Just thought I'd share this with y'all...

I was brooding one evening about how Dr. Seuss's widow exploited his works after his death. Mainly, the notoriously hiddeous movies How The Grinch Stole Christmas and The Cat In The Hat, that in my (and many others') opinion were the antithesis of Dr. Seuss's awesomeness, and have probably runied his credibility in the under-ten demographic.

Theodore Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss) hated and strongly rejected any and all attempts by unscrupulous marketeers trying to cash in on his work. Then he died in 1991 and before his body was even cold, his widow Audrey Geisel formed Dr. Seuss Enterprises and sold out and licensed over 5,000 products, not to mention Hollywood. Here's part of a TIME magazine article about her:

"She volunteers this information to avoid the rap that she's exploiting Seuss and explains that by creating trademarks in various media, she's protecting her husband's creations. Yet some of (Audrey) Geisel's decisions, notably to publish some material that her notoriously perfectionist husband left unpublished, are difficult even for her to explain."
[TIME Magazine 'Seuss On The Loose', Nov 20th, 2000]

This all has had me pissed off, so I did some net searches on her to see what I might find, when I stumbled on a little-known event of how she ripped off a children's story and published it under Dr. Seuss's name as a long lost manuscript found in a drawer when moving.

Charles Augustus Steen III originally wrote and had a copyright on his children's story The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. He'd submitted his work to The Institute of Chlidren's Literature, and the next year found that Dr. Seuss Enterprises published a nearly identical book titled Daisy-Head Mayzie. He tried to sue, but wound up not only getting swindled by his lawyer, who got a $1 Million kick-back for throwing the case, but being falsely arrested for extortion for suggesting a higher amount to settle out of court (the warrent was obtained using falsified information).

In retaliation he wrote this short play (banned until 2006), exposing the people involved in biting satire.

Also, this painting of Daisy-Head Mayzie doing the Grinch and the Cat In The Hat. (This was sent to Dr. Seuss Enterprise's law firm, in part to mock a ruling in their favor, to wit: "A parodist must ridicule the original composition or author in order for fair use to apply".)

"Behind the Scenes of Daisy Head Mayzie"

After seeing this, and also since the play was banned, I of course had to buy a copy, and it's pretty funny. Here's a couple of pages from Act I. Enjoy :)