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245
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DR. SEUSS [THEODOR GEISEL.]
“All it needs is ... Holly Sugar.” Gouache and collage advertisement on orange paper.
300x680 mm; 12x26
3
/
4
inches. Signed in ink, lower right.Title with a few tiny flakes lost
within letters, else entirely free from flecking and very bright and clean. On exhibition
mount. Circa 1950s.
[20,000/30,000]
SUPERB ORIGINAL ADVERTISEMENT
likely for a billboard.A sly tableau depicting a somewhat skeptical-
looking goat munching on some Seussian machine parts; the bag of sugar collage and the accompanying
tagline suggesting a dubious palatability, even for a goat. Geisel executed several adverts for Holly Sugar
over the course of several decades. He eventually cut ties with the company in the early 1950s after he
publicly lobbied for a local billboard ban in his hometown of La Jolla, CA, due to the overwhelming
number which he thought unsightly. (Morgan, Judith & Neil, Dr. Seuss & Mr. Geisel, pages 146-47.)
246
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DR. SEUSS [THEODOR GEISEL.]
“Be awfully nice to your rich uncle...” Pen and ink on board. Advertisement for Flit
insecticide. 305x410 mm; 12x16 inches. Signed, additional two-line caption in Seuss’s
hand in pencil, reading in full: “Be awfully nice to your rich uncle . . . and when he dies
/ he may leave you his Flit Gun!” Some light smudging and mild tanning along margins
not affecting image. On exhibition mount. Circa 1930s.
[10,000/15,000]
ORIGINAL DRAWING FOR
FLIT
,
the insecticide manufactured
by Standard Oil. Geisel’s
association with the Flit ads
was a long and successful one,
spanning 17 years. “The Flit
phrase [“Quick, Henry, the
Flit!”] entered the American
vernacular.A song was written
around it, and Ted’s cartoons
spread from the pages of Judge
and Life to newspapers, subway
cards and billboards ... Flit
sales increased wildly. No
advertising campaign remotely
like it had succeeded on such a
grand scale”—Morgan, Judith
& Neil, Dr. Seuss & Mr.
Geisel, page 65.
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