robert Taylor Homes, in a poorly constructed building, in an area with high levels of environmental pollutants and the largest concentration of poverty in America. While growing up Tureaud regularly witnessed murder, rape, and other crimes, but attributes his survival and later success to his will to do well and his mother's love.

Tureaud attended Dunbar Vocational High School, where he played football, wrestled, and studied martial arts. While at Dunbar he became the city-wide wrestling champion two years in a row. He won a football scholarship to Prairie View A&M; University, where he majored in mathematics, but was expelled after his first year. He then enlisted in the United States Army and served in the Military Police Corps. In November 1975 Tureaud was awarded a letter of recommendation by his drill sergeant and in a cycle of six thousand troops Tureaud was elected "Top Trainee of the Cycle" and was also promoted to Squad Leader. In July 1976 Tureaud's platoon sergeant punished him by giving him the detail of chopping down trees during training camp at Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, but the sergeant did not tell how many trees to stop at, and so Tureaud had single-handedly chopped down over seventy trees from 6:30am to 10:00am until a higher ranking major in shock relieved him, superseding the sergeant's orders. After his discharge, he tried out for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League, but failed to make the team due to a knee injury.

Tureaud next worked as a bouncer. It was at this time that he created the persona of Mr. T. His wearing of gold neck chains and other jewelry was the result of customers losing the items or leaving them behind at the night club after a fight. A customer, who may have been banned from the club or trying to avoid another confrontation, would not have to re-enter the club if Mr. T wore their jewelry as he stood out front. When a customer returned to claim the item, it was readily visible and available with no further confrontations required. Along with controlling the violence as a doorman, Tureaud was mainly hired to keep out drug dealers and users. During his bouncing days Tureaud was in over 200 fights and was sued a number of times but won each case. "I have been in and out of the courts as a result of my beating up somebody. I have been sued by customers whom I threw out that claimed that I viciously attacked them without just cause and/or I caused them great bodily harm as a result of a beating I supposedly gave them," Mr. T once remarked.

He eventually parlayed his job as a bouncer into a career as a bodyguard that lasted almost ten years. During these years he protected, among others, sixteen prostitutes, nine welfare recipients, five preachers, eight bankers, ten school teachers, and four store owners. As his reputation improved, however, he was contracted to guard, among others, David Fricker, seven clothes designers, five models, seven judges, three politicians, six athletes and forty-two millionaires. He protected well-known personalities like Muhammad Ali, Steve McQueen, Michael Jackson, Leon Spinks, Joe Frazier and Diana Ross, charging $3,000/day, with the highest charge of $10,000 per day depending on the clientele's risk-rate and traveling locations.

With his reputation as "Mr. T", Tureaud attracted strange offers and was frequently approached with odd commissions, which included: assassination, tracking runaway teenagers, locating missing persons, and large firms asking him to collect past-due payments by force. Tureaud was once anonymously offered $75,000 to assassinate a target and received in the mail a file of the hit and an advance of $5,000, but he refused it. "He offered me $75,000 to kill his friend. The last envelope and letter contained a round-trip airline ticket, first class, United. Plus there was $5,000 wrapped in a little package, fifty and hundred dollar bills. I tell you the honest truth, when I saw that money I didn't believe it was real." -Mr. T. Tureaud states that he tried to warn the victim but it was too late and the man died in a car accident. In accepting a client for Tureaud there were two rules: 1) A client cannot lie to him. 2) All potential clients are required to shop around the field of security before coming to him. He also made it clear to the client beforehand that he could not promise them their lives, "I did everything except guarantee people's lives, but I guarantee you that I will give my life protecting yours". He carried a .357 magnum and a .38 caliber snubnose revolver. He weighed an average of 255 pounds.

While he was in his late twenties, Tureaud won two tough-man competitions consecutively. The first aired as "Sunday Games" on NBC-TV under the contest of "America's Toughest Bouncer" which included throwing a 150 lb stuntman, and breaking through a four-inch wooden door. For the first event, Tureaud came in third place. For the end, two finalists squared off in a boxing ring for a two-minute round to declare the champion. Making it to the ring as a finalist, his opponent was a 280 pound Honolulu bouncer, Tutefano Tufi. Within twenty seconds "Mr. T" gave the six foot five competitor a bloody nose, and later a bloody mouth. He won the match and thus the competition. The second competition was aired under the new name "Games People Play" on NBC-TV. When interviewed by Bryant Gumbel before the final boxing match, Mr T. said, "I just feel sorry for the guy who I have to box. I just feel real sorry for him." For this second competition the final event of the fight was scheduled to last three rounds, but Mr. T finished the fight in less than 54 seconds. When Sylvester Stallone spotted Mr. T in this second airing, it is strongly believed that the interview with sports journalist Bryant Gumbel originated his famous line "I don't hate him but...I pity the fool", which was worked into the movie Rocky.

Acting roles and work

While reading ''National Geographic'', Mr. T first noticed the unusual hairstyle for which he is now famous, on a Mandinka warrior. He decided that adoption of the style would be a powerful statement about his African origin. It was a simpler, safer and more permanent visual signature than his gold chains, rings, and bracelets. The gold jewelry was worth about $300,000 at the time and took him about an hour to put on. Most nights, Mr. T spent even more time cleaning them using an ultrasonic cleaner. Occasionally, he slept with the heavy neck chains and bracelets on, "to see how my ancestors, who were slaves, felt."

In 1980, Mr. T was spotted by Sylvester Stallone while taking part in NBC's "America's Toughest Bouncer" competition, a segment of NBC's ''Games People Play''. Although his role in ''Rocky III'' was originally intended as just a few lines, Mr. T was eventually cast as Clubber Lang, the primary antagonist. His catchphrase "I pity the fool!" comes from the film; when asked if he hates Rocky, Lang replies, "No, I don't hate Balboa, but I pity the fool." Subsequently, after losing out on the role of the title character's mentor in ''The Beastmaster'', Mr. T appeared in another boxing film, ''Penitentiary 2'', and on an episode of Showtime's early sketch comedy series ''Bizarre'', where he fights and eats Super Dave Osborne, before accepting a television series role on ''The A-Team''.

Mr. T also appeared in an episode of ''Silver Spoons'', reprising his old role as bodyguard to Ricky Stratton. In the episode, he explains his name as "First name: ''Mister''; middle name: ''period''; last name ''T''." In one scene, when Ricky's class erupts into a paper-ball-throwing melee, Mr. T throws his body in front of the objects, fully protecting his client.

In ''The A-Team'', he played Sergeant Bosco "B.A." Baracus, an ex-Army commando on the run with three other members from the United States government "for a crime they didn't commit." As well as the team's tough guy, B.A. was a genius mechanic but afraid of flying. When asked at a press conference whether he was as stupid as B.A. Baracus, Mr. T observed quietly, "It takes a smart guy to play dumb."

His role in ''The A-Team'' led to him making an appearance in the long-running sit-com ''Diff'rent Strokes'' in the sixth season opener "Mr T. and mr. t" (1983), in which an episode of ''The A-Team'' is supposedly filmed in the family's penthouse apartment.

thumb|150px|Mr. T portrays Santa Claus at the White House with First Lady Nancy Reagan in 1983.

A Ruby-Spears-produced cartoon called ''Mister T'' premiered in 1983 on NBC. The ''Mister T'' cartoon starred Mr. T as himself, the owner of a gym where a group of gymnasts trained. He helped them with their training but they also helped him solve mysteries and fight crime in ''Scooby-Doo''-style scenarios. Thirty episodes were produced.

In 1984, he made a motivational video called ''Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!''. He gives helpful advice to children throughout the video; for example, he teaches them how to understand and appreciate their origins, how to dress fashionably without buying designer labels, how to make tripping up look like breakdancing, how to control their anger, and how to deal with peer pressure. The video is roughly one hour long, but contains 30 minutes of singing, either by the group of children accompanying him, or by Mr. T himself. He sings "Treat Your Mother Right (Treat Her Right)," in which he enumerates the reasons why it is important to treat your mother right, and also raps a song about growing up in the ghetto and praising God. The raps in this video were written by Ice T.

In 1988, Mr. T starred in the television series ''T. and T''. Mr. T was once reported to be earning around $80,000 a week for his role in ''The A-Team'' and earning $15,000 for personal appearances. By the end of the 1990s, he was appearing only in the occasional commercial, largely because of health problems (in 1995, he was diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma). He frequently appears on the TBN Christian television network. He has appeared on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien''. He has also appeared on some Comcast commercials, and in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand during 2007, advertising the chocolate bar Snickers with the slogan "Get Some Nuts!" One of these commercials, featuring Mr. T crashing through a wall on the back of a technical vehicle before firing Snickers bars at a speed walker wearing tight-fitting yellow shorts, was pulled by Mars following a complaint by the U.S.-based group Human Rights Campaign, despite the fact that the advert had never been shown outside the U.K. The group alleged that the commercial promoted the idea that violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people "is not only acceptable, but humorous." Mr. T has distanced himself from these accusations, insisting that he would never lend his name to something that supports such beliefs, and that the commercials did not depict such promotions. The commercials are still shown on Australian and UK television.

Mr. T did a video campaign for Hitachi's Data Systems that was created and posted on consumer video sites including YouTube and Yahoo! Video. According to Steven Zivanic, senior director and corporate communications of HDS, "this campaign has not only helped the firm in its own area, but it has given the data storage firm a broader audience." In November 2007, Mr. T appeared in a television commercial for the online role playing game ''World of Warcraft'' with the phrase ''"I'm Mr. T and I'm a Night Elf Mohawk"''. A follow-up to this commercial appeared in November 2009 where he appeared promoting the "mohawk grenade" item, which appears in game and turns other players into Mr. T's likeness.

In 2008, Mr. T appeared on the American channel ''Shopping TV'' selling his "Mr. T Flavorwave Oven." A video game starring Mr T. is also being developed by ZootFly. Mr. T was offered a cameo appearance in the film adaptation of ''The A-Team'', but decided to turn it down, whereas Dwight Schultz and Dirk Benedict both made cameos in the film. These scenes were shown after the credits, but were reinserted during the film in the Extended Cut. (George Peppard died in 1994).

In the 2009 movie ''Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs (film)'', Mr. T provided the voice for Officer Earl Devereaux, the town's athletic cop who loves his son very much.

, Mr. T is presenting a clip show on BBC Three named ''World's Craziest Fools''. The show features stories such as botched bank robberies and inept insurance fraudsters.

Wrestling

Mr. T entered the world of professional wrestling in 1985. He was Hulk Hogan's tag-team partner at the World Wrestling Federation's (WWF) first ''WrestleMania'' which he won. Hulk Hogan wrote in his autobiography that Mr. T saved the main event of WrestleMania I between them and "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and "Mr. Wonderful" Paul Orndorff because when he arrived, security would not let his entourage into the building. Mr. T was ready to skip the show until Hogan personally talked him out of leaving. Piper has said that he and other fellow wrestlers disliked Mr. T because he was an actor and had never paid his dues as a professional wrestler.

Remaining with the WWF, Mr. T became a special "WWF boxer" in light of his character in ''Rocky III''. He took on "Cowboy" Bob Orton on the March 1, 1986 edition of ''Saturday Night's Main Event,'' on NBC. This boxing stunt ultimately culminated in another boxing match against Roddy Piper at ''WrestleMania 2''. Mr. T returned to the World Wrestling Federation as a special guest referee in 1987 as well as a special referee enforcer confronting such stars as the Honky Tonk Man.

On July 21, 1989, Mr. T. made an appearance in World Class Championship Wrestling, seconding Kerry Von Erich.

Five years later, Mr. T reappeared as a special referee for a Hogan-Ric Flair match, in October 1994, at WCW's ''Halloween Havoc'', and then went on to wrestle again, defeating Kevin Sullivan at that year's ''Starrcade''.

Another seven years later Mr. T appeared in the front row of the November 19, 2001, episode of ''WWF Raw''.

Albums

In 1984, Mr. T released an album titled ''Mr. T's Commandments'' (Columbia/CBS Records), in much the same tone as his 1984 educational video, which instructed children to stay in school and to stay away from drugs. He followed it up the same year with a second album, titled ''Mr. T's Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!'' (MCA Records), featuring music from the eponymous film. In 2002, Mr. T appeared as a bartender in the video for Pass_the_Courvoisier by Busta Rhymes featuring P. Diddy and Pharell Williams.

Personal life

Mr. T is a born-again Christian.

Tureaud angered the residents of a Chicago suburb called Lake Forest, by cutting down more than a hundred oak trees on his estate. The incident is now referred to as "The Lake Forest Chain Saw Massacre".

He gave up virtually all his gold, one of his identifying marks, after helping with the cleanup after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He said, "As a Christian, when I saw other people lose their lives and lose their land and property...I felt that it would be a sin before God for me to continue wearing my gold. I felt it would be insensitive and disrespectful to the people who lost everything, so I stopped wearing my gold."

Filmography

+ Film and Television
! Year	! Title	! Role	Notes
1982	''Penitentiary II''	Himself
1982	''Rocky III''
1982	''Twilight Theatre''		TV Series
1983	''D.C. Cab''	Samson
1983		Himself	TV Series
1983	''Diff'rent Strokes''	Himself	TV Series
1983		Himself	Episode: "The C Team"
1983–1987	''''		TV Series
1984	''The Toughest Man in the World''	Bruise Brubaker	TV
1984	''Be Somebody... or Be Somebody's Fool!''	Himself	Video
1984–1986, 1988	''WWF Superstars of Wrestling''	Himself	TV Series
1985		Himself	Video
1986	''WrestleMania 2''	Himself	Video
1987		Jabberwock	TV movie
1988–1990	''T. and T.''	T. S. Turner	TV Series
1991		Himself	TV Series
1993	''Freaked''	The Bearded Lady
1993		Mr. T-Rex
1994		Himself	TV Series
1994	''Magic of the Golden Bear: Goldy III''	Freedom
1995	''Kids Against Crime''	Himself
1996	''Spy Hard''	Helicopter Pilot
1998	''Saturday Night Live: The Best of Eddie Murphy''	Mister Robinson's neighbour	Video
1999		Himself
1999	''Malcolm and Eddie''	Calvin	Episode: "The Wrongest Yard"
2001	''Not Another Teen Movie''	The Wise Janitor
2001		J. T. Quincy	Cloud Ten Pictures
2004	''Johnny Bravo''	Himself	"T is for Trouble"
2004	''''	Himself	Episode: "Today I Am a Clown"
2005	''Return of the Lads''	Lad No 3 with Mark Egan and Cian Duffy
2006		Himself
2009	''''	Himself
2009		Earl Devereaux	Voice Only
2011	''World's Craziest Fools''	Himself	BBC Three

References

External links

Mohawk Media Mr. T site

TV Land's official I Pity The Fool page

Legendary TV's Mr. T profile

Mr. T discusses his Christian faith

Mr T. talks technology

Mr. T on a late 70s Local Chicago TV Show -- discussing being Leon Spinks bodyguard

Category:1952 births Category:Actors from Chicago, Illinois Category:African American film actors Category:American Christians Category:African American television actors Category:American television personalities Category:Bodyguards Category:Dunbar Vocational High School alumni Category:Living people Category:Prairie View A&M; Panthers football players Category:United States Army soldiers

cs:Mr. T da:Mr. T de:Mr. T es:Mr. T eu:Mr. T fr:Mister T. gl:Mr. T hr:Mr. T id:Mr. T it:Mr. T he:מיסטר טי lb:Mr. T lt:Laurence Tureaud nl:Mr. T ja:ミスター・T no:Mr. T pl:Mr. T pt:Mr. T ru:Мистер Ти simple:Mr. T fi:Mr. T sv:Mr. T th:มิสเตอร์ที tr:Mr. T

pseudonym	Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg, Rosetta Stone, Theophrastus Seuss
birth name	Theodor Seuss Geisel
birth date	March 02, 1904
birth place	Springfield, Massachusetts, U.S.
death date	September 24, 1991
death place	La Jolla, California, U.S.
alma mater	Dartmouth College
occupation	Writer, cartoonist, animator, book publisher, artist
nationality	American
genre	Children's literature
notableworks	''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1954)''The Cat in the Hat'' (1957)''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!'' (1957)''Green Eggs and Ham'' (1960)''The Lorax'' (1971)
spouse	Helen Palmer Geisel (1927–1967)Audrey Stone Dimond (1968–1991)
website	http://www.seussville.com/
signature	Dr Seuss signature.svg }}

Theodor Seuss Geisel (; March 2, 1904 – September 24, 1991) was an American writer, poet, and cartoonist most widely known for his children's books written under the pen names Dr. Seuss, Theo LeSieg and, in one case, Rosetta Stone.

He published 46 children's books, which were often characterized by imaginative characters, rhyme, and frequent use of anapestic meter. His most celebrated books include the bestselling ''Green Eggs and Ham'', ''The Cat in the Hat'', ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'', ''Horton Hatches the Egg'', ''Horton Hears a Who!'', and ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!''. Numerous adaptations of his work have been created, including 11 television specials, four feature films, a Broadway musical and four television series. He won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1958 for ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' and again in 1961 for ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street''.

Geisel also worked as an illustrator for advertising campaigns, most notably for Flit and Standard Oil, and as a political cartoonist for ''PM'', a New York City newspaper. During World War II, he worked in an animation department of the United States Army, where he wrote ''Design for Death'', a film that later won the 1947 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.

Geisel's birthday, March 2, has been adopted as the annual date for National Read Across America Day, an initiative on reading created by the National Education Association.

Life and career

Theodor Seuss Geisel was born in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Theodor Robert and Henrietta (Seuss) Geisel. All of his grandparents were German immigrants. His father managed the family brewery and later supervised Springfield's public park system after the brewery closed due to Prohibition. Mulberry Street in Springfield, made famous in Dr. Seuss' first children's book ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!'', is less than a mile southwest of his boyhood home on Fairfield Street.

College

Geisel attended Dartmouth College as a member of the Class of 1925. At Dartmouth, he joined the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity and the humor magazine ''Dartmouth Jack-O-Lantern,'' eventually rising to the rank of editor-in-chief.

While at Dartmouth, Geisel was caught drinking gin with nine friends in his room. As a result, Dean Craven Laycock insisted that he resign from all extracurricular activities, including the college humor magazine. To continue work on the ''Jack-O-Lantern'' without the administration's knowledge, Geisel began signing his work with the pen name "Seuss". His first work signed as "Dr. Seuss" appeared after he graduated, six months into his work for ''The Judge'' where his weekly feature ''Birdsies and Beasties'' appeared. Geisel was encouraged in his writing by professor of rhetoric W. Benfield Pressey, whom he described as his "big inspiration for writing" at Dartmouth.

After Dartmouth, he entered Lincoln College, Oxford, intending to earn a Doctor of Philosophy in English literature. At Oxford, he met his future wife, Helen Palmer; he married her in 1927, and returned to the United States without earning a degree.

Earliest post-college publications

He began submitting humorous articles and illustrations to ''Judge,'' ''Life,'' ''Vanity Fair,'' and ''Liberty.'' One notable "Technocracy Number" made fun of the technocracy movement and featured satirical rhymes at the expense of Frederick Soddy. The July 16, 1927, issue of the ''The Saturday Evening Post'' published his first cartoon under the name Seuss. He became nationally famous from his advertisements for Flit, a common insecticide at the time. His slogan, "Quick, Henry, the Flit!" became a popular catchphrase. Geisel supported himself and his wife through the Great Depression by drawing advertising for General Electric, NBC, Standard Oil, Narragansett Brewing Company and many other companies. In 1935, he wrote and drew a short-lived comic strip called ''Hejji.''

In 1937, while Geisel was returning from an ocean voyage to Europe, the rhythm of the ship's engines inspired the poem that became his first book, ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street''. It was rejected 27 times (numbers will vary). Geisel wrote three more children's books before the US entered World War II, including ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' in 1940, two of which are, atypically for him, in prose.

Essomarine

Geisel gained a significant public profile through a program for motor boat lubricants produced by Standard Oil under the brand name Essomarine. He later recounted that Harry Bruno, Ted Cook, and Verne Carrier worked with him for exhibits at the National Motor Boat Show called the Seuss Navy. In 1934 Geisel produced a 30-page booklet ''Secrets of the Deep'' which was available by mail after June. At the January boat show for 1935, visitors filled out order cards to receive ''Secrets''. Geisel drew up a Certificate of Commission for visitors in 1936. A mock ship deck called ''SS Essomarine'' provided the scene where photos of "Admirals" were taken. That summer Geisel released a second volume of ''Secrets''. For the 1937 show, he sculpted Marine Muggs and designed a flag for the Seuss Navy. The following year featured "Little Dramas of the Deep", a six-act play with ten characters. According to Geisel’s sister, "He plans the whole show with scenery and action and then, standing in a realistic bridge, reels off a speech which combines advertising with humor." For 1939, exhibitors made available the Nuzzlepuss ashtray and illustrated tide-table calendars. On 11 January 1940, at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, a Seuss Navy Luncheon was held. At that year’s boat show, Geisel provided the Navigamarama exhibit and the ''Sea Lawyers Gazette''. The final contribution to the Essomarine project, in 1941, was the mermaid Essie Neptune and her pet whale. The exhibit offered photos for a Happy Cruising passport.

World War II-era work

As World War II began, Geisel turned to political cartoons, drawing over 400 in two years as editorial cartoonist for the left-leaning New York City daily newspaper, ''PM.'' Geisel's political cartoons, later published in ''Dr. Seuss Goes to War'', denounced Hitler and Mussolini and were highly critical of non-interventionists ("isolationists"), most notably Charles Lindbergh, who opposed US entry into the war. One cartoon depicted all Japanese Americans as latent traitors or fifth-columnists, while at the same time other cartoons deplored the racism at home against Jews and blacks that harmed the war effort. His cartoons were strongly supportive of President Roosevelt's handling of the war, combining the usual exhortations to ration and contribute to the war effort with frequent attacks on Congress (especially the Republican Party), parts of the press (such as the ''New York Daily News'', ''Chicago Tribune'' and ''Washington Times-Herald''), and others for criticism of Roosevelt, criticism of aid to the Soviet Union, investigation of suspected Communists, and other offenses that he depicted as leading to disunity and helping the Nazis, intentionally or inadvertently.

In 1942, Geisel turned his energies to direct support of the U.S. war effort. First, he worked drawing posters for the Treasury Department and the War Production Board. Then, in 1943, he joined the Army as a Captain (OF-2) and was commander of the Animation Departmant of the First Motion Picture Unit of the United States Army Air Forces, where he wrote films that included ''Your Job in Germany,'' a 1945 propaganda film about peace in Europe after World War II; ''Our Job in Japan,'' and the ''Private Snafu'' series of adult army training films. While in the Army, he was awarded the Legion of Merit. ''Our Job in Japan'' became the basis for the commercially released film, ''Design for Death'' (1947), a study of Japanese culture that won the Academy Award for Documentary Feature. ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'' (1950), which was based on an original story by Seuss, won the Academy Award for Animated Short Film.

Later years

After the war, Geisel and his wife moved to La Jolla, California. Returning to children's books, he wrote many works, including such favorites as ''If I Ran the Zoo'', (1950), ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1955), ''If I Ran the Circus'' (1956), ''The Cat in the Hat'' (1957), ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (1957) and ''Green Eggs and Ham'' (1960). Although he received numerous awards throughout his career, Geisel won neither the Caldecott Medal nor the Newbery Medal. Three of his titles from this period were, however, chosen as Caldecott runners-up (now referred to as Caldecott Honor books): ''McElligot's Pool'' (1947), ''Bartholomew and the Oobleck'' (1949), and ''If I Ran the Zoo'' (1950). Dr Seuss also wrote the musical and fantasy film ''The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T,'' which was released in 1953. The movie was a critical and financial failure, and Geisel never attempted another feature film. During the 1950s, he also published a number of illustrated short stories, mostly in ''Redbook'' Magazine. Some of these were later collected (in volumes such as ''The Sneetches and Other Stories'' or reworked into independent books (''If I Ran the Zoo''). A number have never been reprinted since their original appearances.

In May 1954, ''Life'' magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children, which concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. Accordingly, William Ellsworth Spaulding, the director of the education division at Houghton Mifflin who later became its Chairman, compiled a list of 348 words he felt were important for first-graders to recognize and asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and write a book using only those words. Spaulding challenged Geisel to "bring back a book children can't put down." Nine months later, Geisel, using 236 of the words given to him, completed ''The Cat in the Hat.'' It was described as a ''tour de force'' by some reviewers—it retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel's earlier works, but because of its simplified vocabulary, it could be read by beginning readers. ''The Cat in the Hat'' and subsequent books written for young children achieved significant international success and they remain very popular today. In 2009 ''Green Eggs and Ham'' sold 540,366 copies, ''The Cat in the Hat'' sold 452,258 copies, and ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'' (1960) sold 409,068 copies—outselling the majority of newly published children's books.

Geisel went on to write many other children's books, both in his new simplified-vocabulary manner (sold as Beginner Books) and in his older, more elaborate style. The Beginner Books were not easy for Geisel and reportedly took him months to complete.

On October 23, 1967, suffering from a long struggle with illnesses including cancer—as well as emotional pain over her husband's affair with Audrey Stone Dimond—Geisel's wife, Helen Palmer Geisel, committed suicide. Geisel married Dimond on June 21, 1968. Though he devoted most of his life to writing children's books, Geisel had no children of his own. He would say, when asked about this, "You have 'em; I'll entertain 'em."

Death and posthumous honors

Geisel died of throat cancer on September 24, 1991, at his home in La Jolla at the age of 87. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered. On December 1, 1995, four years after his death, University of California, San Diego's University Library Building was renamed Geisel Library in honor of Geisel and Audrey for the generous contributions they made to the library and their devotion to improving literacy.

While Geisel was living in La Jolla, the United States Postal Service and others frequently confused him with another La Jolla resident, Dr. Hans Suess. Their names have been linked together posthumously: the personal papers of Hans Suess are housed in the Geisel Library.

In 2002, the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden opened in his birthplace of Springfield, Massachusetts; it features sculptures of Geisel and of many of his characters. On May 28, 2008, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver announced that Geisel would be inducted into the California Hall of Fame, located at The California Museum for History, Women and the Arts. The induction ceremony took place December 15 and his widow Audrey accepted the honor in his place. On March 2, 2009, the web search engine Google temporarily changed its logo to commemorate Geisel's birthday (a practice it often follows for various holidays and events).

At his alma mater, Dartmouth, where over 90% of incoming first-year students participate in pre-registration Dartmouth Outing Club trips into the New Hampshire wilderness, it is traditional for students returning from the trips to overnight at Dartmouth's Moosilauke Ravine Lodge, where they are served green eggs and ham for breakfast in honor of Dr. Seuss. On April 4, 2012, the Dartmouth Medical School renamed itself the Audrey and Theodor Geisel School of Medicine in honor of their many years of generosity to the college.

Dr. Seuss's honors include two Academy awards, two Emmy awards, a Peabody award, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, and the Pulitzer Prize.

Dr. Seuss has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, at the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard.

Pen names and pronunciations

Geisel's pen name is regularly pronounced , an anglicized pronunciation inconsistent with his German surname. He himself noted that it rhymed with "voice" (his own pronunciation being ) and Alexander Liang (his collaborator on the Dartmouth ''Jack-O-Lantern'') wrote of him:

:You’re wrong as the deuce :And you shouldn’t rejoice :If you’re calling him Seuss. :He pronounces it Soice (or Zoice)

Geisel switched to the anglicized pronunciation because it "evoked a figure advantageous for an author of children’s books to be associated with—Mother Goose" and because most people used this pronunciation.

For books that Geisel wrote and others illustrated, he used the pen name "Theo LeSieg" ("LeSieg" is "Geisel" spelled backward).

Political views

Geisel was a liberal Democrat and a supporter of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. His early political cartoons show a passionate opposition to fascism, and he urged to oppose it, both before and after the entry of the United States into World War II. His cartoons tended to regard the fear of communism as overstated, finding the greater threat in the Dies Committee and those who threatened to cut the US's "life line" to Stalin and the USSR, the ones carrying "our war load".

Geisel's cartoons also called attention to the early stages of the Holocaust and denounced discrimination in the USA against African Americans and Jews. Geisel himself experienced anti-Semitism: in his college days, he was mistaken for a Jew and denied entry into conservative social circles, although he was actually of German ancestry and a practising Christian.

Geisel supported the Japanese American internment during World War II. His treatment of the Japanese and of Japanese Americans, between whom he often failed to differentiate, has struck many readers as a moral blind spot. On the issue of the Japanese, he is quoted as saying:

After the war, though, Geisel overcame his feelings of animosity, using his book ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1954) as an allegory for the Hiroshima bombing and the American post-war occupation of Japan, as well as dedicating the book to a Japanese friend.

In 1948, after living and working in Hollywood for years, Geisel moved to La Jolla, California. It is said that when he went to register to vote in La Jolla, some Republican friends called him over to where they were registering voters, but Geisel said, "You, my friends, are over there, but I am going over here [to the Democratic registration]."

Shortly before the end of the 1972–1974 Watergate scandal, in which United States president Richard Nixon resigned, Geisel converted one of his famous children's books into a polemic. "Richard M. Nixon, Will You Please Go Now!" was published in major newspapers through the column of his friend Art Buchwald.

The line "A person's a person, no matter how small!!" from ''Horton Hears a Who!'' has grown, despite the objections of Geisel's widow, into widespread use on the pro-life side of the issue. While Geisel preferred to let his work speak for itself, in 1986 when the line first started being used by the pro-life movement, Geisel, who would speak out to protect his characters from exploitation, demanded a retraction and received one. In its original context, it is unrelated to abortion issues.

In his books

Though Geisel made a point of not beginning the writing of his stories with a moral in mind, stating that "kids can see a moral coming a mile off," he was not against writing about issues; he said that "there's an inherent moral in any story," and he remarked that he was "subversive as hell."

Many of Geisel's books express his views on a remarkable variety of social and political issues: ''The Lorax'' (1971), about environmentalism and anti-consumerism; "The Sneetches" (1961), about racial equality; ''The Butter Battle Book'' (1984), about the arms race; ''Yertle the Turtle'' (1958), about Hitler and anti-authoritarianism; ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' (1957), criticizing the materialism and consumerism of the Christmas season; and ''Horton Hears a Who!'' (1950), about anti-isolationism and internationalism.

==Poetic meters== Geisel wrote most of his books in anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter employed by many poets of the English literary canon. This is often suggested as one of the reasons that Geisel's writing was so well-received.

Anapestic tetrameter consists of four rhythmic units, anapests, each composed of two weak syllables followed by one strong syllable (the beat); often, the first weak syllable is omitted, or an additional weak syllable is added at the end. An example of this meter can be found in Geisel's "Yertle the Turtle", from ''Yertle the Turtle and Other Stories'':

:"And today the Great Yertle, that Marvelous he :Is King of the Mud. That is all he can see."

Some books by Geisel that are written mainly in anapestic tetrameter also contain many lines written in amphibrachic tetrameter, such as these from ''If I Ran the Circus'':

:"All ready to put up the tents for my circus. :I think I will call it the Circus McGurkus.

:"And NOW comes an act of Enormous Enormance! :No former performer's performed this performance!"

Geisel also wrote verse in trochaic tetrameter, an arrangement of a strong syllable followed by a weak syllable, with four units per line (for example, the title of ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish''). Traditionally, English trochaic meter permits the final weak position in the line to be omitted, which allows both masculine and feminine rhymes.

Geisel generally maintained trochaic meter for only brief passages, and for longer stretches typically mixed it with iambic tetrameter, which consists of a weak syllable followed by a strong, and is generally considered easier to write. Thus, for example, the magicians in ''Bartholomew and the Oobleck'' make their first appearance chanting in trochees (thus resembling the witches of Shakespeare's ''Macbeth''):

:"Shuffle, duffle, muzzle, muff"

then switch to iambs for the oobleck spell:

:"Go make the Oobleck tumble down :On every street, in every town!"

Artwork

Geisel's earlier artwork often employed the shaded texture of pencil drawings or watercolors, but in children's books of the postwar period, he generally employed the starker medium of pen and ink, normally using just black, white, and one or two colors. Later books such as ''The Lorax'' used more colors.

Geisel's figures are often rounded and somewhat droopy. This is true, for instance, of the faces of the Grinch and of the Cat in the Hat. It is also true of virtually all buildings and machinery that Geisel drew; although these objects abound in straight lines in real life, for buildings, this could be accomplished in part through choice of architecture. For machines, for example, ''If I Ran the Circus'' includes a droopy hoisting crane and a droopy steam calliope.

Geisel evidently enjoyed drawing architecturally elaborate objects. His endlessly varied (but never rectilinear) palaces, ramps, platforms, and free-standing stairways are among his most evocative creations. Geisel also drew complex imaginary machines, such as the Audio-Telly-O-Tally-O-Count, from ''Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book'', or the "most peculiar machine" of Sylvester McMonkey McBean in ''The Sneetches''. Geisel also liked drawing outlandish arrangements of feathers or fur, for example, the 500th hat of ''Bartholomew Cubbins'', the tail of ''Gertrude McFuzz'', and the pet for girls who like to brush and comb, in ''One Fish Two Fish''.

Geisel's images often convey motion vividly. He was fond of a sort of ''voilà'' gesture, in which the hand flips outward, spreading the fingers slightly backward with the thumb up; this is done by Ish, for instance, in ''One Fish Two Fish'' when he creates fish (who perform the gesture themselves with their fins), in the introduction of the various acts of ''If I Ran the Circus'', and in the introduction of the Little Cats in ''The Cat in the Hat Comes Back''. He was also fond of drawing hands with interlocked fingers, which looked as though the characters were twiddling their thumbs.

Geisel also follows the cartoon tradition of showing motion with lines, for instance in the sweeping lines that accompany Sneelock's final dive in ''If I Ran the Circus''. Cartoonists' lines are also used to illustrate the action of the senses (sight, smell, and hearing) in ''The Big Brag'' and even of thought, as in the moment when the Grinch conceives his awful idea.

Recurring images

Geisel's early work in advertising and editorial cartooning produced sketches that received more perfect realization later in the children's books. Often, the expressive use to which Geisel put an image later on was quite different from the original.

An editorial cartoon of July 16, 1941, depicts a whale resting on the top of a mountain, as a parody of American isolationists, especially Charles Lindbergh. This was later rendered (with no apparent political content) as the Wumbus of ''On Beyond Zebra'' (1955). Seussian whales (cheerful and balloon-shaped, with long eyelashes) also occur in ''McElligot's Pool'', ''If I Ran the Circus'', and other books. Another editorial cartoon from 1941 shows a long cow with many legs and udders, representing the conquered nations of Europe being milked by Adolf Hitler. This later became the Umbus of ''On Beyond Zebra.'' The tower of turtles in a 1942 editorial cartoon prefigures a similar tower in ''Yertle the Turtle.'' This theme also appeared in a ''Judge'' cartoon as one letter of a hieroglyphic message, and in Geisel's short-lived comic strip ''Hejji.'' Geisel once stated that Yertle the Turtle ''was'' Adolf Hitler.

Little cats A B and C (as well as the rest of the alphabet) who spring from each others hats appeared in a Ford ad.

The connected beards in ''Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?'' appear frequently in Geisel's work, most notably in ''Hejji,'' which featured two goats joined at the beard, ''The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T,'' which featured two roller-skating guards joined at the beard, and a political cartoon in which Nazism and the America First movement are portrayed as "the men with the Siamese Beard."

Geisel's earliest elephants were for advertising and had somewhat wrinkly ears, much as real elephants do. With ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street!'' (1937) and ''Horton Hatches the Egg'' (1940), the ears became more stylized, somewhat like angel wings and thus appropriate to the saintly Horton. During World War II, the elephant image appeared as an emblem for India in four editorial cartoons. Horton and similar elephants appear frequently in the postwar children's books. While drawing advertisements for Flit, Geisel became adept at drawing insects with huge stingers, shaped like a gentle S-curve and with a sharp end that included a rearward-pointing barb on its lower side. Their facial expressions depict gleeful malevolence. These insects were later rendered in an editorial cartoon as a swarm of Allied aircraft (1942), and again as the Sneedle of ''On Beyond Zebra,'' and yet again as the Skritz in ''I Had Trouble in Getting to Solla Sollew.''

There are many examples of creatures who arrange themselves in repeating patterns, such as the "Two and fro walkers, who march in five layers", and the Through-Horns Jumping Deer in ''If I Ran the Circus'', and the arrangement of birds which the protagonist of ''Oh, the Places You'll Go!'' walks through, as the narrator admonishes him to "...always be dexterous and deft, and never mix up your right foot with your left."

Publications

Over the course of his long career, Geisel wrote over 60 books. Though most were published under his well-known pseudonym, Dr. Seuss, he also authored over a dozen books as Theo LeSieg and one as Rosetta Stone. His books have topped many bestseller lists, sold over 222 million copies, and been translated into more than 15 languages. In 2000, ''Publishers Weekly'' compiled a list of the best-selling children's books of all time; of the top 100 hardcover books, 16 were written by Geisel, including ''Green Eggs and Ham'', at number 4, ''The Cat in the Hat'', at number 9, and ''One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish'', at number 13. In the years after his death in 1991, two additional books were published based on his sketches and notes: ''Hooray for Diffendoofer Day!'' and ''Daisy-Head Mayzie''. ''My Many Colored Days'', originally written in 1973, was posthumously published in 1996. Most recently, seven stories originally published in magazines during 1950 and 1951 were released in a collection entitled ''The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories'' in September 2011.

At various times, Geisel also wrote books for adults that used the same style of verse and pictures: ''The Seven Lady Godivas'' (1939; reprinted 1987), which included nude depictions; ''You're Only Old Once!'' (written in 1986 when Geisel was 82) which chronicles an old man's journey through a clinic, a satire of the inefficiency of clinics. His last book, written a year before his death, was ''Oh, the Places You'll Go!'', a popular gift for graduating students.

Adaptations

For most of his career, Geisel was reluctant to have his characters marketed in contexts outside of his own books. However, he did allow for the creation of several animated cartoons, an art form in which he himself had gained experience during the Second World War, and gradually relaxed his policy as he aged.

The first adaptation of one of Geisel's works was a cartoon version of ''Horton Hatches the Egg'', animated at Warner Bros. in 1942. Directed by Robert Clampett, it was presented as part of the Looney Tunes series, and included a number of gags not present in the original narrative, including a fish committing suicide and a Katharine Hepburn imitation by Maisie.

In 1959, Geisel authorized Revell, the well-known plastic-model-making company, to make a series of "animals" that snapped together rather than being glued together, and could be assembled, disassembled and re-assembled "in thousands" of ways. The series was called the "Dr. Seuss Zoo" and included Gowdy the Dowdy Grackle, Norval the Bashful Blinket, Tingo the Noodle Topped Stroodle and Roscoe the Many Footed Lion. The basic body parts were the same and all were interchangeable, and so it was possible for children to combine parts from various characters in essentially unlimited ways in creating their own animal characters (Revell encouraged this by selling Gowdy, Norval and Tingo together in a "Gift Set" as well as individually). Revell also made a conventional glue-together "beginner's kit" of The Cat in the Hat.

In 1966, Geisel authorized the eminent cartoon artist Chuck Jones – his friend and former colleague from the war – to make a cartoon version of ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas!''; Geisel was credited as a co-producer, along with Jones, under his real name, "Ted Geisel." The cartoon, narrated by Boris Karloff, who also provided the voice of the Grinch, was very faithful to the original book, and is considered a classic by many to this day; it is often broadcast as an annual Christmas television special. Jones directed an adaptation of ''Horton Hears a Who!'' in 1970, and produced an adaptation of ''The Cat in the Hat'' in 1971.

From 1972 to 1983, Geisel wrote six animated specials, which were produced by DePatie-Freleng: ''The Lorax'' (1972); ''Dr. Seuss on the Loose'' (1973); ''The Hoober-Bloob Highway'' (1975); ''Halloween Is Grinch Night'' (1977); ''Pontoffel Pock, Where Are You?'' (1980); and ''The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat'' (1982). Several of the specials were nominated for and won multiple Emmy Awards.

A Soviet paint-on-glass-animated short film called ''Welcome'' (an adaptation of ''Thidwick the Big-Hearted Moose'') was made in 1986. The last adaptation of Geisel's works before he died was ''The Butter Battle Book'', a television special based on the book of the same name, directed by adult animation legend Ralph Bakshi. Geisel himself called the special "the most faithful adaptation of his work."

A television film titled ''In Search of Dr. Seuss'', released in 1994, adapted many of Seuss's stories. It uses both live-action versions and animated versions of the characters and stories featured; however, the animated portions were merely edited (and, in some cases, re-dubbed as well) versions of previous animated television specials.

After Geisel died of cancer at the age of 87 in 1991, his widow Audrey Geisel was placed in charge of all licensing matters. She approved a live-action feature-film version of ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'' starring Jim Carrey, as well as a Seuss-themed Broadway musical called ''Seussical,'' and both premiered in 2000. ''The Grinch'' has had limited engagement runs on Broadway during the Christmas season, after premiering in 1998 (under the title ''How the Grinch Stole Christmas'') at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, where it has become a Christmas tradition. In 2003, another live-action film was released, this time an adaptation of ''The Cat in the Hat'' that featured Mike Myers as the title character. Audrey Geisel was vocal in her dislike of the film, especially the casting of Myers as the Cat in the Hat, and stated that there would be no further live-action adaptations of Geisel's books. However, an animated CGI feature film adaptation of ''Horton Hears a Who!'' was approved, and was eventually released on March 14, 2008, to critical acclaim. A CGI-animated feature film adaptation of ''The Lorax'' was released by Universal on March 2, 2012 (on what would have been the 108th birthday of Seuss).

Four television series have been adapted from Geisel's work. The first, ''Gerald McBoing-Boing'', was an animated television adaptation of Geisel's 1951 cartoon of the same name and lasted three months between 1956 and 1957. The second, ''The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss,'' was a mix of live-action and puppetry by Jim Henson Television, the producers of The Muppets. It aired for one season on Nickelodeon in the United States, from 1996 to 1997. The third, ''Gerald McBoing-Boing,'' is a remake of the 1956 series. Produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Entertainment, it ran from 2005 to 2007. The fourth, ''The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That!'', produced by Portfolio Entertainment Inc., began on August 7, 2010 in Canada and September 6, 2010 in the United States and is currently still showing.

Geisel's books and characters are also featured in Seuss Landing, one of many islands at the Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando, Florida. In an attempt to match Geisel's visual style, there are reportedly "no straight lines" in Seuss Landing.

''The Hollywood Reporter'' has reported that Johnny Depp has agreed to produce and possibly star in a film based on Geisel's life. The film will be written by Keith Bunin, produced by Depp's Infinitum Nihil production company alongside Illumination Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures.

References

Further reading

Documentary aired on the Public Television System.

External links

Seussville site Random House

Dr. Seuss biography on Lambiek Comiclopedia

Dr. Seuss Went to War: A Catalog of Political Cartoons by Dr. Seuss

The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss

The Register of Dr. Seuss Collection UC San Diego

Dr. Seuss / Theodor Geisel artwork can be viewed at American Art Archives web site

A Tale of Two Cartoonists, Hugh Turley, Hyattsville Life and Times, April 2009

Category:1904 births Category:1991 deaths Category:American children's writers Category:American editorial cartoonists Category:American illustrators Category:American military personnel of World War II Category:American poets Category:American writers of German descent Category:Children's poets Category:First Motion Picture Unit personnel Category:Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal winners Category:People from Springfield, Massachusetts Category:Recipients of the Legion of Merit Category:Requests for audio pronunciation Category:United States Army Air Forces officers Category:Writers from California Category:Writers from Massachusetts Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing

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Name	Smokey Robinson
Background	solo_singer
Birth name	William Robinson, Jr.
Birth date	February 19, 1940
Origin	Detroit, Michigan, United States
Instrument	Vocals, piano
Genre	R&B;, soul, pop, adult contemporary
Occupation	Singer, songwriter, record producer, record executive
Years active	1955–present
Label	Motown, Universal, SBK, Liquid 8, Robso
Website
Associated acts	The Miracles, The Temptations, Mary Wells, Marvin Gaye }}

William "Smokey" Robinson, Jr. (born February 19, 1940) is an American R&B; singer-songwriter, record producer, and former record executive. Robinson is most notable for being the founder and front man of the popular Motown vocal group, The Miracles, for which he also served as the group's chief songwriter and producer. Robinson led the group from its 1955 origins as The Five Chimes until 1972 when he announced a retirement from the stage to focus on his role as Motown's vice president.

However, Robinson returned to the music industry as a solo artist the following year, later having solo hits such as "Baby That's Backatcha", "Quiet Storm", "The Agony and the Ecstasy", "Cruisin'", "Being With You" and "Just to See Her". Following the sale of Motown Records in 1988, Robinson left Motown in 1990. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

Life and career

Early life and early career

Robinson was born in Detroit and raised in the city's North End section. At one point, he and Diana Ross were next-door neighbors; he said he has known Ross since she was eight. Robinson later told reporters when he was a child, his uncle christened him "Smokey Joe", which Robinson assumed was a "cowboy name for me" until he was later told that ''smokey'' was a pejorative term for dark-skinned Blacks. Robinson, who is mainly of African American descent and is light-skinned, remembers his uncle saying to him, "I'm doing this so you won't ever forget that you're black." Robinson grew up as a fan of Western films.

Robinson said his interest in music started after hearing the groups Nolan Strong & The Diablos and Billy Ward and His Dominoes on the radio as a child. Robinson later listed Strong, a Detroit native, as a strong vocal influence during an interview with Goldmine as he and Strong shared similar vocals. In 1955, he formed the first lineup of what became The Miracles with childhood friend Ronald White and classmate Pete Moore. Two years later, in 1957, they were renamed The Matadors and included Bobby Rogers. Another member, Emerson Rogers, was replaced by Bobby's sister Claudette Rogers. The group's guitarist, Marv Tarplin, joined them sometime in 1958. The Matadors began touring Detroit venues around this time.

Career

The Miracles and Motown

In August 1958, Robinson met songwriter Berry Gordy, who had recently stopped writing songs for Jackie Wilson after getting into a royalty dispute with Wilson's Brunswick label. Robinson and his group auditioned right in front of him. Gordy was said to have been impressed more at the fact that Robinson was a writer than he was as a singer. Gordy agreed to work with them and with his help, the Matadors released their first single, "Got a Job", an answer song to the Silhouettes' hit single "Get a Job". Following this, the group changed its name to The Miracles after Claudette Rogers replaced Emerson Rogers and signed with End that November, with Gordy as its main producer. During this time, Robinson attended college, starting classes in January 1959, studying electrical engineering. However, after the Miracles released their first record, Robinson dropped out after only two months.

After a number of failures and difficulties with money, Robinson suggested to Gordy to start his own label, which Gordy agreed. Following the forming of Tamla Records, later reincorporated as Motown, the Miracles became one of the first acts signed to the label. In late 1960, the group recorded their first hit single, "Shop Around", which became Motown's first million-selling single. Between 1960 and 1970, Robinson would produce 26 top forty hits with the Miracles as lead singer, chief songwriter and producer, including several top ten hits such as "You've Really Got a Hold on Me", "Mickey's Monkey", "I Second That Emotion", "Baby Baby Don't Cry" and the group's only number-one hit during their Robinson years, "Tears of a Clown", while other notable hits such as "Ooo Baby Baby", "Going to a Go-Go", "The Tracks of My Tears", "(Come Round Here) I'm The One You Need", "The Love I Saw in You Was Just a Mirage" and "More Love" peaked at the top twenty. In 1965, the Miracles was the first Motown group to adapt a name change when they were listed as Smokey Robinson & The Miracles on the cover of their 1965 album, also titled, ''Going to a Go-Go''. Their name change would be confirmed on singles after 1966.

Between 1962 and 1966, Robinson would also be one of the in-demand songwriters and producers for Motown, penning several hit singles such as "The One Who Really Loves You", "You Beat Me to the Punch" and "My Guy" for Mary Wells, "The Way You Do The Things You Do", "My Girl", "Since I Lost My Baby" and "Get Ready" for The Temptations, "When I'm Gone" and "Operator" for Brenda Holloway, "Don't Mess With Bill" and "My Baby Must Be a Magician" and "I'll Be Doggone" and "Ain't That Peculiar" for Marvin Gaye. His top rank as songwriter and producer however dropped by the arrivals of Holland-Dozier-Holland and the team of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, and even Motown artists such as Gaye and Stevie Wonder. He later contributed lyrics and musical composition for the works of the Contours' "First I Look at the Purse", the Four Tops' "Still Water" and The Supremes' "Floy Joy".

By 1969, Robinson had voiced his opinion on wanting to retire from the road to focus on raising a family with wife Claudette and their two children, and also focus his duties as Motown's vice president, a job he earned by the mid-1960s after Esther Gordy Edwards had left the position and began mentoring Motown acts on the label's Motortown Revues. However, the late success of the group's track, "Tears of a Clown", caused Robinson to stay with the group until 1972. Robinson's last performance with the group was in July 1972 in Washington, D.C.

Solo career

After a year of retirement, Robinson announced his comeback with the release of the eponymous titled ''Smokey'' album, in 1973. The album included the Miracles tribute song, "Sweet Harmony" and the hit ballad "Baby Come Close". That same year, former Beatle George Harrison featured the track "Pure Smokey" as a tribute to his idol. Harrison and fellow Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney were also fans of Robinson's songwriting. In 1974, Robinson's second album, ''Pure Smokey'' was released but failed to produce hits. Robinson struggled to compete with his former collaborators Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder and former Temptations member Eddie Kendricks as all three had multiple hit singles during this period.

Robinson answered his critics the following year with ''A Quiet Storm'', released in 1975. The album launched three singles - the number-one R&B; hit "Baby That's Backatcha", "The Agony & The Ecstasy" and "Quiet Storm". However, Robinson's solo career continued to struggle as Robinson mainly focused as Motown's vice president, rather than work on his own career. As a result, several albums including ''Smokey's Family Robinson'', ''Deep in My Soul'', ''Love Breeze'' and ''Smokin'', suffered from dismal promotion and even more dismal reviews from critics. Robinson had by then relied on other writers and producers to help with his albums.

Following these albums, Robinson got out of a writer's block after his close collaborator Marv Tarplin, who joined him on the road in 1973 after Robinson left the Miracles, presented him a musical composition he had composed on his guitar. Robinson later wrote the lyrics that became his first top ten pop single, "Cruisin'". The song peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and became his first solo number one hit ever in New Zealand. Robinson would follow a similar approach with his next album, ''Warm Thoughts'', which produced another top 40 hit, "Let Me Be the Clock", though it didn't repeat the success of "Cruisin'". In 1981, Robinson achieved a massive hit with another ballad, "Being with You", which peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number-one in the UK, becoming his most successful single to date. The parent album sparked a partnership with George Tobin and with Tobin, Robinson released his next several Motown albums, ''Yes It's You Lady'', which produced the hit, "Tell Me Tomorrow"; ''Touch the Sky'' and ''Essar''. In 1983, Robinson teamed up with fellow Motown label mate Rick James recording the R&B; ballad, "Ebony Eyes".

In 1987, following a period of personal and professional issues, Robinson made a comeback with the album, ''One Heartbeat'' and the singles, "Just to See Her" and "One Heartbeat", which both peaked at the top ten, with "Just to See Her" winning Robinson his first Grammy Award in 1988. The album became Robinson's most successful to date, selling half a million copies. In the year, Robinson released ''One Heartbeat'', he would be inducted as a solo artist to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, later igniting controversy as the committee had only inducted Robinson but not members of his group, the Miracles, which Robinson himself was personally offended by. In 2012, however, the committee ratified that mistake announcing that the group would be inducted on their own merit. Though Robinson was not listed as an inductee, the musician is due to induct his former group at the ceremony in April 2012. That same year, the UK group, ABC released a tribute song, "When Smokey Sings".

After Motown was sold off to MCA in 1988, Robinson relinquished his position as vice president. Following the release of the album, ''Love Smokey'', in 1990, Robinson left Motown for a deal with SBK Records in 1991. However, the album, ''Double Good Everything'' failed to chart. Robinson remained virtually quiet during the nineties making a brief comeback in 1999 when he re-signed with Motown and issued the album, ''Intimate'', which included the song "Easy to Love". In 2003, he once again split ties with Motown, releasing the gospel album, ''Food for the Soul'' on Liquid 8 Records in 2004. Two years later, Robinson released the standards album, ''Timeless Love'', in 2006 on Universal Records. In 2009, he issued the album, ''Time Flies When You're Having Fun'' on his own label, Robso Records. ''Time Flies'' has been the last album Robinson has released.

Personal life

Robinson married his fellow Miracles member Claudette Rogers in 1959. The couple had two children, daughter Tamla Robinson (b. 1969) and son Berry Robinson (b. 1968), named after Motown's first label and Berry Gordy respectively. Robinson has another son, Trey (b. 1984), with another woman, during his marriage to Claudette. After Robinson admitted this, he filed for legal separation and, later, divorce, which was granted in 1986. The Robinsons had separated once before, in 1974, and Robinson conducted an extramarital affair that became the concept of the song, "The Agony & The Ecstasy", later featured on ''A Quiet Storm''.

Until the late sixties, Robinson was teetotal, drug-free, a vegetarian and a self-described "health nut". However, by the time he was in his late twenties, Robinson began using marijuana. By the seventies, he was also dabbling in cocaine, however, Robinson said he only used it for recreation. By the early eighties, however, he had begun developing a cocaine addiction. Following the deaths of his father and close label mate Marvin Gaye, the demise of his marriage and his own career troubles, Robinson developed an addiction to crack.

Robinson got clean in 1986 after visiting a church under the advice of longtime friend Leon Kennedy. Robinson has said that since the church visit, he has been clean and sober. In 1989, Robinson wrote the memoirs, ''Inside My Life'', in which he opened up about his drug use. In 2004, Robinson married his second wife, Frances Gladney. The couple currently lives in Los Angeles. That same year, his company, SFGL Foods, launched a gumbo brand called "Smokey Robinson's ''The Soul is in the Bowl'' Gumbo", which was produced after the release of Robinson's gospel album.

Awards and accolades

In 1987, Robinson was inducted to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Two years later, in 1989, he was inducted to the Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 1993, Robinson was awarded a medal at the National Medal of Arts. Two years before, he won the Heritage Award at the Soul Train Music Awards. At its 138th Commencement Convocation in May 2006, Howard University conferred on Robinson the degree of Doctor of Music, ''honoris causa''. In December 2006 Robinson was one of five Kennedy Center honorees, along with Dolly Parton, Zubin Mehta, Steven Spielberg and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

On March 20, 2009, The Miracles were finally honored as a group with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Smokey was present with original Miracles members Bobby Rogers, Pete Moore, (Bobby's cousin) Claudette Rogers, and Gloria White, accepting for her husband, the late Ronnie White, whose daughter Pamela and granddaughter Maya were there representing him as well. Smokey's replacement, 1970s Miracles lead singer, Billy Griffin was also honored. Controversially, original Miracle Marv Tarplin was not honored, against the wishes of his fellow Miracles, and the group's fans, who felt that he should have also been there to share the honor.

On May 9, 2009, Smokey Robinson received an honorary doctorate degree and gave a commencement speech at Berklee College of Music's commencement ceremony.

Trivia

ABC recorded a tribute song called "When Smokey Sings" that referenced his influence on the music industry. The single peaked at #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. For the week of October 3, 1987, it dropped to #8 as Smokey Robinson's single "One Heartbeat" was peaking at #10. That instance of having a tributor and tributee in the Billboard Top 10 at the same time was a rarity if not a unique event.. Big Country covered one of his songs, "Tracks of My Tears".

The character C.C. White, a budding songwriter who finds success as an R&B; label's main creative force in the 1981 Broadway musical ''Dreamgirls'', is based upon Smokey Robinson. In the 2006 film adaptation of ''Dreamgirls'', C.C. is portrayed by Keith Robinson.

Smokey Robinson is referenced in the 1981 song "Genius of Love" by Talking Heads side project Tom Tom Club.

Four of Robinson's compositions have been voted Legendary Michigan Songs: "My Girl" in 2007, "The Tracks Of My Tears" in 2008, "My Guy" in 2009, and "Get Ready" in 2011.

Discography

References

External links

Official Website of Smokey Robinson

Smokey Robinson interview by Pete Lewis, 'Blues & Soul' December 1992

Fresh Air interview

Smokey Robinson's page at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Smokey Robinson's page at soulwalking.co.uk

Smokey Robinson Biography and Update at SoulTracks

Official Website for Smokey Robinson's "The Soul is in the Bowl" Gumbo

Official Website of Smokey Robinson Gospel

Category:1940 births Category:African American male singers Category:African American record producers Category:African American songwriters Category:American child singers Category:American music industry executives Category:American pop singers Category:American rhythm and blues singers Category:American soap opera actors Category:American soul singers Category:American tenors Category:Child pop musicians Category:Gospel artists from Detroit, Michigan Category:Grammy Award winners Category:Grammy Legend Award Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Living people Category:The Miracles members Category:Motown artists Category:Musicians from Detroit, Michigan Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees‎ Category:Songwriters from Michigan Category:Songwriters Hall of Fame inductees Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients

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