Yesterday was Pearl Harbor Day and, while going through a box of President Ernest Hopkins's presidential papers, we stumbled quite by chance on a curious artifact of World War II--a 1943 letter from Ted Geisel '25 (aka Dr. Seuss), to Hopkins thanking him for the letter of recommendation that got him into the armed forces. As Geisel put it, it was so good it got him into the Army and the Navy!Geisel explains that he is "now out on what is probably the strangest army post in the country... the old Fox Studio, where under Colonel Frank Capra I am assisting in the writing of 'Orientation Films.'" As an indication of how much Geisel had to rough it in the Army, the letter is on the stationery of the Castle Argyle apartments in Hollywood.
In typical Hopkins fashion, the president replied with a two-page, single-spaced letter advising Geisel on important themes his films could explore.
To see the letters, ask for DP-11, Box 7043, Folder 11. For more, we have another example of Geisel's Army work: This is Ann.
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