History of our Holidays: Celebrating Christmas and The GrinchDate: 12/18/2018 It is the one international Christmas tradition that has roots in the city of Springfield: Springfield’s own favorite son Ted Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, created a 20th century contribution to the holiday season with his 1957 book, “How The Grinch Stole Christmas.”
Once again the subject of a major motion picture – a new animated version is now in theaters animated by the studio who gave audiences “Despicable Me” – Seuss’s word “Grinch” is now part of colloquial English.
Merriam-Webster – another Springfield institution – defines “Grinch” as a “killjoy” or “spoilsport.”
In 2007, the National Education Association named the book “Teachers’ Top 100 Books for Children.” The School Library Journal ranked it 61 in its “Top 100 Picture Books” survey published in 2012.
The book had been made into a half-hour animated special in 1966, and a live action feature film in 2000, besides the current film. There has also been a musical version adapted for the stage.
Kay Simpson, president of the Springfield Museums, which includes The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss,” told Reminder Publishing the success of the new movie more than 50 years after the debut of the book clearly shows “something about it resonates” with people.
“People love The Grinch,” she said. It’s very timely.”
Simpsons said the origins of the character and the subsequent book came from a simple everyday occurrence: Seuss brushing his teeth.
As the author and artist recounted in a 1957 interview in Redbook, “I was brushing my teeth on the morning of the 26th of last December when I noticed a very Grinch-ish countenance in the mirror. It was Seuss! So I wrote about my sour friend, the Grinch, to see if I could rediscover something about Christmas that obviously I’d lost.”
Simpson said the Grinch was Seuss’s alter ego. He so identified with the character Simpson said “GRINCH” was his license plate.
When the Dr. Seuss National Memorial Sculpture Garden was dedicated in 2003 the sculptor Lark Dimond-Cates – also Seuss’ step-daughter – said, “I always thought the Cat ... was Ted on his good days, and the Grinch was Ted on his bad days.”
The ultimate message of the book, Simpson said, is two-fold: there is the capacity of transformation in all of us and that Christmas is not just about presents.
Seuss participated in one of the adaptations of his book, the 1966 half-hour animated Christmas special directed by Academy Award winning animator Chuck Jones. It was not the first time Seuss collaborated with Jones as they two worked on the “private SNAFU” series of cartoons that were produced and shown to the troops in World War II.
For the animated special, Seuss wrote the lyrics to the songs performed for the half-hour show including, “You’re a Mean One, Mr. Grinch,” that described just how low the Grinch would stoop.
Simpson said this depiction of the Grinch was “angry and devious.” His voice, as well as the narration was supplied by horror film legend Boris Karloff. Another British actor Benedict Cumberbatch is the Grinch in the current film.
For the Springfield Museums, the Grinch has a permanent presence in The Amazing World of Dr. Seuss and the museums have renamed its annual holiday programming schedule to “Grinchmas.” For more information on this year’s events got to https://springfieldmuseums.org/holiday.
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